Courses

Since the decade of 1980s, the region of South Asia has become alarmingly visible in the Western academia and media due to increasing religio-ethnic militancy in national and regional politics. Among the traditionally identified list of the South Asian states (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal Bhutan, Maldives), Pakistan stands distinct due to its peculiar colonial and postcolonial history, tumultuous domestic politics, civil-military tensions, extremist tendencies in religion, and making and breaking of international alliances. Pakistan is the second largest Muslim nation and the sixth most populous country in the world. Entangled in multiple political, economic, and social conflicts, the citizens of the country are likewise engaged in multiple struggles for re-imagining identity, resistance, and survival.

This course will situate Pakistan in the context of modern South Asia, and examine its colonial and postcolonial experiences, diverse domestic struggles and challenges from a historical perspective.