
Raja M. Ali SaleemForman Christian College · Centre for Public Policy and Governance
Raja M. Ali Saleem
PhD
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27
Publications
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Introduction
Raja M. Ali Saleem currently works at the Centre for Public Policy and Governance, Forman Christian College. Raja does research in Religious Nationalism, Political Islam, Islamization, and Religion & Politics. Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Israel are the countries he typically focuses on. Currently, he is working on issues regarding identifying religious nationalist states.
Publications
Publications (27)
India was conceived as a secular state with a territorial nationalism. There were parties and organizations, such as the RSS, that imagined a Hindu rashtra based on Hindu civilizationism, but they did not have popular support. Since the 1970s, however, Hindu civilizationalists have gradually become mainstream and popular. Under Prime Minister Naren...
In contrast to many other countries, civilizationism in Israel is not a new phenomenon. Rather, it has been an essential part of Israeli nationalism or Zionism since the early twentieth century. Jewish civilizationism in Israel is an article of faith for all major Israeli political parties. In Israel, nationalism and civilizationism do not have a r...
Hindu civilizationism is more than a century old phenomenon that has been steadily gaining strength. Its recent amalgam with populism has made it ascendant, popular, and mainstream in India. This paper explores how Hindu civilizationism is not only an essential part of the Hindutva and BJP’s narrative but also the mainstay of several government pol...
Populism and civilizationism have transformed the politics of many countries. Many scholars consider them the biggest challenges to democracy since the rise of fascism and communism in the first half of the last century. The close affinity between populism, civilizationism, and rightwing politics has also been analyzed and recognized in many countr...
The largest democracy in the world is now moving towards authoritarianism under the Hindutva civilizational populist prime minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s rule. This article focuses on digital rights in India that have seen a sharp decline in recent years. It explores the transformation of the internet and social media, fr...
Pakistan’s democracy has a turbulent political history. In the seven decades since its creation, the country has faced four military-led dictatorships and another two decades under indirect military rule. Given this political trend, authoritarianism is not a novel phenomenon in the country. Digital authoritarianism, however, is a relatively new dom...
Although populism has become a focus of research in the last decade, there hasn’t been much academic work on how militaries around the world have reacted/acted to the rise of populist leaders. There is some timeworn research on the relationship of militaries in Latin America with various left-wing populist governments and leaders from the 1930s to...
The 21st century has witnessed a significant shift in how the concept of nationalism is understood. A political marriage between identity politics and populism has resulted in “civilizationism,” a new form of nationalism that entails an emotionally charged division of society into “the people” versus “the Other.” All too often, the divisive discour...
Turkey, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia span one of the longest continuously inhabited regions of the world. Centuries of cultural infusion have ensured these societies are highly heterogeneous. As plural polities, they are ripe for the kind of freedoms that liberal democracy can guarantee. However, despite having multi-party electoral sys...
Turkey, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia span one of the longest continuously inhabited regions of the world. Centuries of cultural infusion have ensured these societies are highly heterogeneous. As plural polities, they are ripe for the kind of freedoms that liberal democracy can guarantee. However, despite having multi-party electoral sys...
Since the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a lot has been written on Hindu nationalism. Prime Minister Modi’s ascendency has similarly resulted in a plethora of books and articles on Hindu populism. However, most of the literature does not distinguish between the two. Hindu nationalism and Hindu populism overlap, particularly in Modi’s Ind...
Although populism has become a focus of scholarly interest in the last decade, there has been much less research on how militaries worldwide have reacted to the rise of populist leaders. There is some timeworn research on the relationship of militaries in Latin America with various left-wing populist governments and leaders from the 1930s to the 19...
The Center for Public Policy & Governance, Forman Christian College, Lahore, and the GIZ, the German development agency, collaborated on a project focused on the Punjab Local Government Act, 2019. The idea was to bring all stakeholders together and listen to them before implementing this act. We had separate sessions with local government officials...
This chapter analyzes Islamic provisions in the constitutions, the first indicator of Islam’s role in state nationalism. The study of the four Turkish Constitutions (1921, 1924, 1961, and 1982) shows that, initially, Islam had significant influence but, since 1937, secularism has become a defining principle. Inspection of articles related to secula...
This introductory chapter reviews the typical reasons given for Islamization in the Muslim world, the need for legitimacy of authoritarian regimes and the popularity of Islamist parties, finding them inadequate. The focus then shifts to nationalism, state nationalism, and religion. The central argument of the book is that Islam’s role in state nati...
This chapter analyzes the third indicator of Islam’s role in state nationalism; all 66 Turkish and 31 Pakistani banknotes issued since independence are examined for Islamic symbolism. Mosques, portraits and mausoleums of Islamic personalities, and the crescent and star are deemed Islamic symbols. In the case of Turkey, the Ottoman symbols are also...
This chapter analyzes the second indicator of Islam’s role in state nationalism, Islamic themes in the national symbols, anthems, and monuments of Turkey and Pakistan. In the case of Turkey, the national flag and anthem, the presidential flag, Ankara monuments and the emblem and names of the Bosphorus bridges are analyzed. In Pakistan’s case, the n...
In this concluding chapter, the four requirements (co-variation of two variables, Granger causality condition, non-spuriousness, and causal mechanism) proving a causal link between Islam’s role in state nationalism and the Islamization of government are the focus. First, the correlation between Islam’s role in state nationalism and the Islamization...
The final indicator of Islamization of government is the government’s support for religious education. Three types of government support are analyzed: religious education in public schools, (public) religious schools, and assistance to private religious education. In the first part, the initial rejection and subsequent wholehearted acceptance of re...
In this chapter, the focus moves to the Islamization of government in Turkey and Pakistan with the analysis of the Islamic basis of family law. Turkey’s family law was initially based on Islamic tradition but, in 1926, the Swiss Civil Code was adopted as the Turkish Civil Code. Since then, Islamic influence has been negligible. Due to an increase i...
The second indicator of Islamization of government is the presence and functions of government institutions in the management of religious affairs. Both Turkey and Pakistan have such government institutions. The Turkish Diyanet was initially a way to placate the population. However, in the last seven decades, it has expanded manifold, in terms of e...
This book argues that Islam’s role in state nationalism is the best predictor of the Islamization of government using two most different cases: Turkey, which was an aggressively secular country until recently, and Pakistan, a country that is synonymous with Islamization. It establishes a causal link between Islam’s role in state nationalism and Isl...
Recent democratization in the Muslim-majority countries (MMCs) has led to a surge in interest in the Islamist (or Islamic) parties. Research on these parties has, however, been plagued by the lack of agreement on identifying these parties. Analysis of various ways used to identify/define Islamist parties shows shortcomings. This article tries to re...
Foreign divestments have become a regular feature of global investment patterns. These divestments have mainly been explained by changes in the economic and institutional factors of the host countries. Recently, as institutional quality has improved in emerging economies, perceived risks have decreased and divestments can no longer be fully explain...