Tourism, Terrorism and Empire
-Illustration by Khuda Bux Abro
In the life of many white westerners is a chapter devoted to the finding of oneself. This chapter may not occur at any given point in life, although most attach it to a life crisis; a divorce, a bankruptcy perhaps, the lazy end of youth and the horror of a boring, comfortable adulthood. At this point, the subject is expected to challenge one’s own thoughts and beliefs and gain some deep, inner knowledge of oneself that renders the memory of youth/rejection/illness far enough to be forgotten. All of this must be done through the encounter of something inexorably challenging and physically different: and located as far as possible from the new cars and perfect houses of white middle class life, ideally in a land foreign enough and far enough to merit the respect of others either awaiting or nostalgic about their own journeys of discovery
Enter India; the land of the friendly brown people, exotic enough to be sensual, and yet dirty and smelly enough to be real; two essential ingredients in discovery destinations of the wealthy, white seeker. In the world of cheaply bought jet-travel, no other country has been able to harness through clever marketing and strategic imaging; the market made available by the Western search for fulfillment. Be it the old people in the movie Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, or the wry truth speaking slum observing author Katherine Boo of “Beyond Beautiful Forevers”; India has cornered the market on providing rare, jewel like insights into self and spirit to a class of curious Westerners rapt by its complexity and uncertainty. It’s a perfectly brewed cup for those planning a search for the unique and un-replicable, for near every slum is a luxury hotel with the comforts of home, and inside the most rural of villages a helpful man who speaks English. The results are tremendous; India today is a clearly marked stop on the Westerner’s road to authenticity; yoga is the new religion in Brooklyn and chai the favorite drink at any Starbucks.
If India is the land of the friendly brown people, where the battling of filth, heat and mosquitos and such authentically sub-continental discomforts provides the visiting Westerner with a sense of challenges overcome and comforts confiscated; Pakistan predictably is its opposite. If Indians have managed to forge a reputation on welcoming whites seeking their wisdom, stoically swallowing their self-righteous judgments on their society, Pakistan has cornered the market on the sinister, the sly and the un-quantifiably dangerous. The Westerners that do waft into Islamabad (no one even bothers with Karachi or Quetta or Peshawar) are a straggly bunch, aid workers or journalists small in number and scared in nature. They stay in their hotels and count the uncertain seconds to their departures, warily eying everyone they encounter for the suspicious slump of a suicide jacket, or the bumping bulge of a bomb. Scenes from Zero Dark Thirty dominate and stories from Seal Team Six loop in an eternal circle.
Their fears are not Pakistan’s problem. Unlike India, terror-riven, naughty Pakistan banks not on drawing people to its shores, but on keeping the white people away. Americans cannot easily get visas and even their wars on Pakistani territory are fought by remote control, they cannot like but neither can they stop looking, they don’t like what they see but are obsessed by what they cannot see. And while it may seem different, the Pakistani recipe is not too far from the Indian one; as tourism and terror both yield dollars. If India has captured the corner of the white heart devoted to romancing self-discovery, Pakistan has gouged out the space for secret terrors via drones or droves of tourists; Pakistan and India are thus reaping their takes from their own little slices of the Western imagination.
At the same time both India and Pakistan, tragically or comically, opportunistically or cleverly remain defined by those whose superiority was technically overthrown when the British chopped up the subcontinent and all the brown people, Indians and Pakistanis clapped and cheered and called it the end of Empire.
Rafia Zakaria is a columnist for DAWN. She is a writer and PhD candidate in Political Philosophy whose work and views have been featured in the New York Times, Dissent the Progressive, Guernica, and on Al Jazeera English, the BBC, and National Public Radio. She is the author of Silence in Karachi, forthcoming from Beacon Press.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
I guess the author got his orgasmic pleasures when he compares Pakistan to India.
