Hidden Histories of Pakistan: Censorship, Literature, and Secular Nationalism in Late Colonial India

Sarah Waheed's book explores the role of progressive Muslim intellectuals in the Pakistan movement, challenging the notion of religion and secularism as distinct and opposing forces. She argues that these intellectuals drew from long-standing literary traditions of Islam in a period of great duress and upheaval, complicating our understanding of the relationship between religion and secularism. Waheed's analysis of trials for blasphemy, obscenity, and sedition, as well as feminist writers, provides a fresh perspective on the creation of Pakistan and South Asian modernity.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 20 January 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Censorship, Urdu literature, Islam, and progressive secular nationalisms in colonial India and Pakistan have a complex, intertwined history. Sarah Waheed offers a timely examination of the role of progressive Muslim intellectuals in the Pakistan movement. She delves into how these left-leaning intellectuals drew from long-standing literary traditions of Islam in a period of great duress and upheaval, complicating our understanding of the relationship between religion and secularism. Rather than seeing religion and the secular as distinct and oppositional phenomena, this book demonstrates how these concepts themselves were historically produced in South Asia and were deeply interconnected in the cultural politics of the left. Through a detailed analysis of trials for blasphemy, obscenity, and sedition, and feminist writers, Waheed argues that Muslim intellectuals engaged with socialism and communism through their distinctive ethical and cultural past. In so doing, she provides a fresh perspective on the creation of Pakistan and South Asian modernity.

Censorship, Urdu literature, Islam, and progressive secular nationalisms in colonial India and Pakistan have a complex, intertwined history.

Sarah Waheed offers a timely examination of the role of progressive Muslim intellectuals in the Pakistan movement.

She delves into how these left-leaning intellectuals drew from long-standing literary traditions of Islam in a period of great duress and upheaval, complicating our understanding of the relationship between religion and secularism.

Rather than seeing religion and the secular as distinct and oppositional phenomena, this book demonstrates how these concepts themselves were historically produced in South Asia and were deeply interconnected in the cultural politics of the left.

Through a detailed analysis of trials for blasphemy, obscenity, and sedition, and feminist writers, Waheed argues that Muslim intellectuals engaged with socialism and communism through their distinctive ethical and cultural past.

In so doing, she provides a fresh perspective on the creation of Pakistan and South Asian modernity.

Weight: 596g
Dimension: 176 x 237 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108834520
Edition number: New ed