Right-wing politics and fundamentalist discourse have been engraved into the Pakistani masses and it is not a phenomenon created in 1977 or one that progressed afterwards. In fact, such development has various regimes of power and virtually its function has remained as ubiquitous. The taxonomy of such regimes of power can be divided into four eras: pre-partition, post-partition (upto Zia), Ziaul Haq’s rule and finally post Ziaul Haq to today.
During all these regimes, fundamentalist discourse based on binary opposition has succeeded significantly. By fundamentalist binary opposition I mean Muslims and non-Muslims (read, the infidel ‘kaafir’). The binary opposition has always existed in Pakistan. During pre-partition it was based on Hindus versus Muslims and after independence it was mixed up with American/Israeli/Indian versus Muslims.
Throughout these years, the dominant discourse has always remained the discourse based on faith. Before partition, the Two Nation Theory (identity solely based on religion as Muslim and Hindus as nations), symbolic association of meaning with faith and slogans like ‘Pakistan ka matlab kiya? La illaha illalah’ (What does Pakistan mean? There is only one God) actually reflect the genealogical traces of the dominant discursive formation.
In post-independent Pakistan (pre-Ziaul Haq), the right-wing parties influenced the state and succeeded, i.e. formally Pakistan became the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Influential right-wing tendencies forced a socialist party like the PPP to officially decree Ahmedis as non-Muslims. Discourse such as the PPP being an atheist party to dismantle Islam in Pakistan pressured the PPP to reconsider its manifesto/actions, and it worked.
Categories: Asia