One country was made for religion and is being run for and by religion, other does not depend on religion. It is quite apparent which factors are pulling a country forward or backwards. Either one has to be blind or demented to see the reasons.
yupp americans leave america for jobs here in india….not only india but even china and other places in asia……
@Rashid
“..Many from Africa, Middle East and Central Asia visit Pakistan.West is biased against Pakistan and very partial to Indians…”
LOL! Yes you are right is a jew/hindu/western conspiracy!
Many from Africa, Middle East and Central Asia visit Pakistan..that is true but they mostly come to get education at the various IITs (Internation Institute of Terrorism) in pakistans and once they have graduated they impart their knowledge gained in pakistani IITs to the rest of the world!
For Pakistan Blame is always be a shield . Yeah I agreed from some of the comments . What Pakistan is now due to their own .It would take a week to see a Royal Bengal Tiger in Sunder Van but you can see ” A bomb blast ” every day in Karachi ? . This is what a tourist never wants . And Why West People comes to India ? Some of the reasons :- Here in India every state has his own culture and tradition , totally different from others it’s like 26 countries in one country . They want to see their diversity . Yeah we have slums and poor people but many of them are entrepreneur now and with a hope to grow up in their lives . So West people want to see those positive people . In India you will find mosquitoes but you will also find people who have no time to brag about their past and for castigation . We love WEST PEOPLE and why not ? They are the easiest way to interact and connect from world ( The part of globe which is worthy to connect ) . It’s a kind of mutual transaction of thoughts and culture . And West people also feel comfortable because India is more a less English speaking language country now . In the year of 2012 about 3 millions people came to India because of hospitality , comfort zone and culture . So don’t blame west people and others for every thing . There is no games in Pakistan because of India … Terrorism because of America …No one wants to come Pakistan because of White people ….plz stop blaming others .
I don’t understand.
Is the writer trying to say that attracting tourists is akin to selling out? If India attracts tourists (more western, Caucasian because that is the demographic where the money lies), is it “bowing down” to some sort of “empire”?
This is very regressive thinking.
This is very similar to those who sneer at India’s $100bn IT services sector as “slavery”.
A sad, negative, cynical view of westerns, the writer caricatures as “whites”. A racist article throughput. Dehumanizing westerners as crazy and simplistic, making Indians seems like “unscrupulous” natives / savages, and clearly nothing to say about the Pakistanis. Totally based on biases and stereotypes.
If you have nothing useful to write, why write? Looks like you and Faiza Mirza want to out-do each other in such dead-end topics. Lets see what she throws up next. I’m not holding my breath.
Whatever the point the author was trying to make, she lost me by the 2nd paragraph ! The point ( if i understand correctly ) is, India markets itself well, and hence makes money through tourism despite her shortcomings, but that’s ok, because Pakistan too makes money because of the inherent danger that exists here, and hence India == Pakistan. NO !
Pakistan in its entire young history never had to rely on tourism unlike India is because we were self sufficient and wealthy enough. Pakistan is a far more progressive, developed and evolved than India. India can never provide anyone with salvation as it is steeped in dark ages itself. Pakistan started evolving towards enlightenment thanks to the guidance of Islam. Sure, we have our shortcomings now, and we’ve had our share of problems, but the end result will be a Pakistan that will perch the golden throne of self-consciousness and development, and an India that will seize to exist.
Its sad that a Pakistani woman enjoying the fruits of ‘white’ western civilization would make this odious comparison. One can appreciate that the intelligentsia in Pakistan yearns for moral equivalence with India but the genie of jihad is out and it may be generations if not centuries before Pakistan comes to terms with its place in the scheme of things.
while this article is very much in praise of India, I can see that the author has multiple times stated that India has been able to “sell” itself cleverly as a land of self realization etc. I just want to clarify that India is indeed a land of yoga, meditation etc. These things did originate here and helped people with self realization for centuries. There is nothing “new” that India is doing cleverly to sell itself. In fact, we Indians are loosing all these skills and arts in blind rush for the western culture. No one from the younger Indian generation even knows about these yoga and meditation and our rich educational books like the upanishads, puranas etc. they only want to follow west whereas west wants to find itself in Indian knowledge!! What a shame on us Indians.
