The idea of Pakistan stands riddled with tensions.Initiated by a small group of elite Urdu-speakingMuslims who envisioned a unified Islamic state, todayPakistan suffers the divisive forces of various separatistmovements and religious fundamentalism. A smallentrenched elite continue to dominate the countryscorridors of power, and democratic forces and legalinstitutions remain weak. But despite these seeminglyinsurmountable problems, the Islamic Republic ofPakistan continues to endure. Pakistan Paradox is thedefinitive history of democracy in Pakistan, and itssurvival despite ethnic strife, Islamism and deepseatedelitism.This edition focuses on three kinds of tensionsthat are as old as Pakistan itself. The tension betweenthe unitary definition of the nation inherited fromJinnah and centrifugal ethnic forces; between civiliansand army officers who are not always in favour ofor against democracy; and between the Islamistsand those who define Islam only as a culturalidentity marker

About the Author: Christophe Jaffrelot

Dr Christophe Jaffrelot is a senior research fellow at CERI (Centre dEtudes et de Recherches Internationales) at Sciences Po (Paris), and research director at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), professor of Indian politics and sociology at the Kings India Institute (London) and Global Scholar at Princeton University. He has been visiting professor at Columbia University, Yale and SAIS (Johns Hopkins University). He is a member of the board of Ashoka University. Among his publications are The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 1925 to 1990s (1999) and Indias Silent Revolution (2003). He has also co-edited with Laurent Gayer, Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalization (2012).