Speaking Like a State: Language and Nationalism in Pakistan

by Alyssa Ayres

Alyssa Ayres' fascinating study examines Pakistan's troubled history by exploring the importance of culture to political legitimacy. Early leaders selected Urdu as the natural symbol of the nation's great cultural past, but due to its limited base great efforts would be required to make it truly national. This paradox underscores the importance of cultural policies for national identity formation. By comparing Pakistan's experience with those of India and Indonesia, the author analyzes how their national language policies led to very different outcomes. The lessons of these large multiethnic states offer insights for the understanding of culture, identity, and nationalism throughout the world. The book is aimed at scholars in the fields of history, political theory and South Asian studies, as well as those interested in the history of culture and nationalism in one of the world's most complex, and challenging, countries.

Genres: Pakistan, Politics

230 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

ALYSSA AYRES is senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a foreign policy practitioner and award-winning author with senior experience in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. Her book on India's rise on the world stage, Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World, was just published by Oxford University Press.

In 2015 she served as project director of the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on US-India relations, which produced the report titled, "Working With a Rising India: A Joint Venture for the New Century." Her book on nationalism, culture, and politics in Pakistan, Speaking Like a State, was published worldwide by Cambridge University Press in 2009. It received the 2011-2012 American Institute of Pakistan Studies book prize. She has co-edited three books on India and Indian foreign policy: Power Realignments in Asia: China, India, and the United States; India Briefing: Takeoff at Last?; and India Briefing: Quickening the Pace of Change.

Ayres speaks Hindi and Urdu, and in the mid-1990s worked as an interpreter for the International Committee of the Red Cross. She received an AB magna cum laude from Harvard College, and an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago, where her dissertation was defended with distinction.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Pakistan-focused equivalent of Robert King's book "Nehru and the Language Politics of India" has yet to be written, but Ayres' work nevertheless provides solid insight into the politics of language in Pakistan in the context of nationalism. I very much enjoyed the chapter on the Punjabiyat movement. The peculiar decline of the Punjabi language among Punjabi Muslims and Punjabi Hindus -- and the absorption of many Punjabi speakers into the Urdu and Hindi folds -- is a topic worthy of its own book.

[Cormac Connolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent introduction to Nationalism and cultural identity in Pakistan. I think the book is good because it is concise but also aids knowledge and understanding of Pakistan as an example of how Nationalism can affect and alter Asian Democracies.

However due to its concise nature it also fails to deliver an impactful enough piece to bring more of an emotive response. It writes as an academic piece of literature however it doesn’t feel like one because the author’s own thoughts on the study don’t really aid the discussion. A piece can still be academic while also being impactful and leaving you with some thoughts, but this book fails to really do that, maybe because I don’t feel much affiliation with Pakistani Nationalism but I also think a book can’t truly be great if once you close it you know you won’t give it much further thought.