Another vision of Pakistan: Islam and society in a South Asian environment. [Review of Michel Boivin, Le Pakistan et l’Islam. Anthropologie d’une République Islamique, Paris, Téraèdre, 2015, 223 pp., ISBN 9782360850648]

In comparison with India, Pakistan has received a less extensive attention from the scholars. In addition to this disadvantage, there has also been the misfortune that a large part of the research dedicated to the country after 9/11 has focused on violence and terrorism. Pakistan has variously been depicted as a «failed state», a place dominated by religious fanaticism, and constantly on the verge of collapse. Without denying the complex issues relating to its political dimension, it is possible to speak of an over-representation of violence in the literature on Pakistan. Instead, very little is known of its rich culture and its society, apart from a small group of specialists. It is a curious paradox that, while the study of the «everyday» is increasingly gaining ground among historians and social scientists, in Pakistan the lives of the millions of inhabitants who lead a peaceful existence must largely be neglected.