Pakistan as a topic in French academia: Challenges and resistance

Abroad, most of the research works on Pakistan are published in English. In other words, the use of English is the better way if a scholar wishes to be read all over the world. In a number of countries, scholars are not appreciated since they do not use English as academic language. I am therefore grateful that the Department of History, University of Punjab, provides me an opportunity to give a survey of French scholarly work related to Pakistan. My content is to propose an overview of how French scholars address the conference topic, namely the challenges faced by Pakistan in terms of Democracy, Governance and National unity. First, I shall give a survey on the French discovery of Pakistan In the first years of the country, Pakistan was mainly the concern of archaeologists. The second part will provide the challenges faced by Pakistan as understood by French scholars. It mainly focuses on the concept of nation, arguing for instance that Pakistan nationalism is without a nation.