Making Sense of Pakistan

Farzana Shaikh

June, 2009
Cloth, 288 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14962-4
$24.95

"Intellectually acute, impressively researched, and strongly argued." — Anatol Lieven, The American Prospect

"A scholarly and erudite study of the competition to define and establish a “national" identity for Pakistan." — Robert Nichols, H-Asia

"Thought-provoking . . . Those interested in helping shape the country's future will come away understanding why now is the time to move on with clarity." — Shabana Fayyaz, Middle East Journal

"Rich and multifaceted, this book's focus on the uncertainties regarding Islam as a key feature of Pakistan's national identity represents an important theoretical innovation-one that takes us well beyond the narrow view that the politics of Pakistan can be understood apart from engaging with the contested terms of Islam." — Matthew Nelson, author of In the Shadow of Shari'ah: Islam, Islamic Law, and Democracy in Pakistan

"Farzana Shaikh's knowledge is encyclopedic, her methods of analysis simple but intense, her writing beautifully lucid—there is nobody better to explain what Barack Obama calls the most dangerous place in the world." — Ahmed Rashid, author of Descent into Chaos: How the War Against Islamic Extremism is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia

"Pakistan is far too little understood for a country of such global strategic importance. Farzana Shaikh provocatively argues that as a homeland for Muslims, the inevitable quest for defining national identity in terms of 'Islam' could only mean uncertainty and contestation over key questions of belonging and political culture that are at the heart of any nation state. This timely book is a welcome contribution to understanding Pakistan's problems of failed governance, regionalism, sectarianism, and social polarization." — Barbara Metcalf, University of Michigan

"If you have ever wondered why Pakistan's problems are so deep, Farzana Shaikh has the answers." — Owen Bennett Jones, author of Pakistan: Eye of the Storm

Related Subjects

• Asian History
• South Asian Studies

About the Author

Farzana Shaikh is an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London. Most recently a visitor at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, she has lectured on Pakistan and South Asian Islam at universities throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. She is the author of Community and Consensus in Islam: Muslim Representation in Colonial India, 1860-1947.

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