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020			_a9780674985636
082			_a305.5509549143 _bMAQ
100			_aMaqsood, Ammara
245			_aNew Pakistani middle class
260			_bHarvard University Press, _c2017. _aCambridge:
300			_aix, 194p.; _bhbk; _c25cm.
504			_aIncludes notes, index and references
520			_aPakistan’s presence in the outside world is dominated by images of religious extremism and violence. These images—and the narratives that interpret them—inform events in the international realm, but they also twist back around to shape local class politics. In The New Pakistani Middle Class, Ammara Maqsood focuses on life in contemporary Lahore, where she unravels these narratives to show how central they are for understanding competition and the quest for identity among middle-class groups. Lahore’s traditional middle class has asserted its position in the socioeconomic hierarchy by wielding significant social capital and dominating the politics and economics of urban life. For this traditional middle class, a Muslim identity is about being modern, global, and on the same footing as the West. Recently, however, a more visibly religious, upwardly mobile social group has struggled to distinguish itself against this backdrop of conventional middle-class modernity, by embracing Islamic culture and values. The religious sensibilities of this new middle-class group are often portrayed as Saudi-inspired and Wahhabi. Through a focus on religious study gatherings and also on consumption in middle-class circles—ranging from the choice of religious music and home décor to debit cards and the cut of a woman’s burkha—The New Pakistani Middle Class untangles current trends in piety that both aspire toward, and contest, prevailing ideas of modernity. Maqsood probes how the politics of modernity meets the practices of piety in the struggle among different middle-class groups for social recognition and legitimacy. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674280038
650			_aIslamic renewal--Pakistan--Lahore
650			_aMiddle class--Pakistan--Lahore
650			_aPakistan--Civilization--Western influences
650			_aPakistan--Civilization--Arab influences
942			_2ddc _cTD
999			_c57380 _d57380