Pakistan: Class and State Formation

In: Race & class: a journal on racism, empire and globalisation, Band 22, Heft 3, S. 239-256

Abstract

Contrasted are the social & political structures of India & Pakistan. While these countries share a heritage of subjugation to the British & to previous Mughal rulers, their present forms are very different: Pakistan since 1947 has been controlled by the military, whereas India has developed a stable government of participatory democracy. This difference is attributed to the lack of an independent industrial capitalist class & the presence of a strong landed class in the northwestern region of "British India." The military bureaucracy that has shaped modern Pakistan is examined in its historical formation, & the historic weakness of the commercial structure is analyzed. D. Dunseath.