Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the significance of contemporary discourses on religious minorities in Pakistan, drawing upon anecdotal and ethnographic evidence from rural Punjab.

Paper long abstract:

The status of religious minorities has brought to the fore the position which non-Muslims hold within an on-going hegemonising nationalist discourse on religion in Pakistan. The conceptualisation of religious 'minorities' in Pakistan has been central to notions of national cohesion and identity since its inception. The official census approximation of 97% of Pakistan's religious make-up as Muslim conceals a heterogeneous social fabric which is more contested than the figure denoting religious identity suggests. Meanwhile the establishment of the 'majority' in religious terms serves many purposes of nationalist discourse and state formation in Pakistan. This paper will explore the impacts which the official streamlining of identity through the religious question has had upon the discourse of minorities in Pakistan with particular reference to the position and experiences of Christians. The vulnerabilities experienced by Christians in Pakistan in both caste and religious terms, most notably through violent attacks upon Christians in Shantinagar in 1997 and Gojra in 2009, reflect this discourse while the looming blasphemy laws highlighted by the case of Aasiya Bibi in Punjab reflect an on-going fracturing and demise of the defense of minorities in Pakistan. The implications of this minority discourse will be explored in this paper through qualitative material drawn from a Christian village in Punjab in terms of perceptions and perspectives of place, social status and rights. Minority discourse will be examined as a tool for the state to utilise religiously prescribed identities across communities otherwise shaped by feudal relations and caste distinctions both historically and in the present context of contemporary Pakistan.