Project

Christians in Pakistan: narratives of suffering, survival and dignity

My project is aimed at fathoming the pain and predicament of ordinary Christian lives in Pakistan by raising two questions: how has the majority's religious nationalism impacted them? What is their survival mechanism and what role do the increasingly autonomous media play in easing their travails.

According to the 2005 census there are 2.5 million Christians living in Pakistan. This number, however, is disputed by the country's Christian leaders. They assert that the actual Christian population now stands between six to seven million. A sense of victimhood defines the Christian community these days. The study would argue that the unraveling of Pakistan as a nation-state was in part triggered by the majority's harshness towards minorities.