Religious Pluralism and The Remaking of National Unity in Aslam’s The Golden Legend

Pakistan is a multiethnic and multifaith nation which was created in the name of Islam. Afterwards, the founders of Pakistan wanted to govern the country on egalitarian basis but the succeeding elites established nationhood on religion and it resulted into asymmetrical relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. Instead of building the nation, religious nationalism caused majoritarianism, communalism and violence. In this paper, I have explored how fissures in religious pluralism affect the idea of a unified nation in Nadeem Aslam’s novel The Golden Legend (2017). I have used Abdulaziz Sachedina’s ideas about religious pluralism and Jürgen Habermas’ ideas of postsecularism, religion and citizenship for analysis. The findings have shown that there are power differentials between Muslims and Christians which often infringe the minority’s right to life due to religious nationalism as represented by Grace’s murder. Asymmetrical rights available to these religious communities cause compartmentalization between them due to which religious pluralism is disrupted and the nation disunited. With no developed sense of normative pluralism, encounters between Muslims and Christians are based on animosity. Lily and Aysha both represent a postnationalist stance which questions religious nationalism in Pakistan. Nargis, a symbol of religious pluralism, is a two spirited person due to her pretended conversion to Islam and makes a postsecular figure. In Pakistan, Christians’ right to worship has also been violated and they see themselves antagonistic to the Muslim majority which is not religiously tolerant and this disrupts national unity. Violence by the Pakistani state against religious minorities not only fractures religious pluralism but also causes disunity in the nation. Moreover, the solution to the issues in religious pluralism may be found in Sufi Islam.