Adil Najam
Mohammed Hanif, the brilliant author of the engrossing book “The Case of Exploding Mangoes” (I have been planning to write about it ever since I first read it many months ago; and I will) - known to many for his stint at Herald before he joined BBC’s Urdu Service – has just written a most cogent and readable op-ed in The Times of India which is wroth reading; whether you agree with it or not. It is a good argument as well as a good read. And I say that even thought there are more than one points here that I might quibble with. But before we quibble, lets give Mohammed Hanif the floor – and a full and proper hearing. Here is the op-ed he wrote in The Times of India, in full:
Ten Myths About Pakistan
Living in Pakistan and reading about it in the Indian press can sometimes be quite a disorienting experience: one wonders what place on earth they’re talking about? I wouldn’t be surprised if an Indian reader going through Pakistani papers has asked the same question in recent days. Here are some common assumptions about Pakistan and its citizens that I have come across in the Indian media.
1. Pakistan controls the jihadis: Or Pakistan’s government controls the jihadis. Or Pakistan Army controls the jihadis. Or ISI controls the jihadis. Or some rogue elements from the ISI control the Jihadis. Nobody knows the whole truth but increasingly it’s the tail that wags the dog. We must remember that the ISI-Jihadi alliance was a marriage of convenience, which has broken down irrevocably. Pakistan army has lost more soldiers at the hands of these jihadis than it ever did fighting India.
2. Musharraf was in control, Zardari is not: Let’s not forget that General Musharraf seized power after he was fired from his job as the army chief by an elected prime minister. Musharraf first appeased jihadis, then bombed them, and then appeased them again. The country he left behind has become a very dangerous place, above all for its own citizens. There is a latent hankering in sections of the Indian middle class for a strongman. Give Manmohan Singh a military uniform, put all the armed forces under his direct command, make his word the law of the land, and he too will go around thumping his chest saying that it’s his destiny to save India from Indians. Zardari will never have the kind of control that Musharraf had. But Pakistanis do not want another Musharraf.
3. Pakistan, which Pakistan? For a small country, Pakistan is very diverse, not only ethnically but politically as well. General Musharraf’s government bombed Pashtuns in the north for being Islamists and close to the Taliban and at the same time it bombed Balochs in the South for NOT being Islamists and for subscribing to some kind of retro-socialist, anti Taliban ethos. You have probably heard the joke about other countries having armies but Pakistan’s army having a country. Nobody in Pakistan finds it funny.
4. Pakistan and its loose nukes: Pakistan’s nuclear programme is under a sophisticated command and control system, no more under threat than India or Israel’s nuclear assets are threatened by Hindu or Jewish extremists. For a long time Pakistan’s security establishment’s other strategic asset was jihadi organisations, which in the last couple of years have become its biggest liability.
5. Pakistan is a failed state: If it is, then Pakistanis have not noticed. Or they have lived in it for such a long time that they have become used to its dysfunctional aspects. Trains are late but they turn up, there are more VJs, DJs, theatre festivals, melas, and fashion models than a failed state can accommodate. To borrow a phrase from President Zardari, there are lots of non-state actors like Abdul Sattar Edhi who provide emergency health services, orphanages and shelters for sick animals.
6. It is a deeply religious country: Every half-decent election in this country has proved otherwise. Religious parties have never won more than a fraction of popular vote. Last year Pakistan witnessed the largest civil rights movements in the history of this region. It was spontaneous, secular and entirely peaceful. But since people weren’t raising anti-India or anti-America slogans, nobody outside Pakistan took much notice.
7. All Pakistanis hate India: Three out of four provinces in Pakistan - Sindh, Baluchistan, NWFP - have never had any popular anti-India sentiment ever. Punjabis who did impose India as enemy-in-chief on Pakistan are now more interested in selling potatoes to India than destroying it. There is a new breed of al-Qaida inspired jihadis who hate a woman walking on the streets of Karachi as much as they hate a woman driving a car on the streets of Delhi. In fact there is not much that they do not hate: they hate America, Denmark, China CDs, barbers, DVDs , television, even football. Imran Khan recently said that these jihadis will never attack a cricket match but nobody takes him seriously.
8. Training camps: There are militant sanctuaries in the tribal areas of Pakistan but definitely not in Muzaffarabad or Muridke, two favourite targets for Indian journalists, probably because those are the cities they have ever been allowed to visit. After all how much training do you need if you are going to shoot at random civilians or blow yourself up in a crowded bazaar? So if anyone thinks a few missiles targeted at Muzaffarabad will teach anyone a lesson, they should switch off their TV and try to locate it on the map.
9. RAW would never do what ISI does: Both the agencies have had a brilliant record of creating mayhem in the neighbouring countries. Both have a dismal record when it comes to protecting their own people. There is a simple reason that ISI is a bigger, more notorious brand name: It was CIA’s franchise during the jihad against the Soviets. And now it’s busy doing jihad against those very jihadis.
