The Domino Effect: How Identity Crisis Shapes Pakistan's Major Issues

Anti-Hindu comments by Pakistani sports anchor Zainab Abbas made big headlines across India.

Although she apologised later, the genesis of all such statements is the deeply ingrained anti-India and especially, anti-Sanatana Dharma sentiments within Pakistanis.

Our successful Chandrayaan, Aditya mission and other space missions, achievements of our pharma sector, IT industry and automobile sector are causing lot of heartburns in Pakistan.

I follow few Pakistani intellectuals like Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy, Syed Muzammil and many podcasts. They are bit more objective than others and genuinely criticise the fundamentals of the two-nation theory on which Pakistan was formed, however, they are primarily leftist and peddle the leftist and western views about Bharat.

I also follow few Pakistan Youtubers like Sohaib Chaudhary, Sana Amjad, etc. as these Youtubers interview common Pakistanis on streets and ask them to react on India’s success stories.

Although curated, these street interviews of common Pakistanis are quite interesting as they help understand the psyche of Pakistani society.

One aspect is very evident, that Pakistani society is highly radicalised on Islamic lines and has developed deep-rooted hatred for Bharat, Hindus and non-Islamic minorities, including Ahmadiyyas.

However, we also see large section of Pakistani people appreciating Bharat’s focus on modern education, especially role of our premier institutions like IITs, IISc, NITs, IIMs, etc in training excellent human resource.

Also, they have huge contempt for their politicians and establishment and brand them corrupt and crooks.

Undoubtedly, the primary reason for our success is our society’s huge emphasis on education. We have the world’s second largest higher and technical education system and large number of even our Tier-2 education institutions are producing excellent quality human resource.

Now, western world looks at India as a supplier of skilled and educated human resource like engineers, doctors, scientists and professors.

The depth of our talent was evident from a recently published analysis of educational institutions of a scientist from our Chandrayaan team. Almost all of them are from Tier-2 or Tier-3 technical institutions.

I have seen many discussions on Pakistani television, on how large number of ‘bindi and saree wearing’, temple-going Hindu women have contributed critically in the Chandrayaan mission. For Pakistani society it was simply incomprehensible.

Undoubtedly, we Bharatiyas have now become every aspirational and are not ready to compromise.

Now we are aspiring to be the best in the world. However, we are also not ready to compromise on our Bharatiya value systems, our rich culture and heritage — which has a history of more than 5,000 years.

Even the world has started graciously embracing our Yoga, Ayurveda, Vedic literature, traditions, temple architecture and our philosophy of universal human values.

On the other hand, Pakistan is currently in terrible state ploughed with huge social insecurities, internal sectorial conflicts, very high corruption and inflation, heavy food shortage, terrorism and debilitating economy.

So, one needs to ask the question: Where did Pakistan go wrong?

India and Pakistan gained Independence on the same day, our social indicators and genetic makeup were identical.

But then, what happened, in the last 75 years, that propelled Bharat on an upward trajectory, now aspiring to become the third largest economy in the world, while Pakistan is on huge downward spiral, struggling on every front.

Even globally, Indians are believed to be hardworking, honest, ethical and rule-abiding people, while Pakistanis are perceived as non-ethical, dishonest, radical population.

In general, just enmity with India and its anti-India policies should not have made Pakistan collapse to this extent.

Then what is the problem? The problem is much deeper.

As per my understanding, the basic root cause of all the problems of Pakistan is their ‘identity crisis’.

As everyone is aware, Pakistan was born out of the two-nation theory which in short means ‘Muslims cannot live under a Hindu majority government’.

Although, once Pakistan got created, multiple disputes erupted — which are well known.

So, Pakistan as a state took the anti-India approach right from the day one.

However, to ensure long-term sustainability of this anti-India approach within Pakistani society, it had no option but to infuse massive anti-Hindu sentiments and the only way to do that was by promoting radical Islamisation and by denouncing all its cultural roots and values systems, which were endemic to our subcontinent as they were based on Sanatana Dharma (which are also referred to as Hindu culture, heritage and traditions).

