A culture of intolerance has become one of the defining features of Pakistan in this day and age.
Where ethnic discrimination and religious intolerance run rampant, real development is but a dream, illusory and short lived.
Where the world moves towards what the sociologists would call a melting pot monoculture, the Pakistani society, insecure of its own identity and ideological basis and goals, actively engages the “threat” of the so called “cultural hegemony”. In so doing, it not only loses the very identity it deigns to protect, but also ensures that a culture based on extremism and fanaticism gains momentum.
Is this not apparent when we analyse Pakistan’s failed policies to prevent the Indian media from infiltrating Pakistani homes? The new age, characterised by globalisation, is headed towards an amalgamation.
It can be argued that it is impossible, even fatal, to resist. Now, there are – as I see it – two alternatives that present themselves.
One, to accept the culture of the world and amalgamate it with our own, thereby not only allowing our culture to survive, but to grow, as has been successfully done by India, or second, to promote this active resistance to the monoculture, thereby birthing an extremist culture that does not accept anything save its own ideology. There is a choice before us; it is upon us to decide what path we shall choose.
MUHAMMAD SHEHROZ HIRAJ
Lahore
