Acoustic Cartographies: Coke Studio Pakistan’s Imagined Geography in a Post-Partition Subcontinent

Abstract

This project examines the sustained cultural success of Coke Studio Pakistan (CSP) against the backdrop of the enduring geopolitical conflict between India and Pakistan. Moving beyond simple notions of cultural soft power, this research employs theoretical frameworks from Edward Said’s Imaginative Geographies and Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities to analyze how CSP constructs a new, acoustic cultural topography. This research explores how CSP operates as a unique modern mediascape, effectively challenging the rigid ‘our space versus their space’ narratives of post-Partition nationalism. By reviving marginalized folk traditions, regional languages (Gujarati, Sindhi, Balochi, etc.), and local musical forms, the platform manages to articulate a cohesive subcontinental vision that bypasses the overt nationalistic indulgence seen in other cultural arenas like cricket and films. This process facilitates a form of deterritorialized identity and belonging, particularly among the South Asian youth & diaspora, by appealing to a regional consciousness. Ultimately, the research posits that CSP functions as a powerful form of post-colonial "print capitalism” that re-imagines shared regionalism, offering an enduring framework for understanding identity, language, and potential cooperation in a historically fractured region.