Progressive Secular Sindhi Sufism in the Making of Decolonial Islamic Thinking in Pakistan

Abstract

This study, informed by anthropology, introduces the political modernist imagination of the Sindhi Sufi tradition in postcolonial Pakistan. The central argument of the article is premised on the discussion and analysis of the progressive political agency of the Sindhi Sufi tradition enacted by the Sindhi intelligentsia that stands out against the exclusivist process of Islamization in Pakistan. Crucially, the article brings out the case study of G. M. Syed (d. 1995), a prominent political figure and founder of modern Sindhi nationalism in Pakistan. His intellectual political project of Sufism in postcolonial Pakistan has formed a keystone category that counters the political Islam of Mullah, or theocratic political Islamism. Arguably, G. M. Syed’s political work offers a dialogical potential of Sufi Islam that has a vital role to play in the formation of an inclusive, tolerant, and peaceful society in Pakistan and globally. The article informs progressive secular imagination inspired by the Sufi tradition in Muslim cultural contexts.