Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism: India, Pakistan and Turkey (Oxford University Press), 2021
This chapter examines the question of religious pluralism in Pakistan by examining its exact oppo... more This chapter examines the question of religious pluralism in Pakistan by examining its exact opposite: the attitudes and practices that perpetuate humiliation and hostility toward religious others, thus hampering the creation of an inclusive social being. My focus is on the ways in which the biggest Muslim minority group in the country-the Shia-are minoritized in everyday life, and how this violence is connected to the politics of Muslim religious majoritarianism in Pakistan. Informed by feminist thought, the chapter seeks to make three distinct contributions. First, it proposes that in order to make sense of the violence against the Shia in contemporary Pakistan, we need to go beyond the typical analysis couched in the framework of Islam, religion, theological difference, and sectarianism. Instead, I argue that the social dimension of Shia minoritization in Pakistan is better understood through the concept of "sectism, " which theoretically draws upon the ways in which racism, casteism, and sexism have been understood as projects of majoritarian privilege and domination. Second, the chapter investigates new forms and prescriptions of Sunni religiosity that are radically redefining Islam and the meaning of being Muslim in Pakistan today, in ways that promote a de-pluralization of Muslim sociality instead of the ethic of religious pluralism. Finally, I argue that questions of sect and gender have become intrinsically linked in contemporary Muslim contexts, and hence must be understood relationally in order to examine the religio-political, hegemonic formations of military-militant Islam in Pakistan. At the end, I offer broader reflections on the question of Islam, feminism, and democracy in Pakistan.
Working Paper, Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, 2019
In this paper, I explore the opening verses of Rumi's song of the reed, as a lens for understandi... more In this paper, I explore the opening verses of Rumi's song of the reed, as a lens for understanding the ecological in Muslim-Sufi poetic knowledges, and literary and philosophical landscapes. My desire is to raise a set of interconnected concerns: What lies beyond the spiritual in Muslim/Sufi poetics? Is there space to imagine a radical politics that believes, i.e.does not shun the "sacred" as understood through a normative, cynical lens?
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, 2019
This faculty-student collaborative article is a result of a graduate seminar on 'Environmental Ed... more This faculty-student collaborative article is a result of a graduate seminar on 'Environmental Education' taught at the Aga Khan University's Institute for Educational Development in Karachi, and it illuminates new perspectives and pedagogies of nature from the global South, specifically South Asia. Drawing inspiration from feminist and indigenous thought, the narratives of ecology shared here center the place of emotions, experience, memory and spiritual intimacy, offering one means of decolonizing environmental studies and expanding our understanding of 'environmental consciousness'. These narratives defy ontologies of nature-human separation, capturing not just the coexistence of animals, spirits and humans but their co-constitution. Such indigenous ecologies of knowledge and wisdom, we argue, offer a timely corrective to fragmented and exploitative constructions of the natural environment as mere resource, pleasure, or commodity, while providing a profound, alternative basis for a richly layered, spirited, environmental education.
How do we comprehend the poetic universe of Muslim South Asia, and why is it important to do so? ... more How do we comprehend the poetic universe of Muslim South Asia, and why is it important to do so? This is the larger question — at once historical, sociological, literary, and political — which forms the heart of the inquiry in this paper. In my attempt to address this question, I attend particularly to the themes of language, time, love, spiritual subjectivity, key figures, and resistance in understanding the place of the poetic in Muslim tradition. I then offer glimpses of the Seraiki poetic landscape from southern Punjab in Pakistan, to illuminate the continued power and politics of poetic practice in present-day Muslim lifeworlds.
This advocacy-oriented paper investigates seed politics and its implications for agricultural pol... more This advocacy-oriented paper investigates seed politics and its implications for agricultural policy in Pakistan. By gathering input from various stakeholders and performing comparative analysis to uncover policies and sustainable farming practices that work in other countries, it intends to make policy recommendations that are farmer- and consumer-friendly, and carry long-term benefit for Pakistan’s agriculture sector.
The paper identifies key players that shape the seed landscape of Pakistan, offers a timeline showcasing the salient history of laws that impact seed policy and farmers’ rights in the country, and provides a critical analysis of the new legal regimes that have recently been put in place including the Seed (Amendment) Act 2015 and the Plant Breeders’ Rights Bill 2016.
While human-computer interaction (HCI) methodologies are designed to be general, they have most o... more While human-computer interaction (HCI) methodologies are designed to be general, they have most often been applied in the context of literate end users in the West. These methodologies may, however, need rethinking for application in HCI for the developing world (HCID) ...
Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism: India, Pakistan and Turkey (Oxford University Press), 2021
This chapter examines the question of religious pluralism in Pakistan by examining its exact oppo... more This chapter examines the question of religious pluralism in Pakistan by examining its exact opposite: the attitudes and practices that perpetuate humiliation and hostility toward religious others, thus hampering the creation of an inclusive social being. My focus is on the ways in which the biggest Muslim minority group in the country-the Shia-are minoritized in everyday life, and how this violence is connected to the politics of Muslim religious majoritarianism in Pakistan. Informed by feminist thought, the chapter seeks to make three distinct contributions. First, it proposes that in order to make sense of the violence against the Shia in contemporary Pakistan, we need to go beyond the typical analysis couched in the framework of Islam, religion, theological difference, and sectarianism. Instead, I argue that the social dimension of Shia minoritization in Pakistan is better understood through the concept of "sectism, " which theoretically draws upon the ways in which racism, casteism, and sexism have been understood as projects of majoritarian privilege and domination. Second, the chapter investigates new forms and prescriptions of Sunni religiosity that are radically redefining Islam and the meaning of being Muslim in Pakistan today, in ways that promote a de-pluralization of Muslim sociality instead of the ethic of religious pluralism. Finally, I argue that questions of sect and gender have become intrinsically linked in contemporary Muslim contexts, and hence must be understood relationally in order to examine the religio-political, hegemonic formations of military-militant Islam in Pakistan. At the end, I offer broader reflections on the question of Islam, feminism, and democracy in Pakistan.
Working Paper, Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, 2019
In this paper, I explore the opening verses of Rumi's song of the reed, as a lens for understandi... more In this paper, I explore the opening verses of Rumi's song of the reed, as a lens for understanding the ecological in Muslim-Sufi poetic knowledges, and literary and philosophical landscapes. My desire is to raise a set of interconnected concerns: What lies beyond the spiritual in Muslim/Sufi poetics? Is there space to imagine a radical politics that believes, i.e.does not shun the "sacred" as understood through a normative, cynical lens?
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, 2019
This faculty-student collaborative article is a result of a graduate seminar on 'Environmental Ed... more This faculty-student collaborative article is a result of a graduate seminar on 'Environmental Education' taught at the Aga Khan University's Institute for Educational Development in Karachi, and it illuminates new perspectives and pedagogies of nature from the global South, specifically South Asia. Drawing inspiration from feminist and indigenous thought, the narratives of ecology shared here center the place of emotions, experience, memory and spiritual intimacy, offering one means of decolonizing environmental studies and expanding our understanding of 'environmental consciousness'. These narratives defy ontologies of nature-human separation, capturing not just the coexistence of animals, spirits and humans but their co-constitution. Such indigenous ecologies of knowledge and wisdom, we argue, offer a timely corrective to fragmented and exploitative constructions of the natural environment as mere resource, pleasure, or commodity, while providing a profound, alternative basis for a richly layered, spirited, environmental education.
How do we comprehend the poetic universe of Muslim South Asia, and why is it important to do so? ... more How do we comprehend the poetic universe of Muslim South Asia, and why is it important to do so? This is the larger question — at once historical, sociological, literary, and political — which forms the heart of the inquiry in this paper. In my attempt to address this question, I attend particularly to the themes of language, time, love, spiritual subjectivity, key figures, and resistance in understanding the place of the poetic in Muslim tradition. I then offer glimpses of the Seraiki poetic landscape from southern Punjab in Pakistan, to illuminate the continued power and politics of poetic practice in present-day Muslim lifeworlds.
This advocacy-oriented paper investigates seed politics and its implications for agricultural pol... more This advocacy-oriented paper investigates seed politics and its implications for agricultural policy in Pakistan. By gathering input from various stakeholders and performing comparative analysis to uncover policies and sustainable farming practices that work in other countries, it intends to make policy recommendations that are farmer- and consumer-friendly, and carry long-term benefit for Pakistan’s agriculture sector.
The paper identifies key players that shape the seed landscape of Pakistan, offers a timeline showcasing the salient history of laws that impact seed policy and farmers’ rights in the country, and provides a critical analysis of the new legal regimes that have recently been put in place including the Seed (Amendment) Act 2015 and the Plant Breeders’ Rights Bill 2016.
While human-computer interaction (HCI) methodologies are designed to be general, they have most o... more While human-computer interaction (HCI) methodologies are designed to be general, they have most often been applied in the context of literate end users in the West. These methodologies may, however, need rethinking for application in HCI for the developing world (HCID) ...
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The paper identifies key players that shape the seed landscape of Pakistan, offers a timeline showcasing the salient history of laws that impact seed policy and farmers’ rights in the country, and provides a critical analysis of the new legal regimes that have recently been put in place including the Seed (Amendment) Act 2015 and the Plant Breeders’ Rights Bill 2016.
The paper identifies key players that shape the seed landscape of Pakistan, offers a timeline showcasing the salient history of laws that impact seed policy and farmers’ rights in the country, and provides a critical analysis of the new legal regimes that have recently been put in place including the Seed (Amendment) Act 2015 and the Plant Breeders’ Rights Bill 2016.