Change of social protest in Pakistan: class forms versus religious forms

Abstract

Social protest in the East, in particular inPakistan, is today one of the most vibrant research topics. It has become the focal point due to the acute social discontent that has engulfed many states around the world, first and foremost, the Near and Middle East. To this one can add radical protests and the recourse to terror as means to achieve the goals set. With its 200 million populationPakistanis one of the largest state of the world. It is located at the place where the South Asia meets the Western andCentral Asia. Historically,Pakistanbelongs to South Asia and Hindustan, however, from the point of view of its culture it is closely associated with the world of Islam that ofArabiaand the Turkic and Iranian worlds. From the point of the international politicsPakistanis equally rather important. To its importance contribute the everlasting hostility with neighboringIndia, possession of nuclear weapons as well as a deep and organic connection with the neighbouringAfghanistanand the large percentage of people who think in terms of what it called the extremist Islamism. In the vast number of research articles and monographs published both inRussiaand abroad surprisingly very little attention has been paid to the phenomenon of the social protest and its forms, which is indeed quite significant in the history of the Pakistani state. Chronologically one can identify two major periods. The first period commences in 1947 and ends up in 1970s. This period has been marked by the so-called “class protest”. Its driving forces was the peasants, the working class and the students. The protests were either spontaneous or well organized; they were linked to the left-wing and secularist political groups and parties as well as intellectuals, liberal democrats or left-wing communists. The second period were marked by the harsh state suppression of the opposition on one hand-side and strengthening of the right-wing, religious radicalism. This dichotomy invites a preliminary conclusion that that mass protest inPakistanunderwent significant changes from the “class forms” to the socio-religious ones.