Two things before I get into the topic of the day.
First, for the time being I intend to post two blogs a week, one on Wednesday and one on Saturday. In case of need, I can increase the frequency. Normally, I will try and make the blog bilingual and/or add an audio. Second, I am afraid I am not going to be able to remain serious consistently. My sense of humor has been trying to find a way into my text, so please bear with me if you find a joke or quip in the text.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT I HAVE ADDED A PAGE WITH MY ARTICLES ON RELATED SUBJECTS FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN KNOWING WHY I CAME TO THE CONCLUSIONS I PRESENT TO YOU. .
All Pakistanis are un-”common”.
Of course, all Individuals are unique but a ‘common’ denominator binds a group of individuals to make a community. The “typical Pakistani” will be able to develop a sense of community in one form or other with every other Pakistani. At the same time, it is possible for two Pakistanis to form three communities and an infinite number of animosities with each other based on linguistic, religious, professional or occupational rivalry; not to mention, provincial, ethnic, and tribal grounds.
When I started looking for a “typical” or common Pakistani citizen I began by looking for a “common factor”, apart from citizenship, to be associated with a large number of Pakistanis. In most nations, it is the mother tongue. However, there are many in which racial and cultural factors are important but the people speak more than one language as a mother tongue. We all know that in Pakistan even the provinces have more than one language in the category of “mother tongue” which Is spoken by either a majority or a very significant minority. Baluchistan, which is thinly populated is mainly Brahvi and Baloch but also some districts that are dominated by Pashtuns. In Sindh there is a significant Urdu speaking population. The Punjab claims many languages or dialects. Even KP has at least five spoken languages.
Take a typical Englishman, he is likely to have a professional community, a club or pub community and, if he is lucky [or unlucky], a family. Some of them may go as far as associating with neighbors socially but their major commitments are to the ‘nation’ [and thus the state] and their club or pub. All others are options which they may take or leave. The Pakistani will be a member of a paternal family; a maternal family; a set of in-laws, also so divided; a clan/zat/biradri/tribe [or all of these]; a religious denomination [this can easily be a sub-branch of a sub-branch of a sect, or an entire sect as a single denomination]; and a member of the community of his domicile [with a more select sub-group of personal friends] depending on his social skills. And overarching all of the above, is the communal division of Pakistani society as male and female. This, in particular, irks the modern mind because it leads to segregation of the sexes at social functions.
Returning to the serious matter of Pakistani communities [samaj], the individual Pakistani’s commitment to all these communal relationships is so deep and strong that any obligation to state, nation and society can barely find a place in the sacrifice or expenditure of our time, our energy and our wealth that it entails. That is why I have come to the conclusion that only by using the samaj as a conduit will we be able to involve the Pakistani public in the nation-building exercise. After all that is precisely the unifying principle of our water system. Pakistan is integrated by our geography of ecologies, linked around the Indus and its tributaries.
I expect to keep returning to this theme in the framework of Pakistanis as a set of communities bound with one another through each of the fissures that I have listed above. Because each Pakistani is bound with so many of our communal identities, he/she is a bond between the communities that have rights over him/her. However, this bonding becomes more complex as we move from a simpler social formation of our nomadic and pastoral communities to a complex urban fabric, and on to the intricacies of cosmopolitan life.
The village may be a single sect [even a unified population of a single sub-sect of a sub-sect], and an ethnic and linguistic unity; not so the town and the city. In the provincial capitals a person may go to a bus stand and not be able to understand half the conversations going on there, when all the people present are Pakistanis. A person may also be unable to understand the conversation of a friend of a different ethnicity even after several years of friendship. Even small urban centers can be multi-ethnic in Pakistan.
In an effort to engage you, may I ask: do you think this is good or bad for our integration as a nation and our functioning as a state or society?