Issue 8: Language & Politics
Winter 2014
Previous issue:
Issue 7: Beyond Tremors & Terror
REPORTAGE
Islamabad’s Forgotten Villages
Two villages encircled by the capital’s naval complex fall outside the state’s security concerns.
The Road to Bannu
Even though Bannu is governed by the Pakistani constitution, the Pakistani state views it in almost colonial terms. For this part of Pakistan, then, the Raj isn’t over.
ESSAYS
“We should be resettled there”
Humanitarianism without politics has helped maintain the conditions of risk that expose people to harm in the first place.
Neoliberalism against Privatization
The Supreme Court’s decision to void the privatization of the Pakistan Steel Mills retained an unsaid pact with capitalist interests even as it seemed to subvert them.
How the State Sanctions Bonded Labor
Slavery is intrinsic to modern-day capitalism.
Sit-ins with the Dead
The Hazara sit-ins began as protests with broad potential, only to become ritualized under the undemocratic organization of the QYC and Shia leadership.
Protests in Search of a Movement
There is no rights-for-shelter or housing movement in urban Pakistan like Brazil or India because conditions force katchi abadi dwellers often to work with land developers rather than against them.
The Allure of Al-Huda
Liberalism lies at the heart of the practices of Islamic piety by the Al-Huda organization. That affects how certain Islamic practices are understood — and denounced.
Memory in Pakistani Cinema
Khamosh Pani and Ramchand Pakistani are the first films by a generation that did not directly experience Partition. They plumb memory and examine living with what comes after.
Going to the Movies
Just sitting through a film creates its own social norms and that — more than the films that cinemas screen — may be what worries those who burn them down.
