Will Someone in Pakistan Respond to

this?
By Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri OF HISTORY

FROM ITS very inception more than 50 years ago, Pakistan is beset with so many serious
problems that Keith Callard, a well-known Pakistan watcher, in his recent book Pakistan: 'The
Grand Illusion', has described it as a “Banana Republic”.

These problems have been discussed from various angles by a plethora of analysts and almost
all of them expressed their disappointment at the way in which the problems are assuming
alarming proportions. But one of these problems which merits closer attention has not yet been
addressed seriously. This problem is Pakistan’s identity crisis. Curiously, not many Pakistanis are
even aware of the nature and ominous implications of this crisis.

This crisis has its root in the fact that for some inexplicable reasons, Pakistan does not want to
own the rich history of 3,000 years of the Indian subcontinent in spite of the indisputable reality
that they know that they cannot claim to be the sole inheritors of the Indus Valley Civilisation and
the subsequent history of the Indian subcontinent.

This becomes quite clear from even a cursory glance at the Pakistani school and college level
history books. In fact, Pakistani historians are in a dilemma about whether to accept the golden
age of Mauryas and Guptas of ancient India or not. Similarly, whether King Asoka, who is a part
of the Indian subcontinent folklore, belongs to them or to India.

Therefore, Pakistani history books either skip or make just a cursory mention of some of the
glorious periods of ancient Indian history. Apparently, Pakistani historians feel that projecting
these Hindu and Buddhist Kings would be “blasphemous”.

Some of the Pakistani historians even propagate the ridiculous theory that the Mughal Kings ruled
the subcontinent not from Delhi but from Lahore or Rawalpindi. They refuse to accept the fact that
after Aurangzeb the Mughal Kings squandered their riches and proved to be incompetent rulers
which enabled the British to usurp power from the mid-18th century onwards.

They argue that the British could conquer India because the Hindu Maharajas collaborated with
the colonial masters and, therefore, the downfall of the Mughal dynasty was due to the
machinations of the Hindu traitors who sold out the country to the British.

Even in modern Indian history, the Pakistani historians refuse to accept that the Congress
movement under the leadership of Gandhi compelled the British to leave India and glorify the role
of Mahammad Ali Jinnah who, they say, “kicked the British out of the subcontinent”. They never
mention that Jinnah actually joined the national movement only in the early 1930s.

The travesty of history and the consequent identity crisis of the Pakistanis do not end here. The
have another nagging problem to cope with - the problem with their national language, Urdu.
Whether Urdu originated in India in Lahore or Lucknow or Hyderabad in southern India can be
debated endlessly.

Pakistanis claim that since the Mughal Kings ruled the subcontinent from Lahore, it was there that
Urdu, the official language of the Mughals, originated. But many distinguished Muslm scholars
are of the opinion that Urdu became a rich language only in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and
Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh).

The Pakistanis never mention the fact that Urdu has been recognised as an official language by
the Indian Constitution. Here it may be noted that the Pakistani ruling elite tried to impose Urdu
on its former eastern wing resulting in its secession and the birth of Bangladesh.

Pakistan’s quest to identify itself with the Islamic world and trace its roots to the Arab world has
created not a few complications. In fact, whether Pakistan belongs to South Asia or to the Islamic
world of Persian Gulf/West Asia which in many ways is alien to the common people, except in the
context of religion, has thrown the people into total confusion.

In the late 1970s, when the film Mughal-e-Azam was produced in Bombay and telecast over the
Indian Television, life in Pakistan almost came to a standstill as the Pakistanis, young and old,
glued to the TV screen. They wondered how “Hindu India” could produce such a film based on a
story of a Muslim prince. The allegation of the Pakistani religious fanatics that it was nothing but a
“cultural invasion” fell on deaf ears and many Pakistanis felt that there was something wrong in
what they read and were told.. They found themselves utterly confounded.

The surprise of the religious fanatics also knew no bound when they found that the songs of Lata
Mangeskar and M.S. Subhalakshmi were as popular in India as they were in their holy land.

When the electronic media broke the artificial barriers created by the ruling elite, an average
Pakistani was able to sort out myth and reality about India and Pakistan. And in the process he
realised that his roots lie somewhere else and not in Pakistan.

This realisation resulted from the lowering of stakes in the nation state he is living in. The contrast
in governance of the nation state between the two countries became too obvious.

While India was successful in evolving a political system based on rule of the majority, Pakistan
was continuously degenerating into the worst form of authoritarianism and rule of the few. When
India has matured into a sound form of democracy, Pakistan is still groping for a form of
government it should have.

This crisis of identity has resulted from two important factors. First, nobody seems to have
developed a stake in the Pakistani state. The ruling elite has been using the state only to amass
their personal wealth, rather than to work for nation building.

The structure of governance changes according to the whims and fancies of the ruling elite at any
given point of time. And those who wield maximum firepower, the armed forces, have become the
sole arbitrators in deciding who should rule. Second, as it inevitably happens in such a situation,
the credibility of the government has reduced to zero level. The absence of a credible
government has resulted in socio-economic development becoming the worst casualty.

The country has become a “banana republic” where the ruling elite has lost its direction and
nobody seems to care about the present and the future of the country. With every passing day,
the ideological moorings of Pakistan have been petering out resulting in an identity crisis. Only
the ruling elite, in their vested interest, refuse to acknowledge this grim reality.

But Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah visualised it at the time of the inception of Pakistan
itself. In his famous speech to the Pakistan Constituent Assembly in August 1947, he said :
“...change your past and work together in the spirit that every one of you, no matter what
community he belongs to, is first, second and last, a citizen of the state with equal rights.”

Apparently, this was lost sight of in the first few months after his death. In his last words Jinnah
admitted that he committed a “blunder” by creating Pakistan.

The writer is M.A.,Ph.D.,D.Litt., Emeritus Fellow, University Grants Commission of India. He is a

former Professor of International Relations Oxford University, Guest Professor of International
Relations, London School of Economics & Political Science, Senior Fellow, International Institute
for Strategic Studies, London and Research Coordinator, Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute, Sweden.