Work

The value of difference: Encounters between Hindus and Muslims in Karachi, Pakistan

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In majoritarian contexts, difference often translates into national exclusion and questioned belonging but, simultaneously, it can also be central to how everyday life is navigated and relationalities are formed. This article considers the place of difference and the possibilities that it engenders through the ethnographic vantage point of the lives of low-caste but upwardly mobile Hindus in Pakistan. As recent arrivals to Karachi, from smaller towns and villages in Sindh, predominantly from the district of Thar, young Hindus find themselves in the company of Muslims in their colleges or at work as well as in their hostels and flat buildings. Focusing on Hindu–Muslim encounters in these contexts, the article illustrates how situational ‘peace’ forms not through a disavowal of difference but through a play on the instability of majoritarian categories of distinction, and how it produces possibilities that exceed the present.

Source: Critique of Anthropology

DOI: 10.1177/0308275x251388534

Author: Ammara Maqsood

Institution: University College London

Language: English

Topic: South Asian Studies and Diaspora

Subfield: Philosophy

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,650