An alternative narrative

The time is ripe to go beyond the fear syndrome

Seldom has a single incident impacted the psyche of a nation as much as the dastardly attack on Malala has done. Quite suddenly, the four corners of the country are abuzz with an impassioned plea for an alternative narrative.
But, there are adversarial voices also that are trying to douse the growing rationale for this much-delayed transition. They don’t have any counter-logic to present. Instead, and true to tradition, they are doing so by instilling the fear factor among people about the damage that the change would bring. They also do so by distorting the historical ethos of the state of Pakistan and by defacing and defiling the clear guidelines that the Quaid had delineated in his historic address to the constituent assembly on August 11, 1947 wherein he gave the broad contours of a state that shall be administered without any discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, colour or creed: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed, that has nothing to do with the business of the State. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State”. And he went on to proclaim: “Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that, in course of time, Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State”. Such were the daunting ideals that the founding father had set forth for the new state to aspire to and such were the imperishable principles that he wanted the people to live by.
It is because of this enlightened narrative that the religious parties had opposed the idea of a separate state for the Muslims of South Asia. They dubbed the Quaid as “Kafir-e-Azam” and fought desperately for nullifying his struggle. But, once Pakistan became a reality, they espoused it and started brandishing their myopic vision. After the early death of the Quaid, they moved quickly to distort the enlightening narrative that he had outlined for the new state and, instead, put across an obscurantist agenda that was the very anti-thesis of all that the Quaid had stood for. Unfortunately, because of a dearth of dedicated and clear-headed leadership and also because of the long dictatorial interludes, Pakistan quickly sank into the embrace of fundamentalism and chartered a course that pushed it head-long towards disaster. That’s where the country finds itself today with little to no prospect of an immediate remedy.
It is also true that continued embrace of the demon of militancy has drained the country of any pragmatic relevance and there is little left by way of an acceptable rationale to measure up to the parameters of contemporary survival. It has continued to sink since the early seventies and there are no signs on the horizon that would signal a change of course. According to all objective analyses, the country may already have reached the pit which leaves us with two options: sit at the bottom and continue to rot or find the way back to the top and plan to move forward.
For a number of years, we have continued to rot. We have done so by embracing the culture of obscurantism, violence and militancy. The human element has been gradually overpowered by the animal in us which has contributed to the emergence of a fear syndrome obliterating the prospect of formulating our priorities and policies in consonance with the yardsticks of reason and logic. An overdose of religion has completely distorted the national fundamentals and has virtually pushed us into a tight embrace with disaster.
For a while one feared that such was our destiny and there was little that one could do by way of changing that. The Malala shooting altered all that overnight. The pent-up emotions suddenly found an outlet and loud voices started emanating from all corners that we had suffered enough at the hands of these obscurantist bands and it was time to move beyond them and beyond their writ that they had forcibly imposed on the country and its people. It was as if suddenly the fear hovering over had started lifting letting through whiffs of fresh air and, with it, renewed vigour and determination to fight these merchants of violence and militancy. People wanted their freedom back which they had been deprived of by these thugs brandishing their weapons of religious discrimination and historical distortion.
Pakistan is at the crossroads – yet again. On the one hand is the culture of violence that a miniscule minority has fraudulently weaved for it to espouse while, on the other is the prospect of deliverance and the start of a long and arduous journey to finally go beyond the syndrome of fear and captivity – ideals which had been so eloquently outlined by the Quaid in his maiden address to the constituent assembly. There is little by way of choice that the people have before them. If they would continue to live in the past, there is unmitigated destruction that awaits them. For them, there is only the option of extricating themselves from the clutches of obscurantism and taking the fledgling steps to embracing the ideals of their creation. Pakistan has suffered enough. People have suffered enough. They don’t have anything left in them to suffer any further. For them, there is only one choice: free themselves from the demons of darkness and move decisively into the realm of light which may be a flicker just yet, but shall begin to shine bright once pursued.
Malala has made this alternative narrative possible. The time is ripe. One hopes we don’t sacrifice it at the altar of fear.

The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]