Description
Cambridge University Press (Manohar) Questioning Migrants Ethnic Nationalism at the Limits of Pakistan by Tahir Naqvi
The Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), propelled by ethnic violence and led by university students with lower-middle-class backgrounds, transformed the cities of the southern Pakistani province of Sindh into an ethnic majoritarian stronghold at the unlikely height of a military dictatorship. The more novelaspect of the MQM's platform was it demand for the recognition of Muhajirs as a separate, 'oppressed nationality' within Pakistan. Questioning Migrants is a granular historical and ethographic study of the MQM's capacity to think beyond the exlusivism of Muhajir nationalism toward its contingency and toward a more plural and subaltern framing of the universal. It speaks to significant themes in Pakistan Studies: the legacies of Partition, the rise of the martial state, and the dynamics of urbanization and democracy.