Politics, Landlords and Islam in Pakistan

Nicolas Martin is Senior Research Associate at University College London.

Nicolas Martin has written by far the best account I have yet read of the Hobbesian nature of power and violence in rural Punjab. . . . He also reflects deeply on the nature of Islamist resistance to the state in Pakistan. This is anthropology of the very highest order. A must-read book.—Stuart Corbridge, London School of EconomicsNicolas Martin’s admirably researched and well-written book is a highly important contribution to our understanding of political change and continuity in the Punjab countryside.—Anatol Lieven, Georgetown University in QatarNot many studies inform us on what is happening in the countryside of Pakistan. Nicolas Martin does . . . Having read his excellent work one understands why the land-poor and landless try and leave for the cities in search of a better life. — Jan Breman, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The rich local detail of this work set in the Punjab puts it beyond comparison with recent writings on Pakistan’s political economy. The book’s wonderfully descriptive material is clearly and eloquently set out and the insights from this analysis throw an altogether new light on Pakistan’s overall politics and economics. — Philip K. Oldenburg, Columbia University...this book is a much-needed addition in the study of the ‘everyday state’ in Pakistan and makes a persuasive case against the concept of the benign patron.Mustafa Ahmed Khan, SOAS University of London

• Foreword. Acknowledgements. Introduction 1. Setting 2. Debt and Bondage 3. Electoral Politics and the Reproduction of Inequality 4. The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend 5. Elections and Devolution 6. Islam, Selflessness and Prosperity 7. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index