This study focuses on the foundational texts of Pakistan. Most theories of anticolonial nationalism have a strictly culturalist emphasis, of which the works of Partha Chatterjee and Benedict Anderson are two good examples. I suggest that politics and not culture was the main signifier of the post-1857 struggle of Indian Muslims. While the social, religious and ethno-linguistic ideologies became a part of the mobilizing discourse of the Muslim elite, the main problem was not cultural—for they had always a had a living thriving separate culture—but a question of political survival under a national structure run by non-Muslims. Unlike Europe, where nationalism succeeded as the prime signifier of a modern identity, within the realm of political Islam territorial nationalism was always a sort of arbitrary compromise and it was never able to erase completely the pan-Islamic tendencies of political Islam. The history of the Pakistan movement is a good example of this tension between the nationalist and supranational politics. For political Islam in India this movement from a supranational-pan-Islamic identity to the politics of nationalism was a fairly complicated negotiation. Starting from 1857—the formal end of the nominal Muslim rule—until 1947 these tensions between the nationalist elite and pan-Islamic movements played an important role in defining the pre-and post-independence character of the Muslim politics. The main problem was to define a viable political identity in order to create a physical public space where the Muslims could live their lives according to a political system controlled by Muslims. It is this search for a viable political identity that led to the nationalist movement of Pakistan. In the same process, however, there were two major divisions within the Muslim community: the political elite led by the secular All India Muslim League (AIML) and the popular movements spawned by the religious scholars. Texts of Nation primarily focuses on the national texts produced by the Muslims from 1857 to 1947. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2006. / May 12, 2006. / Pakistan, Novel, Postcolonial, Urdu, Nationalism / Includes bibliographical references. / Robin Goodman, Professor Directing Dissertation; Alec Hargreaves, Outside Committee Member; Hunt Hawkins, Committee Member; Christopher Shinn, Committee Member; Amit Rai, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_180380 |
| Contributors | (authoraut), Goodman, Robin (professor directing dissertation), Hargreaves, Alec (outside committee member), Hawkins, Hunt (committee member), Shinn, Christopher (committee member), Rai, Amit (committee member), Department of English (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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