A Critical Reading of Urban Space: The Role of Military Institute in Socio-Spatial Organization of Postcolonial Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Date

2023-7-24

Author

Farooq, Sahr

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

260
views

161
downloads

Cite This

The military's impact on Pakistan's cities results from the complex interplay between colonial legacies, power dynamics, and capital-led urban strategies. Like many other cities, Rawalpindi is profoundly impacted by the military's inherited position within the state structure due to its colonial past. The city's development under colonial rule heavily relied on military cantonments, leading to the inheritance of colonial militarized urban patterns. Today, under the praetorian oligarchy, these patterns persist within the cantonments that perpetuate segregation and hierarchical order across civil-military lines. Along with lingering colonial legacies, the military seeks to consolidate power by portraying itself as a nation-builder. As such, both productive spatial rationalities and patterns of discipline shape civil-military socio-spatial urban dynamics. Additionally, the military aims for economic independence by capitalizing on urban resources, extending its influence beyond cantonments to the larger metropole. This research explores how colonial military urban forms and political structures have affected Rawalpindi's postcolonial socio-spatial structure. It analyzes diverse urban forms shaped by governmental objectives, whether political or economic. The study investigates how governmental thought influences the military's relations with different population segments through spatial analysis. It also examines legal and political structures governing the urban fabric. Additionally, literary and visual structures shaping the perception of Rawalpindi's military and civilian urban spaces are studied. This research develops an understanding of the role of the military's political and economic activism owing to its colonial past in shaping the disparity between civil and military urban members.

Subject Keywords

Military urbanism, Spatial control, Civil-military segregation, Military capitalism.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105130

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis