From its very inception, the basis of Pakistani nationhood and identity has been bitterly contested. Its birth tainted by the violence of partition, and its present plagued by religious extremism, some have gone so far as to say that the creation of Pakistan was a historic mistake. This book is an effort to understand the contemporary state of Pakistan, and asks whether it is possible to imagine another state of affairs for the country. Sayyid's work moves us beyond the conventional focus on the apparent 'failure' of Pakistan, arguing that much of this perception stems from an essentially Eurocentric, orientalist framework, which views the country though the distorting lens of Western assumptions around nationhood. By deconstructing this framework, Sayyid offers a new perspective on state building within South Asia and the wider postcolonial world, as well as a consideration of the limits and possibilities of political Islam as a means of building the nation. This in turn allows us to develop new conceptions of the state and national identity which transcend a Eurocentric framing. The Promise of Pakistan is therefore not only a historical inquiry but also a work of imaginative reformulation. It develops a radical explanation of what Pakistan has become, and offers a new vision of what it could be.