Migrants and Militants: Fun and Urban Violence in PakistanBeing part of a violent community in revolt can be addictive--it can be fun. This book offers a fascinating inside look at present-day political violence in Pakistan through a historical ethnography of the Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), one of the most remarkable and successful religious nationalist movements in postcolonial South Asia. The MQM has mobilized much of the "migrant" (Muhajir) population in Karachi and other urban centers in southern Pakistan and has fomented large-scale ethnic-religious violence. Oskar Verkaaik argues that urban youth see it as an irresistible opportunity for "fun." Drawing on both anthropological fieldwork, including participatory observation among political militants, and historical analyses of state formation, nation-building, and the ethnicization of Islam since 1947, he provides an absorbing and important contribution to theoretical debates about political--religious and nationalist--violence. |
From inside the book
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... youth and had an appeal that cut across class lines . It espoused a " modern " and at times mystical Islam that was at once different from the modernist - scripturalist Islam of official state ideology and self - consciously bound up ...
... youth . In that sense , it resembled several other popular religious - political movements that have arisen in the last two decades of the twentieth century , such as the Hindu nationalist movement in India or several Islamist move ...
... youth culture , which I have found most remarkable and significant : violence ; Islam ; and a ludic , unbalancing aspect for which I use the term fun . This book is an ethnogra- phy of how these aspects of an emerging urban youth ...
... youth . It helped spoil the relationship between Muhajirs and other ethnic groups in Karachi and Hyderabad , notably the " autochthonous " Sindhis as well as the Pakhtun , who arrived more recently from the northern areas of Pakistan ...
... youth culture , to un- derstand why movements such as the MQM can be so attractive to young city dwellers . There are several traditions of research that may be helpful . First there are the social historical studies on working - class ...