DOES SALARIAT EXPLAIN ETHNICITY IN INDO-PAKISTAN

Abstract

Communal and ethnic politics in Indo-Pak subcontinent is a popular theme of research in the discipline of history, sociology and political science. Among influential studies on the theme, Hamza Alvi’s study on the role of classes in social structure of India and Pakistan offers interesting interpretation of this phenomenon.  His analysis provokes further investigation on the role of classes in colonial and post colonial subcontinent.

 This study reexamines Alvi’s terminology of ‘Salariat’ class which according to him played instrumental role in the uprisings in the subcontinent specially during independence struggle from the British empire. This study uses several examples and events that help to understand the issue from different perspectives. Using deductive logic, this study raises questions from the Alvi’s arguments which perhaps need to be readdressed. Because the set of forces have been changed in post colonial period and some angles, this research finds, are missing in Alvi’s Salariat class. For instance, Hamza Alvi did not explain the issue of ethnicity specially when ethnic communities claim to be sovereign in particular territory within the sovereign state and superseded state-nationalism.

 This study offers a critique on Hamza Alivi’s ‘salariat’ and presents other models for explaining the interplay of classes in inter and intra-ethnic environment and role of the state policies in shaping the events in colonial and post colonial subcontinent.