The Pakistani state tried every possible method to ensure that the average Pakistani disowns and degrades Sanatan Dharma ancestry by referring derogatorily to its followers as ‘Kafirs’ or even ‘Najas' (filthy).

Over last 75 years, it can be easily observed that whenever Pakistan was in trouble, a big dose of radical Islam and anti-India sentiments were infused time and again to maintain control.

However, this approach has damaged Pakistan irreversibly and has resulted in creating a very confused Pakistani society at it core.

Hence, every 15-20 years, they try reinventing their identity.

Sometimes they call themselves as descendants of the Harrapan civilisation, however with discovery of a much bigger Rakhigarhi site in Haryana, they have abandoned this narrative.

They also call themselves as descendants of Arabs. Nowadays, they are even trying to associate themselves with Turks.

This constant attempt to reinvent their identity is making Pakistan a rootless society.

Immediately after its Independence, Pakistan imposed Urdu language, but started adopting Arabic customs. Punjabis in Pakistan’s Punjab were ridiculed for speaking in Punjabi or following native Punjabi culture.

Even for East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), same approach was taken by Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his famous speech on 28 March 1948, on Dhaka radio, asking Bengali Muslims to embrace ‘Urdu Only’ policy — which resulted in huge unrest and the Bengali Language movement.

However, in Bharat, our approach was and is very different. We take huge pride in our over 5,000 years old civilisation, our Vedas, our Harappan culture, our rich heritage, festivals and history.

We routinely talk about our Gurukuls and boost achievements of our old universities like Takshashila, Nalanda, Vikramshila, etc. which had acquired global fame.

Although, huge remnants of Indus valley civilisation and monuments associated with Sanatana Dharma like temples, scriptures, statues, etc. are still visible in Pakistan, they don’t take pride in them.

Pakistanis hardly speak about Takshashila. On the contrary, they have destroyed many of these remnants under pressure from the radical Islamic section of society.

As radical Islamisation became mainstream, their society entirely tried rejecting their Hindu cultural and civilisational roots. They disowned all their past glory and tried adopting the Arabic culture.

However, the Arab world never embraced Pakistan as their own. Moreover, the Arabic world always looked down upon Pakistanis as second grade Muslims.

However, subconsciously every Pakistani feels much closer to the Bharatiya culture than the Arabic, as they understand Hindi. Arabic is still only restricted for learning religious texts. They enjoy our movies, TV programmes, our songs, dramas and literature. They even try imitating our styles and attire.

Few days back, I saw debates on Pakistani television, where panelists were seen complaining that Pakistani young kids are continuously watching Bharatiya cartoon series like Chota Bheem, Shiva, Krishna, etc. and getting influenced by them.

So, on one hand the Pakistani state tell their people that they their ancestry is closer to Arabic and tries to impose their customs and value systems but subconsciously, the Pakistanis enjoy Bharatiya culture and tradition.

Needless to say, every society needs a solid cultural identity, good role-models, civilisational roots to flourish. In Bharat, we grow listening to great stories of valour, sacrifice and struggle of our ancestors.

Hindu kids learn about how Bhagwan Ram sacrifices society and kingdom in his childhood itself. We know many interesting stories of Lord Krishna supporting Dharma over injustice.

Our Sanatana Dharma is blessed with rich culture, solid history, continued civilisation, unique value-systems and innumerable great personalities which still inspire us. From rishis like Valmiki, Vyas, Kashyap, Agastya to Kavi Kalidas, Acharya Chanakya, Raja Chandragupta Mourya, Adi Shankaracharya, Aryabhatta, Cholas, Sant Dyaneshwar, Tulsidas, Kabir to Chhatrapati Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Rani Lakshmi Bai, to modern day reformers like Mahatma Phule, Lokmanya Tilak, Dr B R Ambedkar, etc.

