IMPERIAL LAHORE
SOME GLIMPSES OF MY BELOVED CITY
Pran Nevile
Old Ravian, Indian Author
o city in the sub-continent can boast of a more stirring or more turbulent
history, or a stronger vitality than Lahore, a city ruled by Hindu kings,
Mughal emperors, Sikh monarchs, and British sovereigns. Scholars,
historians, and travellers passing through Lahore were enchanted by its majesty and
grandeur. In the hey day of its glory as the Imperial capital of the Mughals, the city rose
from semi-obscurity to eminence. It became the city of historical monuments and gardens.
A proverbial saying often heard was that “Isfahna and Shiraz together would not equal
even half of Lahore”. Lahore finds mention in the eminent English poet Milton’s classic,
Paradise Lost. Thomas Moore in his celebrated work, Lalla Rookh (1817) describes the
glittering life and pageantry among the palaces, domes and gilded minarets of Lahore.
Rudyard Kipling, the Noble Laureate who was raised in Lahore, immortalised the city in his
writings.
Following the downfall of the Mughals, Sikhs became masters of the city under
Maharaja Ranjit Singh. After his death in 1839, his successors fought with one another and
there was anarchy. The British stepped in and occupied Lahore in 1846 and annexed it in
1849. As the capital of the British province of Punjab, Lahore regained its old grandeur and
dignity. The British Government enforced the rule of law, introduced a modern system of
administration and established institutions in order to maintain the Raj. Lahore dominated
the whole of Punjab more than ever before and emerged as the fortress of the Indian
empire that watched over the troublesome Afghans and the Russian borders.
Lahorias of all communities and classes expressed their gratefulness for the
countless blessings brought about by the Raj. In 1892, Syed Mohammad Latif, in his book
Lahore: Its History, Architectural Remains and Antiquities, says: “After centuries of misrule
and anarchy, the British…became masters of the country. The real glory of that nation
does not lie in the subversion of kingdoms, in the humbling of mighty potentates or in the
ravaging of countries but in this that they have sheltered God’s people…administered
equal laws to them and made them happy, prosperous, strong and united.” The most
valued gift of the Raj was the freedom it gave to its subjects to practice and preach their
own religions. All mosques including the Badshahi Mosque, which had been taken over by
the Sikh rulers and converted into workshops were restored to the Muslims of Lahore. The
shrines and tombs of saints, which had been abandoned, regained their importance and
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patronage. The mausoleum of Data Ganj Bux, the patron saint of Lahore, once again
attracted worshippers from all communities who went there to seek blessings for the
fulfilment of their wishes.
The British rulers took active steps to safeguard and preserve old monuments and
buildings of national interest and historical value. With its growing prosperity and economic
activity, many new residential areas were developed in different parts of the city viz.
Krishan Nagar, Sant Nagar, Ram Nagar, Ram gullies, Krishna gullies, Gowalmandi,
Gandhi Square, Nisbet Road, Mozang and Quila Gujar Singh. The most novel experiment
was the construction of a modern township-Model Town-about six miles from the centre,
with spacious bungalow-type houses owned by the upper middle classes of all
communities.
Punjab University, established in 1882, was the oldest institution of higher learning
in the sub-continent after the three universities in the Presidencies. Lahore had more
colleges and schools for both boys and girls then even the Presidency towns of Calcutta,
Bombay, and Madras. The famous Government College, opened in 1864, moved to its
magnificent Gothic structure in 1877. This building continues to be a prominent landmark
of the city. This college was regarded as a premier educational institution of British India.
For women, Kinnaird College, established in 1913 by the missionaries held pride of place
in the country. In addition to other professional and technical institutions, a notable one for
specialised education was the Oriental College set up in 1870 to promote the study of
classical languages-Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. Dr. A.C. Woolner, a German professor
of Sanskrit headed this institution and his statue is the only one that still stands on the Mall
in front of Punjab University.
With the introduction of English as the language of administration, its study was
made compulsory. It was also the medium of instruction for higher education at the
university level. The British brought Urdu with them from the United Provinces. Hindi in the
devanagri script came later through the influence of the Arya Samaj. The Punjabi language
was more of a spoken dialect and did not figure as a medium of instruction even in
schools. In fact, the dominant language of communication among the people was Urdu.
But the educated elite chose to converse and communicate in English. It was considered
fashionable to do so and displayed one’s modern approach and outlook on life. At the
same time, those well-versed in Persian, the earlier court language now replaced by
English, lost their erstwhile status and were forced to look for livelihoods in plebeian
pursuits as noted in a contemporary verse: Padhey Farsi vechai tel-dekho ai kudarat dey
khel (Strange are the ways of destiny: well-versed in Persian he has turned an oil vendor.)
Coming to literary activities, the city was again very much in the limelight. There was
a chain of reputed publishing houses bringing out books in all languages. The two English
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dailies, The Tribune and The Civil & Military Gazette were the most prestigious
newspapers of North India. As regards Urdu publications, Lahore held pride of place not
only in respect of newspapers but also with highly acclaimed literary magazines and
journals of those days like Humanvun, Alamqir, Adabi Duniva and Adab-i-lateefi. All these
had countrywide circulation and carried contributions from renowned Urdu writers and
poets of the time. Sir Mohammad Iqbal, the great poet of the East, ruled over Lahore
literary circles like a colossus. His poetry inspired people of all communities. Other
noteworthy literary figures of those days were Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Imtiaz Ali Taj, Amrita
Pritam, Sahir Ludhianvi, Sadat Hasan Manto, Rajendra Singh Bedi, Krishan Chandar, K.L.
Kapoor, Hafiz Jullundhari and Riaz Qadir. All of them are still remembered for the mighty
contribution made by them to 20th century Urdu literature.
The advent of talkies in 1931 brought about a revolution in the entertainment world.
A number of new cinema houses appeared on the scene while the older ones of the silent
days were renovated and refurbished. A few of them exhibited only English movies and so
were patronised by Europeans and the upcoming younger generation keen to learn about
the history, culture, and social life of the people who spoke English. This also helped them
in the study of spoken English. It was fashionable for college students to talk about latest
Hollywood movies and popular actors and actresses of those days.
There were many interesting and novel sights for visitors seeking to get a feel of this
lively city. The chief attractions on the itinerary of every newcomer were the Ajaib (Wonder
House) or the Museum and the Chidia Ghar, the Zoo. Between these two stretched the
famous Thandi Sarak or the Mall, which could compete in beauty and majesty with any
other roadway in the world. On both sides were imposing modern buildings, housing
leading shops and stores and motorcar showrooms that catered to the European clientele,
the native princely order, and the aristocracy. Some Government edifices like the High
Court, General Post Office and the Punjab University buildings were glorious symbols of
Indo-British architecture. Prestigious hotels, restaurants and bars were also located here.
Some of these even presented delightful cabaret shows for their clients. The new
Anglicised generation and college students flocked to these spots of entertainment. In the
late thirties, Lorangs, Stiffles and Standard restaurants were the favourite haunts of
Lahore’s gentry.
Lahore was also a shopper’s paradise and its Anarkali Bazar was famous not only in
the Punjab but all over the country. Stretching over a distance of about a kilometre,
Anarkali dominated the cityscape. As the most fashionable shopping centre, it attracted
people from far and wide and even visitors from other provinces, who came to Lahore on a
spending spree. For them, Anarkali was a vast storehouse of merchandise, both Indian as
well as imported. The famous bazar, with a host of restaurants and bars, was also a place
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of fun, gaiety and laughter. Anarkali was full of life, charming as a maiden in her youth
beckoning one and all to partake of her beautiful gifts.
Lahorias loved food not only to gratify the taste of their palates but also to improve
their health. They attributed their sturdy physique to the intake of milk products in large
quantities. They were least worried about the fat content of their diets. They regarded ghee
and almonds as the supreme source of energy. Fresh fruits and juices were preferred to
other eats and aerated drinks. As a result milk bars and ice-cream parlours also sprang up
in the early forties. The people of Lahore followed the Epicurean maxim: eat, drink and be
merry for tomorrow we may die.
When it came to the freedom struggle, the young college students of Lahore
provided leadership to the movement and were responsible for revolutionary activities
against the colonial power. In 1919 Lahore students played an important role in the
agitation against the Rowlett Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar. Lala
Lajpat Rai of Lahore, the greatest orator of his time became a national leader. In Bhagat
Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev, Lahore gave the country three great national heroes who
sacrificed their lives for their motherland. It was in Lahore that the Indian National
Congress held its historic session on the banks of the Ravi when Jawaharlal Nehru
declared full independence as its goal. Again, it was in Lahore, at its session held in March
1940 that the Muslim League under the leadership of M.A. Jinnah adopted the momentous
resolution to achieve Pakistan.
The prosperity of the Punjab was attributed to the priority and preference it received
for Government investments in development schemes, including the vast network of canal
irrigation projects. The political scene in the province from the mid-20s until 1946 was
dominated by the Unionist Party, supported by the landed classes with their ideology of
inter-communal harmony and loyalty to the Raj. The Party stood outside the mainstream of
either Indian nationalism or Muslim separatism and its leaders. Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs
were respected for their honesty and integrity.
It is relevant to mention here that the interplay of historical forces had made the
Muslims of Lahore less fanatic and the Hindus and Sikhs also less orthodox and ritualconscious than elsewhere in the country. The three communities mixed freely and had
cordial and friendly relations, subscribing as they did to a common Punjabi culture, which
blossomed from the early years of the 20th century. Muslim influence of centuries had left
its impact on the citizens’ way of life, customs, and manners and even their individual
names. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs had many common first names, distinguishing
themselves only by adding a different suffix such as Ram, Chand, Lal, Nath etc., by the
Hindus, Ali, Khan, Mahmud, Ahmad, Muhammad, Hasan, and Nabi by the Muslims and
just “Singh” by the Sikhs. Some of the current common first names were: Iqbal, Barkat,
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Aftab, Niamat, Haqumat, Ameer, Faqeer, Khusi, Mukhtar, Mushtaq, and Mehar. They had
a common name for the almighty God as well. A Lahoria when invoking God would
involuntarily call out “Oh Rabba.”
A popular saying on the lips of every Punjabi used to be “ Jine Lahore nahin dekhya,
oh jamian nahin” (one who has not seen Lahore cannot be said to even have been born).
A city is not merely its bazars and buildings. It is its atmosphere, ambience, moods of joy
and sorrow, madness and sadness, fun and excitement and above all its people who
constitute its soul. Here is an enchanting portrayal of Lahore by one of my distinguished
professors of History in the Punjab University, Dr.Kirpal, also an old student of
Government College:
Old Lahore was gay and youthful,
Moving easily with times,
Earning well and spending more,
Receiving joy and shunning gloom,
It was a city of scholars and lawyers
And a great high court of justice.
The city of Lahore reveals itself
To the eager longing eyes of youth
Its charms of landscape and bazars
From Central Bank to Ravi river;
Old historic city and new structures
Mingled in vivid spectacles
Of colourful buildings,
Benign nature,
Warm-hearted and vital people
Of diverse faiths and traditions,
United in confident resolve
To enjoy life and reach its peaks.
The Lahorias were so deeply attached to the city and its way of life that they were
rarely tempted to seek fortunes elsewhere in the country. So much so that the educated
young men looking for employment were most reluctant to leave the city and rejected
offers of jobs in other provincial towns. They preferred to hang on in Lahore and wait for
suitable openings there. They followed the old maxim:
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Khaiye kanak chae bhugi hoye
Rahiye Lahore bhaven jhugi hoye
Take wheat even if it is moth-eaten. Let it be a shack only but live in Lahore
No wonder, Lahore, the most talked about city in the sub-continent defies
description because Lahore, Lahore Hai – the soul of the three Punjabs – West, East and
the Diaspora.
