Examines the history of Pakistan from its creation by elite Urdo-speaking Muslims who sought to maintain their dominance to the current rise of Islamists and ethnic separatists.

Nationalism without a nation, and even without a people? The socio-ethnic origins of Indian Muslim separatism : the reform phase (1857-1906) ; An elite in search of a state, and a nation (1906-1947) ; Islamic state or a collection of ethnic groups? from one partition to the next ; Five ethnic groups for one nation : between support and alienation -- Neither democracy nor autocracy? Impossible democracy or impossible democrats ; Variable-geometry military dictatorship ; The judiciary, the media and NGOs : in search of opposition forces -- Islam : territorial ideology or political religion? From Jinnah's secularism to Zia's Islamisation policy ; Jihadism, sectarianism and Talibanism : from military/mullah cooperation to 9/11 ; Toward civil war? the state vs. (some) islamists and the Islamists vs. the minorities.