Guest Talk Ghulam Hussain
Architecture of Caste in Pakistan
04.05.2026 at 16:15
4 May 2026, 16.15
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Oettingenstraße 67
80538 München
Dr. Ghulam Hussain (LMU München / Bahria University Islamabad):
Architecture of Caste in Pakistan
Abstract
The talk examines the architecture of caste in Pakistan as a transreligious and structurally embedded system that exceeds conventional Hindu–Muslim binaries. Drawing on Critical Caste Studies and ethnographic research in Sindh, it analyzes how caste operates through state classification, labor hierarchies, and cultural-religious discourse, including Sufi and nationalist frameworks that often obscure or reproduce caste inequalities. It foregrounds Dalit and Pasmanda experiences to argue that caste in Pakistan is not anachronistic but actively produced through modern governance, civil society, and symbolic representation. The talk forms part of a broader book project that theorizes caste as a foundational, yet systematically erased, axis of power in Pakistan's social and political formation.
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