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Srl | Item |
1 |
ID:
186894
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Summary/Abstract |
Lollywood, or Lahore-based film industry, rarely explores the uneasy topic of the Partition. Hardly a dozen films could be produced in the last seven decades on the Partition. However, a few Lollywood productions – notably Punjabi-language Kartar Singh (1959) – either exploring the Partition or set in the context of the Partition, have surprisingly departed from business-as-usual and state-sponsored discourses whereby India/Hindu is otherified and villainized. It is even more interesting, this paper notes, that all the productions examined for this study drew huge audiences and were indeed successful ventures in terms of popularity. Hence, the contention of this paper is that Lollywood has reproduced as well as resisted the official narratives on the Partition. Arguably, the Partition in Pakistani films has been delineated in its complexity. Most importantly, these productions approach the plight of women with a humanist viewpoint. Methodologically, this paper establishes its argument through a discourse analysis of four films.
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2 |
ID:
190893
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Summary/Abstract |
As a new nation-state in 1947, Pakistan’s relations with the larger Arab world were fraught with many tensions and contradictions. Ever since, many readjustments have taken place on both sides. These rearrangements derive from such tectonic shifts as the ebbing away of Arab nationalism 1967 onwards, petro-dollar rush in the 1970s, Iranian revolution in 1979, end of Third worldism, Afghan war, unipolarity post–Berlin Wall, 9/11 besides labour migrations, military alliances and domestic imperatives of various states and polities. Presently, Pakistan is tied to the Middle East in a three-pronged manner. Economically, it is dependent on petro-dollar rich Gulf Sheikhdoms. This relationship can be described as pure clientelism. Next, geographical proximity and Cold War compulsions have implied an unavoidable Iranian nexus. Finally, with the rather recent rise of Turkey as a subimperial power in the Middle East, Pakistan has also tilted towards Turkey of late. However, beyond geopolitics and economy, Pakistan’s embrace of the larger Muslim world has ideological connotations as well. Imagined as a Muslim Zion, commissars at the helm of ideological state apparatuses in Pakistan have always imagined Pakistan as an integral part of the larger Muslim community, numerous contradictions notwithstanding. Hence, informed by the theories of clientelism and subimperialism, this study argues that Pakistan’s relations with the Middle East are anchored in economics, geopolitics and identity.
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3 |
ID:
183721
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Summary/Abstract |
In order to understand the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan, it is important to go beyond culturalist and orientalist explanations. As an alternative, this article foregrounds four factors that have been instrumental in projecting fundamentalism to a near-hegemonic position in the country. First, the fact that Pakistan has been imagined as a community of Muslims offers the fundamentalist an edge over secular rivals. This confessional intrinsicality is compounded by an official appeasement and patronage of the fundamentalists. Second, elaborate charity networks offering an ‘alternative society’ that caters to basic needs such as health, education and jobs have helped Islamic fundamentalism expand its outreach during a neoliberal period when the state shunned its welfare role. Third, the radical decline of the Pakistani left spawned a political vacuum that allowed the fundamentalists to become a mainstream platform for the public to vent their anger. Finally, imperialism, in particular the United States, contributed to the growth of fundamentalism in Pakistan in the context of the Cold War. This process apexed during the Afghan Jihad of the 1980s, and it laid the grounds for 9/11 and beyond.
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