The unfinished project of decolonisation: a revisionist reading of Pakistan at 75

ABSTRACT For much of its history, Pakistan has been analysed through binaries that suggest an existential conflict between liberal democrats and illiberal theocrats. In fact, ideological polarisation has always existed within Pakistan’s militarised structure of power. This article proposes a revisionist reading of Pakistan’s history prefacing foundational logics of class, ethnic-national and state power. It is only by explicating such underlying structural logics that one can make sense of persistent palace intrigues as well as the dialectic of local political economies and regional/global geo-politics. Rehabilitating the normative horizon of decolonisation can animate a meaningful transformative politics in our time.