Conversation: Difference & the State

Khwaja Siras and State (Dis)Belief | TQ SALON

If the state has been unwilling to fully regard penises and anuses, it has contemplated vaginas even less ably. In these social crevices then, a certain kind of space can flourish outside of the state’s harsh glare.
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Legibility as a Political Project | TQ SALON

Feb 2015

The efforts of the Pakistani state in making “Muhajirs” legible through preferential policies did not have the effect of compartmentalizing them into a new discrete identity. To the contrary, it enabled Muhajirs to portray an ethnically neutral “Pakistani” identity.
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How Ahmadis Became Non-Muslim | TQ SALON

Feb 2015

The modern state has a distinct way of "seeing." In this vein, the anti-Ahmadiyya legislations allowed the Pakistani state to penetrate society and fulfill its cultural project of creating a modern Muslim polity.
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