No wonder Lahore, the most talked about city in the sub-continent and famous for
its glamour, gaiety and gusto got the appellation, “The Paris of the East.”
6
GOVERNMENT COLLEGE LAHORE – MY HOME
Sonnu Rehman
Old Ravian, Educationist
was amongst those lucky ones whose college years were spent in pre-partition
Lahore. For us students, Lahore was where students came first. It was a city
where cultural activities were central to its existence, especially those in which
students took part. Debates, plays, musical concerts, competitions and athletics filled our
lives. But above all was the love and respect we had for our great teachers which made
learning and the love of books an ingrained part of our lives.
After my matriculation I joined Kinnaird College and was there till my fourth year.
Father had become Principal Government College Lahore in 1939 and he decided that it
was time my sister and I were exposed to a wider world, so we were enrolled into GC. In
those days the number of girls enrolled into the undergraduate classes could be counted
on one's fingers. I was the only girl in my class! The only person I knew was Krishen
Khanna, a childhood friend. By the way he was to become a world famous artist, but at the
time was my only defense in a world of staring males. Gradually my fears abated and I
became friendly with others in my class. Lahore had a rich variety of different religions and
cultures. Amongst those I came to know were Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. After partition I
only met a few occasionally when I would go to India to meet my parents. By now several
have passed away, but thanks to the many re-union events encouraged by Dr. Khalid
Aftab, I was able to meet one of my class-mates last year; Sardar Pushpinder Singh who
sought me out and came over with his wife to meet my family. We were meeting after 60
years! We could not stop talking "about those days" and I had tears in my eyes when they
left. It was as if once again the old Lahore was disappearing.
The population of Lahore in the 1940s was 7 lakh and the student population of GC
was 1000. I remember my father saying that when the Governor heard this he was
shocked! On the last count the number had been 800, how could it have risen so much in
just four years? We were never more than 25 or 30 at the most in a class. My memories of
our teachers are beginning to fade, but some are still outstanding. For European History
we had Kishen Singh Thapar. When I submitted my first essay to him it was returned with
a "C". I was stunned. At Kinnaird I had regularly got straight "A"s in my assignments. When
I asked him what I had done that was wrong, he said that my facts were all there but there
was no logical structure to my essay. He made me re-write that answer thrice, before he
gave me an "A" grade. He inspired in me a love of History and an eagerness to understand
events by looking for their logical development. Today when I teach the same periods he
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taught me I hear him telling me. "Emphasise the logical development of events and then
you will get the students to understand and analyze the events that they are studying."
Another teacher of History, whose name I will not mention, had notes on a paper that was
crackling with age and was a definite shade of yellow! One day, rambling through my
father's library I came across Wade's History of the British Parliament. Our teacher's notes
were word for word from there!
Sufi Tabassum Sahib was our Urdu teacher. I have never stopped regretting that my
level of Urdu was so poor that I could not benefit from this great teacher's lectures. He had
a great sense of humour and was much loved by the students. Prof. Siraj was the
acclaimed wizard of English Literature. I had not taken literature as one of my subjects but
to this day I keep hearing of the absolutely captivating lectures he gave. Students who did
not take Literature would, nevertheless attend his lectures. He never took roll-call, he had
no need to. On the other hand, another teacher, also of Literature, who was an
Englishman, would have a full class when taking the roll-call, but would end up lecturing an
almost empty class-room! He would monstrously keep reading from his notes, never
looking up to engage the class in discussions. So it was easy for the bored students to
quietly disappear one by one. BodhRaj Sharma taught us Political Science. One day some
one made a joke in class and we all laughed. I don't know why but Sharma Sahib suddenly
turned on me and said, "Leave my class, you are a great disturbance." I was shocked, but
one did not argue with teachers on matters of discipline, and so I left. After the period was
over he came up to me and apologized, because he must have realized that I hadn't done
anything wrong. That sort of honesty requires both courage and great dignity. I have
always remembered him with admiration.
Mr Puri was in-charge of plays. I had shown some talent while at Kinnaird and our
plays, in those days, could be staged at the Open Air Theatre in the Lawrence Gardens.
So I was asked to audition for the Urdu translation of Shaw's "Doctor's Dilemma". As I
have admitted my Urdu was pathetic, so when I stumbled through the script, another
teacher looked on in horror at Mr Puri for even thinking of letting me audition. But Puri
Sahib assured him I could speak Urdu and so once I had memorized my lines, I would be
alright. Very reluctantly this gent agreed. The play went off well and Mr Puri retained his
reputation as a good director and producer. As father was Principal we stayed in the
"Lodge", a typical Raj type bungalow at the back of the college. Today part of the Bokhari
auditorium occupies the place where the kitchen used to be. In those days the British saw
to it that the kitchens were separate from the main building because they could not stand
the smell of “native” food. Now you go to London and you'll see them eating nothing but
“native” food!
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A couple of years ago I had to come to the college to interview students short listed
for the Sondhi Medal. Normally the interview would be in the Vice-Chancellor's room, but
as that was being repaired we went to the new post-graduate block. As I climbed the stairs
I looked to my right. There was a peepal tree which used to grow outside the back
verandah of the Lodge. I realized with a painful shock that this was all that was left to mark
the place where the gracious, spacious home, the Lodge, had been. With difficulty I
choked back my tears. Dr Aftab realized how I was feeling and said that sadly, the Lodge
had been raised to the ground before his time, or else he would have definitely preserved
this 'piece' of college history. The private tennis court and rose garden that had made the
Lodge quite a place to envy, were also gone and in their place stood huge blocks of
classrooms and professor’s rooms. Father was a great gardener and one of his favourite
features was making rockeries. There had been a beautiful rockery with a waterfall and a
pool, winding paths and little flower beds sprouting the most exotic plants to our left as we
drove into the Lodge. That was also no more. Talking of gardens, father had a “Scholars’
Garden” made outside the then Principal's rooms, now the VC's. It was at a lower level,
parallel to the stage of the Open Air Theatre. There were lilies and other rare plants
bordering a slow, winding stream and benches under shady trees for the scholars to sit
under. Yes, only scholars were allowed in this holy of holies.
Another feature of my youth that has disappeared was the swimming pool. It was
further down from the Quadrangle. All of us, professors' children, learnt to swim there and
right till we left the Lodge we regularly swam in this pool. It was dark and not very clean,
but I loved it. Whenever I come to GC it is like a home coming for me. In some ways
nothing has changed. The same long benches we sat on with their attached tables are still
there, the flowering “gulmohar” is in the little quadrangle above the Open Air Theatre, and
the corridors seem to be as noisy as they were. I was born under its shade across the road
in the duplex bungalow at 6 Kacheri Road, opposite the zoology labs, and I spent all my
formative and happiest years in the Lodge. My mentors were the great teachers who
taught us, and my companions were the delightful, brilliant students, amongst them no less
a person than the great Abdus Salam, who lived in companionship and understanding with
Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis and Muslims, all.
9
GCU FROM A DISTANCE
Dr. Mansoor-ul-Hassan Alvi
Old Ravian, Biochemist
espite being a Ravian there was always a distance between me and
Government College, Lahore. Once you were enrolled as a student of
chemistry for the M.Sc program, all your time was spent at the Institute of
Chemistry at the University of the Punjab near the celebrated Kim’s gun. In my session,
six students from Khalsa College Amritsar, apart from the usual lot hailing from
Government Islamia College (presently Railway Road), F.C. College, D.A.V. (presently
Islamia College Civil Lines) and S.D. (presently M.A.O. College) came to GC. In a class
of 40 students I was the only Muslim. Even English was taught by Prof Dewan Chand
Sharma of D.A.V. College, Lahore, who was the Head of the Department of English at
the University of the Punjab.
The University of the Punjab enjoyed an excellent reputation among all Indian
universities, especially in the subject of chemistry because of the director of the institute,
S. S. Bhatnagar. At the same time it was fostering two future Nobel Laureates. The
corridors of Government College and Punjab University were resounding with accolades
for the brilliant Prof. Abdus Salam who had topped both in Math A and B, breaking all
previous examination records. The second future Nobel Laureate was Prof. Hargobind
Khorana from D.A.V. Lahore. He happened to be my class mate and bench fellow. His
forte was organic chemistry and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the
genetic code. Mr. Nur-ul-Haq joined the institute in his third year from Government
College. He used to study in Mr. Salam’s room in the hostel. Earlier, my uncle Mr.
Mustunsir Billah had earned his MA degree in history from the GC. He went on to establish
two Islamia High schools and an Islamia College at Jallundhar. His unpronounceable
name often made him the butt of all sorts of jokes. He also had the honour of hosting the
Quaid-e-Azam during his visit to Jallundhar in 1946. His photograph with the Quaid
appeared in all major publications and even on TV. Another outstanding student in my
session was Mr. Zia Jallundhary, the famous poet and later chairman of PTV; he too
happened to be my classmate and bench fellow at Islamia High School Jallundhar. My
brother F.R Mahmood Alvi, followed our uncle at GC and earned his M.Sc degree in
chemistry and later rose to the post of the Public Analyst of the Government of West
Pakistan and subsequently became a life-time member of the British Chemical Society. He
earned his M.Sc in food technology from M.1.T., USA and became the author of food laws
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in Pakistan. He was also appointed as Consultant at F.A.O. and the UN and finally became
advisor to the Saudi government on nutrition and food.
I was first admitted to GC in 1938 but had to join my uncle at Jallundhar. I did my
F.Sc. from D.A.V. over there. When I joined Government College again, Prof. G.D. Sondhi
was the principal. Prof. Mahan Singh chaired the department of chemistry while serving as
Prof. of Inorganic Chemistry at Punjab University. The principal’s residence was in the
vicinity of the College campus in those days so we would see the principal, his family and
staff at various festivities in the Oval.
The institute was at the peak of its glory in my days. We had an encouraging
academic environment and good practical training with our professors emphasising upon
self reliance. Many of the senior faculty members were being sucked in the war effort. In
those four years, four directors of the Chemistry Institute joined the war. All of our teachers
were non-Muslims except three demonstrators. My supervisor for research was a Kashmiri
pundit who happened to be a hot favourite among Hindus. They would refuse to leave him
alone during their annual festival of Sharahd in which they gave charity on behalf of a
departed kin and treated a Brahman to a feast. The poor old pundit would lock himself in
my research room to avoid being forced to eat sweets and kheer by his colleagues.
As students at the institute came form different colleges, there was always a healthy
competition among them, especially between students of GC and F.C. Colleges. Hot topics
for discussions and debates were the writings of Bertrand Russell, eugenics and the
unending universe of James Jeans. There were frequent social gatherings to celebrate
Hindu, Sikh and Muslim festivals. On the academic front, there was always great emphasis
on self reliance. There was a general scarcity of things because of the Second World War,
so, improvisation was inevitable. A professor from Engineering College, Mughal Pura
trained us in machine drawing. The workshop staff trained us in glass cutting and glass
blowing. Supplies became progressively scarcer as the, War continued.
There were several Hindu and Sikh girls in each class. We had traditional
complications and conflicts of cast, religion and social status which were a recurrent theme
of Indian culture. Every year a boy would lose life using cyanide poison even though the
chemical used in the practical classes was kept in locked cabinets. The last one to commit
suicide was our demonstrator in organic chemistry who was supervising a Sikh girl for her
thesis on synthetic carcinogens. At that time not much was known about cancer and its
effects. The supervisor volunteered himself for trying carcinogens by putting patches of the
chemical all over his hands and arms. He was the son of the first Chief Minister of East
Punjab after partition.
