INTERPLAY OF RELIGIOUS, NATIONAL AND REGIONAL IDENTITIES: A STUDY OF COLLEGE AND MADRASAH STUDENTS OF BALTISTAN

Abstract

The study explores the religious, national and cultural identities of Shiite- Muslims that reside in Baltistan valley in the North of Pakistan. The structure of these identities along with their functions and the relationship among them has been studied by analyzing the qualitative data produced through focus group discussions with college and Madrasah students of the community and in-depth interviews of the religious, political and cultural elite of the collectivity. The students from college were not getting any religious education in formal settings while the students from madrassah were getting formal education as private students and were not attending any institute for these instructions. The in-depth interviews were taken from politicians, journalists, poets, clerics, educationists, and historians belonging to the community. The identities of the community differ from each other in their structure. The religious identity anchored in the shared beliefs of the community maintains a set of rituals dealing with the meta-physical beliefs of the community and a socio-moral code describing the socially acceptable behavior of the community members as well as the moral ideals to be maintained by them. The cultural identity on the other hand discusses the centuries old traditional ways of social life of the community, whereas the national identity of the community describes the individual's and community duties towards the state as well as the corresponding responsibilities of the state towards the community and its members. The others for religious identity are designated in various terms extending from other religions to state and even nations. The other for cultural identity is also more than one. Religious identity that rebuffs certain cultural expressions appears to be one of the significant others for cultural identity of the community along with electronic media that is deemed responsible for corroding the cultural idiosyncrasies of the community by replacing them with certain countenance of what the community describes as western culture as well as the national identity i.e. Urdu language. The national identity interestingly stakes its other with religious identity as Pakistani, the state, is described as not only a country for Muslims but a country made for Islam. The relationship among these identities is multi-faceted they try to dominate upon, collide with, create space for, collaborate and overlap each other. The common ground of the interplay of identities is the socio-political life of community where the intricacies of the relationship become apparent. Politics is the arena where these identities contest with each other being represented by religious and non-religious elite of the community. The political life of the community appears to be governed by the national identity rather the search for it with special concern regarding the constitutional status of the region, which the community inhabits, with in the state of Pakistan as a separate federating unit, having a distinctively different culture, at par with other federating units of the state. The research not only explores the various positions taken by different stake holders with in the greater identity discourse but also finds out the multi layered relationship among these identities. Religious identity appears to be the most significant identity of the community that shapes the cultural as well as the national identity not only by dictating their terms of acceptance but also by sharin g certain features with them. Political and social arenas appear to be the play grounds where identity games are played and relationships are manifested. Identities appear to be as much a rational political choice as it is a self harbored in the collecti ve past of the community