'Ilm and the Individual: Religious Education and Religious Ideas in Pakistan

Abstract

Scholars with an interest in the formation of religious ideas in Pakistan-including, especially, ideas about the management of sectarian and doctrinal difference-often stress the role of educational institutions. This largely conceptual chapter uses an account of various educational institutions (both state and non-state) to move away from an 'institutional' emphasis in favour of an appreciation for the ideational autonomy of Muslim 'individuals'. I argue that doctrinal expression should be seen as partly demand-driven, drawing attention to the ways in which individuals cobble together their own ideas from cross-cutting educational influences. I draw on a truncated history of educational opt..