Recently, I met some jihadis who have been in the business of holy war since the 1990s. I was surprised to hear that even though they were in support of the jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir, they were opposed to the idea of destabilising Pakistan itself. When asked who was responsible for the suicide bombings and target killings they had an overarching theory to explain the tricky business. According to them, India, the United States, and Israel had colluded resources to create a super-agency to dishevel this entire region. Though they admitted that convincing a hardened jihadi that the government of Pakistan was also part of the enemy collaborative wasn’t too much of a stretch, they also added that a true jihadi would not be involved in the killing of innocent people.
Surprisingly enough, this whole India-US-Israel theory has a lot of popular currency these days in Pakistan, a country whose national sports should be lounge room politics and conspiracy theorising instead of cricket and hockey. The myriad of television talk-shows on every news channel are heavily relying on this theory of a triangulated axis of evil out to destroy Islam and Pakistan with one nifty stone’s throw of insurgent terror.
I don’t mean to dampen Pakistan’s highly built up superiority complex laced with self pity at the whole world’s always being out to get us, but has anyone ever thought of questioning why we always situate Pakistan at the centre of our world view? It is true that Pakistan is in the news a lot these days, and that the location of our borders in terms of resources and trade routes present significant geopolitical interests. But isn’t it a bit much to consider the current conflict in terms of issues that lie beyond the immediately obvious uses of Pakistan’s soil, and therefore hurl the current conflict in to the realm of myth and conspiracy?
Islamic mythology has obviously played a huge role in the formation of our national identity. It is telling that the history books we’re taught in school start from Mohenjodaro and Harappa, jump to the life of the Prophet in pagan Arabia, and then an interlude of early Islamic history until the likes of Muhammad bin Qasim finally brings Islam to the subcontinent. After that, the Muslim personalities involved in South Asian politics are closely followed up until the creation of Pakistan as a homeland for the Muslims.
Given this strange mix of religious indoctrination and nationalist propaganda, it isn’t a shock that our national identity is hopelessly intertwined with religion. The great ups and downs of our history are also then viewed though the mirror image of early Islamic Arabian history, starting with the Partition of 1947 where the oppressed Muslims in the land of infidels partake in a hijrah-like migration to greener pastures. This is also responsible for similar coinages as mohajir‘s for people who migrated from the other side of the border, and of course the Muttahida Quami Movement as well. Looking across the border with the same deeply rooted scepticism through which we historically view pagan Mecca also comes with the national identity combo-meal.
After two wars with our neighbour that have been cloaked in the same historical-identity mirror as jihads which the Prophet Muhammad participated in – the 1965 war, where a small number of Muslims beat a larger threatening army of infidels akin to the scenario in Jang-e-Badar, and the 1971 war being similar to Jang-e-Uhad, where the Muslims suffered heavy losses owing to their greed and indiscipline. Kargil would then be seen as the Battle of the Trench, had it not ended with such a national disaster.
The idea of martyrdom has been historically very close to these times of crisis when national unity is a must. The list of the dozen or so shaheeds who gave their life for the country is also present in every textbook. Unfortunately, the idea of the martyr as a member of Pakistan’s armed forces has become one that is hotly contested in recent times, as the right to declare a martyr isn’t the sole prerogative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The ISPR’s version of a shaheed in Waziristan is diametrically opposed to that of the TTP’s version of shaheed.
The same mujahids who valiantly fought in Kashmir and Afghanistan for Islam and Pakistan, seem to have turned on the Islamic Republic as the very fabric of propaganda which binds Islam with Pakistan is ruptured beyond repair. With the popularly elected government being portrayed as infidel rule propped up by the Americans, and the culture of the modern, westernised elites is labeled as shamelessness and excessive debauchery, it seems we’re caught in the middle of a storm where the hero can no longer be told apart from the enemy.
For decades, the enemy image coined in our heads has been that of the Islam-hating, darker-skinned Hindu at the eastern edge of our border. One can imagine how much violence the average Pakistanis’ worldview must have been subjected to when the heroic mujahid suddenly became the enemy, in less than a decade. A painful readjustment of the conventional enemy image is needed in order to re-galvanize the nation behind these destroyers of the idea of Pakistan.
This interesting transposition was evident in an armed forces award ceremony in which shaheeds from the current conflict were inducted into the ranks of those martyred in Pakistan’s conventional wars. The reenacted footage telegraphing each incident showed a mysterious tribal as the concealed enemy. The army also seems to be relying on foreigners being involved in the tribal areas as a way to distance the conflict from civil strife. The circulation of reports of large containers of alcohol belonging to Uzbek militants also seems to be a way of distancing Islam from the enemy.
