Hidden Histories of Pakistan : Censorship, Literature, and Secular Nationalism in Late Colonial India

Censorship, Urdu literature, Islam, and progressive secular nationalisms in colonial India and Pakistan have a complex, intertwined history. Sarah Waheed offers a timely examination of the role of progressive Muslim intellectuals in the Pakistan movement. She delves into how these left-leaning intellectuals drew from long-standing literary traditions of Islam in a period of great duress and upheaval, complicating our understanding of the relationship between religion and secularism. Rather than seeing 'religion' and 'the secular' as distinct and oppositional phenomena, this book demonstrates how these concepts themselves were historically produced in South Asia and were deeply interconnected in the cultural politics of the left. Through a detailed analysis of trials for blasphemy, obscenity, and sedition, and feminist writers, Waheed argues that Muslim intellectuals engaged with socialism and communism through their distinctive ethical and cultural past. In so doing, she provides a fresh perspective on the creation of Pakistan and South Asian modernity. "In the decades immediately preceding and following Indian independence and the creation of Pakistan, a group of South Asian literary intellectuals dedicated themselves to a craft of writing that aimed to disturb the status quo. They demanded liberation, "from the maligning imperialist archaeology on the one side, and from its misuse by reactionary elements in our society. Influenced by international trends in social realism as well as leftist movements in India, and writing predominantly in Urdu - a widely shared North Indian vernacular language increasingly being tied to Indo-Muslim identity - these literary intellectuals called themselves progressive writers. This book is about how progressive, and referred to as "Urduphone" intellectuals made up of Indian and Pakistani Muslims involved in leftist politics, articulated their struggles for freedom in the face of immense political suppression."-- Provided by publisher 00. 9781108995160 01.0_pp_i_ii_Hidden_Histories_of_Pakistan 02.0_pp_iii_iii_Hidden_Histories_of_Pakistan 03.0_pp_iv_iv_Copyright_page 04.0_pp_v_vi_Contents 05.0_pp_vii_xvi_Preface 06.0_pp_xvii_xix_Acknowledgments 07.0_pp_xx_xxii_Transliteration_Guide 08.0_pp_1_43_Introduction 09.0_pp_44_93_Blasphemy 10.0_pp_94_150_Obscenity 11.0_pp_151_198_Sedition 12.0_pp_199_245_Feminist_Literary_Ethics_and_Censorship 13.0_pp_246_254_Epilogue 14.0_pp_255_275_Bibliography 15.0_pp_276_288_Index A timely examination of the role of progressive Muslim intellectuals in the Pakistan movement. In Hidden Histories of Pakistan, Sarah Waheed offers deeper understanding of India and Pakistan's complex and intertwined history through explorations of censorship, Urdu literature and progressive secular nationalisms in colonial India and Pakistan.