Asian Affairs

Social Movements in Pakistan: Struggles of Identity, Equality, and Justice

The history of civilizations, experiences of colonialism, and modern life all contribute to a complex social situation in Pakistan, marked by conflicts across identities related to class, caste, ethnicity, gender, and religion (Fenech and McLeod 2014).</ Colonial experiences have challenged the traditional elite class and caste structure, which has existed for centuries, and forced it to look for new partnerships based on cooperation and sharing (Hussain 1976; 1979). For example, the landed elite supported the emerging urban industrial class, infiltrated the political elite, and collaborated with the professional-military-bureaucratic establishment to maintain and expand their sphere of influence (Shah 2014; Siddiqa 2007). This elite social structure thrived on its control over state resources. Centrist policies are designed to promote the interests of the elite at the expense of the working class and other lower-income groups (Acemoglu, Robinson, and Torvik 2020). A cohesive elite class obliges the state to regulate political participation, suppress dissent, and maintain an unequal distribution of economic resources (Zaidi 2014).

However, there are challenges to this persistent control. Contrary to a pluralistic and complex social outlook, it provokes resistance from various segments of society—women, peasants, laborers, ethnic and religious minorities, students, and transgender communities (Rouse 2004; Weiss 2012; Zia 2018). The lower classes have maneuvered to resist persistent oppressive elite control over the state, its policies, economy, and resources through social movements, political mobilizations, democratic struggles, and legal battles inside and outside the courtroom. The clash between the dominant sections of society that control the state and its coercive apparatuses, and the lower segments that struggle to revise the nature and direction of the state’s redistributive policies, leads to an enduring tension in the state-society relationship (Akhtar 2022; Waseem 2022). Though the lower socioeconomic classes have been successful in dismantling oppressive regimes through populist and grassroots resistance, each episode of success led to a new wave of rejuvenated oppressive control; thus, an inexorable process of domination and resistance plays out throughout the history of Pakistan.

This clash takes several forms. The dominant class requires a centralized policymaking structure, whereas the resisting sections require an acknowledgement of diversity in policy formulation and execution. The state story, shaped by the powerful class, focuses on unity, which the opposing groups see as a way to ignore minority rights and keep poor areas struggling (Jalal 1995). The state bends to serving the interests of the rich through constitutional prerogatives, political accommodations, and economic policies; resistance movements have sought to revise the terms and conditions of their social contract with the state. To mute disruptive politics, the state and its decision-makers seek to silence dissenting voices by calling remonstrators traitors. For the lower classes, heroes are the lower classes.

These state-led crusades and populist challenging movements exhibit structural dysfunctionality of the state and its structure; there is a clear disconnect between the state and the aspirations of the majority of its citizens that leads to a perpetual constitutional-cum-political crisis in Pakistan, resulting in social movements from various disgruntled segments of society, such as peasant unions, trade organizations, student federations, ethnic movements, and contemporary feminist and trans-rights activism, among several others. Every oppressive regime and/or policy facing resistance from the masses is eventually dismantled and, ironically, replaced with new forms of nexus between power and privilege, thus requiring an unending struggle reflected in a cyclic history of oppression, resistance, and change (Waseem 2022). Even though the lower classes’ unabated quest for a fairer deal in the constitutional settings, socioeconomic redistributive policies, and reformation of legal structures to deliver affordable and accessible justice has been prevalent throughout history, it has rarely made it to the power corridors; the outcry has been peripheral to the elitist political edifice and subordinated to the logic of privilege, authority, and patronage (Paracha 2021). The unending “negotiations” between power and resistance define Pakistan’s modern history.

This ubiquitous history of oppression and resistance requires a systemic academic study to investigate various social movements in Pakistan. First, it is significant to redefine the epistemology of resistance in Pakistan. Various marginalized communities, such as women, peasants, industrial labor, ethnic and religious minorities, students, transgender individuals, and other peripheral communities, have historically been spoken for rather than listened to. Bringing their collective action to the center of analysis corrects elite-centric narratives and expands what counts as political knowledge in the context of the state and its policies. Second, these movements provide unmatched analytical leverage for understanding Pakistan’s state-society relations. Because contention makes power visible, social movements of resistance reveal the patterns of coercion and consent through which we can decipher how an “overdeveloped” postcolonial state reproduces hierarchy. Third, oppressed groups negotiate normative questions about justice, dignity, and citizenship through their struggles. Movements like the Aurat March, tenant and labor unions, the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, and the Movement for Saraikistan turn vague promises in the constitution into real demands for personal freedom, fair treatment, good pay, and respect for culture, which helps us see how serious Pakistan is about its democracy. By examining the intersection of normative ideas of justice and complex economic and cultural identities, we can better understand the daily politics of the conflict between the roots of ongoing oppression and the level of resistance in the country. Finally, researching these movements has valuable implications for policy. To advocate for institutional reforms that reduce conflict and increase equity, systematic studies of who mobilizes, how coalitions form, and which repertoires succeed are necessary to identify policy gaps.

This special issue seeks to address the following important question about social movements in Pakistan:

• What circumstances gave rise to these movements?
• What paths did these social movements take from the beginning to the end?
• To what extent have these movements succeeded in accomplishing their goals?
• How has the state responded to these social movements?
• How much have these social movements changed how society and the government interact?
• Have the landed, religious, military, bureaucratic, industrial, and professional elites employed patriotism and religion as defensive mechanisms to thwart these movements?
• Will these movements succeed in breaking and overthrowing the elite’s hegemony in Pakistan’s state and society?