Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Fall 2017

Date of Submission

2017-01-01

Advisor

Dr. S. Akbar Zaidi, Executive Director, IBA

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Abstract

On August 22nd 2016 Altaf Hussain, the leader of the Muttehida Quami Movement (MQM), made anti-Pakistani claims during his address to his supporters in Pakistan. This was followed by attacks on various media houses by MQM workers. The next month Farooq Sattar, one of the leaders of the MQM, excommunicated Hussain from the party because of his expression of an anti-Pakistani sentiment. This led to the division of the mainstream party MQM in to two: (1) Muttehida Quami Movement-London (MQM-L) and (2) Muttehida Quami Movement- Pakistan (MQM-P).

This vocalization of anti-Pakistani sentiment is a result of the greater process of nation building, which has kept identities polarized against each other since the advent of Pakistan. Adopted from the colonial masters, the tools that the Pakistani-state used for governance are essentially an extension of the divide and rule policy of the colonial masters. Muhajir identity, as a political identity, which has been for long equated to the political party, MQM, has been symbolically dismantled following the split of MQM. This thesis explores the various dynamics and transformations of the Muhajir identity, in the context of Pakistan, from its advent. The thesis tries to submerge the understanding of the Muhajir identity in to the understanding of the Pakistani nation-state.

Pages

50

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