10. Pakistan is poor, India is rich: Pakistanis visiting India till the mid-eighties came back very smug. They told us about India’s slums, and that there was nothing to buy except handicrafts and saris. Then Pakistanis could say with justifiable pride that nobody slept hungry in their country. But now, not only do people sleep hungry in both the countries, they also commit suicide because they see nothing but a lifetime of hunger ahead. A debt-ridden farmer contemplating suicide in Maharashtra and a mother who abandons her children in Karachi because she can’t feed them: this is what we have achieved in our mutual desire to teach each other a lesson.
So, quibble if you will. But do tell us what you think about the argument that Hanif is making.
If one cuts to the meat of the long-winded posts by Indians on this forum, one can see that they admit no mistake by India and no flaw in Indians and squarely put the blame on Pakistanis, whether they be “Pakistani commentators” or “Pakistani generals” or somebody else. This is the typical Indian mentality where Kashmir is not a problem, the plight of Indian Muslims is ignored, India’s internal problems either don’t exist or are very minor, and all “Muslims” or “Pakistan” are the cause of all problems.
Its a pity that in recent years in Pakistan such India-centric views have also found root in segments of the Pakistani public. These segments think that by harping on “improved relations” and bad-mouthing the army, they are joining the modern world and being very civilized, which is wrong.
@ Amir Hussain
You are right, it was an unfortunate reaction. It is a pity that negative forces in Pakistan, otherwise defeated and discredited, have been revived by our display of anger.
I could plead extenuating circumstances, but I think we all know what caused this anger among otherwise somewhat phlegmatic Indians.
However, it would have been dishonest not to have acknowledged what I felt at that time, and for some time later. While my views have changed, those of many others who felt like that have not. I believe that if they were to read views such as have been expressed on this forum, there would be a lot of wonderment, and a great deal of calmer and more rational thinking.
Having said that, it is clear that people in Pakistan don’t realise that adverse sentiment has been building up for some time, and the explosion after Mumbai was the explosion of a lot that has been pent up for months now.
So where do we go from here? Accepting for a moment that the President, the Chief of Army Staff and the Chief of military intelligence are sincere and clear in their view of what is good for Pakistan and for the future of Pakistan, we hope that some concrete action will be taken which can be linked, in some fashion, to the events in Mumbai. If it is done within a reasonable period of time, if it is done with some acknowledgement that the culprits, and none beyond the culprits, deserve the treatment that is proposed to be given them by Pakistani authorities and processes, you may find a great deal of the uproar dying down.
The individual ‘official’ that I found most irritating in his stonewalling was Prime Minister Gilani. He may have had his reasons, he may be a good man in other ways, but what is coming across is not very convincing. I would like to write at greater length about Pakistani experts and commentators on Indian TV, but don’t feel comfortable posting so frequently and so close together. Maybe some other time.
@ Watan Aziz
Yes, of course, but seldom encountered such a like-minded set. Outside my home mailing list, Silk List, I’ve seldom felt so comfortable and so welcome as here.
Which was, it is embarrassing to admit, a huge surprise; Mohammed Hanif is uncomfortably close to the bone. Ah, well, one lives and learns. If you like, I could point you towards some good blogs, but somebody (Arjun, I think) has beaten me to it.
BTW, I came here by typing in ‘Pakistan + blogs’ into Google, and thereafter wading through Pakistan Defence Review (both versions) - quelle horreur! - and lurking on Pitafi.com, which I rather like. It is very pleasing to find that other Indians who write in are so simpatico, even the robust right-wing among them.
@Watan Aziz (again)
Speaking for myself, I think in India we are a work in progress. I wouldn’t try to tell anybody else that we are ‘better’ than them, just work on our own weaknesses - isn’t that a large enough job?
@ exploding mangoes
Aren’t you being a tad too harsh on yourselves? Think how we felt during the Emergency.
I remember my father, a very senior policeman, seating the family in solemn conclave and discussing how to leave the country (he was in favour of leaving by way of Bhutan to Nepal, since he knew Jigme Dorji the Bhutanese PM), since life in an undemocratic India would be intolerable.
Coming to think of it, if Indira hadn’t lost - and gracefully accepted the verdict - and if later Sanjay hadn’t died in his plane, what would we have done? It just doesn’t bear thinking about.
I have to go back to earning a living again, so au revoir to all you good people.
India has one family dominating the democracy with a fresh and new pair of prime ministers-in-waiting, ready to tag team. Bangladesh has one pair of ladies, ready to tag team. Pakistan has one fraternity of brothers, ready to tag team. Sri Lanka has one family, ready to tag team. Nepal, Bhutan and however partially independent Sikkhim going through their phases.
Can you not see the total break down of justice across this entire land? Is inequity not the currency that is fueling this madness amongst the unemployed who feed on daily dose of ignorance?
How and why is everyone trying to tell the other we are better?
@ Exploding Mangoes….
you opined as follows: ‘After all the Christians created Pakistan with a purpose…’
Thankyou for dragging an interesting discussion down to the level of the asinine….
PS: and of course you have facts to back up your claim….but ofcourse!
Adil Najam! is he out of sur these days ?
