Progressive discourse

Source: The News International

LINK: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=205797

Friday, October 30, 2009

Harris Khalique

Now come off it, you Pakistani thinkers who seek pleasure in tracing the roots of all our present-day ills in the genesis of the state of Pakistan, the two-nation theory, the founding party being one man called Mohammad Ali Jinnah surrounded by pygmies vis-a-vis a robust political party with cadres of trained workers in the shape of Indian National Congress which held India together from day one. Nation-states cannot be created on the basis of religion alone. Agreed. There are as many Muslims in India or perhaps more than the population of Pakistan. Accepted. In 1971, the absurd geography Pakistan inherited and then the shabby treatment meted out to the Easterners by us culminated in putting the Muslim League's ideology of Pakistan to rest for good. Endorsed. It is important to have a sense of history, a sense of what went wrong when, a sense of failures and misdoings.

But there has to be a limit to historicising. It is like absolving ourselves of our responsibilities of today. Unfortunately, this is how many of our progressive thinkers and political workers continue to think. Ironically, they are the only ones who believe in the ideals of a socially just, prosperous, peaceful, educated and enlightened society, and understand that creating a modern and rational state is the only way for us to survive. If they do not play their due role, nobody will have to bomb us to the Stone Age. We are fast drifting backwards and our progressive thinkers have left the ground for the self-styled custodians of Pakistan – the stinking jingoists who are acting like the Pied Piper of Hamelin and luring our children and youth away to their wicked tunes.

The progressive thinkers and political workers of Pakistan have to come forward and act. They must not sit back, analyse in their drawing rooms or tea stalls and then leave it to the mood of those who are wide off the mark in their interpretation of history, who are narrow-minded and terribly prejudiced against all other faiths and peoples, those who are occupying our living rooms through televisions and our shop counters, office desks and dining tables with their news analysis and columns. They dominate the public discourse. Pakistan has to be saved from being ensnared by hate speech, conspiracy theories and myopia. The battle of ideas has to be won at any cost. It is more important in the long run than the battles to be fought to reclaim the institutions of the state or on the streets through ballot or direct political action. The people who have to be taken on are crystal-clear, articulate and eloquent in what they profess and preach. They misstate facts, misinterpret history, perpetuate feelings of hatred for others, whip up religious emotions and play upon baser instincts of the masses. They provide covert legitimacy to terrorism in the name of faith. Some of them do it visibly and for some, you just need to scratch the surface.

Pakistanis belonging to different national and linguistic groups, religions and sects, share a statehood at least if we haven't become a nation yet, a common political experience, a composite economy, a desire to be equal citizens in the eyes of the law and within the state of Pakistan. Pakistan is about these 170 million people. If the progressive thinkers do not give voice to the people and help them fight their battle, history will judge the progressives of today much more contemptuously than they are in the habit of judging others.

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk.org