I left for Berkeley, California in January 1948 from where I got my Ph.D. in
biochemistry. My work involved the use of radioactive isotopes due to which my blood cell
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count became critically low. I was advised to change my field of work and like many
American students, went into medicine getting an M.D. from the celebrated Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.
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GCU – AN EPITOME OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
Ali Raza
Old Ravian
an found himself in direct conflict with hostile forces of nature. Seeking
shelter from inimical forces outside his control became an instinct. The
safety of the cave sheltered him from inimical forces outside his control.
Making shelters is not restricted to humans; it extends over the entire animal kingdom. The
instinct to seek shelter became associated with expressive art and gave rise to what is
known as “Architecture". Marcus Vitruvius, the 1st century BC Roman architect lays down
convenience, construction and beauty as the essential elements in the erection of edifices.
In 1832, Danish scholar Thomson determined three periods in the history of the arts:
the Stone Age (till 6000 BC), the Bronze Age (6000 B.C -1000 BC) and the Iron Age (1000
BC -present). The art of construction, as I shall call it, seems first to have appeared in the
valleys of the great rivers of Western Asia and Egypt. The age of the Pyramids extends
from 2780 BC to 2424 BC. However, the art had thrived in Asia before this time. An
advanced architecture existed in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and Egypt before 3000
BC. Architecture became an essential part of human life during the Neolithic civilization
(8000 BC - 6000 BC). Five main areas where the art of construction blossomed are
Central Asia, the Mediterranean Basin, Central and Northern Europe, East Asia and
America. During the 10th and 11th centuries development in architecture was profoundly
influenced by four factors; the feudal system, monastery, excessive religious veneration of
sacred relics and the enormous development of commerce. Under the impact of these
factors, Gothic Architecture appeared in the 12th century. Welley Northmore Pugin in his
“True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture” (1841), considers Gothic Architecture
as the only true Christian Architecture. O.V. Simpson in “The Gothic Cathedral”(1956),
maintains, “Gothic is a representation of supernatural reality and the Church is the symbol
of God on earth."
The prologue I’ve rendered on Gothic Architecture has a lot to do with the famous
“Main Building” of GCU. The aim of Gothic Art is a desire to dissolve the heavy prose of
building into religious poetry; a desire to transform the heavy, man-made temple into a
multiple, imponderable pile of heavenly mansions. The Crusades forged a new blend in
architecture because of the contact between the East and the West. The Templar Church
in London, La Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and the Marble Pillars standing in Piazzetta are
testimony to the fact. John Harvey in his book “The Gothic World” says that when the
people of Seville began constructing their cathedral, they resolved to build so great a
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church for the glory of God that those who came after them would think them mad even to
have made such an attempt. Government College University is an epitome of a blend of
British and German Gothic Art. In Germany, Gothic started under French influence. The
German added their own flavour with the inclusion of a tower to the church hall. The
French preferred twin towers while the British had a single tower in the centre. The
German also introduced the brick-walled scheme, sloped gables, double-sided or triangleshaped roof and remarkable dimensions in window-making; all these are found at GCU.
For every Ravian, the aphorism “Courage to Know” is more than just the University
motto. We are proud that the edifice of our dear institution bewitches the beholder. The
first impression being the last impression, GCU captures the imagination and appeals to
the aesthetic sense. Munshi Kanahya Lal Hindi, Superintendent Engineer of the Raj
deserves accolades for his performance in the construction not only of Government
College Lahore but also of other edifices like the District Court, the Lahore Museum, King
Edward Medical College and Mayo Hospital. The British government awarded him the title
of “Ra-e-Bahadar.” Details of his life and services have been compiled in his “Tareekh-eLahore.
The distinctive feature of the Main Building of GCU is its four-storeyed, heavenkissing “Clock Tower.” The tower is 176 feet high, including an upper iron bar and a 15-ft
deep base. Over the spire (conical-shaped dome) built over the fourth storey of the tower,
zinc sheets have been laid down. A golden “direction-indicator” and a golden “fan” also
garnish the tower. The other three-storeyed tower approaches about 128 feet. This tower
too, has zinc sheets over its spire. This tower has a circular direction indicator and the last
storey has four arched doors. The pillars and separations have been decorated with black
stone.
Hard lime has been used in the construction of the double-storeyed Main Building.
The ground floor has been decorated with beams. Sloped gables made of black stone
adorn the upper storey. The triangular roof delineates another aesthetic ingredient of the
building. The ground floor has been divided into fourteen rooms and one big hall known as
the “Old Hall.” This hall is 55/55 ft, whereas the gallery is 10 ft wide. The ceiling is 70 feet
high, thus making the hall’s elevation equal to the height of both the storeys. 2.5 ft high
iron lattice fences have been used within every arch of the hall gallery. Since the hall
served as a church, it had to be illuminated in a certain manner. German window making
techniques were thus employed to perfection. Sunlight enters the hall at various angles so
that it is never dark inside. The length and width of eight rooms on the ground floor is
20/20 ft. Two larger rooms are 30/18 ft and the remaining four measure at 20/15 ft. Black
stone has been used for in the pillars and for the separation of arches. Again, one can see
iron fences, of same height as used in the hall, located here for the attainment of support.
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Four corridors have also been constructed. The corridor to the east is the larger one
measuring 31/17 ft. The corridor to the west is 26/17 ft, the northern is 12/18 and the
southern is 18/18 ft. Four stair-cases have been constructed in the building: two in the Old
Hall, one in the smaller tower and one on the eastern end of the edifice. The plinth of the
building is 3 feet above ground level. Corridors and rooms have been elevated up to 33
feet.
Pointed arches, vaults and buttresses are peculiar elements of Gothic Architecture.
It is interesting to note however, that the pointed arch was not a Gothic invention. The
Assyrians and Sassanian Persians first recognized the utility of this construction and it was
later adopted by the Normans in the 11th century. Erecting arches in a series, each
projecting beyond the last, was an invention of Romanesque times which persisted
through the Gothic period. As time progressed, the style developed and the scale and
contour of arch mouldings underwent considerable changes. As the structure grew lighter
and more delicate, the mouldings became more intricate and smaller. The mouldings
became a series of bold projections marked by contrasts of dark shadows and strong
highlights. Arch label or head mouldings which prevented the arch from running down and
affecting the mouldings below started appearing outside the buildings. Norman-style arch
mouldings have been used in the construction of the Main Building.
An arched covering in stone or brick called “Vaulting” is yet another distinguishing
feature of Gothic Architecture and has been used extensively used in the Main Building. A
Gothic buttress is usually divided into stages, each set back by short slopes from the one
below, terminating either in a chamber, a slope against the wall or in a gable which may be
tapped by a pinnacle. There are many buttresses in various parts of the Main Building. The
Plate Tracery style has been manipulated for making windows and the Chamfer style has
used in cuspings. Double Tracery has been handled skilfully in the outer window of the
Vice Chancellor's office.
This is a short account of the basic structure of the edifice. Many new dimensions
have been added in the original structure of the building during its 142 year history. One
such addition was made during the reign of Lord Linlithgow (Viceroy of India, 1936-1944)
in October 1937, when seven more rooms were made on the ground floor lower and the
“Fazal-e-Hussain Memorial Library” was constructed on the upper storey. The ceiling of
this Library still has the engraved emblems of Calcutta University, the University of the
Punjab and finally of Government College University.
A total sum of Rs. 320,000 was spent on the construction of this glittering edifice on
6-A Kutchery Road, Anarkali, Lahore. In the end, all I can say is, no matter what happens;
Government College will always be Government College.
15
AN INTERVIEW IN THE LOVE GARDEN
The Ultimate Ravian
Part time student somewhere in GCU
“L
ove,” what a wonderful word, what a delightful word, what a charming,
pleasing, soothing and soul-nourishing word! Dear God! Thank you for
creating love and thank you for creating pairs. We all fall in love once in our
lives. Somewhere out there in the universe there exists a partner for every one. Love
pertains to the ultimate purpose of human existence; it is the elixir that renders immortality
to mortals. We are brave when we are in love, we are humane when we are in love, we are
divine when we are in love … yes, we are lovely when we are in love, it is better to have
loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
While the people at The Ravi were busy interviewing oldies I decided to interview an
expert on love. I had often wondered why the small green patch hidden from the rest of the
campus by the university mosque was called “Love Garden.” Few people know the actual
details but legend has it that almost a century ago, a student ran away from his maths
class and settled in the same garden. No one saw him out in the open again but they say
he used to peep inside classrooms and amuse students who were being slaughtered by
equations. He never left the place because he loved GC so they started calling him Love
and that’s how the green came to be called “Love Garden.” The story goes on to say that
you can meet him if you really want to; all you have to do is to go to his garden on the last
day before the Eid holidays, and wait for him. He’ll show up if you really believe in love.
Well, I followed these instructions and guess what? He really turned up. It was simply
remarkable … a lean physique, a modest face and the celebrated maroon blazer. Here’s
what he had to say.
TUR: Is it true what they say about you?
Love: I’m not particularly interested in what they have to say. I flunked maths, I told
them Einstein flunked physics but they failed to draw a parallel, so I ran away.
TUR: Tell me why do they call you “Love”? Is it because you hold love to be the
ultimate purpose behind the drama of creation or do you think it is the life force that drives
the universe towards its destined end or do you believe that love is the ultimate reality
underlying the cosmic order, epitomizing the consummate end of human existence?
Love: Err … actually love was the score I usually had on my report card, you know, the
love you have in tennis, so they started calling me love.
16
TUR: Oh, aaa … right. That’s interesting. Tell me do you believe all of us fall in love
once in a lifetime?
Love: Oh yes that’s true. We all FALL in love, like falling in a dirty ditch or falling with your
head cracking on the ground, oh yes we do fall in love.
TUR: Ahh … Ok, so tell me is it true girls mature faster than boys?
Love: Oh yes it’s true. A female at 17 is a mature woman; a male at 17 is a child. A male
at 34 is a man; a female at 34 is a potato sack.
TUR: Umm … I see you’re not too fond of the opposite sex
Love: Ohh I like women. Women are like maths; the more you try to solve them the harder
it gets or like a theorem gone awry or like a triangle without a right angle or like …
TUR: I see this isn’t quite going where I expected it to go.
Love: Don’t worry; nothing in this country has.
TUR: I see you’ve bruised your leg. How did you come to hurt yourself?
Love: I didn’t come to hurt myself I came for the interview.
TUR: I meant how did you hurt yourself?
Love: Oh some nerd dropped a banana peel in my garden.
TUR: Err … that’d be me, I’m sorry.
Love: At least you could have brought something to eat.
TUR: I heard you took an IQ test once, what were the results?
Love: Negative.
TUR: What do you think about marriage?
Love: There are three “rings” in marriage; “engagement ring”, “wedding ring” and
“suffering”. If love is grand; marriage is a grand prix. Man is incomplete till he is married,
then he’s finished.
TUR: They say love prolongs life.
Love: Well, married men live longer but are willing to die earlier.
TUR: Well … aah … I’ll skip some minor questions; I know you’re quite busy. I …
Love: I’m not busy I’m a Ravian.
TUR: Love is a bird
Love: A crow, a black croaking crow.
TUR: Damn it, don’t you think man and woman need one another!
Love: Oh yeah sure. A woman without a man is like a leech without blood or like a …
TUR: For God’s sake be reasonable!
Love: Reason is to a woman what garlic is to a vampire, what …
TUR: Ohh God, I’m leaving, can’t you stop barking.
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Love: If your dog is barking at the back door and your wife is shouting at the front door,
who do you let in first? Your dog of course, because when he gets inside at least he’ll stop
barking.
TUR: This is preposterous!
