Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acronyms
- Glossary
- Maps
- Introduction
- Chapter One Gandhara Lands: Wrestling with Pashtun Identity and History
- Chapter Two Imperial Hubris: The Afghan Taliban in Ascendance
- Chapter Three Masculinities in Conflict: Western Pedagogy and the Return of the Afghan Taliban
- Chapter Four Understanding Pakistan: Geopolitical Legacies and Perspectives on Violence
- Chapter Five Understanding Civic Sentiments and Movements in Pakistan: Stalemated Cycle, or a Way Forward?
- Chapter Six The United States and Pakistan: Friends or Foes!
- Chapter Seven The European Union and Southwest Asia: Perceptions, Policies and Permutations
- Conclusion: Pashtun Troubled Lands, Uncertain Southwest Asia or a New Beginning!
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter Four - Understanding Pakistan: Geopolitical Legacies and Perspectives on Violence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acronyms
- Glossary
- Maps
- Introduction
- Chapter One Gandhara Lands: Wrestling with Pashtun Identity and History
- Chapter Two Imperial Hubris: The Afghan Taliban in Ascendance
- Chapter Three Masculinities in Conflict: Western Pedagogy and the Return of the Afghan Taliban
- Chapter Four Understanding Pakistan: Geopolitical Legacies and Perspectives on Violence
- Chapter Five Understanding Civic Sentiments and Movements in Pakistan: Stalemated Cycle, or a Way Forward?
- Chapter Six The United States and Pakistan: Friends or Foes!
- Chapter Seven The European Union and Southwest Asia: Perceptions, Policies and Permutations
- Conclusion: Pashtun Troubled Lands, Uncertain Southwest Asia or a New Beginning!
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
‘With each blast, massacre and killing, Pakistan as a state, fails one more time. How many citizens will be slaughtered or blown apart by militants before our delusion gives way to reality? Pakistan stubbornly continues to live in a state of denial, refusing to acknowledge that it is being brutally attacked by a bloodthirsty enemy from within and without. Already driven to the wall, the only mindless response that the state has to offer is yet more barriers, check posts, bunkers, statements and resolutions. To many, it is still not obvious that we are on a suicidal path and unless we can take proactive and radical measures, the violence could only conclude in total collapse of the state.’
Naeem Sadiq‘In the absence of a true national identity, Pakistan defined itself by its opposition to India. It turned its back on all that had been common between Muslims and non-Muslims in the era before partition. Everything came under suspicion, from dress to customs to festivals, marriage rituals and literature. The new country set itself the task of erasing its association with the subcontinent, an association that many came to view as a contamination. In trying to turn its back on its shared past with India, Pakistan turned its back on itself.’
Aatish TaseerSince the Pakistani state came into being in 1947, it has frequently faced scepticism about its rationale, formation and its future as a nation-state, especially for being located in a testing geopolitical region and frequently stumbling from one crisis into another. The creation of the country – divided into the mainland Indus Valley and the lower Gangetic Delta – accounts for a sizeable number of South Asia's Muslims, themselves making a clear majority of the world's Muslim population, the country has often been seen as a caesarean birth of an otherwise widely assumed united India. Partition was thus viewed as a negative process, with the onus of its responsibility falling upon Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) and the All-India Muslim League. In the Indian nationalist parlance, other than Jinnah and the Muslim Leaguers and their nostalgic Turk followers, the British imperial interests were also held responsible for this divide-and-quit dictum, nefariously employed by a weakened, opportunistic and receding imperial power.
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- Pashtun Identity and Geopolitics in Southwest Asia , pp. 67 - 82Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2016