For us these role-models provide high intrinsic resilience.

The Mughals ruled a large section of Bharat for centuries but were hardly successful in converting 10-15 per cent of the Hindus to Islam, in spite of all possible atrocities.

Large sections of Hindus sacrificed their everything — including life — for saving our Dharma and the basic ethos of our society. This deep sense of sacrifice for larger good of society is deeply imbibed in our culture.

More importantly, Sanatana Dharma has always respected knowledge over wealth, hence rishis and gurus have been always more influential than kings.

However, as Pakistan tries rejecting our entire value system and imported role-models and culture from the Arabic world, they had to embrace Arab invaders like Muhammad bin Qasim, Babar, Timur Lang, Mahmud Ghazni, etc.

Although, history is flooded with records of their gruesome crimes, plundering, rapes, forceful religious conversions and oppressions on people in Indian subcontinent, including the natives of current Pakistan, they had no option but to justify actions of these invaders and embrace them as heroes.

In short, Pakistanis had to embraced their oppressors as their role-models. Stockholm Syndrome, maybe?

Undoubtedly, a society following oppressors like Qasim, Babar, Timurs, and Ghaznis will always be in conflict with a society believing in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam philosophy.

Ghazni’s followers will always be devoid of ethics and morals required for functioning of civilised society.

This is very evident from the conduct of all major Pakistani leaders since its Independence. Majority of the Pakistani leaders were only driven by self-interests and have capitalised on every possible opportunity to loot their nation. National interest is their last priority.

Generally, all sins of Pakistani leaders are forgiven by their people, if they just take an anti-Hindu and an anti-Bharat stand.

Its military primarily draws strength from the anti-India rhetoric and Pakistani soldiers are made to believe that one Pakistani Muslim soldier is equivalent to 10 Bharatiya Hindu soldiers.

Since Independence, majority of the Pakistani top leaders, top generals and bureaucrats have fled Pakistan and have taken refuge in foreign land whenever they are out of power.

On the contrary, Bharatiya ex-prime ministers, ex-presidents or retired army generals continue to stay in India even if they are out of power.

The ethical and moral fabric of Pakistan is currently shattered as they have not produced any home-grown heroes. Currently, Pakistanis have nothing in terms of culture and civilisation — which they can call their own.

Hence, Imran Khan's government, after coming to power, promised Pakistanis that they would follow the governance model of ‘Riyasat-i-Madina’; however it compared itself regularly with achievements of the Modi government which evidently highlights the identity crisis faced by Pakistanis and the nation as a whole.

So, if Pakistan has to get out of this mess, then the ONLY way forward seems to be to immediately and aggressively start deradicalisation of the Pakistani society by completely eliminating radical, jihadi and terrorist elements.

More importantly, constitutionally, they need to give equal rights to all citizens irrespective of their religion.

Currently, Pakistani law prevents non-Muslims from become President, Prime Minister and even Army Chief. Also, religious freedom needs to be ensured in letter and spirit.

Pakistan needs to also get rid of harsh blasphemy laws (Section 295), especially section 295-C, which has been vaguely worded leading to tremendous misuse. Moreover, strict action should be taken against perpetrators of extra-judicial killings of so-called blasphemers.

Role of media is extremely critical: The anti-India and especially anti-Hindu rhetoric needs to stop immediately and TV channels should stop giving prime time slots to Mullas and Moulavis, who brainwash young kids with unscientific lessons like the sun revolves around the earth and that evolution is a myth.

They need to promote acceptance of cultural diversity of Sindh and Balochistan region, and speak against imposition of Arabic culture blindly.

The school and college history textbooks need to be revised and ensured that all the anti-Bharat content is deleted. New content acknowledging our Sanatana Dharma ancestry needs to be added, thus celebrating the rich culture, civilisation, history and role models which are native to this land.

(Views expressed in this articles are completely personal).