Pakistan: An Obsolete Yardstick

If it wants to be regarded as amongst the developed and responsible states of the world, India can no longer judge its progress with reference to Pakistan

“World Cup jeetein na jeetein, bas Pakistan ko haraa dein”– “It doesn’t matter if they win the World Cup or not, let them only beat Pakistan”.

A friend from school said this to me back in 2003, a couple of days before the historic game between India and Pakistan at the cricket World Cup. For those having to strain their memory, this was the match where Sachin Tendulkar hoisted a Shoaib Akhtar ripper over third man for a six on the latter’s first ball of the game. Remember?

The same sentiment regarding the Cup, albeit in different phrases and words, was echoed at other places and by other people I happened to talk to. It essentially meant that it didn’t matter if India bungled up the tournament altogether, as long as they only beat one team– Pakistan. “Bas Pakistan  ko haraa dein”.

These were the same sentiments as I had come across 4 years earlier, in what was my first World Cup in 1999.

If you think about it for a minute, you realise that this urge to be better than Pakistan at all costs is not only in sports but in other fields too. I don’t have empirical data to support me but anecdotal evidence suggests that whenever we come across reports of a global survey, like one which ranks countries on corruption or on the basis of ease of doing business or tourism or anything else, most of us first look for where India stands in comparison to its neighbour in the west. Usually, one doesn’t even have to strain oneself too hard for it because the person who drafted the report makes it easy by putting it out in the headline or in the beginning of the piece itself. For example, this 2013 report from Hindustan Times on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index; this IBN Live report on tourism competitiveness; an Economic Times report on Global Hunger Index; December 2014 Times of India report on Transparency International’s findings, and others.

This observation is not meant to call out or blame others since I myself have often clicked on such reports and after knowing India’s rank have hastened to find out Pakistan’s. But my point is this. If India believes that the twenty-first century belongs to it, if it wants to be counted among the developed and responsible nations in the world, then it can no longer be content with only faring better in competition with Pakistan. It has to fare as good as that it allows all its citizens to prosper and that its institutions are regarded as amongst the best in the world,  and not just better in comparison to those in the region.

To say it in cricketing terms, winning the World Cup should be the top-most priority. A first-round game with Pakistan should be seen as a means to an end and not as the end itself. Similarly, and more importantly, on the socio-economic front, a rank only higher than Pakistan can no longer suffice. This is because of two reasons. One, the ranking of Pakistan itself on socio-economic indices is nothing to write home about. So being a few places ahead of them doesn’t count for much. Two, given both, our resources and the scale of our problems, India should ideally be in top half of such lists and not be languishing somewhere in the middle with countries exponentially poorer than itself in resources.

The good news is, that India as a nation seems to be increasingly aware of this fact. To start with an example from cricket: in the past decade an India-Pakistan series was no longer the most prized contest for an Indian cricket enthusiast. Rather, it is safe to say that that position had been taken by an India-Australia one. How Sachin dealt with Shoaib Akhtar mattered but what mattered more was what he did with McGrath and Lee and how India collectively stood up to the Goliath that were the Australians. Of course, the fact that after the 26/11 attacks in 2008, India has hardly played against Pakistan has its part to play in it. However, this has also come about because the Pakistani team itself is no longer the force it was in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Back then, they had Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis as their opening bowling pair. Both of them seemingly could make the ball obey them in mid-air even after releasing it. There was Saqlain Mushtaq, who is perhaps the most orthodox off-spinner my generation will see. Shoaib Akhtar, who despite being wayward was faster than anybody else in the circuit and hence, very dangerous. On the other end of the team, they had Saeed Anwar, Ijaz Ahmed, Yousuf Youhana (later Muhammad Yusuf) and Inzamam-ul-Haq. Each of them was often the reason for the grief of Indian bowlers and Indian fans, including this one. As an Indian you secretly admired them, perhaps even with a hint of guilt, but you still desperately wanted your team to win. Come what may.

The Pakistani teams after that, including the current one, though featuring many talented players, have never invoked that kind of awe and jealousy amongst Indians. Those reactions came, instead, for the Australians led by Ricky Ponting.

Outside of sports too (again, purely on anecdotal evidence) India as a nation now wants to be amongst the best in absolute terms and not just better in relative terms. Dare I say, that in popular consciousness, the ‘race with the Chinese dragon’ has more to do with the fact that China is second only to U.S in economic clout than with the fact that they are our neighbours in the north-east. In the same regard, the cease-fire violations by Pakistan at the International Border are not so much seen as  provocations by an equal as they are seen as acts of a weaker nation’s army which is still pursuing an archaic anti-India agenda. In turn, the Indian response to Pakistan is no longer considered an end in itself. Rather, it is seen as a routine, though exasperating, act of the government and the armed forces.

In national discourse, Pakistan is now being identified more as a troublesome and jealous neighbour than as a dangerous enemy. Of course, a part of this is due to the fact that in some measure, unfortunately, India as a society has grown indifferent to Pakistani terror, and that the concerned authorities are doing their best to meet the Pakistani threat. But, over all, Pakistan no longer occupies the place in contemporary national narrative that it once did.

The international community too, on its part, is de-hyphenating India and Pakistan. The obvious example here is US President Barack Obama’s recent trip to India where he spent 3 days in the country and did not include Pakistan in his itinerary. China, too, for all its pledges of friendship to Pakistan is dealing with India on its own terms. The recent Chinese support for a permanent seat at UNSC for India being a case in point.

To be fair, the spirit of competition with Pakistan is understandable. This is a country born after dividing India into two. The process of division itself saw much violence, bloodshed and grief. Given that, it was but natural that each of the two newly-independent nations would compare its progress with the other; and each would feel a sense of glee each time it outshone its neighbour.

However, for India, the time has come to rise above it. Not because its been too long, but simply because in our journey as an independent nation-state we have come far ahead of Pakistan, and it can no longer be used as a point of reference in the journey ahead. With all its problems, India is, a functioning democracy where each arm of the state, by and large, keeps to itself; where feudalism in legal and economic terms is now totally non-existent; and a country with a mediocre to above-average rate of economic development.

In all the above areas, India has done comprehensively better than Pakistan since 1947. There is no reason therefore, that in its popular consciousness, India should be content with comparing itself to Pakistan. If anything, that would only obstruct our development as a nation.

Lastly, even if there are indices of development where India performs worse than Pakistan, then the incentive to correct the failure itself should be big enough for the concerned agencies to set it right. It shouldn’t require pointing out of the fact that we lag behind our neighbours.

So, here’s wishing both India and Pakistan all the very best for the World Cup and tomorrow’s game. May the best team win. But for India, it is not enough to win only against Pakistan, here’s hoping they go on to defend the Cup.

“Sirf Pakistan ko haraana kaafi nahin, World Cup jeeto”