OVER the last 15-odd years, ways in which history is perceived by the Pakistani state in its official posture as well as the public at large is undergoing some change. The content of this change is not certain, nor is its direction necessarily set in stone. But what is clear is that there is some rethinking of history, memory, and culture taking place.
What does this rethinking mean as far as the state is concerned? A good example comes from the content of the Pakistan pavilion at the Dubai World Expo from a few years ago. We can take that content as the version that the state wishes to show to the world outside. It was decisively more syncretic and multicultural, more accommodative and reflective of ethnic difference, than standard two-nation theory nationalism. It also went a considerable way in grounding the idea of Pakistan in its actual geography, by drawing links to the various riverine civilisations that occupied these
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