Religion and Politics in Pakistan

by Leonard Binder

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1961.

Genres: Pakistan

458 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

Reviews

[Tariq Mahmood]

The book is an academic study of Islam in the Pakistani constitution published in 1961. It's not exactly a page-turner, but for students of politics, it gives a unique insight into the role of Ulama and the politicians. PML lost elections in 1937, it had a very limited appeal among the Muslims of India. It was only able to become popular when the giants like Maududi and other Ulama started to campaign against the very Hindu INC. The trouble was that there was no concept of nationalism in Islam, so the Ulama did not support Pakistan as well. PML used the popular anti-Hindu sentiments generated by the Ulama to garner support for Pakistan, and were successful in the 1945 elections. But upon creation, the new government of Pakistan was very weak, because of its lack of nationalistic fervor. It was also up against a very stable army, bureaucracy, and Islamic parties. PML tried to enforce its authority but the internal opposition was too strong, with very few secular leaders. There is no room for western style of democracy in Islam, so there is little of hope of establishing any real democracy in a country where the constitution has been declared as God's. It's a pretty unique constitution where the people of Pakistan are not the ultimate owners.