Religious Chauvinism: An Emerging Counterproductive Dilemma of Post 9/11 Pakistani Nationalism in Aslam's The Blind Man's Garden

Abstract

This study explores the emergence of religious chauvinism in post 9/11 Pakistan in Aslam's 'The Blind Man's Garden'. The rise of chauvinism and militant connotations is not only provenance of great disintegration but also a menace to a prestigious survival of the state, a setback to the moderate majority of Pakistanis that takes pride in their nationality. Some extremist voices, which, no doubt nationalist though they are, yet stigmatize the soft image of Pakistan and Islam due to a harsher stand and their infatuation with blind religiosity. Focusing on Aslam's 'The Blind Man's Garden' (2013), this article argues about how religious seminaries in Pakistan misinterpret religious scripts to distribute hate among the masses to create an 'other' that suits their ideology and politics. The paper argues that fundamentalization in general and institutional radicalization in particular, which through state-controlled mechanisms, are let loose to the extent that they not only control society but also challenge the writ of the state.