”
Durrani says:
January 14th, 2009 2:27 pm
Dear exploding mangoes, you do know that this book si a work of FICTION?
”
Yes, I know that. I also know that it belongs to the genre called magical realism in which art imitates life. However from Hafiz to Horace and from Garcia Marquez to Ovid, magical realism should be “realistic”. The artist should not compromise when writing political fiction especially, with the truth. And of course the other tragic part to this is that we Pakistanis have never really investigated the assassinations of our heroes from Liaquat Ali Khan to Zia Ul Haq to Hakim Saeed (to the pending assassination of Dr A Q Khan which could happen any time).
Art should embrace the truth and only the truth. I will not use Adil’s blog to peddle any more of my ideas.
And of course, to compare a free country like India with a colonised state which is ruled by the US Viceroy ( and it is not even a secret unlike in Iraq where at least for appearances sale the puppet government is sovereign). I am no admirer of Iran but the most “Islamic” element to Iran’s revolution was the elimination of enemy moles. Why can we not do that in Pakistan?
I admit fighting India has not much to do with any of this. After all the Christians created Pakistan with a purpose. Those who want to fight India may please proceed to do so without further notice.
@bloody civilian
Perhaps if your beloved politicians were’nt so totally incompetent and utterly corrupt, they would not have been thrown out by the military four times in Pakistan’s history. The politicians have been part and parcel of military regimes.
I also reject the currently fashionable view among Pakistanis to blame Pakistan Army for everything. I think the people of Pakistan also share the blame for the state of affairs in Pakistan. The Army has indeed made mistakes, it has also defended the country against Indian aggression and internal terrorism. Since 2001 the army has been fighting the very extremists that have ruined FATA and NWFP of Pakistan, yet Pakistanis called such soldiers “American dogs fighting for American money” and refused to support their efforts. Its only in the last 2.5 years, and having suffered tremendously from terrorism that the same Pakistani “awam” now demands that the army eliminate extremism and accuses it of having a hidden agendas like “strategic depth”. But even now, there is no shortage of talk show hosts and politicians and commoners who still sympathize with these militants. Our awam is indeed ignorant and confused.
To Bonabashi, Amir Hussain, DAN, Arjun, Pasha, Bloody civilian and other like minded individuals:
I wish we moderates can have a permanent forum for an intelligent discussion of these sometimes taboo topics. My reason for it is as follows:
26/11 (and the subsequent massive media and political point and counterpoint that followed) has shown that no other two peoples are stuck at the hip as we are. Every political statement, media commentary and reported security move from one side resulted in a counter statement, analysis and reply by the other. Unfortunately the dialogue (on many planes) was and remains purely reactive and inflammatory.
Each side is often ignorant of the apprehensions, fears and compulsions of the other side. The moderates like us watch with alarm while extremists gloat and goad on an increasingly alarmed and confused populations towards visions of Armageddon (Sudarshans interview is but one example)
A forum such as this could counter the extremist agenda if we all communicated regularly and raised our voices over the din of jingoistic propaganda. In time this potential people to people dialogue could become a partnership of intellectuals for peace and sanity.
I invite all your views and comments in this regard.
Specifically in reply to previous posts, @ D_A_N, I agree that my comment regarding Ahmediyas in Pakistan can seem holier than thou but that was not the intention.
God knows, India has many shameful episodes of its own that I wish we did not have (1984 anti Sikh riots, Babri Masjid riots, Gujarat) the list is long. The point however is that two wrongs dont make a right. We in India have to work on our side. Thus for each communal Modi that you hear about, we have to create hundreds of secular opinion leaders like Bonabashi. It is our home and we cant expect an outsider to fight for us. Similarly when a decent human being and genius like Abdus Salam is denied the rights of citizenship, it is up to people like you, Amir Hussain and like to create an opinion against it. Only then can a decent and humane South Asian society take its place in the community of civilized nations.
I mentioned Jinnah in my post because his speech on Aug 11th 1947 is timeless and in my humble opinion can set the course to build a secular, modern and a self confident Pakistan. (http://pakistanspace.tripod.com/archives/47jin11. htm) Nehru gave another similarly eloquent and visionary speech in Delhi on the eve of 14th Aug which should be our moral compass in India. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2007/may/01 /greatspeeches).
Finally in response to Bloody Civilian, I agree with him that may be our founding fathers could have done more to reassure the minorities and to avoid partition.
I can only say that maybe they failed on their generations version of the fight between the moderates and the extremists.
Nevertheless the pre-partition generation of ordinary people, freedom fighters, reformers etc. was a generation of giants, the likes of which has never before been seen in our civilization. They passed us this homeland, free of foreign rule. It is up to us to pass a better land free of communalist, extremists and generalissimos to the next generation.
It has been said that all it takes for evil to triumph is for the good people to do nothing.
Events like Marriott bombings and 26/11 have shown that ‘doing nothing’ is not an option. We all are fighting the same generational battle for the hearts and minds of our people against extremism. The sooner we demolish the myths about each other and join forces the better it is.
Even if change one mind at a time, it is worthwhile.