Politics and the family: Rethinking the India–Pakistan two-nations theory through the familial construction of political ideas

Abstract

ABSTRACT There are very few scholarly endeavors that have focused on Pakistan–India partition and their ongoing conflict from an indigenous theoretical lens. A psycho-cultural paradigm has been used in this article to reexamine and reconceptualize the enduring two-Nations theory – a political ideology, which manifests Hindu-Muslim discord in the Indian Subcontinent by construing both communities as distinct nations based on their inherent ethno-religious and civilizational differences. Considering a very complex process of mass conversion, assimilation, and crisscrossing of caste-system between both groups, this article argues that it is theoretically problematic to differentiate between Hindus and Muslims purely on ethno-religious grounds. Given the significant impact of the institution of family on the lives of the Subcontinental people, regardless of their faith – I propose that it can be more explanatory to categorize both groups as competing branches of a joint family, to understand the construction of political ideology of two-Nations theory in familial terms. This article seeks to clarify the theoretical mechanism through which the family-level ideas can shape peoples’ worldview, informing the way they perceive abstract concepts such as group-conflict and the nation, thus impacting their political thoughts.