Populist Narratives and Its Ironies: The Case of the Sindhi Community

This paper examines the existing literature on the relationship between religion and populism, and is intended as a starting point for further examination of the relationships between populism, religion, and emotions. This paper systematically reviews the various aspects of the populist phenomenon. After a discussion on different definitions of populism, this paper looks at how the literature discusses the causes of populism, mainly socio-economic factors and emotive factors. Then it discusses how religion and populism interact and can be divided in two broad categories of religious populism and identitarian populism. While, on the surface, the two share similarities, this paper reviews populist manifestations across the world to draw the distinct features between the two forms. Lastly, while pointing out the salient features of religious populism and identitarian populism, this study points out gaps in the research on the relationship between religious populism and other phenomena such as transnational populism, the psychology of populism, the role of emotions in creating support for populism, and populism in Western and non-Western contexts for future areas of research in the field.

This book brings together dozens of the world’s leading scholars in memory studies to explore national memory in an age of populism. Drawing on disciplines ranging from cognitive science to history, these scholars address issues such as how memory is tied to individual and collective identity, how national pasts create political presents, and how a range of disciplines can contribute to an integrated account of national memory. Several chapters examine how these issues play out in the United States, but others take them up in countries such as Israel, China, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Germany, Japan, and Poland. The book provides a foundation for understanding the vexing issues of national memory and identity that promise to shape the future of countries throughout the world.