Love: Monstrous you say? Oh yes, oh yes I agree.
TUR: Arghhh!
Love: Hey mate, something wrong?
TUR: Go to hell, you …!
Love: No use, they’ve got more women in there than we have.
18
THE DWARF AND THE SEVEN SNOW WHITES
A MEETING OF THE RAVI EDITORIAL BOARD
The Editorial Board
(The scene is the Ravi office located in a dingy, soggy corner of GCU. The place smells
like a third-world government building; the fact that the Editor frequents the place quite
often doesn’t help to improve the situation either. They say the place was a toilet in the
1800s, now the Editor sits where the sink used to be. A paper on the notice board says,
“The Ravi Editorial Board will have a meeting today at 1:00 pm. Late-comers will be
humiliated, tortured and abused.” PS Don’t even think about telling me you lost your
way in the jungle, your neighbour’s giraffe is getting engaged, the people at the
circus didn’t let you come, the stock market crashed or your grandmother was
dragged in a match-fixing scandal. Editor
It is 2:00 pm. Enter seven snow whites; two Joint Editors, three Assistant Editors, a
bearded Assistant, three boys in untidy uniforms, a flower girl and a guy who looks like a
flower girl)
First Joint Editor: Oh its so hot today, I had to get a new frill for my stole but I’m here
because of MR EDITOR! (There is a pronounced overtone of scorn in her shrill voice)
Second Joint Editor: OHHH GOD! You think you’re the one who’s suffering? I can’t even
tell you the misery, the pain, the torment I’m in; look at my fingers, Heavens OHHH! Pain,
misery, torment … Is this the fate of devotion, the fruit of labour, the crop of loyalty? Why
must the innocent endure the pangs of fortune? Pain, misery, torment … OHHH!
First Joint Editor: What’s wrong with your nails?
Second Joint Editor: OHHHH can’t you see? The nail polish hasn’t dried yet. The poor
things! (With sudden ferocity) Is there a law that protects things when they’re wet?
(All the Whites, the Assistant Editors, the bearded Assistant and the flower boy take their
seats. Voices outside. The Editor is heard telling a group of people the G8 has invited him
to its summit, the cricket team needs a better 12th man and the South Pole is actually a
pole in the south.
Enter Editor Ravi. 5’8, 140lbs, stubble, an air of superiority in his demeanour and lots of
hot air in his head. He expects others to arrive at the conclusion that he was born in the
wrong country at the wrong time. Believes he has done humanity a great service by
19
condescending to sit in his chair. Claims to be an athlete but moves like a widow who has
recently lost her husband)
Editor: Why Hellooo everyone! And how are we today hmmm? Lovely afternoon for a little
chit chat I daresay. Isn’t it wonderful to be together at such a wonderful place? I can tell
from your faces how awfully glad you all are to be here on God’s green earth!
(No one even thinks about answering. The Second Joint Editor is staring at a vase in the
corner of the room. She’s comparing it to the Editor’s head)
Editor: Well then why are we here, let’s see now, hmmm … Oh yes, The Ravi, it seems
we have to bring The Ravi out but that’s funny you see, because the Ravi has been flowing
for years without our help! HAAA HAAA HAA HA HA… OHH that was good. (Nobody even
thinks about laughing. The Second Joint Editor is still staring at the vase) Ahem, err …
well, right now, yes The Ravi. I remember asking you to bring some ideas for this year’s
issue. Let’s have them.
First Joint Editor: You talking to me?
Editor: I distinctly remember addressing you but it seems you don’t hear so well so I guess
you’re still wet behind the ears AHHH HAAA HAA … get it, wet behind the ears HAAA HAA
HA HA … (Nobody even thinks about laughing. The Second Joint Editor is fuming with
rage) HUHH … Ahem … err … so where was I?
First Assistant Editor: You were saying it’s so funny everyone had to bring something
wet because the Ravi was flowing in the wrong direction for years.
Editor: What the devil are you talking about … ah … ahh … emm … I mean I’m afraid
that’s rather off the mark dear.
Second Assistant Editor: Never mind. We need to bring The Ravi out.
Editor: Precisely, absolutely, without a doubt! (Rising to his feet) My dear countrymen, we
find ourselves in perilous circumstances. The task at hand is tremendous. Yes, we have a
lot to do and very little time to do it, yes the odds are against us, yes we are poor and illfed … err … I mean yes we have our backs to the wall, but rest assured your commander
shall remain steadfast in his resolve, rest assured he will guide you, steer you and lead
20
you to eternal glory. Do I expect gratitude in return? Absolutely not! Ohh it gives me great
satisfaction to serve miserable, helpless pigmies like you … Ohhh you have come to the
right place my children! God bless you all!
(The Second Joint Editor is about to rise, get hold of the vase and fling it at the Editor’s
head but is prevented from having her way by the First Joint Editor’s pressing arm)
Editor: All right then. (Addressing the Second Joint Editor) What have you thought for The
Ravi?
Second Joint Editor: I haven’t thought about anything.
Editor: Why?
Second Joint Editor: Because of my fingers, can’t you see?
Editor: Your fingers, what’s wrong with your fingers? Oh I see, so they’re wet. Yes, yes,
you can’t think with wet fingers. So, maybe we should start calling you lady finger AHHHH
HAAAA HAAA HAAA HAA! OHH GOD I’m so funny. HA HA HA. (The Second Joint Editor
rises, stomps her foot and leaves the room) I wonder what that was all about. Ohh, I think
she’s gone to fetch some refreshments. Rather thoughtful of her. Good. (Addressing the
First Assistant Editor) So, where were we?
First Assistant Editor: Ahh … umm … You were saying that you were a steadfast
ladyfinger who will guide miserable pigmies but you can’t think when you’re wet.
Editor: GOD DAMN IT! Ummm … err … I mean you must try to listen a bit more carefully
dear hmmm?
Second Assistant Editor: No one needs to do anything. I was looking at some magazines
they have at different places and I’ve thought of a nice title for ours.
Editor: Good! Let’s have it then. What’s it like?
Second Assistant Editor: Basically, it’s nice and big and looks like a square.
First Joint Editor: Hear, hear.
21
First Assistant Editor: That sounds like a good idea.
First Untidy Boy: Very good!
Second Untidy Boy: Marvellous!
Bearded Assistant: Bravo!
Flower Boy: Tremendous!
Third Assistant Editor: Well, it seems we’ve almost taken care of all important matters,
so can we leave now?
Editor: (Who has been grinding his teeth all this time) ABSOLUTELY NOT, DAMN IT!
(Silence)
(Enter Associate Editor. 5’5, 200 lbs. An air of complexity in his demeanour. Thinks he has
done humanity a great service by condescending to visit the Ravi office. Claims to be a
swimmer but moves like a hippo in mourning)
Associate Editor: Why hello everyone! Sorry I’m late. Actually someone’s car was stuck
in a traffic block.
Editor: What the hell does that have to do with you?
Associate Editor: Well, my car was behind it.
Editor: That does it! You guys think its easy bringing a magazine out? You think we’re
here to waste our time? We are a team, a legion, an army; an army needs devotion,
courage, loyalty, determination, fortitude. You need to employ all your faculties and think.
Unless you are committed to your task you will never succeed. Remember; we have an
opportunity of becoming a part of history, let’s make the most of it.
(At this time a soft female voice is heard outside)
Soft Female Voice: Ed dear, can you come out for a moment please?
22
Editor: (Jumps to his feet and scuttles outside knocking the vase off the table) Coming
dear!
First Joint Editor: Oh brother! He’s gone again. Why does this happen every time?
First Assistant Editor: Does he think we are his personal servants?
Second Assistant Editor: That’s it, I’m leaving. Tell him my neighbour’s elephant had a
nervous breakdown.
First Joint Editor: I hope he doesn’t ask me what I’ve done for the magazine.
Third Assistant Editor: Don’t worry, just follow my example; whenever he looks at me, I
pretend I’m suffering from nausea.
Bearded Assistant: Maybe I can fiddle with his computer while he’s away. You can’t go
near it while he’s around. Let’s see now, well, here’s a file called “Ravi” on the desktop,
let’s see … what does this button do? Ooops …!!! … I deleted the entire program!
First Joint Editor: What the hell did you do that for?
Bearded Assistant: I didn’t do it, it deleted itself.
Associate Editor: Well, he’ll be in a fit when he sees that.
Bearded Assistant: Don’t worry, I have an idea.
Enter Editor
Editor: Well, sorry for the interruption, I was just ahh … umm … guiding someone on the
foreign policy postulates of the European Union. Ahem, so where we?
Bearded Assistant: I’m afraid we have some bad news. Everything you had in your
computer has been deleted.
Editor: WHAT THE DEVIL? How, when, why?
23
Bearded Assistant: There’s a dangerous ID.10.T virus in your computer.
Editor: What the devil are we going to do?
Second Assistant Editor: Don’t worry; I have an emergency backup plan.
Editor: Really?
Second Assistant Editor: Of course. (Pointing to her head) It’s all up here.
Editor: OK. Let’s have it then. What’s the title page like?
Second Assistant Editor: Well, it’s nice and big and looks like a square.
First Joint Editor: Hear! Hear!
First Assistant Editor: Bravo!
First Untidy Boy: Very good!
Bearded Assistant: Marvellous!
Flower Boy: Tremendous!
Second Assistant Editor: This calls for a celebration.
With smoke coming out of the Editor’s ears, the Editorial Staff stages an exit.
24
THE EMPEROR
Zia Mohyeddin
Old Ravian, Thespian
have never hesitated from proclaiming my undying adulation for John Gielgud –
the greatest classical actor perhaps – but the man who ruled as the Emperor of
English stage for well over half a century was the other knight, Laurence Olivier.
Olivier is the only actor I can think of, who seemed to be at the height of his career
in all the years I can remember. With the exception of Gielgud, he was the only actor who
sustained his success and achievement from one decade to the next. He had his failures
and set-backs; he was, at times, massacred by the critics, but his own belief in himself was
so strong that he marched on, regardless.
One of the greatest actresses of the 20th century, Dame Sybil Thorndike told me
that the first time she saw Olivier on the stage, she whispered to her husband, (Sir Lewis
Casson) “He is… absolutely an actor – born to it,” or words to that effect.
Dame Sybil had known Olivier all his life. Her father and Olivier’s father were
clergymen and were great friends even though Canon Olivier was a much younger man. It
was Father Olivier who invited Sybil and Lewis, established leading players at the time, to
go and see his son in a school play. The play was Julius Caesar; the year, 1916; young
Olivier was playing Brutus; he was 9 years old.
Sybil Thorndike was an extraordinarily humane individual. When I got to know her
a bit better, I asked her what she meant by a ‘born actor’ because I didn’t think there was
any such thing except in the pages of fiction. She didn’t refute me, but in that warm and
gracious manner, which was her hallmark, said she thought there were some people
whose intuition for the dramatic moment was spot on. Olivier knew, instinctively, when to
score a point.
I first met Olivier when he was appearing at the Royal Court theatre in Ionesco’s
“Rhinocerous.” Norman Wooland, (Horatio to Olivier’s Hamlet in the film version of the
play), and I were both in a play at the Comedy Theatre. Luckily, our matinee days did not
clash. Norman had a couple of tickets presented to him by the great man himself and he
asked me if I would care to come along. I jumped at the idea.
His performance as Berenger in the Ionesco play had been widely praised, but
nothing the critics had said matched the supreme power of Olivier’s realization. His
humility, his shiftiness, his courage, his desperation as he looked for a single human face
in a world crowded with rhinoceroi, and his final charge was electrifying. It was a
performance you see once in a lifetime.
