Muslim Zion

Faisal Devji

“Muslim Zion exposes the reader to ideals and realities that competed in the formation of Pakistan. It is a cerebral insight into how there was never a clear notion of ‘what Pakistan should be’ and, therefore, it is not surprising ‘what it has become.’”—Gayatri Chandrasekaran, Mint

“A trenchant analysis…the book presents a wholly different and more nuanced view of Islamic politics than most recent titles.”—Publishers Weekly

“No one but Faisal Devji could have given us Muslim Zion, which offers a brilliant, counterintuitive meditation on the analogy between ideologies of Zionism and Pakistani/Muslim nationalism, and at the same time a nuanced historical exploration of the idea of Pakistan. Intellectual history as a page-turner.”—Noah Feldman, author of Cool War: The Future of Global Competition

“Despite their vast differences, Pakistan and Israel share this strange coincidence of birth: they were both created to resolve the problematic status of minorities defined partly by religion. Scholars in a number of fields have begun to explore facets of this strange parallelism. Faisal Devji has brought the historian’s traditional skills to the task, focusing on the Muslim League’s demand from the 1930s for a separate homeland for the Muslims of India. Muslim Zion tells a gripping story and will make an important contribution to this ongoing scholarly discussion.”—Aamir R. Mufti, author of Enlightenment in the Colony: The Jewish Question and the Crisis of Postcolonial Culture

“Devji is arguably the most brilliant scholar of his generation writing today on South Asian history and global Islam. His explorations of the tensions inherent in the idea of Pakistan as a Muslim homeland, and the fascinating parallels he draws with Zionist and settler-colonial pasts, provide a new point of departure for the study of both Muslim and Dalit politics in British India. His reflections on the failure of the category ‘minority’ in decolonizing times will help us rethink the very idea of the political in the twentieth century. A thoughtful and courageous book.”—Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago

“A fascinating, thoughtful, and provocative work, Muslim Zion explores the paradoxical dimensions of Pakistan by focusing on the period when this country was imagined, but yet unrealized.”—Christophe Jaffrelot, CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS

“Faisal Devji’s brilliantly written, deeply felt book is an important contribution to the study of the tortured relationship between different ideas of Pakistan and of Islam.”—Anatol Lieven, author of Pakistan: A Hard Country

Related Links

• Read an interview with Faisal Devji in India’s Economic Times
• Browse a selection of HUP works on the foundations of modern South Asia