What is Pakistan?

The book examines the "political mythology" around Pakistan's raison d'etre ("Why Pakistan?") and raises the question: "Who is a Pakistani?"

Making Sense of Pakistan

Farzana Shaikh 

Westland Publications

275 pages 

Rs 499

After Israel, Pakistan is perhaps the only other country whose national identity has been subjected to such scrutiny. More than 70 years after its creation as a separate homeland for Indian Muslims, the idea of Pakistan remains deeply contested and it continues to struggle to reconcile the original vision of its founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah with its later trajectory. 

Indeed, there’s no consensus even around Jinnah’s supposed vision which broadly envisaged a pluralistic state that will not discriminate on the basis of faith or cultural differences. As Farzana Shaikh points out: “At