Paper short abstract:

A 'national' identity for the state of Pakistan has been appropriated, above all by military governments embracing and authorising a particular variety of Islam at the expense of other varieties of Islam far more at home among the subaltern peoples of the nation.

Paper long abstract:

Public spaces, rallying points for public discourse in Pakistan where Islam is concerned have favoured the public inculcation of forms of Islam considered fundamental to the 'ideology of Pakistan'. From 1947, and most particularly since the rule of the military dictator Zia-ul Haq through the 1980s, much of the actual patrimony of the regions included in the nation has been overlooked or marginalized. The language of state in Pakistan is Urdu - which has little or no vernacular tradition inside the country. In the Punjab and Sind in particular, Islamic traditions are bound to vernacular languages and cultures, and are far from 'fundamentalist'. But in many areas of policy - ranging from the provision of textbooks to schools (a theme explored by the historian K.K.Aziz) to the administration of shrines - a public re-definition of Islam has been undertaken which seeks (not always with success) to override what 'is' in order to equip Pakistan with an Islam more responsive to the supposed requirements of a national ideology. This project aims at a radical 'replacement' of identity for the new nation. The paper will consider ways in which public sites and arenas become controversial.