‘Now’ can be a different time, I learned in Pakistan
Mazar-e-Azam
of the National Mausoleum is an iconic landmark of the city of Karachi
and refers to the tomb of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, widely known as the
founder of Pakistan. Built atop the highest point in Karachi and
surrounded by an elegantly landscaped 61 acre garden, the monument
exudes the sobriety, peace and reverence appropriate to a man of
Jinnah’s stature and accomplishment.
Jinnah’s imagination
Nation-birthing is never a clinical affair. The politics leading up
to the parting of ways between the Hindu dominated and Muslim areas of
the subcontinent was traumatic, bloody, forgettable and unforgotten.
Leaders never have it easy at such times and as a result invite much
invective. They are revered even as they are vilified. Jinnah was no
exception.
Pakistan today is and is not the Pakistan of Jinnah and Jinnah’s
imagination. Nation-birth does not mean national peace from birthday
onwards into foreseeable future and tomorrows beyond imagination. So it
was and is with Pakistan. That however is a longer story whose narration
would necessarily be interrupted by the fractures inherent in unfolding.
It is a matter for historian and political scientist.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah |
In the inner sanctum there is silence. Outside there is enough space
for reflection. Retired Major Ather Mir, Project Manager of the
Bagh-e-Quaid had a lot to say about the leader and the history of
Pakistan. He knew the details and slipped in anecdote deftly to colour
his narrative with allusion to the ways of the world, in their
generality and specificity.
A nation is not made by a single individual. A leader helps lay
foundation and charts avenues into what are perceived to be better
tomorrows. An edifice is not built by the architect. Everyone, from
cement-mixer to bricklayer, craftsman to painter and countless others
have to chip into turn design into visible monument to labour and sense
of national belonging. It has to be inhabited too. No nation is ever
built to perfection. Approximating perfection takes centuries. Pakistan
is young, in a sense, and its achievements are considerable and
applause-worthy given the circumstances in which it was born, the
battering it has had to withstand since and the convulsions it had to
suffer from within.
Harappan times
In its today and tomorrow, Pakistan like any other nation look to its
leaders and its monuments, both those associated with founding and those
that are resident in artifact, landscape and culture going back to the
Harappan times. There is history in this land. There is commerce and
trade with centuries long histories. This land has known civilizational
encounters second to none. Culture have met, warred, embraced and
synthetized into new ways of being. Philosophies too. There is wealth in
resources that many would envy. Then there are human beings, flawed as
well as exceptional. In the end it all comes down to what people do with
what they have.
Pakistan will do what’s best for Pakistan.
Nations learn from one another. People too. I listened to a retired
soldier. He spoke of a man called Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, a close
associate and friend of Jinnah and Governor of Punjab. He was one of the
six people who made up Jinnah’s first cabinet of minister. He was
powerful, one might say. He was respected and loved, Major Ather said.
He belonged to a different time, literally and metaphorically,
apparently.
Short story
This elected official was deeply religious. He prayed at the Data
Durbar. Everyday. The mosque was located some five miles from his
office. As Governor, he had an official vehicle and a chauffeur. He
walked. Everyday. When he left office he didn’t have a place to stay.
This is a Pakistan story and a South Asian one as well. It is a
global tale, come to think of it. It belongs to the Book of Yesterday.
Today, half a century later, almost, it is hard to see it as relevant to
a collection of essay under a title such as ‘Our Today’. Things are
never right at the present and that’s a truism that cuts across time and
space. At best would it to be a part of a collection called ‘Tomorrow’s
Tales’.
Time-location notwithstanding, it is a story that we can read and
move on or else make a part of who we are, as individuals and
collectives.
Nations learn from one another. People too. A retired soldier and a
statesman who has passed on wove a short story. I listened.
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