However, it appears that instead of reevaluating things through a more rational approach, we’ve stuck to our patchwork quilt of mythological identity through a couple of quick-and-easy adjustments. As a matter of convenience for our security establishment, the principal enemy obviously remains India. But those polygamous infidels couldn’t possibly be the solely responsible for such an ingenious plan that redirects our tactics against them and literally brings the country to its knees? No, that’s not possible. So who could they possibly be in cahoots with?
Once again the answer is conveniently available from early Islamic Arabia, where the Meccan pagans were conspiring with scheming Jewish tribes. A simple transposition of the historical onto our mythological identity yields the result of India and Israel collaborating for the destruction of Pakistan, with the US sitting on the fringes like the Holy Roman Empire.
I think it’s time we quit hiding behind the convenient curtain of myth, and take the bitter pill of reality. For once, for that might help us frame this conflict in more rational terms and possibly lead us closer to a solution, rather than further feeding propaganda to the conflict. If the present reasoning of global evils out to destroy Islam and Pakistan continues, then the only answer is the apocalyptic war which is talked about in fringe mythologies related to the arrival of the Antichrist.
The last thing we want is for this to be a self-fulfilling prophecy! We need to step away from viewing this as a clash of civilisations, in terms of Islam versus the West. This is a misinformed dichotomy, since the West is not a religion, and Islam isn’t a geographical location. The more hopelessly intertwined our nationality becomes with a faux mythology, the more susceptible it becomes to being hijacked by those wishing to extract temporary gains from this vulnerability.
Lahore-based Asif Akhtar is interested in critical social discourse as well as the expressive facets of reactive art and is one of the schizophrenic narrators of a graphic novel. He blogs at http://e-scape-artist.blogspot.com/ and tweets at http://twitter.com/e_scape_artist.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily represent the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
As America is browning with immigrants from central and southern America, Indians, south-east Asians, Chinese and African countries, America is learning from them. What it is learning from Indians, not only Science and Technologies (many of our MITs and Caltechs besides state universities as Berkeley, Urbana Champagnes, NASA, Bell Labs are filled with Indians) but most importantly their individualistic spirituality, not religions. We Americans are fed up of old Abrahim’s religions such as Catholicism and Islam. They are very restrictive. Abraham’s religions assume us to be sinners and then try to reform us. This creates guilt, the worst emotion which can lead to suicide. Yoga and Meditation taught by Hinduism and Buddhism is spreading in Americas, because they are practices which an individual can practice without a need of any holy book.
Pakistan is so close to India, if it sheds a bit its Islamic ideology then it can turn back from its suicidal march.
Just want to congratulate this gentleman. One needs courage to write with honesty and that too in the context he is situated in.
There is an inclination amongst the Pakistani people to brand anybody who tells the truth as a traitor. What most Pakistani’s want to hear is that the US, Israel and India are fomenting terror inside Pakistan. The moment it is pointed out that the agencies and the other institutions have been training terrorists to give them ‘strategic depth’, he is branded as a ‘traitor’. Nearly all of Pakistan’s problem is its own making. Sure, the US had a responsibility to resettle the Mujahideen after the Soviets left. But, the agency and the military would not have allowed it to happen. They saw this great opportunity of wresting Kashmir with the same force that outwitted the more powerful Soviets. But they realize that the Mujahids did not have the same motivation for the Kashmir cause.
Good article, but I am not sure why this type of articles and self realization were not found 5-10 years back. It seems only after these “terrorists” started killing innocent Pakistani population. Earlier the same terrorists were referred to as “Shaheeds” when they were killed by Indian forces in Kashmir. These militants took lives of thousands of innocent people.
I am slightly disappointed that unlike Akhtar’s previous blog, which was excellent, this one is a little ill-informed, lacks depth and has verbosity that jars. It does, however, make for some interesting reading. For one thing, Akhtar’s GCE O Level Islamiat teacher would be proud. Not only does he remember most of the important events in the early Islamic history that are taught in the course, the hijra, the ghazwas. He is able to apply them to current context as well. I was half expecting the Treaty of Hudabiyah (could be similar to the water treaties Pakistan signed with India, no?) to scare as well. Well, I guess, there is always another time.
I would definitely agree though that Pakistan needs to tone down its Islamic character. And fast. I have nothing against the religion, and I am aware it was the driving force behind the country’s creation, but it is about time Pakistani’s confined it to the private sphere of life. The religious parties have wreaked enough havoc already, unless the country purges their influence, little progress can be made.
I also agree that some Pakistani’s seem remarkably incapable of determining who their true allies are, the dictators in the Middle East are definitely not, the west is. But India, unfortunately, is not Pakistan’s good friend. Many Indians have begrudged Pakistan’s existence since its inception originally because of the great betrayal. Pakistan was carved out of what was thought as the indivisible ‘mother’ India by people who had earlier converted from the religion native to that land.
