ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the historical pattern of Pakistan's statehood and traces the process of mobilization of Bengali ethno nationalism. It then discusses the 'secession' of East Pakistan in the context of the hypotheses from the theory of defunct federalism. The chapter outlines the political and constitutional history of Pakistan in the period 1947-1971 and explains how and why the experiment with federalism was doomed to failure from its inauspicious beginning. The political dominance of the bureaucratic-military oligarchy was manifest since independence. This meant that democracy and democratic institutions such as the parliament, political parties and their respective growth suffered. Consequently, the limited access of Bengalis led to their increased political mobilization. As the Pakistani case persuasively demonstrates, it is when the state elites at the political center fail to exercise power in an accountable and legitimate form, that identity becomes politicized and identity groups start their mobilization against the federal government.
