A01=Oskar Verkaaik
Activism
Altaf Hussain (Pakistani politician)
Anti-Americanism
Author_Oskar Verkaaik
Authoritarianism
Ayub Khan (general)
Banditry
Benazir Bhutto
Bhutto
Category=JBFK
Category=JBSR
Category=JHMC
Chowk
Distrust
Endogamy
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic group
Ethnic violence
Harijan
Hunger strike
Ideology
Islam
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic Modernism
Islamism
Jihadism
Karbala
Khilafat Movement
Liaquat Ali Khan
Looting
Martyr
Masculinity
Militant (Trotskyist group)
Military dictatorship
Modernity
Mosque
Muhajir people
Muhajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi)
Muhammad Iqbal
Nationalist Movement
Operation Clean-up
Oppression
Pakistan
Pakistan Peoples Party
Pakistani nationalism
Pashtuns
Persecution
Political party
Political violence
Politics
Popular culture
Punjabis
Purdah
Qawwali
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Refugee
Religion
Religious violence
Sahib
Sayyid
Sexual Desire (book)
Sexual Preference (book)
Sharia
Sindhis
State within a state
Sufism
Superiority (short story)
Supporter
Taliban
Talibanization
Talpur
Terrorism
Untouchability
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Product details
- ISBN 9780691117096
- Weight: 340g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 11 Apr 2004
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Being 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. Migrants and Militants brings together two perspectives on political violence. Recent studies on ethnic cleansing, genocide, terrorism, and religious violence have emphasized processes of identification and purification.
Verkaaik combines these insights with a focus on urban youth culture, in which masculinity, physicality, and the performance of violence are key values. He shows that only through fun and absurdity can a nascent movement transgress the dominant discourse to come of its own. Using these observations, he considers violence as a ludic practice, violence as "martyrdom" and sacrifice, and violence as "terrorism" and resistance.
Oskar Verkaaik is Assistant Professor at the Research Center for Religion and Society, University of Amsterdam, and head of the branch office of the International Institute for Asian Studies. He is the author of "A People of Migrants" and a popular book in Dutch based on his experiences in Pakistan.
