The Politics of Emotions: Ritualized Grief and the Assertion of Hazara Identity in Quetta (1979–2007)

• SHAHIDULLAH KHAN

  Independent scholar.

  Author

This study investigates the profound and complex relationship between collective grief, religious rituals, and the formation of ethno-religious identity within the Hazara community of Quetta, Pakistan, spanning the tumultuous period from 1979 to 2007. This timeframe, bracketed by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iranian Revolution, and the tenures of General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf, subjected the Hazaras to intense socio-political pressures, sectarian violence, and state-led Islamization. The research argues that Twelver Shia religious rituals, particularly the commemorations of Muharram and specific graveyard rites, functioned not merely as expressions of bereavement but as critical, performative acts of collective political resistance and cultural boundary-maintenance against external marginalization. By examining how political regimes and escalating sectarian persecution impacted the Hazara experience, this essay demonstrates that their historical suffering, channelled through public and private rituals of mourning, became fundamentally integrated into a resilient, mobilized group identity. This performance of grief allowed the Hazaras to articulate their minority status, assert territorial claims within Quetta's segregated urban spaces, and transform historical trauma into a unifying cultural memory that transcended the efforts of successive military governments to impose a homogenized national identity. The ritualized expression of suffering thus served as a vital mechanism for ethno-religious cohesion, demonstrating the malleability and enduring strength of Hazara identity under duress.

• PDF

Copyright (c) 2024 SHAHIDULLAH KHAN (Author)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.