I
25
We went to his dressing room afterwards. He was busy rubbing his face with a
wad of tissues. Norman introduced me. “You handsome devil” he said with a feigned
scowl. I tried my best not to appear awe-struck and ga ga in the presence of the Emperor,
but didn’t quiet know how to remain cool. I remember taking out a cigarette and then
wondering if I should light it without asking his permission. “Don’t smoke your own,” he
said, still busy with towels and creams, “Help yourself” and he handed over a silver box full
of Cartier’s and a box of matches.
I said I had no words to express my feelings about his great performance. Norman
said, lugubriously “Oh she was up to her old tricks again.” I was no longer a stranger to
actors’ camp talk, but I still felt embarrassed about what I considered to be an affrontery.
Olivier cackled. He was obviously very fond of Norman. One of Norman’s greatest assets
was to say something absurd with deadpan moroseness.
As I took my leave I again said something about my good fortune to have seen
such a sublime performance. He patted me on the shoulder and said “Hey, you are not so
bad yourself.” It was gracious of him to say so for he had not seen my work until then.
     
What do I treasure most in Olivier? It’s difficult to answer. He brought a dash and
bravura to everything he touched. There were things he could do which no other actor
would dare, like falling backwards from a high platform in Coriolanus.
His mincing Malvolio, a Malvolio overburdened by his refined Cockney; his
neurotic Captain in Strindberg’s “Dance of Death,” his steely, visionary Astrov in Uncle
Vanya; his seedy, gin-sodden Music Hall comedian in ‘The Entertainer’; are wonderful
memories but a performance that haunts me to this day was his Titus in Shakespeare’s
early exercise in tragedy, “Titus Andronicus.”
As Titus, the Roman general, who has won all the wars for Rome, he entered the
stage not as a triumphant hero but a battered veteran – his face tanned to leather – who
had no stomach for the adulation of the populace. He was a man so hardened by a
thousand campaigns that death and suffering could scarcely affect him. And yet the
soundless cry that came out of his guts when he saw his ravished daughter, her tongue cut
out, her hands slashed, was the sharpest study in anguish I have ever seen.
Olivier never cared for money. He could have lived the luxurious life of a movie
star, but he chose the more arduous path of pursing his ambition to be a great classical
actor. He never wavered in his faithfulness to the classical stage. I did not see his Richard
ΙΙΙ or his Oedipus, two of his legendary roles, but I saw his Macbeth and I haven’t seen a
better one.
26
The last time I met Laurence Olivier was in the Granada Studious. I was working
at the time in “The Jewel in The Crown” also being filmed at Granada. As I came out of my
dressing room, I bumped into that fertile Irish actor, Colin Blakely. “Hey,” he said, “Have
you said Hello to Larry?” I told him I didn’t even know he was there. He dragged me along
to one of the dressing rooms.
Olivier was being made up for Lear. His face had shrunk his eyes had sunk; and
he looked guant. (He was fighting cancer at the time). “Zeee…ahh” He made two syllables
out of my name, “You handsome old devil” a thin smile appeared on this face. He had
greeted me with the same words when I first met him 23 years ago. His voice was frail and
I wondered how he would summon the energy to tackle Lear.
But he did. I watched him from one of the control rooms. His voice was like steel
and his eyes that looked dead in the dressing room, blazed with fury. His transformation
was breathtaking. What strange and hidden resources did he dwell upon?
A year or two later he died.
27
TO BE OR NOT TO BE; THAT IS THE QUESTION
Ali Imran Atta
BA ΙΙ
Yes this is the ultimate question!
Let us see who would choose TO BE who would choose NOT TO BE.
Everyone would want TO BE because BEING asserts the existence of the ego.
Then who would choose NOT TO BE? The ego being a fundamental psychological
factor works to sustain our identity; we proclaim, we profess, we uphold, we support, we
contend, we defend, we allege, we renounce – only to allow our ego to champion itself.
Now, if someone chooses NOT TO BE then he will have to suppress his ego but the
suppression of the ego is equivalent to suppression of the essential personality.
If NOT TO BE is directly linked with the defeat of the ego then it would amount to selfannihilation. If there were complete obliteration of the self then the question of choice
would be of no consequence.
Therefore,
TO BE OR NOT TO BE; THERE IS NO CHOICE.
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EGO AND INDIVIDUALITY
Sumbal Maqsood
MA ІІ
verybody has an ego. Freud’s psychoanalytical theory gives us valuable
insight into this aspect of our personality, which fluctuates between the ‘id’,
which is our instinctive self and the ‘superego’, which is shaped by societal
restraints. The ‘ego’ maintains the balance between the two. The desires of the ‘id’ are
satisfied for the purpose of survival, while the ‘superego’ makes us socially acceptable.
The ‘ego’ functions at different levels in different individuals. An ego developed as a
result of perpetual praise, admiration and support of peers, siblings and friends sometimes
assumes an air of pride and arrogance. Such an ego would demand constant renewal and
nurturing, when bigger doses of favourable responses would be required. An ego thwarted
by repeated rejection, contemptuous dismissal and scornful behaviour would make the
individual either a humble and submissive person, whose advantage is frequently exacted,
or an outright rebel, taking revenge from the society, often classed as barbarously
tyrannical.
Thus, society is sharply divided into conformists and non-conformists, with clever
and manipulative diplomats in between who refuse to take either side. Everyone however,
claims to be unique. Every person believes himself to be the best of the lot, even if he has
no sound evidence to second his motion. Everybody thinks he has capabilities enough to
be a king or in certain cases a demi-god who has control over destiny.
The ego prevents a stranger from approaching another stranger, “Why should I be
the one to break the ice?” Yet the same man aches, burns and yearns for companionship.
But outside, his stony expression hides the torture he is going through. He cannot let the
stranger emerge triumphant.
The drive for practical and fruitful initiatives is dying down. People are withdrawing
into their self-constructed prisons, like snails that hide in their shells on a single, delicate
touch. Are people getting intimidated and falling into an abyss where their identities are
being annihilated? It is true; are they getting intimidated out of existence?
Taking the initiative does not mean you are debasing yourself. It is not the
acknowledgement of the other’s superiority; rather, it is the exertion of one’s individuality.
Extending your hand towards a total stranger is not a degrading gesture, but one that
shows the spirit or association and companionship that becomes the binding force of
society. Instead of being a modern Hamlet you should take the first step, dump the
E
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absurdist excuse, “Nothing to be done.” The world is a door of opportunities waiting for you
to open it.
30
SHUT UP REALITY!
Hira Nafees Shah
MA І
an has made tremendous progress in the 20th century. He has reached
the moon and is trying to explore galaxies. Not in the wildest dreams
even of the recent man could he have thought about the zenith of
achievements that the crown of creation has procured.
Anyways, what is man when stripped to the core? A novice dealing merely with
appearances, for man essentially is a worshipper of beauty. The first impression we gather
on first meeting is always formed on the basis one’s looks. Generally, people want to be
acquainted with good looking people and shrink away from those who fall short of an
immaculate exterior. People naively make a fellow conscious of a natural defect.
The mind of the modern human being is still entrapped in the twirl of physical
appearances. This still holds as an omnipotent phenomenon, despite education.
Everybody eschews physically disabled people; even being stout becomes a source of
ridicule abounding in staving rude jests. It’s easy for us to insult someone in this way but
we would not enjoy the scenario so heartily, if the same would happen to us. Certain
disabilities are due to reasons over which man has no control, blood cancer, for instance,
requires sessions of chemotherapy which leads to almost complete loss of hair. One would
expect people to be sympathetic towards such patients but instead most are interested in
scoffing at their baldness.
Our running after beauty has become alarming in this modern age. Keats’ idea that
beauty resides in the eyes of the beholder, certainly does not hold in the present epoch.
Tonics assuring girls they will become fair in 14 days are readily available in the market.
Shampoos that guarantee straight hair are advertised all day long. Bold models with
straight hair are presented in such a way that having curly hair has become a sin. Sunday
magazines advertise medicines and tonics promising, users will become as slim as a stick.
TV commercials flash all day long, models who are “perfect” in every sense; perfect skin,
perfect figure, perfect hair and perfect attitude, what they in reality are, we do not know.
We believe what TV commercials show.
The lust for an alluring appearance is not confined to only womenfolk. Let’s talk
about men, shall we? Modern age has bred a class of “refined” gentlemen with tweezed
eyebrows and muscular bodies, but so thin, as if they were in dire need of nutrition that a
single whiff of wind might blow them away. This does not signify that TV models epitomize
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human beauty; the reality is these “icons” display such unattainable standards of beauty
that the gullible teenager is perplexed.
It is dismal to see how our “Islamic” society has fallen prey to this frivolity. Now,
looks are given more importance than character. The most common example is our
system of matchmaking where girls are dolled up and presented like show-items before
men. The criterion is not how educated or intelligent or pious the girl is, all we need is good
looks without a physical handicap. A fairly decent number of cultured girls are rejected
simply on the basis of a limp.
The production of steroids has made this problem even worse. Steroids are
stimulants given to the body to obtain a specific goal. They may give a person extra energy
or help in gaining weight. The harmful effects of steroids however, cannot be elaborated in
a single sitting. The human body is like a machine. It has a wonderful natural mechanism.
Tampering with the natural processes of the body with external agents can lead to very
dangerous consequences.
I had a second cousin who died at an early age maybe due only to this ignoble hype
of making himself physically attractive, he, therefore joined a famous gym. Some ignorant
teenagers, who wanted to display muscular physiques, introduced him to steroids. Later in
a minor accident he suffered an injury bursting a vein. When he went to the doctor the
poison had spread in the whole body. The presence of steroids in his blood accelerated
the process, as a result in a week only he passed away in a hospital. The death of an 18
year old, who may have turned out to be a valuable asset for the society, can be
considered an eye opener. With beauty as a new standard, intelligence and ability have
fallen to the back.
It is not necessary to be smart, it is necessary to be intelligent; a fellow speaking
English in an elite manner may have nothing sensible to say, but may inspire many. This is
the picture of the superficiality and hypocrisy prevalent in our society.
We have gone crazy after appearances and superficialities. Speaking Urdu is
degrading, English is the in thing, imitating the west means forward looking, indigenous
culture – conservatism, simplicity – reclusive, wearing torn jeans and baring skin is
keeping up with time. It is up to the guides of our nation, parents, teachers and the media
to preach decent values to the youth, check cultural invasion, and promote true Islamic
values, which stress upon fashioning the inner being of a person.
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HUNGER
Danyal Ahmed Fawad
FA ІІ
et us talk about hunger of a different sort. I’m talking about the insatiable
hunger to prove oneself in this world. The neo-Freudian psycho analyst
Alfred Adler says that an individual is born weak, insignificant and utterly
helpless. He is at the mercy of others for food, shelter and clothing. This dependency
creates a sense of inferiority in him, which he seeks to dispel as he grows old. The
individual’s riposte is an unconscious endeavour to dominate everyone and everything in
his environment. Freud considers libido to be the ultimate driving force behind every
human action. Both psychoanalysts however, believe that repression of any kind, either
physical or mental, leads to neurosis. In fascist societies of the world the power to think
freely is suppressed. The paradigm was set in Nazi Germany under the fuehrer Adolph
Hitler. By systematically eradicating the institutions through which culture operated and
which safeguarded the intellectual freedom of individuals, Hitler created a new order and
tightened the noose around the imaginative faculty of the masses because the search of
the unrestrained intellect would have blown the trumpet on the state’s ideology. So his SS
resorted to hate-mongering and spread venom against anything that had the potential to
develop as a threat.
