ISLAM, ETHNICITY AND POWER POLITICS

INTRODUCTION
 Identity has become a contested issue in Pakistan.
 How social forces, ethnic groups, political elites, and religious
factions have attempted to influence identity construction.
Identity is directly associated with the question of power. Each identity
group promotes a different vision of state and nation to establish its own claim to
power in the structure of state to influence the other dominant group.
Search for national identity has not only becomes a conflict-ridden but also
elusive because of no common vision of nation-state, and the collective as well as
individual selves.
The problem can further be compounded when a secular idea of ethnic
identities demanding recognition of regional cultures, languages, autonomy and
rights is interpreted by the dominant elites as conflicting with Islam.
For example; History of Pakistan itself is a strong case to argue that using
religion as a unifying factor or creating social solidarity around it is a convenient
force yet not a sufficient one when it comes to multi-ethnic society that is
Pakistan.

Issues in Constructing Identities (Ethnic and National):

Social Groups have used history, culture, language, geography, race, and/or
religion to construct their ethnic, national and identity narratives.
ISSUE 1: Identity construction as a political enterprise is a dynamic process:
being dynamic means it is subject to change, transformation,
passivity, and activism over the course of time; and is directly
associated with the national distribution of power, and the
distributive effects of modernization process, thereby depending on
how satisfied or dissatisfied a particular group is with the power
distribution in the structure of the state, and the inclusive socio-
economic development of the state.
 The uneven distributive effects of modernization process,
particularly economic and social development, create ethnic
alienation of various groups at the hands of those of dominant
social groups.
As marginalization and mainstreaming work as two parallel
processes; therefore, not all composite groups undertake a national
journey together: their trajectories have been at odds with an
uneven endowment of resources and capabilities like education,
skills, and level of development, and presence in the power structure
of the new state.
The old and well-entrenched groups attempted to retain
power by gaining narrow social solidarities of other sub groups and
those competing with them are left frustrated due to their high
expectations from the new political framework. This gives impetus to
the feeling of having been left out and then used as an instrument of
promoting ethnic consciousness.
For instance; Baloch Ethnicity is illustrative of this.
The privileged social groups have fallen back upon ethnic
particularism to prevent their decline and claim domination at local
level using the geographical density of their group.
In Sindh, Mohajir Ethnicization was carried out due to
fear of losing power among the immigrants from India since
other competing social groups climbed up the social and
political ladder.
This actually manifests the notion that how social group historically
committed to the idea of Pakistan and Pakistani nationhood used ethnicity for
social and political mobilization of the group to stake a claim to power in
Karachi and greater representation in the Sindh and national assemblies of
Pakistan.
Hence, identity construction as a political enterprise is a dynamic process
ISSUE 2: