by Qandeel Shaam
What is patriotism but the love of the food one had as a child – Lin Yutang
There are many questions I struggle to solve – for instance, does the soul weigh 28 grams, why 72 virgins and why not just 1? Is Lichtenstein a country? Why do the Brits call private schools ‘public’, why is the green tea pink? How does Kamran Khan always manage to look like a very sad and cynical koala bear?
But there is one question that has persistently sat like a shrapnel in my mind: What does it mean to be Pakistani, what is Pakistaniat?
I’ve yo-yoed between Pakistan and Europe all my life, and with the passage of time this question has come to mystify me more and more. Moments of reflection over what your national identity is, and what it means, usually occur when you’re not in your home country. Maybe it has something to do with being labelled a “Pakistani” or feeling like an outsider, but living in the West can really intensify one’s ethnical awareness. This often results in an exaggerated sense of national identity where you see Pakistanis in the West acting more Pakistani-like than those living in Pakistan! For a brief time I was also overcome with a disposition to jingo, but then I moved to Pakistan….
Now you have to understand: for a Pakistani to move back to Pakistan after having proudly performed a stint of patriotism in the West can be quite a shocking experience. Whatever you thought was Pakistani can very quickly evaporate into the coiling miasma of confusion that shrouds our country. The contretemps first jolts and then disillusions you, because you slowly come to the realization that Pakistan is positively mired in an identity crisis.
You have the Western-wannabe’s and the religious extremist-wannabe’s. An extant grey zone that falls in between is either too small or too muted to buffer these two extremes. The Western-wannabe’s are primarily concerned with being liberal without embracing liberalism: for example, aunties who mull for hours when deciding just how deep they should let their plunging necklines plunge before it starts to look too inappropriate for a charity fundraising event to help emancipate the poor. The same aunties are also dedicated to ensuring that the only ‘liberty’ their maids ever see is a market in Lahore.
On the other hand you have the religious extremist-wannabe’s. Their narrow, retrograde interpretation of Islam creates new lines – and intensifies old ones – of demarcation based on belief, sect, creed, even beard length (!). It preaches Islamic unity but is practiced on the paradoxical premise that intolerance (even violence) against people with differing isms is condonable.
Western- and religious extremist-wannabes have their own sets of insecurities and prejudices and view everyone through such a discriminatory prism. These groups and the forces they exert deserves exclusive attention, but for the purposes of this article it is suffice to say that the dichotomy of Westernism and religious extremism in Pakistan has caused more friction between Pakistanis, propelling the drift away from a core Pakistaniat, a sense of oneness.
So when I moved back to Pakistan I found that oneness to be lacking; after years of living up to the facade of a “Pakistani” in the West I found Pakistan itself to be devoid of any such identity. I think that generally speaking Pakistanis have always had a clique mentality, but it’s augmented and intensified. So you see now multiple little groups all bopping their heads against one another.
And yet we speak of being Pakistani and Pakistaniat. We don’t just speak of it we feel it as well. When I am in Europe I again feel Pakistani. How can we feel something that doesn’t really exist?
The article opened with a quote from the Chinese writer Ling Yutang,
“What is patriotism but the love of the food one had as a child”
. I interpret this as memories of our childhood and the nostalgia they bring, and how it’s from these memories and nostalgia that there emanates a sense of self identity. So if I’m in Europe and eating samosa chaat or listening to a Pakistani song or qawali that was popular in my youth, it will almost always invoke a warm feeling of nostalgia that reminds me of where I come from. I’m not sure whether I should consider it a tragedy that the only vestiges left of the Pakistaniat I used to feel and know have become hazy reminisces, or whether I should feel glad that the feeling is not lost all together.
Photo Credits: Photos for this post are taken from flickr.com
Ladies/Gentlemen
Pakistaniat is what Pakistan was on 27 th of Ramadan
AlMubarak the day of Al Qadr when Quran-e Hakeem
was completed for mankind and humanity, let this be informed and instructed:
Innama akmalto lakum dinokum
Innadinah indillah-i-Islam
No other Taghoot Pakistaniat shall stand firm
14th August 1947
Mustafar Qadir, thanks for the article by Shahid Alam - I think the point about aping the apes is very poignant. It’s kind of like how Lollywood imitates Bollywood who imitates Hollywood. I think we’re more preoccupied with mimicking (feigning American accents or creating a Pakistani version of the show Antakshari) rather than grasping the gist of it, the real meaning and virtues, which may lend us some integrity. Furthermore I think we’re so far down even the mimicry chain that we only get to feed on scraps! I mean, isn’t Pakistan one of the very few countries where McDonalds is considered a posh hang-out?
Raza Rumi, the diversity is indeed there but so is the escalating friction, only one of these is threatening to a sense of “apnaiat”. There are other countries and cities with a great deal of diversity as well, but perhaps there you don’t see so much of the friction (maybe because they don’t thrive on a “gossip culture” or “clique mentality”). But yes, we should always look at the big picture, and maybe it is unfair to expect a country with no real history of its own, a country who had to artificially carve an identity for itself in 1947, to really be oozing with individuality.
Akif Nizam, true, as said it could be that from the get-go “Pakistaniat” was but a thin veneer, since the country was reactively created in a “no, we’re not Indians” fashion, and we had to hurriedly form an identity. But I don’t think its evolving, rather devolving.
Razia, I agree with you, and I’m sure many of us are actively involved in helping the needy in Pakistan. But, call me a sentimentalist, its just difficult not to question or romanticize Pakistaniat, especially when living abroad.
Even within Pakistan, the tribalists, the Islamists, the ethno-nationalists, the lawyers… everyone seems to have their own romantic interpretation of what Pakistan/Pakistaniat should be. But it’s all just taken a ‘civil war’ turn.
On the whole I’m glad to see a lot of you have understood what I’ve meant and empathised. There is a void felt by many Pakistanis living in the West that could be attributed to the ‘immigrant/expat syndrome’ and maybe it’s this void, or the idealistic search for an identity, that has become the crux of our Pakistaniat.
interesting choice of words to express a moderate point of view. enjoyed reading…
but have no clue of what you r talking about (i.e. Pakistaniat)…
Look at this man…on seeing him..i cannot think we have lost Pakistanait….
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/showthread.php?t=266613
The answer lies in education and critical thinking and not in fear of hell or reward of heaven
Anyone who has basic knowledge of religions like Christianity,Islam or Judaism will have idea that it’s fear of God which forces a person to treat other human well. He will be questioned on Judgment day and be punished if didn’t treat humans well. If one reads quranic verses like (2:213) & (10:19) then will understand that Islam treats everyone equally and asks followers to do same. Even you in your blog has referred (5:8) then what things stop you to make efforts and study rather making immature statements? This is opposite to what sort of education you would have been given at home and schools.
As Ghalib said so long ago: dil ke behlano ko yeh khiyal achha hai.
Ghalib said this when he was an Ignorant which we refer in todays world as Enlightened and Educated. When Ghalib suffered big time then later he said:
Na tha Kuch tu Khuda thaa…. kuch na hota tu Khuda hota
Sidhas,
jawab arz hai,
tou wo badnaseeb hai, jo paida howa us des main
jahaN chata hai her nafas rehna perdes main
Well expressed. I wonder how many of us have tried to settle back in Pakistan just to find ourselves in United States and then started allover:)
If I may, my own couplet, Arz kiya hai:
“Mashriq ki avaz hoon, na maghrib ki jankar hoon.
Najanay mein kis tahzeeb ka alam-bardar hoon.
In short, aadha teetar, aadha batair but very much unlike ABCD
Patriotism, nationality, etc are un-Islamic, humanity transcends all - even religion. All mature and educated people have an obligation to help the less fortunate where ever they may be regardless of religion, nationality or ethnicity. The answer lies in education and critical thinking and not in fear of hell or reward of heaven. As Ghalib said so long ago: dil ke behlano ko yeh khiyal achha hai.
Instead of bemaoning or romancing Pakistaniat we could all be working to improve the lives of people in Pakistan taking cue from heroic people like Mukhtaran bibi and Fasahat: http://tinyurl.com/2ksk29
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7028159.stm