Pakistan remains to be a treasure trove of all the theoretical concepts and their practice that social scientists can think about in a developing country. It is a conglomerate of diverse ethnic groups having various political, language, racial or religious affiliations, molded into a weak constitutional structure. Since independence, politics in Pakistan has been a sum total of conflicts rooted in the frictions within these various ethnic groupings.
This book deals with the politics as it has evolved in this ethnic fusion in Pakistan and the growth of political culture surrounded by it. The towering distinctiveness of the province of Punjab or the Punjabi identity from the beginning has been the majority identity. It has overshadowed other provinces of Pakistan. That is why, every other province with its distinct ethnic identity in the country suffers from the functional minority syndrome. This book seeks to find the equation that has grown surrounding the efforts of creating a single national identity by the province of Punjab and the struggle of the other provinces to maintain their respective cultures, traditions, language and political voice within Pakistan.
Apart from making an attempt to search out the uniqueness of the politics of ethnicity within the various provinces of Pakistan and the manner in which it has in turn created a distinct political character of the nation, the book also deals with the role of religion in the politics of the country in the context of legally accepted minorities, the religious minorities in the Islamic state.
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Dr. Savita Pande is an Associate Professor in the South Asian Studies Division, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has been associated with Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, the Indian Express and Times of India in various capacities.
She has been the author of several books, including, Pakistan's Nuclear Policy, Future of the NPT and India and the Test Ban and has been the coauthor of Pakistan After Zia. She has also contributed numerous research papers as well as penned in various national and international journals of repute. She was the Fellow of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asia Studies.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata
Preface
Ethnicity: Concept and Background
Balochistan
North West Frontier Province
Sindh
Politics of Religion
The Religious Minorities
Index