Did you know that all rock pigeons all over the world originated from India, Pakistan and Iran three thousand years ago?
thats a really cool fact
there was no pakistan 3000 years ago
What point the writer wants to make, is very shaky, at least for a common reader like me. But one thing is very clear is that still for many foreigner, India is considered to be the land of mystic civilization that well over 5000 year old.
The basic ingredient of a progressive society is her cousin,art,music and culture,Unfortunately all these things are still refer to a common white people is Indian,not Pakistani or even Bangladesh.
Many Pakistani or Bangladesi won restaurant are named as Indian restaurant.
“And while it may seem different, the Pakistani recipe is not too far from the Indian one; as tourism and terror both yield dollars.” – what are you trying to say??
Though I understand the Pakistani compulsion of comparing and competing with India on all the matters, I don’t see how earning money through tourism is same with collecting ransom from terrorist activities. For that matter, Pakistani recipe is not too far even from the Australian one (mining yields dollars) the Bangladeshi one (textile yields dollars) the Chinese one (manufacturing yields dollars) and the US one (technology yields dollars).
Dear writer-Big words, hollow message.
All her articles are like this…..Hi Fi English….After reading it you wouldn’t know what she is trying to tell us.
I wonder what satisfaction people in pakistan get by thinking so much India. Please think about pakistan, it will pay your country for times to come.
Also, when India is getting from positivity, u r getting for negativity. It is upto readers to think, what do they want to carry forward to future generations.
Quite to the contrary it is the Indians who want to show that Pakistan does not have an identity beyond South Asia, thus trying to deny Pakistan an identity, Insisting on calling South Asia as Indian subcontinent. They also try to tell us Urdu and Hindi are the same languages, as a Urdu proverb goes; They are trying to equate their donkeys to our horses.
I was looking forward to read some fresh and interesting thoughts when I saw the headline ‘tourism and terrorism ‘. I was disappointed as the writer did not provide any real or new insights, but simply tried to sound intelligent by following the age old rhetoric- blame the white man for every mess! the article clearly smacks of reverse racism and illogical mockery of Western world! India and Pakistan are not defined by their white masters anymore, but by Indians and Pakistanis themselves- and Indians (politicians and public) seemed to do a far better job on their own merit. The writer should have realised this truth earlier, specially when she seem to have worked for quite a few Western employers!
Observations correct, but very pertinently, Pakistan needs to get its act together, and soon, for the good of the sub-continent in general, and India in particular.
Rhetoric???? Hmm…… Not quite sure if you forgot at-least a century long torture and stealing in the Sub-continent before independence. And who is to blame the “White man” even if they introduced slavery. Don’t even let me start on providing ammunition to the poor African and Asian countries.
All praise to the White man.
Ummm, chip on that shoulder, Mark? Didn’t see the writer blaming the “white man” for anybody’s mess.
And who says “white man” any more?
The author seems to revel in her country’s reputation as the world’s hellhole. Why ?
She is not “reveling” in her country’s reputation. She is being realistic. Which more Pakistanis should be too.
Could we say that ” india” which the author describes is just so difficult to be understood by those WHO see the world just through religion lens and nothing matters more to them that they would even resort to mayhem in the name of that very religion??? Why is it so different for author to know this? India was just this for centuries. Whats new is what Pakistan “achieved” in just 60 years! The world looks at this more often than what the author thinks. “The devastating effects of religion on a society”
Perfect reply’ “India was just this for centuries. Whats new is what Pakistan “achieved” in just 60 years!”
I am amazed at the insight of the author. This is so true. This is what is happening all over USA. If Yoga is the new culture, so is curry and daal a new delicacy. I might say that this self discovering is not so new. West keeps trying to self discover. The hippie movement of the seventees was the same. Difference between being an hippie and new discoverer is that the new discoverers are keeping more of a contact with the creature comfort, intact.
Among American women I know in their 20s and 30s yoga and New Age thinking has taken over their lives from New York to Hawaii.
