Great read, so relevant and btw just as relatable possibly to all of us in the Subcontinent.

This para specifically hit the bullseye:

One can trace this egregious situation back to colonial times: the blind transplantation of a democratic superstructure (elections, adult franchise, political parties and political ideologies) onto a hierarchical and unequal substructure in South Asia. In a context marked by entrenched social class differences, theologically sanctioned inequalities, political parties running as private enterprises of an individual or a family and widespread economic deprivation, such a system was never a perfect fit.

Thanks. You might also like to read this:
 
https://www.thenews.pk/print/1413009-stupidity-or-strategy
 
This op-ed works as an exposition on the point (the political economy) that I underscored in the book review.

Good idea we’ll update this Open Thread with interesting links as well.

Furqan, I just read this article of yours presumably, on Duniya Digital:

https://dunyadigital.co/books/anaemic-reparations-for-symptoms

Your review reads just right, not overtly critical yet pointing out the glaring inadequacy in the approach.

Recently read this.

I don’t think its a contest. Saying Indian “aren’t really allowed to be Islamophobic” isn’t correct and many Indian Muslims themselves will dispute that and so can many Muslims in the diaspora with their own IRL experiences with the Indian diaspora.

Hinduphobia is so engrained in Pakistani Societys that it is invisible.

Indians aren’t really allowed to be Islamophobic except in online spaces and when they form beef lynching mobs.

In some ways it is much safer to be a minority in Pakistan because one knows their place and doesn’t step out of line. In India the minorities are always interpreting messages from an increasingly angry majority ..

By Nadeem F. Paracha

https://www.dawn.com/news/2003974

The post-1971 narrative amplified Political Islam, weaving it into what was officially branded as the “Pakistan Ideology” in 1978. Though some historians began dismantling this construct in the 1980s, it took another three decades for their efforts to bear fruit.

Today, the state has not only softened its stance towards these counter-narratives, but is actively borrowing elements from them to fashion a brand-new national identity. This emerging narrative seeks to reposition Pakistan as a moderate, organic continuation of the ancient civilisations that flourished along the Indus River for over 5,000 years.