National identity premises in Pakistani social media debate over patriotism

Abstract

Abstract This paper focuses on critical discourse analysis of national identity premises as they enter in Pakistan’s social media debate over patriotism and treason. Drawing on a theoretical framework that calls attention to the embeddedness of religious and nationalistic ideas in identification paradigm of a society, the analysis emphasizes the naturalized link in motivational/inspirational and factual/circumstantial premises and the discursive and non-discursive practices of a culture. It also shows how (supposed) lack of a clear sense of national identity is intrinsically connected to a politicized understanding of national and anti-national identities, since anti-national identity is made salient as an obstacle in path toward national acceptance, and thus as a threat to national security. This, it is argued, is achieved through certain discursive strategies and non-discursive acts which serve to position undesirable anti-nationals as simultaneously in need of proving their patriotism and ineligible for integration into a broader national identification paradigm.