Since the 1980s the Pakistani society has been characterized by a rise of sectarian violence that has especially involved the Sunni and Shiite communities in the Punjab province. While there is a long history of communitarian and sectarian violence in South Asia before 1947, the contemporary phenomenon has significantly innovated the forms of violence. Sectarian clashes in the past were typically sporadic and localized, where the contemporary Sunni-Shi’a violence is based on a perception of religious identity as collective and homogeneous. Sunni and Shi’a conflicts in the Punjab are connected to the activity of sectarian organizations that combine requests for religious purification with socio-political themes. The essay analyzes the historical evolution of this phenomenon in connection with the larger economic and social change in the Punjab province from the 1970s onwards.
