---

The book is about the anthropological inquiry in the domain of politics, that would opened the way to delineate the ethnic issues with ethnicists´ and nationalists´ own perspective. However, by focusing on the role of intelligentsia and nationalists to conceive nationalist doctrine and then made possible the outreach of that doctrine is unique way of looking into past through present´ by focusing on the status of contemporary Saraiki nationalism. The search for an ideological basis of the Pakistani state or nation has to go beyond Islamic universalism and the two-nation theory and look for a non-coercive territorial Pakistani identity born out of the free interplay of diverse ethnic identities that throng the Pakistani socio-cultural universe. However, the research is comprehensive that not only enfolds the relationship of language with identity, culture, ethnicity, and nationalism and emergence of ethno-lingual nationalist movements along with real causes of ethnicity in Pakistan, but also comprehensively understands the emergence and establishment of Saraiki nationalism, the cultural, political and administrative grievances of Saraiki community.

---

M.Shahid Khan is the Development and Political anthropologist working as the development consultant with the development agencies working in flood affected areas of Pakistan. He has also been teaching Anthropology & Development in Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi; worked as Research Assistant in department of Anthropology QAU, Islamabad.

---