And if Pakistani’s seem unhealthily fixated with their neighbor, they are not the only ones, as indicated by some of the self-congratulatory comments in this forum as well. Hardly a day goes by without them issuing a threat or blaming something on Pakistan. I do not wish bad for India and desire peace with it but that should not mean that we should not call a spade a spade.
Nice article Asif well done.
Rational mind is the only hope that can save Pakistan.
My only question is who is there to wake up masses addicted to gossip & conspiracy theories? Are similar articles translated in vernacular and discussed among masses?
For Indian’s Pakistan is a reality, but failed Pakistan a nightmare. But seems Pakistan could not come out of its birth pang. Reason put forward by Jinnah for demanding Pakistan was that the interests of Muslims would not be safe in dominant Hindu country but same Quaid-e-Azam of Pakistan wanted newly formed country to be secular after partition! Being learned scholar he could foresee the implications of mixing religion & state. So the birth of Pakistan was based on exploitation of fear of dominant Hindu state alas the fear lives in all these conspiracy theories.
There is always blessing in disguise.
Excellent analysis Asif. Very impressive.
Hats off to you Mate. Haven’t read a better explanation in many years.
Time the thinking people in the ‘silent majority’ read your article and turn their backs on those that profit from the mythology you have described. Time they speak up as you have done.
Well done Asif, you are another Nadeem in making but it would take some time to reach his level of journalism. The situation in Pakistan is indeed complex but resolve and reselience of its people can take them out of it.
Great article, Boy you must have great courage to write the truth. Please watch out 99% of fellow Pakistanis will not agree with you and you may face serious problems.
My advice, stop talking the truth and just give what people want to hear.
Our country has no place for honest and sensible person like you.
Please explain me about the Pakistan’s claim for Kashmir.
Pakistan already occupies 1/3 of Jammu & Kashmir state.
The rest of the 2/3 is under India.
If West Pakistan has a claim, why not Bangladesh (East Pakistan) ?
We know Bangladesh is not physically next as Jammu & Kashmir is.
But so was East and West Pakistan, physically far apart.
That’s the true picture of chemistry of mythological believes going inside the minds of mostly uneducated Pakistani’s.
Its time that people like you should criticize and evaluate the collective social dysfunction under the light of reason .
very well Done.
The author is surely too young to understand and grasp the true complexities / dichotomies of the situation being faced or shown to Pakistan.
And for my Indian friends, I just want to tell them a tale of a meeting between President Ayub and PM Nehru.
During this meeting, President Ayub offered PM Nehru to have ‘Joint Defence’. PM Nehru replied, ‘Against whom?’
Now I leave it to the bloggers to determine as to against whom joint defence was offered.
Pakistan and Pakistanis have developed a persecution complex, that is they think that the whole world is after them. This is simply not true. They should change their thinking, nobody is after Pakistan or Pakistanis.
Excellent article. But as a Pakistani I cannot help asking my nation,”Are we prepared to admit that Religion has to be separated from “the affairs of the state”?
Auqil.
Way to go Asif Akhtar for crawling out of the usual denial blanket we have it over us.
We need more progressive thought like yours to carry us over.
I don’t know why this discussion has to be about Pakistan and India. Pakistan has to come to terms with religious extremism which dictators and politicians used for political purposes. Sadly the West helped Pakistan nurture these extremists when it was in their interests such as removing the Soviets in Afghanistan. Now it must stop and we have to rebuild our nation like we’re doing with the criminals “Taliban”. Most Pakistani’s I know want good relations with India but we don’t want to be Indians. I am tired of hearing the nonsense about British India being some kind of divine nation created by the White Man. Get over it! It was a colony artificially made by the British. Pakistan and India both broke free from British rule. Both are separate countries with their own futures. India is our Eastern neighbor and most people on both sides believe in living in peace. This will happen when we respect each others uniqueness and right to exist. Not by ignoring Pakistan’s history or India’s history. You can’t deny however that Pakistan’s history is a bit more complex and that at different times in history Pakistan has been part of many different empires and nations. So Indians please stop this talk about India and Pakistan as some sort of conspiracy. We are just two neighborly nations.
Salams, Good article, certainly of the kind that we need as food for thought. I don’t understand whats wrong with saying that our troubles have to do more with our deeds than with any conspiracies being hatched half way around the globe. The longer we deny it, the graver the circumstances would get.
About India, of course we want friendly relationships with our neighbors.
Very good insights about the realities around us. I agree we need to concentrate within. However, parallel to the agreement, one should not avoid that there is a very enormous gap between individual’s thinking and state’s thinking and individual’s behavior and state’s behavior.
We have witnessed the dominance of realism and neo-realism. It would be nascent to think that plots are not in progress around us. If one thinks, it would most possibly be perished “The fittest to survival theory”.
I feel that part of our society is truly unaware of realities of world and world history. Its just because of class differences in Pakistan. Terms used by author are the same the kind used by any secular author and is justified to do so.
