I have so far presented the basic framework within which I envision the Samaji Tehreek-i-Pakistan to proceed as a movement. I am open to suggestions regarding a more viable mode of conducting the exercise, provided we do not radically change the objectives in the process. While we wait for the dialogue on that subject to mature into a complete thought and plan of action, let us revert to the dialogue with those who would like to think about the Samaji variety of Pakistan. Since the “tehreek side of things is not so active yet, I will present only one weekly blog. Perhaps we should also actively pursue the project of developing a network of the existing samaj based tehreeks which we can access through our current social links.
I belong to the Qanungo Sheikh denomination of biradri/qaum/zat but I have confessed already that I never laid claim to any connection with the biradri. I also belong to the “mainstream of the Pakistani academia” but am somewhat of a black sheep in its politics as a tribe. When I talk in Punjabi, an ethnocentric Punjabi may feel proud but is likely to be disappointed with my views on the evolution and growth of Pakistan’s regional languages. In short, I have to admit that I do not have many links with samaj based tehreeks in Pakistan. However, I am currently developing links in the residential community that I moved into a year or so ago. Therefore, I will concentrate on two subjects for the next few blogs that I present:
First: my experiences and observations on the communal interaction between Pakistan’s urban communities/samaj; mostly related to three cites of the Punjab: Multan, Lahore & Rawalpindi.
Second: my speculations and discussions with people belonging to the non-urban communities of Pakistan, such as the pastoral and agrarian settlements, but have an urban interface.
I will also try and add one of my articles [updated and made relevant to the focus of our tehreek] with at least one weekly blog if not with both.
In addition, whenever possible, I will focus on one of the issues that I raised when I started this venture. That is to say, what we can do to make our communal interface contribute to national and social betterment of the Pakistani qaum and its constituent samaj[s].
And, since there is no time that is better than the present, let me revert to this aspect in the blog of the day; hopefully to be uploaded tomorrow. In the Urdu audio on my blog entitled “What is Samaji Tehreek-i-Pakistan”, I suggested that regardless of your political and ideological bent of mind, you probably want Pakistan to have clean streets, facility of medical care for the sick, and food and clothing for the poor and destitute. This was a preliminary list of such basic issues regarding which consensus would be easy to achieve; but perhaps it is too docile for a proactive person and too trivial for eliciting action from those who expect nothing to improve in Pakistan.
Let me illustrate the implications and actualities that underlie these “docile” objectives. To take stock of the existing conditions, in my view, Pakistan rates quite low in the first, has improved in the second and has generally been extremely good in the third when we assess the urban life in Pakistan. I believe it is very difficult for the “average Pakistani” to not litter the environment; even though no Pakistani is a “common” Pakistani. I have observed that there is a considerable quantitative and qualitative improvement in the medical facilities in Pakistan during the past thirty years or so. Incidentally, there is also a compatible improvement in housing and domestic vegetation [gardening] in Pakistan’s urban culture. I claim, above all, that in matters of food or clothing, there is no class, more concerned with communal consciousness than the middle class in Pakistan. Feeding and clothing the poor within their circle is a communal pass time for them.
So, if we decide to take up these as communal concerns for the Samaji Tehreek-i-Pakistan, we would undertake to keep our environment clean. We would compete with neighboring localities and communities in improving medical facilities, housing and horticulture. And we would try to minimize the duplication of charity in some areas and divert it to others where the middle class is weak or cannot cope with the level of poverty. To put it another way, what we need to do is to assess which aspect of the essentials of civic sense are lacking in our community and then try to build the momentum necessary to develop a communal movement for increasing it.
While I am on the subject of a situation analysis, I think I will add a few sentences on what the Pakistani Samaj, as the basic organic unit of Pakistani society, has contributed to Pakistan as a state and the Pakistani nation as such. When we achieved “Independence”, we had virtually no intellectual, capital, or institutional resources. Our industrial base was non-existent; commerce and trade were alien activities to a majority of the Pakistani population, we had to learn the art of shop-keeping and the skills for running a mill; only a few people had been inducted into government service, a handful of bureaucrats and armed personnel reached the “officer” grade; and India refused to give us our share of capital equipment, little though it was.
A quarter of a century later, when we claim that the country was on the brink of economic take-off, Ayub Khan’s politics led to a coup against him and the elections brought a dismemberment of the state and country. Bangladesh was born and as its twin we created a “truncated” Pakistan. The take-off, such as it was, was real, but it was in a comparatively impoverished age, and had been aborted in infancy. Bhutto was able to revive the dream of food, clothing and shelter, but not to make it a reality. And then, again the fatal mistake of trying to “ensure democracy” in an “undemocratic way; followed by a military coup and a dictatorial rule.
No! I do not want to lapse into politics. I just want to tell you that the Pakistan of my childhood and youth was a country with few facilities for the few. We were then prepared to tighten our belts and let an elite rule us. The Pakistan of my middle age was a country trying to regain its moorings, a nation trying to live down its embarrassment and a society looking for its ideal of political and administrative management. I THINK THAT THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ACHIEVE IN THE PAST FIVE DECADES. I believe that all this has been made possible due to the resilience of our society due to the complexity of our samaj structure.
Today we have a good, but not outstanding system of communications; a reasonable network of medical and educational facilities; and an economy that seems to be able to land on its feet in every crisis. The battle for culture has a stranglehold over our education system but society is oblivious of it because we are catering to every samaji denomination that you can imagine. The economy is surviving because of the “informal sector” which the government and political parties curse but which government servants and politicians thrive on and support.
We, of the Samaji Tehreek-i-Pakistan, must find an interface between our Samaj and Pakistani society, the Pakistani Nation, the State of Pakistan and the political Government!!!
