Deconstruction Of Nationalism In Pakistan

3 Pages 755 Words

When Pakistan came into being in 1947, it was envisioned as a state wherein the Muslims of the subcontinent could live together as one united nation, irrespective of caste or colour, and free of the tyranny that the Hindu majority of India would have subjected them to.
Subsequent events in history have gone on to show, however, that the Two-Nation Theory that provided the ideological basis for the partition of the subcontinent was not sufficient to bind the people of Pakistan together in the face of the tremendous influence wielded by such primordial identities as ethnicity and caste. Indeed, in its fifty years, Pakistani society and national integration have been repeatedly challenged by the forces of ethno-nationalism and separatism, forces which have effectively challenged the premise upon which Pakistan was created – that the Muslims of India were one nation.
One does not have to think very hard to recall instances of such challenges to the integrity of the Pakistani nation. Be it the Jeeya Sindh movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Baluch Civil War from 1973-77, or even the Pukhtoonistan issue, we see ethnic cleavages in Pakistani society that have endured even in the face of a tremendous ideological assault launched by the state. Indeed, the events of 1971 and those leading up them re perhaps the biggest example of how the two-nation theory has failed Pakistan in terms of defining the identity of its populace.
Popular intellectual discourse on the subject of National Integration has often critiqued the Two-Nation Theory and the very roots of the Pakistan Movement. Renowned Pakistano scholars like Hamza Alavi and Ayesha Jalal have argued that the Pakistan movement was spearheaded by elites from the Muslim minority provinces of India who feared a loss of prestige and economic strength in the event of Indian independence. Their basic argument revolves around how the Two-Nation theory became a tool of political expediency d...