As Pakistan slips into chaos, intellectuals express helplessness. Breather comes from the most unexpected quarter
By Meha Mathur
A few weeks ago, I got an opportunity to listen to Rajmohan Gandhi at the Saifuddin Kitchlew Lecture in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. The topic of his speech was ‘Enhancing Security: Lessons from History and Geography’.
Urging Indians to reach out to Pakistan, at least the common man in Pakistan, he said:
“We are told that Pakistan’s Punjab today produces many recruits for the ideology of violent extremism. That seems to be true, and almost every day seems to bring new evidence to confirm this truth, plus a related truth that intimidation and fear silence many in Pakistan’s Punjab who are deeply troubled by violent extremism and fanaticism. Historical, economic and psychological explanations for this troubling reality should, and I believe can, be discovered. But anyone who knows even a little about Pakistan’s Punjab knows also that the vast majority of its people detest extremism and fanaticism…
“If Pakistan can find ways to move towards a healthier economy, a more stable and stronger polity, and a freer society, that would be very much in India’s interest.”
And then, he added,
“Meanwhile we in India must remind ourselves that Pakistan’s governing agencies and its people are two very different entities, and we must ask whether as a people and a government we have done what we can to reach both entities, and especially the more important one, the people of Pakistan.”
It was surprising that in his speech, while mentioning the aspirations of common people of Pakistan to lead normal lives and their antipathy to fanatism, he had not once mentioned the murder of Salman Taseer for his daring stand against the blasphemy law. Such was the jubilation that his assassin Mumtaz Qadri was showered with praises and petals, and the legal fraternity stood up in solidarity to defend him. In contrast, I had not come across similar level of solidarity among intellectuals or common man, for the man who had dared to stand up for a liberal cause. So much so that his funeral had gone unattended – even by President Zardari!
So I raised this point with Gandhi in the Q & A session. My question was to the following effect: While many Indians might be keen to reach out to common Pakistanis, and while you say that common Paksitanis are averse to this ideology of fanatism, looking at the praise that Taseer’s assassin got, we get signals to the contrary. And the message that comes across to us is horrifying.
The answer that I got from him does not satisfy me. His answer was: Let’s not forget that just because a few people, on the strength of bullet, are scaring people into submission, it does not mean that the majority supports their stand.
But that’s the moot point - Pakistan has come to a stage where a minority of religious fanatics now completely holds the majority to ransom. First, I have my doubts whether the minority is really a ‘handful’. The indoctrination through madrasas having seeped into the foundations of the society, the support base for fundamentalists has widened, as was clear from the widespread support for blasphemy law and more specifically, the lawyers’ stand in Taseer murder case.
Protests have been in the form of columns or blogs or facebook comments, not amounting to mass movement. These too expressed helplessness. For example, in an article titled ‘Much-belated Chest Beating’ that appeared in Dawn online in January end, Kamran Shafi says:
“Rather late in the day, what, to now beat their breasts and moan when it was quite clear years ago that we were travelling at the speed of light to the dark and stifling place we find ourselves in today…
“The point really is that you and I have no control over what the Deep State does or does not do. We can just roll with the punches and try and fight back as best we can and live by the values we were brought up with.”
In yet another article titled ‘Blind and Stupid and Savage’ that appeared in the same newspaper, Ardeshir Cowasjee already pronounces, “My generation and the one that followed have much to answer for. But we cannot, BECAUSE IT IS NOW TOO LATE (my emphasis). We let things slip and slide.”
Why I feel that Gandhi’s answer does not satisfy me and Cowasjee’s sense of despondency has a ring of realism to it is because of the realisation that Pakistan does not have the panacea at the moment that Indian common man possesses – the tool of democracy – to teach the rulers a lesson. Elections do not throw up the answers as the Indian election of 2004 did – of punishing the NDA dispensation for the Gujarat riots.
Options are shrinking and the time available to the Pakistani society fast passing by, and one can only pray that they manage to wriggle out a meaningful future from the jaws of the demon.
In this atmosphere of hopelessness, a ray of light emerges from the most unexpected quarter. Entertainment – even most trivial one – can provide solutions when all other platforms fail. In India, the film industry and cricket have performed the task of acting as a adhesive for years. In the current Pakistani malaise, when none dared defy the diktats of Islamists, a b-grade entertainer, whose claim to fame now is appearance in Big Boss season four, valiantly faught for her individual rights on a Pakistani TV show. As the cleric Mufti Abdul Malik Kawi spewed the usual venom against Veena Malik for having brought disrepute to Pakistan and Islam by appearing on the show, Malik defended herself brilliatly and valiantly, arguing that neither her clothes, not her behaviour were offending; what she wore was routine for people of the film fraternity; and that worse crimes like rape and killings were happening each day in cities and villages of Pakistan, with no protest from any quarter. And she asked the cleric in a manner no individual in the present scenario in Pakistan today dares to ask, “What’s your problem with me tell me your problems.” It was conventional way of fighting for a woman – almost the way subcontinental woman fight at the tubewell. Straight from the heart, without any finesse or fears. But in a moment she had won herself more fans on both sides of border than in the entire 13 weeks of Big Boss. More importantly, she had provided a prescription to the millions like her: if you want to rid the society of fanatics, take them on, face to face, million times over.
PS: I also remember the brave effort in 2009 and 2010 by the designer fraternity to stage the fashion show in the strife-torn Karachi. I remember that international media organsations had pulled out correspondents from the war zone to cover this event. And I can never forget the tall models in their bold outfits giving out loud and clear message to the fanatics presiding over Pak affairs. If they can risk their lives to give out a message, surely President Zardari can be courteous enough to attend the funeral of his colleague?
