Nationalism uplift for green Pakistan

Exploiting sensitive ethno-linguistic issues should be discouraged

Whether my country is right or wrong, nationalism is basically associated and defined with a firm and unshakable national pride, with enduring love of country, of their nation, unbound feelings of patriotism and finally unquestionable loyalty. Wikipedia and internet presents multifold definitions of nationalism such as “devotion to the interests or culture of one’s nation, a belief that nation will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively that emphasizing national rather than international goals, aspirations for national independence in a country under foreign domination, a sentiment based on common cultural characteristics that binds a group of population and often produces a policy of national independence or separatism, a loyalty or patriotism to one’s country that leads to fanatical devotion to the interest of national community, the desire for national advancement or independence and the doctrine or policy of asserting the true interests of a particular nation based on cultural values over the interests of other nations”. While accepting the fact that all these norms or characteristics are true in spirit for strengthening and unifying the diversified community bond, it nevertheless provides realistic fundamental ingredient to the growth and development of any just nation or society.

Earlier in the recent past, nationalism has been considered as an important instrument to unify various multi-ethnic and multi-cultural groups in the European continent that led to an overall but gradual society development of our time. For example, in the 19^th centuries, a unified wave of romantic nationalism swept the continent of Europe transforming the various countries of the continent. With a spirit of common national identity, here some new countries, such as Germany and Italy were formed by merging smaller states. Others, such as Romania, Greece, Poland and Bulgaria, followed the same path and were formed by winning their independence. Furthermore, a French revolution paved the way for the modern nation-state and also had a fair contribution in the emergence of nationalism. Here, political transformation across Europe was led by radical intellectual Bonaparte Napoleon, where revolutionary armies carried out the popular slogan of liberty, equality and brotherhood along with the idea of liberalism and self-determination. A process of national awakening emerged out of an intellectual debate to the enlightenment that emphasized national identity and developed a romantic view of cultural self-expression through nationhood at gross root level.

More recently, a German leader G.W. Friedrich Hegel introduced a modern idea of a nation state where he argued that a sense of nationality should be considered hard cement that held diversified societies together in the age when dynastic and religious allegiance is in decline.

Over a period of time and through various movements (e.g., 1804 Serbian movement, 1815 Congress of Vienna, 1821-29 National independence declaration by Greek and the revolution against the Ottoman empire, 1846 uprising in greater Poland, 1830 Belgian revolution, 1859-1861 Italy unification, 1866-1871 German unification, 1867 Irish nationalist uprising movement and 1908 Bulgaria independence), the growth and development of nationalism was expanded and continued in Europe and even widely spread in other parts of the world in various stages. As a result of this, a true spirit of national harmony and prosperity established their roots to strengthen the society at national level. Finally, we see a strong and prosperous unified Europe today, embedded with industrial growth and with functional social welfare system in place for the people and by the people.

Reflecting the dominance of religious and political elite in Pakistan, a concept of unified nationalism is gradually being shattered. Note that the fundamental concept of the two nation theory on which Pakistan was founded was largely based on Muslim nationalism that resulted in its status as Islamic republic. Internal differentiating conflicts induced by various racial, sectarian, ethnic or linguistic groups are further shrinking nationalism space in the country. It is worth to mention that these ethno-linguistic factors have been a far more prevalent cause of strife in specific areas of Pakistan, besides religious activism. Rather than unified national integrated politics based on various real issues, our politicians are further using negative tactics to exploit these conflicting virtues to get more political gain from different segments of the society. Worsening country’s economy due to many other reasons, a greater polarization between rich and poor is noticed now a days. Regrettable to say that national language “Urdu” is still not widely spoken and understood in all state provinces since independence. Note that Pakistan is also missing a unified education system at School level, acceptable to all faction of society that results in a diversified mindset in the country. While hardly visible and untouched issue in the public domain, Pakistani national flag has been buried under umbrella flags of various political and religious parties inside the country.

Fundamental factors such as communitarianism (i.e. a philosophical approach that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community), cultural identity, unified religious belief, respect of national flag, integrated identity and national politics, belief on the meaning of state emergence and existence, equality of justice, system of national accountability, objective of Pakistan resolution, struggle for self-confidence and national independence are the key parameters that lay the foundation for establishing true nationalism in the country. All these objective parameters are following the route of collective national demise in Pakistan now. A lack of communitarianism and decline of communal bonds along with respect for traditional cultural and religious values are being eroded in our society by various means.

