Event

In many works on the history of Pakistan, the focus has been on tracing the ideological framework of an Islamic state and its impact on the country’s polity and society. In my paper, I explore a different aspect of the debate on Pakistan’s Islamic ideological framework by drawing upon two sources: debates of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan from the 1950s and letters to the editor published in the Urdu daily, Nawa-i-Waqt, in 1949. The choice of these primary texts allows me to enter into an interrelated set of contestations of what it meant to be Islamic in the immediate aftermath of Pakistan’s independence at both the popular and the statist levels. I will argue that the lawmakers and the citizens shared a similar dilemma: finding the appropriate language to articulate Republican ideals while simultaneously embodying the ‘spirit of Islam.’ I will show that these brief exchanges point towards the limitations of Islamic brotherhood as a basis for equality – even among believers, let alone all communities – without a corresponding emancipatory ideal applicable to all citizens. Despite its failures or inadequacies, I would argue that the vibrant debate which continued to take place throughout the 1950s was a testimony to the promise of Pakistan as the arrival of a new age, a postcolonial moment, a break from the past, and an affirmation of democratic values, whether defined as liberal equality or Islamic brotherhood.