Political Islam in the Indian Subcontinent: The Jamaat-i-Islami

The present study aspires to bring out the regional and international strategies of the Jamaat-Ii-Islami and to underscore thereby the points of convergence as well as the limits to the cooperation between Islamist movements. It tries to the cooperation between Islamist movements. It tries to uncover the mechanisms through which the Pakistani authorities make use of the Jamaat to promote their regional interests, particularly in Kashmir and Afghanistan, as also the way in which Pakistan’s rivals. India in a particular, make use of these same mechanisms to bring disparagement to Pakistan. By doing so, the book aims to highlight the links between the state and religious groups as well as the ambiguous relationship forged through reciprocal instrumentalization prevailing between state authorities and Islamist movements. Through the study of the Jamaat-I-Islami, this work hopes to explain how a specific religious group can support the objectives of a political system by acting as a ‘torch bearer of irredentist ambitions’.