there are now 31 times as many madrasas in the country as there were in 1947 from 245 at independence the number shot up to 6870 in 2001 and greatly increased year by year since then across pakistan the religious tenor has been correspondingly radicalised the tolerant sufiminded barelvi form of islam is now out of fashion in a country increasingly overrun by the rise of the more hardline and politicised wahhabisalafism many sufi mosques and shrines have come under attack in recent years including the 2010 bombing of the data darbar shrine in lahore that killed more than 40 peoplesufism is not only the most effective antidote to talibanstyle radicalism it is an entirely indigenous resistance movement to fundamentalisms of all sorts with the deepest roots in south asian soil that is exactly why the talibs hate the sufis and attempt to suppress them if only the pakistani governments could finance schools which taught pakistanis to respect their own indigenous and syncretic religious traditions rather than buying fleets of american f16 fighters and handing over education to the saudis pakistani might now yet be a potential partner of a future indian superpower a place where sufis can still sing safely and in peace instead pakistan is every day increasingly coming more to resemble a tragic wouldbe clone of pre911 taliban afghanistan