A country lost
IT began with the flag. A strip of white slapped on, but separate and away from the sea of green — the problem was there from the very outset: one group cast aside from the rest.
A more prescient mind would have thought to put the white in the middle, enscon-ced in a sea of green, a symbolic embrace of the other.
But why blame the flag?
It began with the founding theory.
A country created for Muslims but not in the name of Islam. Try selling that distinction to your average Pakistani in 2012. 1947 was another country and it still found few takers.
Pakistan’s dirty little secret isn’t its treatment of non-Muslims or Shias or the sundry other groups who find themselves in the cross-hairs of the rabid and the religious. Pakistan’s dirty little secret is that everyone is a minority.
It begins with Muslim and non-Muslim: 97 per cent and the hapless and helpless three. But soon enough, the sectarian divide kicks in: Shia and Sunni. There’s another 20 per cent erased from the majority.
Next, the intra-Sunni divisions: Hanafi and the Ahl-e-Hadith. Seventy per cent of Pakistan may be Hanafi, five per cent Ahl-e-Hadith.
Then the intra-intra-Sunni divisions: Hanafis split between the growing Deobandis and the more static Barelvis.
And finally, within the 40 per cent or so that comprise Barelvis in Pakistan, there’s the different orders: the numerous Chishtis, the more conservative Naqshbandis and the microscopic Qadris.
In Pakistan, there is no majority.
There’s the terror that every minority lives in: non-Muslim from Muslim, Shia from Sunni, Barelvi from Wahabi, secular Sunni from rabid Barelvi — the future is now and it is bleak.
Some mourn the passing of Jinnah’s vision and seek solace in his Aug 11 speech. But there never was an Aug 11 version of Pakistan: it was stillborn, killed off by the religious right as
soon as it was articulated.
The 1954 Munir report has been forgotten by most, but it contains some of the most poignant remarks on Pakistan’s search for an identity and peace within.
“The Quaid-i-Azam was the founder of Pakistan and the occasion on which he thus spoke [on Aug 11, 1947] was the first landmark in the history of Pakistan. The speech was intended both for his own people including non-Muslims and the world, and its object was to define as clearly as possible the ideal to the attainment of which the new State was to devote all its energies….
“We asked the ulema whether this conception of a state was acceptable to them and everyone of them replied in an unhesitating negative, including the Ahrar and erstwhile Congressites with whom before the Partition this conception was almost a part of their faith. If Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi’s evidence correctly represents the view of Jamaat-i-Islami,
a state based on this idea is the creature of the devil, and he is confirmed in this by several writings of his chief, Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, the founder of the Jamaat.”
But if the ulema hated Aug 11, surely they loved the Objectives Resolution, the death knell of a pluralistic and tolerant Pakistan that followed a year and a half later?
Not quite. Again from the Munir report:
“The Quaid-i-Azam’s conception of a modern national state, it is alleged, became obsolete with the passing of the Objectives Resolution on 12th March 1949; but it has been freely admitted that this Resolution, though grandiloquent in words, phrases and clauses, is nothing but a hoax and that not only does it not contain even a semblance of the embryo of an Islamic State but its provisions, particularly those relating to fundamental rights, are directly opposed to the principles of an Islamic State.”
The Objectives Resolution denounced as a hoax? To stand on a street and claim that in the Pakistan of today would be to invite a lynching. And yet, that’s exactly what the ulema of the 1950s said, on the record, in full view of the public and history.
Confused? You should be.
The contortions and convolutions of the religious right in Pakistan are enough to make the head spin. But that’s not really where the story of how Pakistan has arrived at the miserable place it has is located.
The religious right and its more rabid cousins have come to dominate Pakistan not because they are more coherent, united and organised.They have come to dominate Pakistan because theirs is the only discourse being peddled.
You fear for the 11-year-old girl accused of blasphemy, you weep for the dead Shias of Babuser Top, you blanch at the relentless persecution of Ahmadis, you shiver at the thought of life as a Hazara in Balochistan — but in all of it, you know there’s little that can be done.
A declining state unable to protect its most precious assets; a social contract between society and state that was never quite signed; dark forces long unleashed in society that have never really been challenged — who can stand up and how?
A general speaks out, a police chief stands up, a politician denounces intolerance, a preacher reaches out to other denominations, a television deity urges introspection — if any of that and all of that were to happen now, today, would it really help recover the vast spaces afforded the religious right and their monstrous counterparts since the birth of the experiment
we call Pakistan?
The future is now. The future is theirs. The future belongs to the right.
You and I, we’re just living here on their sufferance.