The best “Indian” food I have ever eaten was”down the docks” in Grangetown, Cardiff. This small restaurant was my local favorite. No liquor was served and the decor and lighting was right out of Charles Dickens. Where else could you get one portion of mushroom curry and rice served on a huge platter? In Chicago if I order Indian food I need a microscope to find it.
There was no Indian Marketing machine in the 60s when the Beatles found spiritual solace in India. Or, when Columbus went in search for India and found America.
Indian marketing is not by design and that is why it works. India needs to be India, the land where women wear bindis and saris; a land of millions of Gods; deeply spiritual and poor; a story of hope and despair at the same time.
India is a world in itself and most like America and in some cases better. Its culture is original, its people natives, its languages old and rooted in the geography of India. A rich History of glorious empires and variety of cuisines, appearance of the people changes from region to region. India has it all..
To compare it with Pakistan, where majority follow the Religion of Foreign Lands(Arabia); where an alien language is spoken and promoted(Urdu, which is actually an Indian language); where the Indus culture is frowned upon(Yoga has roots in Pakistan, but how many people actually claim it? Indian festivals like Basant are banned) is not a fair comparison.
Apart from the same genes and language(Urdu was forced down the throat, pun intended, after Partition), India and Pakistan have almost NOTHING in common. While Indians are happy to admit this, you will find many liberals in Pakistan not admitting to this, for they use this to fight Islamic Extremism in Pakistan.
I have a similar criticism of Pakistani men. If they are so proud of Pakistan and themselves why do they want to be Arabs and Persians?
Taking a look away from your part satire, tourism is now the biggest money maker for some countries.You do not have to mine the ground,nor build industries to export goods .All you need is to provide the service showcasing your countries riches.Be they shopping, beaches,monuments and so on.Your northern Pakistan is a natural gem. If well worked on will bring mega bucks to your country and jobs for your people.If countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Bali of Indonesia can pull in millions of tourists that spend billions overall, why can’t Pakistan do it? Oop’s sorry.I forgot your terrorist problem and the random killing of people.Your perpetual roadblock to outsiders.
When it comes to tourism the Japanese, Koreans and Chinese are the new Americans.
They want to experience the rest of the World and to see it’s architecture.
Superb deep thought (or satire, if I understand correctly , especially the last para)
“……At the same time both India and Pakistan, tragically or comically, opportunistically or cleverly remain defined by those whose superiority was technically overthrown when the British chopped up the subcontinent and all the brown people, Indians and Pakistanis clapped and cheered and called it the end of Empire.”
The last paragraph is a Bitter Truth ! But truth it is !
Neither Gandhi’s compassion nor Jinnah’s intellect could kept pride of sub-continent intact.
May be Sardar Patel’s ”prudent” insight to keep troublesome elements outside to the northwest and east of India. For better or for worse, partition alleviated a big headache else India would have to compromise on its secular political principle. Hindu right wing in itself is a big problem, had India to deal with a collective Islamic fundamentalists I doubt if it would have fared well as United South Asian state.
Tourists need not be western alone. Many from Africa, Middle East and Central Asia visit Pakistan.
West is biased against Pakistan and very partial to Indians.
Rashid did you mean “the tourists” from central Asia who are target of drones in the tribal belt of Pakistan.
WHY??
According to Najam Sethi,the west is in romance with India.
“West is biased against Pakistan and very partial to Indians.” Just wonder why ?
Hmm.. I got it. You mean the Al Shabab (Somalia, Africa), their friends in Yemen (Middle East), Uzbekistan (Central Asia) and their ilk. Sure, your country seems to attract them all. Thanks for that gem!
and why so?
Why? Think about it and you will get the answer.
“British chopped up the subcontinent and all the brown people, Indians and Pakistanis clapped and cheered and called it the end of Empire” – The best line I have read in recent times.
I’m glad they did what they did, that helped Pakistan move towards light leaving India to deal with her problems.
Sounds good ..to blame the British. But was it not for some of us who asked and demanded it and those of them who did are revered even today by us, then why complain.
We do not submit, Madam. We may not speak up every time, but we do not submit.