Now, let us tackle the question at hand, why is the nourishment of the personality so
important and why does repression lead to dire consequences? After much contemplation
one has to come to the conclusion that if the individual is denied a creative vent, he grows
desperate, hopeless and dejected. The personality plunges into degeneration and in this
turbulent state the individual indulges in perversions. Physical behaviour is a reflection of
the internal environment of an individual. Many argue that Ernest Hemmingway committed
suicide because his later works lacked the finesse he was able to display in his earlier
works.
Before the Renaissance, Europe lived under the Church. The Protestant revolution
marked the beginning of intellectual emancipation. The most important aspect of this
emancipation was freethinking. Objective investigation replaced blind adherence. Man
exercised his reason and his intellect to satisfy his hunger. If the hunger of the intellect is
not appeased, individuals like Hitler and Mussolini will always turn up.
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WRONG HAPPENINGS
Danial Talat
FA ΙІ
unger, filth, poverty, hypocrisy, ignorance, lies, lies, lies and nothing but
lies. Pretending to be right is also lying. Clinging on to the same senseless
babble and repeating it over and over again doesn’t change the fact, we
are living in a milieu that thrives on lies.
The line between the real and the imagined is fading. We make plans to change the
world but the world changes us. It’s like the law of gravity; you can’t escape it. The human
species cannot change in spite of incessant vows and talk of “democracy”, “freedom” and
“humanity”. I don’t mean to present a philosophical doctrine; this is a youth’s frustration
coming out. It’s calling a spade a spade. The whole system reeks of corruption, from the
top to the bottom; each and every one of us is a lying, cheating, stealing hypocrite. Dirty
politics has entered every sphere of life. Innocent children mature into grown ups, casting
their skins off like snakes. Ever thought about how we teach and train little children to lie,
feign, deceive and swindle? Mothers train children to dupe fathers, fathers train children
how to dupe people outside and peers train pupils how to dupe the world. Why has politics
crept into every segment of our lives?
I think it’s because we are all insecure. We are afraid someone else will take over
our position and so we try our utmost to prevent that from happening. Talent either flees
the country, or rots undeveloped at the bottom. We grow jealous of talented people. As a
consequence, you see average talent everywhere; no geniuses. Ever wonder why we
have only two Nobel Laureates?
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THE DILEMMA
Afeefa Jarral
BSc Ι
ometimes, clues to major issues pertaining to nations and cultures lie in
seemingly insignificant gestures and traits. While looking for causes behind
under-development, poverty and intellectual backwardness in poor countries of
the world, one is struck by a characteristic mode of thought prevalent in the Proles, as George
Orwell calls them in 1984. The proletariat in under-developed or third world societies
develop fatalistic attitudes towards life and what it has to offer. Owing to propaganda
disseminated by the elite and the bourgeoisie they convince themselves that they were
born to be poor and miserable and destined to be deprived of every luxury of life. As a
consequence, they are treated as the scum of humanity and relegated to rot at the
subsistence level. A culture of suppression and submission is promoted to destroy the self
esteem of the poor so that they consider themselves inferior and never rise against the
tyranny of the elite.
People hoped things would change after the British driven by a naked capitalist lust
for imperialism, quit India. At least as far as the newly established Islamic Republic of
Pakistan was concerned, many hoped the professed Islamic state would eradicate the
class system. Little did these people know that the corridors of power now housed
powerful capitalists, feudals, nawabs and bureaucrats who would work to strengthen the
class system in the new state. Since then, the proletariat is being brainwashed into
accepting the status quo. It is a tragedy that nobody is our society has tried to introduce
respect for the individual as a basic tenet of civilized behaviour. Orwell explains the
dilemma of the deprived in his eternal observation; “Until they become conscious they will
never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
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PERSONA NON-GRATA
SOMETHING ABOUT THOSE WHO LIVE BELOW THE POVERTY LINE
Bilal Ahmed
FA Ι
Abdullah, 19-years old, lives in Lahore. He hails from war-ravaged Afghanistan. His
two brothers are still in Afghanistan and two other in Peshawar. To earn a little more he
migrated to Lahore. It was his childhood wish to “settle” in a big city, like Lahore.
He collects garbage from several colonies and dumps it into a nearby factory area.
In return for his services he gets monthly wage from the houses of the colony. Some
people give him as much as Rs. 60 per month while many give only Rs. 10 rupees. But for
him, even a single rupee makes a huge difference.
He is not literate because his family did not have enough money to afford a decent
education for him. All he learned from home was endurance; “You know, the garbage I
throw out makes me feel better than all the privileged people in this country. The elite class
and the leaders are filthier than I am. I carry filth to clean the country; they work hard to
keep it in. We need to purify ourselves; we need to throw them out.”
He met his family a year ago. He sighed and said, “Poverty makes a person forget
all his relations. A hungry man is always a desperate man.” Abdullah is not interested in
politics, his chief concern is roti.
Badshah Khan, 16 years old, is a Pakistani. His native city is Mardan but he
migrated to Lahore in order to survive, “It’s difficult for the poor to stay alive. The powers
that be in this country don’t want us to survive.” His brother died in abject misery and his
father is a drunkard who lives with him. Badshah picks rags from different corners of the
city. He manages to earn a meagre Rs. 20-25 daily. At times his father snatches all the
money from him and he has to remain hungry for days. He wanted to study in school. He
wanted to be an educated man. “I wanted to pick wisdom, as luck would have it, I pick
rags. I used to dream about luxuries but now I’ve realized they’re meant only for the elite.”
Gulraiz Khan, 7-years old, is an Afghan child whom I found in an electronics
market, viewing a cartoon film on a display TV. He told me that his family, consisting of his
parents and two elder brothers, migrated to Lahore from Kandahar a year ago. His mother
works as a labourer at Gulberg. His father is a vendor at the Lahore Railway Station.
Gulraiz, the youngest in the family, is a rag-picker. The boy wanted to go to school but his
father didn’t allow him because he wanted him to earn money. Gulraiz earns an average of
Rs. 10-20 everyday. “I love cartoons and I’ve seen many cartoon movies standing outside
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(display) centres like,” the boy shared. “Most shopkeepers don’t object to my standing in
front of their outlets but some rebuke me because they think my unwanted presence
affects their business.” Whenever I see beautiful people in luxurious cars, I wish to own
them, but I know I can not,” he sighed, “I can enjoy things only from a distance.”
Kamal, 20-years old, is a Pakistani. His native city is Swat. His family still lives
there. He migrated to Lahore so that he could support his family financially.
He too, picks rags around the area of Ghaziabad and earns Rs. 30-40 a day. He is
not satisfied with his earning but expects it to go better in future, as he plans to rent a shop
by the Lahore Railway Station. On being asked how he would afford to pay the rent, he
said that a distant relative, who is a labourer in a factory, has promised to help him get
started. Kamal detests politics and the elite class, “For me, the purpose of life is to find a
means of survival and a way of earning more money.”
37
A DEMURE REQUISITION
Mahrukh Nishat
MA ІІ
To
God Almighty
Master of the Universe
Heaven
Sir
I, seraph Habriel, commissioned on earth to ensure the well being of humans by
saving them from sin, and to observe and inform the Divine Office of their attitudes in
general, now venture to tender my resignation. There is not a single particular reason
behind my humble decision. However, the primary reason is a stark realization that it is
beyond my capacity to prevent mortals from sin. We humble seraph, I believe, can only
learn our limitations on earth.
My lord! My vocabulary fails to provide suitable words to encapsulate the attributes
of your favourite and last creation. I have learned that we, the naive creatures of Heaven,
can perform the role, more of learners than that of teachers or preventers. Before I
proceed to the final summation of this demure requisition, I deem it obligatory to provide
you with some of my paltry perceptions regarding this majestic creation.
Here, it matters the least whether I have been able to untangle the "mystery of man"
or not. But what is of chief concern here is that man claims to have solved the mystery of
nature. Curiosity is perhaps an instinct in his constitution. And in order to quench his
thirst, he analyses his experiences and extracts an interpretation in consonance with his
propensities. To continue this process they have established a laboratory here, namely
'Media' that works world wide. Here they try to discover, and communicate what nature
actually is with specific emphasis on 'Human Nature '. During our training, the chapters we
read on 'Human nature' were largely based on theoretical renderings of the 'Humanist
Philosophy'. Unlike seraphim, these stately beings put their faith in the golden rule of
'understanding through demonstration'. And I cannot help but express my gratitude to
human beings for helping me in understanding human nature.
It is amazing how they have solved the riddle of 'Religion'. Religion is now no more
celestial medicine for man's purgation. With an intelligible working of 'reason' man has
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opted for pills of a lesser potency. These toothsome tablets are easily available in the
market in different potencies i.e. 10mg, 50mg, 100mg, 200mg and above.
Such monastic creatures, my Lord! You sent them to earth; they deserve our abode!
Being compassionate beings, they cannot stand seeing a fellow creature in a mess. So,
whenever they find any fellow being caught in a calamity, they close their eyes. There are
also such adorable divine spirits who cannot 'rest in peace' until and unless they have set
all others into eternal peace. These are the best brains of the land, busy in devising new
ways and means of realising their dreams. They have particularly employed hydrogen,
plutonium and uranium to their advantage.
My Lord! We were taught in our lessons that we shall be confronted with three kinds
of human beings; those having sense, those with better sense and finally the beings
without sense. But here I have come across mortals belonging only to the last category.
Your mortals have attained such a state of 'Nirvana' that they do not need to act or think
anymore.
Keeping in view the astonishing outright genius of this crown of creation, I humbly
entreat that, if at all we poor seraphs are required to perform our duties on earth, then
certain reforms should be introduced in our training and education system. The
educational aspect reminds me of another facet of their ingenuity; their 'Education system,'
which is not like our “Divine Institute of Angels,” where all seraph sit together. Here, they
have two kinds of institution; institutions where students are taught how to become good
leaders and institutions where students are taught how to become good followers.
In a place where people are always busy planning to devise means of becoming
God, where men are not men but divine, what purpose can a poor seraph possibly serve?
You are the final Jurist My Lord! Then shower down the animating waters of your
mercy. For, I suffer from a severe felling of inferiority here. Let me go back to my abode
where all rest content with their lot near Thy gracious presence.
Thanking you in anticipation
Yours Obediently
Habriel
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ON IDENTITY
Dr. Asir Ajmal
Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology
In happiness nor in sorrow, am I
Neither clean, nor a filthy mire
Not from water, nor from earth
Neither fire, nor from air, is my birth
Bullehaa to me, I am not known
Not an Arab, nor Lahoria
Neither Hindi, nor Nagauri
Hindu, Turk, nor Peshawari
Nor do I live in Nadaun
Bullehaa to me, I am not known
(Bulleh Shah)
he question of identity has haunted Pakistan since its very inception. As a
Pakistani one is constantly faced with the question of what constitutes our
national identity. If we look at the major ideological schools prior to the
creation of Pakistan we find that none of these were comfortable with the idea of a
separate state for Muslims. The Deobandis among the Islamic schools, the communists,
the socialists and the Indian nationalists were all unequivocally opposed to Muslim
statehood. All of them in fact were supportive of the Indian national identity as a basis for
co-existence with Indians of other religious persuasions.
Once Pakistan became a reality, it fell upon these different schools of thought to
reconstruct a national identity. What is bizarre about their behavior is that each of these
major schools adopted the exact opposite of their pre-partition stance. The communists
and the former Indian nationalists, instead of advocating and supporting a unified Pakistan,
fuelled the fire of ethnic identities and politics. The former champions of Indian statehood
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and nationalism became leaders of ethnically biased parties.
The Islamists were no different. While their previous stance was based on an
acceptance of others and co-existence with other religions was a given in a United India,
they argued for an exclusively sectarian Muslim identity for Pakistan. This exclusive
Muslim identity which was pushed as the only viable model for Pakistani statehood
clashed with the divisive and partisan ethnic model of the socialists.
