This book offers comparative, historicist, and multidisciplinary views on the role of identity politics in the development of Pakistan. Bringing together perspectives on the dynamics of state-building, the book provides insights into contemporary processes of national contestation, and highlights how ethnicity and identity politics are an enduring marker in Pakistani politics, and why they are increasingly powerful and influential. This book on Pakistan will be a useful contribution to South Asian Politics, South Asian History, and Islamic Studies.

Roger D. Long is Professor of History at Eastern Michigan University, USA.

Yunas Samad is Professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Bradford, UK.

Gurharpal Singh is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London, UK.

Ian Talbot is Professor of History and Director of Post-Graduate Research at the University of Southampton, UK, and former Chair of the British Association for South Asian Studies.

Introduction: Themes, Theories, and Topics in the History of Religion, Violence, and Political Mobilization in Pakistan 1. The Impact of the Redistribution of Partition's Evacuee Property on the Patterns of Land Ownership and Power in Pakistani Punjab in the 1950s 2. Elections, Bureaucracy, and the Law: The Reproduction of Landed Power in Post-Colonial Punjab 3. Factionalism and Indiscipline in Pakistan's Political System 4. Constructing a State: Constitutional Integration of the Princely States in Pakistan 5. Identity Politics and Nation-Building in Pakistan: The Case of Sindhi Nationalism 6. Understanding the Insurgency in Balochistan 7. A Sublime, Yet Disputed, Object of Political Ideology? Sufism in Pakistan at the Crossroads 8. The Rise of Militancy among Pakistani Barelvis: The Case of the Sunni Tehrik 9. Pakistan's Religious Others: Reflections on the Minority Discourse on Christians in the Punjab Tahir 10. Violence and State Formation in Pakistan