From Lahore to Wana

Pakistan: There are two truths. Firstly, in the cultural parlance of the sub-continent, the word ‘Punjab’ evokes a sense of festivity. For centuries, the Punjabi soil has been nurturing the lavish crops of liberalism .By tradition, the Punjabis are known for their tolerance and open –mindedness. Music, jest, pluralism and women are the staples of the Punjabi culture.

Yet another truth is that in this land of saints, communal hatred devoured a million lives in 1947. Six years later, it was again Punjab where houses of Ahmedis were torched. Also, Punjab staged the initial enactments of the gory drama of sectarian carnage in 1980s.

What a tragic irony! But there is nothing illogical about it. The fall of Punjab from lofty liberalism to lowly fanaticism is perfectly explainable in terms of 3 factors: post-partition sentiments, bureaucratic opportunism and the Zia-ul-Haq factor.

The killings, rape and plunder which ravaged the united Punjab in 1947 left an indelible imprint on the collective Punjabi psyche. First, the scramble for the wealth and women of infidels which ensued in the wake of partition re-defined opportunism. Most heinous of the crimes were justified in the name of religion. Those who indulged in these crimes took pride in this savagery. It was a trend-setter. As the smoke billowing out of the then Hindu mohallah of Shahalmi marred the skyline of Lahore, the ominous clouds of religious violence also gathered on the horizon of Pakistan.

Secondly, Hindus emerged as a perennial foe. Battle-lines were loud and clear. Every bad thing that happened to the new country was swiftly declared as Hindu handiwork. Gradually, Jews, Communists and Christians also took their seats in the Hall of Paranoia. From Liaquat Ali Khan to Osama bin Laden, all misfortunes have conveniently been imputed to the ‘foreign’ hand.

Thirdly, once the Hindus were gone, the next step was cultural cleansing. It was preached that if socio-cultural basis of the society was not to be re-oriented in religious terms than what was the point in creating a new country.

The epithet “Hindu tradition” emerged as a fearsome prohibition and with the passage of time besakhi, basant, bindi and saree got equated with Hinduism and were denounced.

While the public had emotionally weakened, the bureaucracy cool headedly exploited the situation for its own good. As the country passed from a vice-regal age into an independent democracy, the bureaucracy suddenly found itself in a vulnerable position. Since its creation in 1792 as Covenanted Civil Service, the bureaucracy had been specifically designed to serve the interests of foreign rulers. With the Deputy Commissioner as linchpin of a repressive law and order apparatus it had always taken pride in being in-accessible to the natives. It was thus natural that it feared and resisted democracy at a local as well as national level.

Democracy meant local government was in the hands of elected representatives but the local government has always been a nightmare for Pakistani bureaucracy. In order to subvert it an alliance emerged at the district level. Bureaucracy needed feudals for support. The latter derived sanctity from the local pulpit .In short, democracy was declared un-Islamic by the trio. The common man was denied justice and the flames of his deprivation ultimately exploded into a conflagration which tends to jeopardise our very existence. Tuesday, The Dawn