Pakistan and Its Diaspora (PDF)

MARTA BOLOGNANI Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at Bristol University, UK.
 
STEPHEN M. LYON Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Durham, UK.

"Provides innovative engagement with issues of politics, culture, and society informing Pakistani identity within and outside Pakistan. Pakistan can no longer be studied and evaluated as a contained national territorial identity; it is produced in multiple spaces - public and private, within and outside the national state. Each production has its unique history and ramifying implications and multiple imaginations of Pakistani identity are evolving and taking shape. The confrontation of religious leaders or the 'fighting mullhas' with the Pakistan state alongside accommodations of Islamic welfare organizations in the UK bring to light the arduous task of developing a Pakistani identity that is Islamic and modern simultaneously." - Yasmin Saikia, Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies and Professor of History, Arizona State University "An important collection of intellectually stimulating, research-driven works. The authors highlight the dialectic relationship that exists between Pakistanis and those of Pakistani origin and bring forth the histories, local socio-political dynamics, and transnational connections that play a role in shaping their lives and informing their actions. Examining themes that are both common and relevant, the work is grounded in rigorous scholarship and deftly sidesteps the all too common trap of essentialism by presenting nuanced and complex accounts that are also highly readable. This compilation is a must read for anyone interested in acquiring a three dimensional understanding of the lives of Pakistanis and the Diaspora, and the multiple intersecting factors that inform them." - Sadaf Ahmad, author of Transforming Faith: The Story of Al-Huda and Islamic Revivalism Among Urban Pakistani Women