Religion, Land and Politics in Pakistan: A study of Piri-Muridi

3.5/5 ( ratings)

This is the first authoritative book on the phenomenon of piri-muridi in Pakistan. The author investigates the subject in the perspectives of history, religion, society, politics and economy. He asks vital questions about the nature, working and consequences of a principal aspect of folk religion and provides stimulating answers. The book breaks new ground in the study of an institution that is ruining the national economy, encouraging political corruption and dictatorship, defacing Islam and demoralizing society.

Its great virtue lies in the fact it is a work of research as much as it is of analysis and reflection. Specifically, the author discusses the role of the pir, the roots and consequences of piri-muridi, the predicament of the situation and the straight and narrow path of the relationship.

The Author:
Professor KHURSHEED KAMAL AZIZ was born in December 1927, in village Ballamabad near Faisalabad. He was educated at the M. B. High School Batala, Forman Christian College and the Government College, Lahore, and the Victoria University of Manchester. He has been on the academic staff of the Government College, Lahore, and of the Universities of the Punjab, London, Cambridge, Khartoum and Heidelberg, and has delivered occasional lectures at the Universities of Karachi, Peshawar, Dacca, Islamabad, Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Geneva, Oxford and Bergen.

During intervals snatched from teaching abroad he has served at home as Deputy Official Historian to the Government of Pakistan, Chairman of the National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research, and Special Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister . Author of over a dozen books, he is a historian of rank with an international reputation.