I wish Asif should study history and religion more deeply and without biases.
I agree on this point we need to make things in order in Pakistan, and they are more important then to discuss conspiracies. We are more enemy of our self then any other of our enemies.
Hi Asif,
I am an Indian and I personally liked your article and it is heartening to note that there are Pakistanis like you who are really concerned about the terrorism problem and ready to think differently.
However my good feelings stop here onwards and I step into the world of reality. As an Indian I am very much aware how much love an average Pakistani has for India / Indians.
Asif: You are on the wrong side of the border. Sane people like you need to be on this side of the border.
Well these kind of articles do come up in Elitist English media , but who cares for them.
Anyway nice article. Only rational thinkers will improve Pakistan.
This whole taliban mess will soon be over by a truce.
Nice article, but am not surprised that such views exist in Pakistan – I know that to tar any one peoples with the same brush is just as bad as being an extremist of any sort.
I believe that the pre-47 borders (the pink lines on British maps that made their “India”) are the real borders of one people. Even at that time, the British were fighting in the same NWFP, with the same kind of people. Then too, there were problems in Baluchistan and wherever we see the conflicts today. The rest of the sub-continent was more or less at peace with itself.
How long before people of the same thinking unite; before the common enemy is defined and excluded from the civil societies of the subcontinent? Not much.
And no, I am not suggesting that Pakistan is a failed experiment, as most Indians like to believe, but I do think that future ties will be built on fighting a common enemy – and this is the only way out.
Best wishes to you, and thanks for sharing your thoughts, Asif. This must be harder for you to do than for us.
Take it easy my friend Mr.Asif Akhtar. The world of yours that you live in amazes me. We Pakistanis may not be the perfect people but we are also not that imperfect, a picture that you’ve tried to depict. As a matter of fact, we are not even close. A few bad apples can not justify garbaging an entire harvest. I know for sure that we are very loving, hospitable, accommodating and, like anywhere else the world over, good-natured common people. Less than 1% exist of the kind you have written of, so be sensible and accurate, for it helps the truth. Also, my friend, a humble request to you to be a little careful with our race, roots, religion, spirituality, identity, dignity, name, honor, integrity and other things we are proud to be the possessors of. As for you, I have sympathy for you as you must be regretting to be born here in the ‘east’. Equally but much less bothersome is my discomfort to have you here amongst us. Anyway, may God bless you (if I’m not sounding ‘religious’).
I am smiling how naive are the views of this young author. The post is fine, but does not have depth that one expects on topic like these. Hope to see better content next time.
Cheers!
Brilliant article.
This is a misinformed dichotomy, since the West is not a religion, and Islam isn’t a geographical location.
well said Asif, the struggle with Islamic identity is because the founders got this concept wrong. Culture unites people not religion. I am a Indian in usa and I am close to Pakistanis than my western colleagues.
The problem is the moment the religion is separated from Pakistan, the very roots why Pakistan is created would questioned, Pakistan can no longer claim kashmir, India would be no longer an enemy then no jobs for army, but we Indians recognize Pakistan’s sovereignty even hardcore nationalist do not want to occupy Pakistan, we cant leave kashmir because it would create even more gap between hinds and Muslims.
Pakistan would come out of this but things remain the same for Indians more innocent blood would flow only difference would be now China would use Pakistan instead of USA.
while we have to work on bridging the gap between minorities that we would with gods grace.
In the west people dont take religion that seriously, same is the case with Hindu India and Budhist east Asia. It is only Muslim countries, where too much importance is being given to the religion. Let me be very frank with you to share that muslim religion is as good or bad as other religions. Good modern education in the west, India and east Asia has enabled and empowered the people to enact laws and make secular constitutions for good governance and welfare of their people. Most of the Muslim countries especially Pakistan on the other hand give too much importance to religion and out dated concepts associated with it, neglecting modern education and liberal thought. That’s the reason the whole Muslim world is on the downward path and Pakistan is degenerating since its birth in 1947. Let me assure each Pakistani that majority of people in India accept Pakistan as a nation and want to establish good neighborly relations with it.
I hope Pakistani people will understand my message and ask their govt to encourage modern education rather than depending on Mullahs to teach their children 1000 years old concepts. Time to act is now otherwise it will be too late to save themselves from self inflicted wounds.
Excellent thoughts and a good article.
Good to know that Dawn has added Asif to this rather short list of such ideologists that starts with Nadeem.
With people like Asif and Nadeem, I feel very encouraged that there is yet hope for Pakistan.
I hope your country recovers soon from the current turmoil and joins the bandwagon of states that are very focused on economic development.
The author is the one who is ashamed of his true identity.
Far from reality and living in a dream world the author seems to know little about what Pakistan was created for and what it stands for. Every nation goes through periods of turmoil. But sons of the soil betraying their nation be it TTP or people like him; I feel bad for our country.