Hurmat Ali Shah

Hurmat Ali Shah writes on socio-political issues, and is particularly interested in the national core-periphery relations in Pakistan. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher.

Pashtuns will not be pawns in Pakistan’s dangerous game with the TTP and Taliban

Recent protests in Swat and Waziristan highlight discontent with rising militancy and the Pakistan military

Feb 17, 2023

The anatomy of Urdu

How the language of state-making in Pakistan contributes to the erasure of regional languages.

Apr 12, 2021

Silence in Swat

Memory, militancy and the military in Swat Valley.

Sep 28, 2020

Redefining citizenship in Pakistan

The PTM movement envisions an alternate relationship between citizen and state.

Apr 28, 2020

Latest Articles

In Mizoram, a refugee crisis highlights Mizo tribal affinities and hostility

Shared Zo identity has Mizos extending hospitality to Chin and Kuki-Chin refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh. More remarkable is that Chakmas, mistreated by the Mizo majority in Mizoram, have welcomed Kuki-Chin refugees too

In ‘Agra’, a grim portrait of the repressed Indian man

Director Kanu Behl’s Hindi feature film examines the sexual obsession and frustration of men, mental health and the transactional nature of human relationships in a patriarchal society where space is in short supply

When neoliberalism came to the Indian farm

With a focus on agricultural policy since the 1990s, 'Distress in the Fields' demonstrates how neoliberal interventions sowed the seeds of the crisis faced by farmers today