New Ethnic identity: role of Religion and State of identity in Pakistan

Abstract

Religion and ethnicity are the two key dynamics of the politics of identity in Pakistan. The emergent significance of religion as an architect of identity and an instrument of political mobilization is reshaping the political landscape of ethno-religious conflicts in Pakistan. This research paper expounds that in case of Pakistan, religion is more influential to shape a violent ethnic and sectarian divide as compared to other bases of ethnicity like language, race, and region. Over emphasis on religious paradigm by authoritarian state discourses as the primary source of integration and its relevance to regime legitimacy made Islam a significant identity of various groups to contest power and influence. The evident ability of religion to form a group identity in Pakistan is leading to form a new ethnicity, which is exclusively based on the contrary, Islamic interpretations where the concept of ‘others’ seems to be less compromising, more antagonistic as compared to linguistic and regional forms of ethnicity. It identifies another aspect where religion and ethnicity are largely intermingled in Pakistan as different ethnic categories largely built on language and region are also associated with various forms of Islam. The underlying study expounds that over the time due to growing potential of Islam as source of protest and mobility in the politics of identity, it has become one of the key expressions of ethnicity which led to design an ethicized form of religion in Pakistan.