A classic example of demise of our nationalism is associated with the gradual growing influence of arch rival India in Pakistan – through media (i.e. Indian movies on TV channels and on Cinemas, TV commercials, fashion shows etc.), promoting Indian goods in Pakistani market, projecting Indian national heroes on Pakistani channels and paying frequent visits by artists pose major threat not only to the spirit of our national pride but also raises concern for our young generation who try to often adopt Indian popular slang and dialect learned through Bollywood movies. Contrary to largely Indian absence in Pakistani musical concerts in Europe and in America, Indian based musical concerts are generally fully packed with Pakistani audience, presents another shameful example of declining faith on our nationalism belief. On the other side, presenting liberal Turkish plays at prime time slot on Pakistani TV channels proving to be a cultural Titanic for Pakistani TV media business.

A huge foreign investment in the Pakistani media as exposed recently in the private TV media for exploiting and projecting cultural image of respective countries presents another source of concern for deteriorating nationalism spirit. Moral and political support given to Kashmiri brothers, issues of Sir Creek, Siachen, Indus Water Treaty and Kashmir conflict where the whole nation has been united so far and also linked with prime resource building capacity, are considered now forgotten chapters.

The situation is even more disturbing among Pakistani families living abroad where the children are now questioning about our national identity and possession of Islamic belief and ideology. Knowing the fact that Indian goods and Indian influence is growing worldwide and Pakistan definitely cannot be left out of this emerging development, a fair amount of our ignorant population is ready to respond positively that should be discouraged with full strength and with utmost belief. More interestingly, exponential growth trend is frequently witnessed among youth male and female discussing about Indian popular songs and movies and think of Indian actors and actresses as their legitimate heroes. Importing and celebrating alien days (e.g., mother day, father day, and valentine day etc.,) with full panorama in our national domain presents another source of frustration for demolishing our religious values where respect to father and mother is boundless by default and for everyday. It is really painful to see that vast majority of Pakistani society take these critical issues as pointless and simply ignored.

Admitting the fact that business and developing good relation with neighbors are critical for economical and national survivability, various national contentious issues described earlier should not be neglected at any cost besides sustaining nationalism belief in the society.

Note that the nationalism is not born by itself but is artificially made and then polished by intellectuals, nationalists and religious think-tanks. Religious and sectarian intolerance is not born by itself but is artificially induced in the society. Other racial and ethnic factors described earlier are also human made and fabricated for political gain. Now, the question comes into mind what should we do to protect our cultural, religious and national values as earlier voiced by Ch. Rahmat Ali’s pamphlet entitle “Now or Never, Are we to live together or perish forever?”.

The role of our governments has so far been extremely deplorable in all fronts that allowed unlimited penetration of Bollywood and other alien culture into our society. Firstly, this Bollywood embedded Pakistani mindset needs to be thoroughly washed out in real sense by promoting religious and cultural values, supporting our industrial products, exploiting young talent and ensuring that our countrymen are the best in all walks of life. Legal mechanism should be in place as earliest possible to make sure that the right (and filtered) content is shown on the screen. A countrywide well-disciplined national campaign with the support of intellectual think-tanks, academics, businessmen, artists, analysts and students should be launched to promote nationalism agenda in the country. Simultaneously, a culture of awareness should be introduced among school children so as to realize them that how important is the nationalism uplift for growth, development and sustainability of any nation/country. Pro-western NGOs that provide recipes for secular mindset in the country should strongly be condemned and let them not allow exploiting their classified agenda that violates nationalism spirit. While Pakistan is a victim of globalization, supremacy of national interests over personal interest should be upheld at all cost to justify utmost love for the nation. Above all, it’s our responsibility to confine wish list and pattern of living within religious and cultural bounds. While Pakistani pocket is already filled with true national heroes, a pro-government strategic driving force is needed to actualize the potential of this nation. Simultaneously, politician and religious scholars should be discouraged and banned from exploiting sensitive ethno-linguistic issues. Finally and for green Pakistan, let us unite, push and commemorate the nationalism uplift in the country as originally defined and set by Allama Iqbal and Quaid e Azam for people at their best.

The writer is a senior scientist/researcher at ABB Corporate Research. He can be reached at: [email protected]