The writer is a member of staff.
cyril.a@gmail.com
Twitter: @cyalm
true. A good article.
great article and yes m justice munir report is a prof that no any one mullah had defined a single definition of Islam.
Brilliant Cyril. Sharing
Same story here too. Thanks DAWN.
We keep talking about Jinnah’s August 11 speech but does it really make any sense to declare Pakistan a secular state when the whole idea of it’s creation was based on religious divide in India? I wonder if our leaders were confused from the very beginning? Demanding a country just for the Muslims in itself alienated all the non-Muslims of this land and what is happening now, perhaps started right from the day that Pakistan came into being. A land in the name of religion will have the religious lobby in the driving seat.
No light even at the end of the tunnel!
The concept of Pakistan was to create a state in which muslims, who were in a minority in india and discriminated against, have economic and social independence. But that should not stop us from providing the same independence to our minority compatriots.
You have to renounce Islam as the religion of the state. That’s the only way forward. Regulate mosques, i.e., only so many in a city, the others should be pulled down. Enact hate crime laws and then enforce them without fear or favor. This will only happen if our leaders share this vision and aren’t Islamic fundamentalists themselves. Purge religious people from every aspect of public life. Can you do this? Will your vastly uneducated and easily manipulated populace support such an agenda? The answer to that question is the answer to whether Pakistan can survive or not.
Hey guys in smokers blog there is a veryvery very similar articleon how Zia /bhutto hijacked the original philosophy of jinnha. Infact similar articles have appeared in DAWN several times over the last year. Rehashing history only gives a moment of self pity but does not move anything forward.
The diehard islamist with strong army support and weak kneed politicians is leading you into a deeper quicksand.
There is STRONG NEED TO CHANGE THIS TRIUMVARATE….
Religion is just mind control!
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.
As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.
It is true but is this coming from Pakistan or outside.
It’s a big challenge because I don’t think we can find precedence in any other nation where such idelogical distortion has taken place combined with external and internal threats. Pakistan is a unique case. Usual retort is to educate the people. But then we find educated people living in the West who are more extreme in their views than the poor, illiterate sea of humanity in Pakistan.
I still remember reading a chapter by Hamza Alvi in a book published in the 1990s while I was overseas. The opening lines went something like [please note that I am paraphrasing from memory - so the words may be different - but the meaning is the same]: ”Pakistan was created in the name of Islam. Every child in Pakistan knows this. This, however, is not the truth.” That came as a shock to me – and I read the chapter, initially with skeptism. Alvi wrote with reference to sources of information – and definitely made his case. I wish his work were made compulsory reading in schools.
I dunno why noone says something really simple namely ‘all are equal as human beings and citizens. No one has the right to decide the life and death of others.’
The only superiority Pakistanis love to feel is humiliating everybody else. That gives them a feeling of power and superiority. For them pulling down everybody else is the answer to their problems, not climbing up.
Jinnah surrendered to the right when he ordered the bloodshed of Direct Action in 1946. Aug 11 speech too little and too late to dismount from the tiger he mounted
we weep for democracy and denounce dictatorship…….. it is more frightening and horrible than those pitiful types of Governments. no doubt we haven’t signed a social contract between ourselves and we have to, even; i must say that we must be facing these bloody situations around us. Our ALLAH is not happy with our deeds.
Cast a look around the world & you will notice that not a single Muslim country is a democracy or a secular society.They are all Islamic zealots interested in spreading their version of Islam.Expecting them to treat their minorities in a fair manner is foolish.In the times to come no minorities will survive in any Muslim country.
Turkey, Indonesia, and Bangladesh are some countries that are functioning democracies. These countries also have a consistently high standard in which they treat minorities. But yes, other than the above, muslim countries are terrible places to live or visit.
ZSK – your last line comment makes so much sense and full of truth.
Errrr… Turkey? Indonesia? Malaysia?
Please refrain from making sweeping statements…
Why don’t one agee to the fact that Pakistan has been hijacked by the demon ‘moulvis’ who were never in favour of the creation of Pakistan and are now to destroy it – they even call the founder Quaid-e-Azam ‘kafir’ – unless these moulvis are handled like ‘Naseer of Egypt’ did during his reign, there will never be peace in Pakistan
Cyril – For the first time ever, I am disappointed to see your article. So depressing??? Do you think talking like this will solve the problem? How about we all go and lay down in front of the train and wait for our death rather than fighting it out like brave human beings?
One has to diagnose the exact nature of the illness and acknowledge its existence before thinking of a cure.
You want someone prominent to speak out against intolerance. A prominent politician tried that when he spoke out against injustice against the minority.His bodyguard shot him dead.The people praised the bodyguard by showering rose petals on him.