Stanford Humanities Center
Saad Lakhani is a PhD candidate in Cultural and Social Anthropology at Stanford University, focusing on the anthropology of ethics, religion, and political violence in South Asia. Lakhani holds an MA in Social and Political Thought from the University of Warwick in the UK and a BS in Social Sciences from the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology in Pakistan.
SHC Project
The Anti-Blasphemy Movement: Dignity, Sovereignty, and Islam in Pakistan
Lakhani's dissertation presents an ethnographic analysis of the Tehrik Labaik Pakistan, a rising anti-blasphemy movement in Pakistan led predominantly by working-class Muslim men and small-time religious clerics. Rooted in the Barelvi tradition of Sunni Islam, known for its reverence of Sufi shrines, the Tehrik Labaik Pakistan calls upon ‘ordinary people’ to reclaim and restore their lost dignity by mobilizing to protect the Prophet’s honor. By closely examining ethical debates, social contestations, and theological interpretations within the Barelvi community over the meaning of dignity, respect, and blasphemy, his work highlights how it becomes possible for individuals to link everyday experiences of disrespect at the intersections of class, caste, gender, and religious identity with the political imperative to punish blasphemers of Prophet Muhammad.
