In this path-breaking new work, Ali Usman Qasmi traces the history of the political exclusion of the Ahmadiyya religious minority in Pakistan by drawing on revealing new sources. This volume is the first scholarly study of the declassified material of the court of inquiry that produced the Munir-Kiyani report of 1954, and the proceedings of the national assembly that declared the Ahmadis non-Muslims through the second constitutional amendment in 1974. The Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion in Pakistan chronicles anti-Ahmadi violence and the legal and administrative measures adopted against them, and also addresses wider issues of the politics of Islam in postcolonial Muslim nation-states and their disputative engagements with ideas of modernity and citizenship. Winner of the Karachi Literary Festival Peace Prize 2015.

Traces the history of the political exclusion of the Ahmadiyya religious minority in Pakistan, drawing on never-before-seen sources.

About the Author

Ali Usman Qasmi is an assistant professor of history at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Reviews

"This is a work of impeccable research and judicious historical scrutiny." -Ian Talbot, University of Southampton

"This book is of the first importance in understanding how the rights of minorities in Pakistan have come to be sacrificed on the altar of politics." -Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London

"In this ground-breaking study of protest, inquiry and legislation, Qasmi explores the direct and indirect political consequences of anti-Ahmadi theological polemic, shedding new light on the complicated relationship between religion, politics and the state that gripped Pakistan during its first thirty years." -Sarah Ansari, Royal Holloway, University of London

"This path-breaking [and] fascinating book is very important. First, it provides a very interesting and important account of the early history and politics of religious exclusion in Pakistan. Second, it provides an invaluable contribution to the rapidly-growing literature on the origins of sectarian violence in Pakistan [...] Based on an extensive range of primary sources, some of which have never been used before, secondary sources and interviews, the research underpinning this volume is exemplary. [...] The analysis throughout is erudite, rigorous and elegant." - Eamon Murphy, "South Asia"

Book Information
ISBN 9781783082339
Author Ali Usman Qasmi
Format Hardback
Page Count 278
Imprint Anthem Press
Publisher Anthem Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 153mm * 26mm