Presentation: one state, several nations - Pakistan and its identity issues.

Résumé du document

In this presentation, we will not deal with the context of the independence of Pakistan in 1947. However, since Pakistan is a very young country, its creation plays a large role in the difficulties it encounters in its nation-building. The partition of India, in 1947, is the result of a long-term process and the state of Pakistan was finally established on the 14th of August, 1947, and, at this time, its territory was divided into two parts, West and East Pakistan. A civil war, in 1971 resulted in the creation of Bangladesh in East Pakistan. A Pakistani professor once said, "Pakistan, with all its weaknesses, has a state, but does it have a nation?". This is the question we will answer in this presentation.

Extraits

[...] During the 1990's, the rivalry became so strong and violent riots broke out in Karachi, where about 1500 people died in 1995. - Baluchistan is a region that represents 40% of the territory, and only of the population of the country. It is a poor and underdeveloped region. Democratically speaking, Baluchistan had to wait until 1972 to have its own assembly, elected on universal suffrage. For a very long time, there were separatist claims, roughly suppressed by the power. - Kashmir is a problematic region, at the heart of the divisions between Pakistan and India. [...]

[...] However, we could think this is not something abnormal, because nation building is a very long-term process, and Pakistan was created only 60 years ago. But this would not be problematic if the process was in progress. Actually, it seems that, in spite of the different attempts made by society and political leaders, there are still too many divergences between the different people in the country, and too few things that may bind people together, so as to create a single nation. [...]

[...] Pakistan and its identity conflicts Presentation: one state, several nations? Pakistan and its identity issues The world has become more globalized and yet, the idea of has never been that used. The debate about national identity in France shows that this is a current question, even in such an old country. The association between a state and a nation is very common, but it is not always relevant. Indeed, there are some states in which several nations coexist. Primarily, let's remind of the definitions of a state and a nation. [...]

[...] Then, this led to a very strong personalisation of the power, which Pakistan has never got rid of. Gradually, the power became more and more centralized, concentrated in the hand of a leader, and the democratic opposition disappeared. His successors, Ayub Khan, Ali Bhutto and Zia-ul-Hak, tried to build a nation from different ways, but they all failed. Ayub Khan (1958-1969) succeeded in modernizing the country, thanks to lots of reforms, but failed in encouraging the nation-building process, since it controlled the media, and above all the press, which he wanted to “conform to recognised principles of journalism and patriotism”. [...]

[...] His main aim was to create a national consensus capable of transcending social antagonisms. However, his regime became more autocratic, and he was eventually thrown out of the power. Zia-ul-Hak, his successor, engaged a policy of Islamization, which was confronted with much opposition. The regime, encouraging a centralization of the country in favour of Punjab, failed to diminish ethnic antagonisms. Then, Benazir Bhutto, Ali's daughter, tried to democratize the country, but failed, and, in 1999, Pervez Musharraf reinforced a dictatorship. [...]