Unity in diversity: constituting and constructing Pakistan’s national identity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article critically explores the evolution and expression of a Pakistani national identity as a project of assertion in the post-colonial period. While the initial years of Pakistan’s independence were marked by ambiguity over the religious versus secular direction of the Pakistani identity, there was no dithering over an absolutist national identity (Pakistani) that was to be strictly followed and ordained in contrast to sub-national, ethnic identities. The article presents three elemental positions of Pakistan’s national identity discourse: the nationalist/primordialist, the perennialist and the social constructivist. Rooting its argument in the social constructivist episteme but also moving beyond it by indulging in a normative approach, the article argues in favour of a humanist-centred interpretation that eschews differentiation and normalises an inclusive, tolerant and diversity-acceptant definition of Pakistani identity.