This double about turn by the major ideological schools caused a deep split in the
Pakistani psyche. The Pakistani psyche became a battleground of two forces that were
both exclusivist. The groups that claimed to unite the workers and peasants of the entire
world was now undermining co-existence and mutual tolerance in the name of ethnic rights
and identity. The groups that had no problem co-existing with people from other religions
were now bent upon converting the whole nation into clones of their particular
interpretation of Islam. This politics of exclusiveness, intolerance and divisiveness, on both
the left and right of our political spectrum, has led to the bifurcation of Pakistani spirit.
The state apparatus in Pakistan has always seen nation building as its first priority.
But using Islam or its narrow interpretations by the literalist schools dominating Pakistani
politics, to provide a sound basis for national identity, was a bad strategy. The creation of
Bangladesh in December 1971 should have been accepted as sufficient evidence for the
failure of this approach.
In the aftermath of the fall of Dacca, finally a unifying force emerged in the form of
the Pakistan People’s Party. With revolutionary zeal the party sought to unite the nation
under a socialist platform which also attempted integration of our Islamic identity into its
constitution. One can safely say that after Jinnah’s Muslim League, the PPP was the first
popular nationalist party. (I am aware that the word “nationalist” has been used to refer to
ethnic parties in Pakistan but nothing can be further from the truth).
The ethnic forces saw the fall of Dacca as a major victory and sought to undermine
the shattered state even more by sabotaging the only popular Pakistani nationalist
government, that of the Pakistan Peoples Party in the 1970’s. Interestingly, and again
ironically, the Islamists joined hands with the parochial leaders to destabilize the
government and thus subvert the state when it was still weak and vulnerable. The result
was a devastating martial law that shook Pakistani body politic and further flamed the
divisive forces in the ethnic and in the religious spheres.
The politics of ideology as a nation building strategy has failed miserably. Perhaps it
is time to change tracks. When something fails, unfortunately people refuse to learn from
history. The example of the doctor comes to the mind who, when his patient does not
respond to prescribed medication, increases the dose instead of changing it and replacing
it with something that might save his life.
41
When a child grows up, he identifies with the parent of his own sex, the boy
identifies with the father and the girl with the mother. This is the beginning of a sense of
identity which according to Freud arises around 5-7 years of age. Now, this is the basic
element of identity which does not include complex notions of ethnic, religious or national
identities. This just means that the boy learns to be a boy and wants to grow up to be a
man just like his father.
Developing a social and political identity comes from participation in the community.
In Pakistan if we look at the rural society east of the Indus, i.e. the areas with a North
Indian agrarian based culture instead of the tribal Afghan/Baluch culture, we find people
identifying with their communities or baraadaris. It can be argued that these baraadaris are
the real constituents of the state of Pakistan.
In a legal-constitutional sense, the federation of Pakistan is made up of provinces. In
a cultural and social sense, the provinces do not exist. They are too large even for
administrative purposes and each province can subsume several European nations in its
territory and population. Each province also has a rich ethnic mix and therefore is a
problematic entity given the ethnic tensions and administrative problems associated with
large areas and populations.
The baraadari on the other hand, is a reality that has not disappeared despite our
earnesrt wishes. Let’s face it; no one likes the concept of the baraadari in modern day
democracy. Yet, we know that election results in Pakistan are based on baraadari and
tribal affiliations, depending on which side of the Indus you live on. The baraadari system
is always spoken of as a curse, but no one has actually seriously examined the negative or
positive aspects of the baraadari system in an objective manner. One can postulate that
baraadaris are the basic unit of community in Pakistan and that it should be not only
validated but also actively considered in any nation building strategy.
Another important aspect of our nation building strategy should be to stop working
on national ideologies. The whole notion of a national ideology is a fascistic one. A nation
does not need an ideology. When Hitler wanted to annex Austria, he used the Aryan nation
slogan to devour the tiny Germanic country. After all, the Austrians spoke German and had
a German heritage. Why should they not have been a part of Germany? The Austrians
who resisted didn’t need any ideological justification: they were simply Austrian and not
German.
That is the kind of mindset I have as a Pakistani. I am not an Indian and not an
Afghani or an Iranian. I am a Muslim and a socialist and Pakistani nationalist. I don’t like
any of the political parties that are seeking my vote, so I am not really sure about modern
democracy either, I like the idea of democracy but the kind of people the system tends to
produce disgusts me; from Bush and Blair in the West to their lackeys the East.
42
I may be interested in the baraadari system in the rural areas but I personally am
not from a rural background. I am as urban as they get. And so being a Lahoria is a very
important part of my multifaceted identity. But I know many people who have moved from
rural areas who now have a mixed rural-urban identity.
One can argue that it is impossible to answer the question of national identity in an
absolute manner. Identity is defined in relation to context and there is a very small
component that can actually exist in the absence of a context. One can make binary pairs
of opposites that may define us as what we are not. This is what the establishment in
Pakistan has done for a long time with regards to India. So much of our state resources
have gone on trying to prove that we are “not Indian”.
Yet, the living paradox of the Indian Muslim stares us in the face. It is possible to be
an Indian and a Muslim at the same time, just as it is possible to be a Pakistani and a
Christian at the same time. I guess it is time for the state to acknowledge this simple fact
and move on from this negative, binary, and exclusivist way of defining itself.
It is time we incorporate and integrate the different aspects of our history and culture
into a meaningful whole instead of fighting against parts of ourselves in psychotic rage. We
have a very rich pre-Islamic history of which we should be proud. This includes not jut
Ashoka and Buddhism but also Hinduism with its religious and literary texts and traditions.
Then we have a rich Islamic history which is not a history of chopping hands and
whippings and lashings, as the religious parties would have us believe, but a history of
Sufis and saints, miracles and karaamaat, love and passion, art and crafts, literature and
architecture, folklore and music, qawwali and dhamaal; all form part of our Muslim
heritage.
Then we also have a “modern” layer; the modernity that came with colonialism and
brought us railroad and representative democracy. We need to find a way to find a healthy
compromise with modernity and live up to its challenges. We can’t just close our eyes and
wish it away. But neither should we fall pray to the trap of “everything modern is good”.
Modernity has its good aspects but let us not forget it gave us a monstrosity like the
rickshaw. Yet, I must accept the fact that despite my lamentations the tonga is not likely to
make a comeback in the foreseeable future.
Integration does not mean assimilation of the small within the large but it means a
meaningful and healthy union where each part contributes to the whole. It is like a happy
marriage where the family prospers because the husband and the wife love and respect
each other. And they can retain their individual identities while still maintaining their identity
as a family.
If we conceive consciousness as an ever-flowing stream, identity is like the surface
of this stream of consciousness. It marks the boundaries of the stream and to a great
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extent, defines it, but is itself equally fluid and ever-changing. That is why Bulleh Shah
refuses to answer the question of identity. His rejection of identity is ironically an
acceptance and tolerance of multiple identities within us. As the slogan goes: Unity in
diversity, diversity in unity. And, as Chairman Mao said “Let a thousand flowers blossom,
let a hundred schools of thought contend.”
44
PAKISTAN: THE STATE SEARCHING FOR ITS NATION
S. M. Ali Abbas
Old Ravian, Lecturer, Department of Economics, Oxford
t is often argued, and not without reason, that Pakistan is fast becoming a state
without a nation. There are fewer and fewer Pakistanis who would voluntarily
and comfortably choose to pronounce themselves as Pakistani and reject offers
of alternative nationalities. Our economy might be booming, our leadership in celebration,
our society in the grip of a great cultural/music revolution, but our Pakistani identity is
taking a beating locally and abroad. Deep province-centre tensions are increasingly
undermining national unity, while Pakistani passports continue to breed contempt at
international immigration desks. Perhaps for this reason, many inside Pakistan are trying
desperately to get out of it while those already outside are trying hard to stay out of it. That
nation which once united to give birth to the Pakistani state is no more to be found. To
quote the late Jaun Aelia:
I
Ik mulk ki talash thee us waqt qaum ko
Ab mulk dhoondta hai meri qaum hai kahaan
“At that time, the nation was searching for a state,
Now the state searches for its nation.”
But clearly, nation-building or identity-formation is never an easy task. Such
processes can take centuries to come to fruition. Shunning old identities and adopting new
ones requires a mix of courage, incentives and time. As such, it might still be meaningful to
have an objective discussion on both, the causes of, and solutions to Pakistan’s identity
crisis. In particular, the following questions seem both pertinent and relevant to Pakistan’s
future i) was the Pakistani identity doomed to failure from the very start because of a
flawed founding ideology, ii) is it now unrecoverable due to the failures of our leaders, past
and present, and iii) is it still possible to salvage the nation going forward through individual
and collective effort.
Let us begin by appreciating that as individuals, we possess many identities:
ethnicity, culture, gender, religion and nationality (to quote a few). Some of these identities
we inherit at birth and cannot change, like gender (in most cases!) and ethnicity. Others we
can change but at a social and personal cost, like religion. National identity falls in a third
45
category; it can be changed. Today, loyalty to a particular identity clearly depends on the
benefits it brings.
In Pakistan today, the Baluchistan crises is raising serious questions about the
viability of the state; internationally, questions are being asked about the very “idea of
Pakistan”. Stephen Cohen’s recent book by this name does not paint a rosy picture at all:
“Pakistan is all of many things: a client state of the US yet deeply resentful of it; a breeding
ground for Jihad and al-Qaida as well as a key US ally in the fight against international
terrorism [sic]; an economy and society run for the benefit of Pakistan’s warrior class, yet
with a relatively free and feisty press; a country where education and science refuse to
flourish but which is nevertheless a declared nuclear power; and an inward looking society
that is manifestly intolerant of minorities but that has never seen anything like the stateorganised pogroms in India, Afghanistan or China.” Then the warning for the future: “In the
long-run, minimal economic opportunity, a booming birthrate, intensive urbanization, a
failed educational system, and a hostile regional environment will result in a large, young,
and ill-educated population that has few prospects for economic enhancement and is
susceptible to political mobilization by radicals.”
There is a group of Pakistani intellectuals who trace the origins of our current plight
in the impracticability of the idea behind Pakistan. They argue that since the idea was
flawed, its implementation was a nightmare, leaving the country vulnerable to exploitation
by the unworthy elite. In Eqbal Ahmed’s analysis, civilian power was never considered by
Pakistanis as fair, effective or appropriate; thus the idea of Pakistan, despite Jinnah’s
declarations, remained ambiguous from the start. Lacking legitimacy or direction, the state
swiftly reached a compromise with the country’s inherited elite – the landed class. The
army and business leaders joined in to ensure a share in authority. Thus, the pre-partition
feudal structure endured, eventually leading to an exploitative relationship with East
Pakistan. With the arguable exception of Z. A. Bhutto, politicians avoided serious reform,
obsessing themselves with winning short-term elite favour and financial gains, and thus,
ignoring, in the process, the hopes and aspirations of the masses.
But this view does involve the element of over-generalization; we are locating
“patterns” based on a certain reading of the past that may or may not be accurate.
Secondly, such views seem to define the current state of affairs as a “structural
straightjacket” inherited from history that the people cannot extricate themselves from. The
result is that no one is left with any clear idea about how the status-quo can be changed or
improved
Pakistan stands unique among the comity of Muslim states, in that it was born out of
a mass movement to the extent that the Muslim League received a strong electoral
mandate from Indian Muslims on the basis whereof the successful plea for a separate
46
homeland was made. It is correct to say that the state of Pakistan, and the associated
identity, was “chosen” by its citizens and was not thrust upon them. The country was
formed in response to a widely-perceived “need” for a separate Muslim state where
Muslims could practice their religion peacefully. Moreover, below the rhetoric of Pakistan
ka Matlab kiya La Ilaha Illallah, there were strong and clear aspirations of making Pakistan
a modern, prosperous and forward-looking state where Muslims could be politically and
economically empowered. Indeed, many who joined the Pakistan movement feared
economic and social marginalization by Hindus in a united India.
