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HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
2nd degree (Master)
Responsible Department:
Asian Studies
Semester:
2nd Semester
Teaching Languages:
English
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Prof Simon Wolfgang Fuchs
Coordinator Office Hours:
Monday, 15-17
Teaching Staff:
Prof Simon Fuchs
Course/Module description:
Pakistan is one of the most intriguing projects of founding a new state in the 20th century. Was it intended to be a “Muslim Zion”? A laboratory of Islam? Or rather a progressive, secular state? What has happened since 1947?
Course/Module aims:
Situate the emergence of Pakistan within a particular moment of Indian history and be able to evaluate the various claims about the country’s “purpose,” its relation to Islam and the complicated relationship of authoritarianism and democracy. Gain skills in academic writing, reading, and analyzing primary and secondary sources.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Integrate Pakistan’s history into a wider story of decolonization
- Evaluate claims about Pakistan’s roots and founders’ intentions
- Explain why Bangladesh became an independent state
- Summarize the rise and fall of Islamic modernism in Pakistan
- Show the impact of Islamization in the country
- Situate the position of minorities in a state ostensibly established for one particular religious group
- Conclude about the (continued) outsize role of the military in politics
Attendance requirements(%):
100%
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Discussions, student-led presentations, group work and analysis of primary sources
Course/Module Content:
Which idea brought about Pakistan? Was the aim to achieve an avowedly Islamic state after the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947? Or rather a home and shelter for Muslims? Did the founders envision perhaps a modern secular republic? Is, Pakistan, then most of all a giant misunderstanding? This course considers one of the most fascinating projects of founding a new state in the 20th century. Being based on the idea that Muslims and Hindus, after hundreds of years of coexistence, could simply no longer live together, the young state immediately had to face tremendous challenges. Pakistan not only had to take in millions of refugees and build institutions from scratch, her inhabitants also were forced to come to terms with burning questions of belonging and identity. Could minorities, such as Hindus, Christians, and Ahmadis, be part of the new polity? Was Pakistan as an Islamic republic supposed to be a model for the remainder of the “Muslim world,” even a laboratory of modern Islam? What would all of this mean for conceptions of caste and gender? The course will deal with Islamic modernism, the ongoing and barely hidden power of the military and the question why Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan, opted for independence in 1971. Further sessions will deal with Islamization measures since the 1980s, urban transgressions, Lahore as Bombay’s cinematic rival, and masculine imaginaries of the Pakistani Taliban.
Required Reading:
Sample required readings (full details will be made available on Moodle):
Ayesha Jalal, The Struggle for Pakistan. A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics (Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014)
S. Akbar Zaidi, Making a Muslim. Reading Publics and Contested Identities in Nineteenth Century North India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021)
Faisal Devji, Muslim Zion. Pakistan as a Political Idea (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2014)
Barbara Metcalf, “Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani and the Jami'at 'Ulama-i-Hind: Against Pakistan, against the Muslim League,” in Ali Usman Qasmi und Megan Eaton Robb (ed.), Muslims against the Muslim League. Critiques of Pakistan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 1–34
Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar, The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia. Refugees, Boundaries, Histories (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007)
Markus Daechsel, Islamabad and the Politics of International Development in Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)
Ali Usman Qasmi, The Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion in Pakistan (London: Anthem Press, 2014)
Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Islam in Pakistan: A History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018),
Srinath Raghavan, 1971. A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2013)
Shenila Khoja-Moolji, Sovereign Attachments. Masculinity, Muslimness, and Affective Politics in Pakistan (Oakland, Ca: University of California Press, 2021)
Oskar Verkaaik, Migrants and Militants. Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan (Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004)
Iftikhar Dadi, Lahore Cinema. Between Realism and Fable (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2022)
Additional Reading Material:
A full syllabus with required readings and supplementary readings will be distributed in class and will also be made available on Moodle.
Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 60 %
Presentation / Poster Presentation / Lecture/ Seminar / Pro-seminar / Research proposal 20 %
Active Participation / Team Assignment 20 %
Additional information:
Please note that regular attendance is mandatory. Absences will result in a deduction from your grade. If a student accumulates more than three absences (excluding reserve duty and exceptional circumstances supported by documentation), they will be required to discontinue the course. Students are expected to come to the sessions prepared for discussion, having read the assigned material at home. Preparedness for the sessions is accompanied by uploading 2-3 discussion questions each week on the mandatory readings before class. The course cannot be completed without submitting these assignments on time.
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