On the eve of Pakistan’s 59th Independence Day, President Musharraf addressed a gathering of artists in which he spoke about the glorious history of this region that we have come to know as Pakistan. He talked about the Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim and Hindu civilizations who, over the years, have blessed this land with their respective cultures, norms and heritages. Yet when one talks to a layman on the road about Pakistan’s history, he will only tell you about Mahmood of Ghazni, Ghauri or Muhammad bin Qasim of the medieval times or about Jinnah, Liaqat Ali Khan, Rehmat Ali, Sir Syed Ahmad or Iqbal of recent history. Where does all the history beyond them lie is the million dollar question for everybody willing to ponder upon this nation?
The answer lies in the slow but steady deception and brainwashing that this nation as a whole has gone through since its independence. Ayesha, a colleague of mine, was very right when she asked that why is it that we worship Jinnah like a prophet? Why is it that we are not willing to bear any criticism on his personality whether true or otherwise? There are hundreds of other questions that occupy one’s mind when one tends to take a pervasive look on this country’s history. From the supposedly mysterious death of Jinnah to Ayub Khan’s coup; from our army’s massacre in East Pakistan to the separation of Bangladesh; from Bhutto’s nationalization to his death; from Zia’s inexplicable laws to Pakistan’s active involvement in Afghanistan; from Pakistan’s supposed contribution in Khalistan movement to Kashmir’s militancy issues, these highly sensitive matters have been kept out of ordinary man’s reach. These questions are never raised for the risk of upsetting the “patriotism” of this nation.
While at the risk of attracting enormous criticism from my country fellows on these highly controversial issues, I humbly try to analyze what we, Pakistanis, have achieved in last 59 years of our independence in socio-political sphere. Let us start at the beginning with the creation of Pakistan. In my humble viewpoint, this country’s creation had two different motives for two different segments of Muslim society in British India: at one end of spectrum lay the ordinary Muslims who really wanted a country where they could live with religious, economic and social freedom without having to worry about being marginalized and subjugated by the majority; while at the other end of spectrum lay the ambitious politicians including Jinnah who wanted to rule a country themselves, which seemed quite impossible in a United India with Hindu majority in place. So while exploiting the much larger chunk of the former group, latter group managed to carve out Pakistan to both parties’ relative advantage so one could safely assume that Pakistan was not a mistake for either of them.
However the problem began soon afterwards as the ruling elite got divided on the issue of making Pakistan either a theocratic state or a secular one. With Jinnah, one shrewd politician indeed, dead within one year of country’s creation, there was a leadership vacuum which unfortunately has never been filled with true representatives of the people. Then came the famous trade deadlock with India, which I may add was due to our own poor policies, which provided an ample opportunity to the people at the helm of affairs to further exploit the people of Pakistan. So began the hate-India-if-you-love-Pakistan slogan. The criterion was set in the early stages to loathe everything having any association with India, whether it was the Hindu religion, or the Buddhist culture or Sikh identity. No doubt the situation was aggravated by harsh memories of migration that haunted many a minds on both sides of the border. From then onwards, India became engraved in this nation’s subconscious for times to come; and this was made worse by curriculum taught in schools throughout the country. Through the years, this xenophobia spread to other countries as well with Pan-Islamism reaching greater heights due to the continuous focus on glorifying Muslim history. It is significant to mention here that I have nothing against glorifying Muslims history, but it is equally imperative to take into account the glorious past of other religions as well who have dwelled in this land far before the Muslims even came here. All of which seems to suggest that politicians have successfully employed Islam as a mean to exploit their own people according to their wishes since Muslims, especially uneducated Muslims which constitute major chunk of Pakistan population, have blind faith in Islam and don’t seem to question anything related to it.
Our history is marred by foreign policy U-turns, domestic political upheavals and continued subjugation of the population. Pakistan has continued to indulge in border skirmishes with India since its inception; it has supposedly funded and backed Kashmir, Khalistan and Assam movements in its neighbor’s territory as well while morally claiming them to be indigenous freedom struggles. It has also indulged heavily in Afghanistan throughout its history giving Afghans ample reason to hate Pakistanis more than anyone these days. “America is nothing compared to Pakistan when it comes to destroying our sovereignty, our politics and our military.” An Afghan friend of mine told me while discussing Pak-Afghan relations last month and unfortunately it’s a view shared by majority of Afghans except Taliban off course. At one point in history, we have called Taliban our strategic partners, funded them, provided them with arms and military expertise and made heroes out of them. Now our leaders want the nation to believe that Taliban were part of an evil regime. We support freedom struggles in India while we continue to supply arms to Sri Lankan government with arms for fighting against Tamil Tigers who ironically are fighting for the same cause as the Kashmiris or Palestinians if we are to agree with the theory of freedom movements. Our government says its banned terrorist camps in the country; while during my field course this summer came across a very active and working such camp. For past twenty six years this nation has lived under the so-called Shariah Laws, yet now the national assembly is discussing to repeal these laws. We lived through the Pan-Islamism of Bhutto to radicalization of Zia, through a moderate democratic decade to a liberal military rule again; and with each changing government come a different direction for the nation to follow. We, as a nation, have never taken enough time to stop and think where we are going with all this. Our identity slogans have always seemed to suggest that it was more of a Muslimistan rather than a Pakistan- our governments have continuously exploited the numbness of the nation to its fullest changing their stance a zillion times during these 59 years. Our obsession with comparing our country to India continues to augment despite the fact that India is politically, economically and militarily a much larger entity. Our nation’s children continue to read the stories of Muslim conquerors of subcontinent while totally unaware of the fact that other great personalities and nations have passed before Muslims as well. We, as a nation, are split up when it comes to decision making regarding Balochistan, Waziristan or even Kalabagh dam. Why? Because we have failed to bring out the true PAKISTANI from inside us and today find ourselves in an identity crisis. Are we Pakistanis first or Muslims? Should we worry about our national sovereignty and rule of law or do we give in to pro-Taliban elements in Waziristan? (Whom I don’t personally blame because they are the first ones who have refused to be molded by our leaders continuously) It is about time that our leaders stop playing this GREAT GAME, and try to create a common identity for rest of the nation to follow. The hope remains…
“Agar Allah ne Chaha,
Zamana who bhi aayega,
Jahan tak waqt Jayega,
Ise aage hi payega,
Yeh khitta inquilabi hai,
Nayee duniya banayega,
Tabhi Tareekh ne rakha hai,
Iska naam Pakistan…”
Author’s Note: I would like to thank Ayesha for providing me inspiration to write this article:)
