Islam and Religious Change in Pakistan

In this pioneering book Saadia Sumbal explores in the context of the Pakistani district of Mianwali how reforming Islam gained serious purchase in a region dominated by Sufism. In the process she demonstrates how local struggles might be reflected in the affairs of the army and the nation. This is an excellent example of the value of district-level studies. Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London Islam's modern transformations are all too often viewed either in doctrinal abstraction or on the cumulative large scale. Both angles easily lose sight of social facts on the ground that shape religious change in any given setting. Through a revealing case study of the Mianwali region of Pakistani Punjab, Saadia Sumbal unravels the knot of local needs, national politics and South Asia-wide reformist teachings that over the course of a century sealed the fate of customary Sufi Islam. Nile Green, author of Sufism: A Global History. Richly situated in relation to previous scholarship on Sufism and Islam in South Asia, Saadia Sumbal's study of religious change in Pakistan examines how Islamic reformism came to be established in a region where Sufism had been dominant and closely linked to local, tribal political structures. Through a well-researched case study of Mianwali in northwestern Punjab, Sumbal effectively traces the impact of state-led ideologies on local practices, and provides a detailed account of the penetration of reformist orientations into Sufism and hardening of sectarian boundaries within the context of distinctive local movements. Katherine Pratt Ewing, Professor of Religion Director, South Asia Institute at Columbia University In this important book, Saadia Sumbal renews the study of the impact of Sufism on society and politics, through her research centered on the case of Mianwali, of Pakistani northwestern Punjab. She demonstrates how reformist Islamic movements contributed, with the action of the State, to reduce the space of Sufism in religious life, arguing that they represented a form of modernity. She excels in linking the micro and macro levels in order to analyze convincingly the different processes of contestation and negotiation that led to this outcome. Michel Boivin, Director of the Centre for South Asian Studies, Paris Research University