However, has the Pakistani state delivered on these two promises of religious
protection and economic and social opportunity? Often, the answer to this question is a
complaining no and, ironically, it comes from people who have benefited the most from
Pakistan. Yet, we only have to look across the border to see the plight of Muslims in India.
Indeed, the pogroms in Gujarat offer a good counterfactual for what our plight individually
and collectively might have been if we had no homeland of our own. It’s not just the
comparison with Indian Muslims, but also a comparison with ourselves, 59 years ago. We
have come a long way; and we are many more than what we started out as.
In addition, Pakistanis have been able to establish their worth internationally in
many fields, especially in the professional arena. Our doctors, engineers and bankers have
a reputation that is matched by few from among the developing or the Muslim world. I
wonder how many of these professionals would have even gotten a sniff of university
education if Pakistan had not existed. Similar statements can be made about the Pakistan
Army and the civil service as well. To borrow from Churchill’s parlance, they have surely
taken more out of Pakistan than Pakistan has taken out of them. Thus, on balance, one
does not think that the more fortunate educated classes of Pakistanis can honourably and
sincerely make the argument that their Pakistani identity has not brought them any returns.
Now to the question of leaders and the argument that it is they who have let us
down and left Pakistan in the difficulties it is in today. A first response to that must be that
leaders are never Messiahs, not in Pakistan, not in India not in the UK, not in the US (as
we have seen recently). Leaders are thrown up from among the masses and reflect the
quality of the masses. If we wish to see the quality of our leaders improve, we must first
improve ourselves. As Woodrow Wilson said: “Nations are renewed from the bottom not
the top. The genius which renews the youth and energy of the people is the genius which
springs from the ranks of the unknown men. A nation is as great and only as great as her
rank and file.”
So the question to ask is, what kind of a rank and file have we been? Alishan Azhar
cites cynicism as the single most pervasive trait among Pakistanis. We have been for
many years and are increasingly becoming a very cynical society, partly for justifiable
47
reasons but partly to justify our own inaction and failures. We pass sweeping statements
about how bad things are in our country, and don’t care if in doing so we undermine the
efforts of those millions of honest hardworking individuals who are doing their duty quietly
and conscientiously. We love talking about conspiracy theories and foreign plots against
the country, but are never actively involved in defending the country against such plots.
Cynicism also breeds selfishness. Because we predominantly see evil around us,
we feel insecure, as if everyone is out to get us. As a result, we try desperately to protect
ourselves, ruthlessly pursuing our self-interest, usually to the detriment of the collective
good. In this particular context, cynicism can also breed cruelty. In Alishan’s words, “In a
society like ours, the sense of power is more vivid when we break a man’s spirit than when
we win his heart by word or deed.”
In the end, if Pakistan is to have a bright future we the people of Pakistan
(especially the youth), must replace our apathetic cynicism with action-oriented optimism.
The mammoth problems that Pakistan faces today like corruption, illiteracy,
unemployment, will not go away by the waving of a magic wand or the arrival of a Messiah
or if suddenly our political system was perfected. Our problem is that we want things to
change overnight. We want instant results for our endeavours, thus the support for the
“twin tower” strategy from many in the Muslim world. It doesn’t happen that way; Rome
was not built in a day. We have to cultivate altruism and vision to focus not on today, but
on tomorrow; on the country the next generation “should” inherit.
Kashti-e-haq ka zamaane mein sahara tu hai
Asr-e-nau raat hai, dhundla sa sitara tu hai
“In this time of tempest, the fate of the floundering sail of Truth rests with you,
The new world is like the darkest hour of night, and you its lone, albeit, dimly-lit star.”
48
PERCEPTIONS AND REALITY: GROWTH, INEQUALITY AND
POVERTY
Dr. Shahid Javed Burki
Former Editor The Ravi, International Economist
n several occasions Pakistan’s economy has been on the verge of take-off.
The term take-off was first used by the economist W.W. Rostow to describe
a situation reached by a developing economy when it could sustain a
reasonably high level of rate of growth without the need for extraordinary measures – state
policy explicitly directed at achieving growth and modernization supported by external
assistance to augment poor domestic savings. “The take-off is the interval when the old
blocks and resistance for steady growth are finally overcome”, wrote Rostow in 1953 when
the discipline of development economics was young. In the take-ff stage, “the forces
making for economic progress, which yielded limited bursts and enclaves of modern
activity, expand and come to dominate the society. Growth becomes its normal condition.
Compound interest becomes, as it were, into its habits and institutional structure.”1
That Pakistan was at that point in the mid-1960s was generally accepted by most
development economists. The most articulate exponent of this point of view was Pakistan’s
own Mahbub-ul-Haq who was then working as the Chief Economist of the powerful
Planning Commission and Gustav F. Papanek who was advising the Commission as the
chief of a group of experts provided by Harvard University.
Haq’s book, Strategy of Economic Growth2, famously argued that a country in
Pakistan’s situation should concentrate on achieving rapid economic growth, and allow the
trickle-down affect to carry the benefits of a rapid increase in the size of the economy to
the less-advantaged segments of the population. While Mahbubul Haq provided the
analytical underpinnings of the model of growth that brought about President Ayub Khan’s
“decade of development”, Papanek provided details of the way the model actually worked.
He extolled the work done by various instruments of government in wisely allocating the
resources available to the government (the Planning Commission and the Planning and
Development Department of West Pakistan).3
O
W.W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growt: A Non-Communist Manifesto, New York, Oxford University
Press, 1953.
2 Mahbubul Haq, The Strategy of Economic Plannng: A Case Study of Pakistan, Karachi, Oxford University
Press,
3 Gustav F. Papanek, Pakistan’s Development: Social Goals and Private Incentives, Cambridge, Mass.
Harvard Univeristy Press, 1967.
1
49
It took a political scientist; Samuel P. Huntington of Harvard University to point out
that rapid economic growth without spreading widely the benefits of development could
create serious and destructive tensions within societies. Most societies were poorly
equipped to handle the changes that inevitably occurred with development. The most
serious source of these tensions is “relative deprivation”. This situation results when some
segments of the society move much faster than others. This causes resentment. His book,
Political Order in Changing Societies appeared in 1968 and emphasized the important role
of institutions in economic development decades before economists began to incorporate it
in their thinking1.
Huntington advocated emphasis on institution building, most importantly the
establishment of stable party systems. While Ayub Khan and his political associates and
the economic advisers who had built his model of development or provided it with
intellectual backing were clearly surprised by the vehemence of the political movement that
gained momentum in the early months of 1969, one community of political scientists saw
their predictions come true. The movement eventually led to the overthrow of Ayub Khan
and the military president’s replacement in a palace coup by another man in uniform.
Unlike Ayub Khan, Agha Muhammad Yhaya Khan was less interested in economic
development.
How have the poor fared under the many different approaches tried in Pakistan? At
the time of independence some 60 per cent of the population, or 21 million people, lived in
absolute poverty, a condition of life in which the basic needs of those who are affected by it
are not fulfilled. In the period 1947-58 - the period during which politicians ruled with the
help of the civil bureaucracy - the country added eight million people to its population.
There was no decline in the incidence of poverty, in part because of the arrival of millions
of people as refugees from India.
It took about a decade and a half to settle these people on the lands and businesses
left behind by the six million Hindus and Sikhs who had gone to India. When Ayub Khan
put Pakistan under martial law in October 1958, the pool of poverty had increased by
another five million, to about 26 million people in a population of some 44 million.
Economists have disputed the impact of Ayub Khan's model of economic growth on the
incidence of poverty as well as on income inequality. The government, while celebrating
the “decade of development”, maintained that its policies had resulted in improving the
economic well being of a vast majority of the country’s citizens. This was disputed by
Mahbub-ul-Haq. No firm data is available to suggest what happened to the various
measures of welfare during this period. My own estimate is that while inequality increased,
1
Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968.
50
the incidences of poverty declined significantly. It couldn't have been otherwise. There is
much empirical evidence gathered by the World Bank and other development institutions
to suggest that rapid economic growth, even with some worsening in income distribution,
reduces the number of people living below the poverty line.
Agriculture contributed significantly to Pakistan's economic growth during this
period. The green revolution was led by small and medium sized landholders who were
more inclined towards using labor-intensive techniques than large farms. Also, the Ayub
government launched an ambitious program of rural works which focused on building
infrastructure in the countryside by using surplus labor. When Ayub Khan was forced out of
office in March 1969, Pakistan's population had increased to 56 million. Of this some 40
per cent - or 22 million people - lived in poverty.
The collapse in December 1971 of the second military government headed by
General Yahya Khan brought the civilians back to power. It also saw some increase in the
incidence of poverty, which can be attributed in part to the sharp slowdown in economic
growth, the result of a series of failed monsoons, and the outcome of the deep
restructuring of the economy undertaken by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. A
committed Fabian socialist, Bhutto brought deregister management to the economy. There
were far-reaching consequences of this structural change, including the impact on the
poorer segments of the population. A reduction in GDP growth and a decline in the rate of
growth of agricultural output contributed towards keeping the incidence of poverty at the
level reached at the conclusion of the Ayub Khan period. In July 1977, when General Ziaul
Haq removed Bhutto from power, Pakistan's population had increased to 72 million of
which 28 million were absolute poor. This was six million more than in 1969.
With the advent of the Zia ul-Haq rule, a firmer statistical picture is available in so far
as the incidence of poverty is concerned. This period not only saw a sharp pick-up in
economic growth, it also witnessed Pakistan's second green revolution, this time centered
around increasing the production and productivity of cotton, the country's main cash crop.
The Zia period ended in August 1988. At that time Pakistan had a population of 97
million, of which about 18 per cent or 17 million were poor. This was a remarkable
development. While the size of the population in this 11 year period increased by 25
million, the number of poor declined by 11 million. Or putting it differently, the economy
was able to help some 36 million people obtain a living standard above the line poverty.
Was the state under General Zia ul-Haq responsible for these happy results? Zia himself
suggested that his Islamization program, much of which was focused on the introduction of
zakat, contributed significantly to this development. This Islamic tax on the rich to raise
resources for distribution to the poor may have contributed a little to the decline in poverty.
51
However, the two more important reasons were the growth rates based on agriculture and
large amounts of remittances sent by the Pakistani workers in the Middle East.
Most of the Pakistani workers in the Middle East, came from very poor households;
most of them remitted the bulk of their large earnings to their families and, contrary to
some impressions at that time, most of this money was used to meet the basic needs of
the recipients. More than anything else, remittances played a significant role in reducing
the level of poverty.
This trend towards reduction in the incidence of poverty was reversed during the
decade of the 1990s. Once again a slowdown in the rate of economic growth played an
important role. This period also saw a significant decline in remittances, particularly after
the first Gulf War, when a large number of Pakistani workers in the Middle East were sent
back home. By 1999, the incidence of poverty had climbed back to 36 per cent of the
population. Since the population increased to 131 million, the number of people living in
poverty reached 47 million.
The size of the poverty pool began to increase at the rate of 10 per cent a year, or at
a rate four times the growth of population. This is when the military returned to power
under General Pervez Musharraf in October 1999. On the eve of Pakistan's fourth military
rule, the country was faced with an extremely serious crisis of poverty. However, unlike the
performance of the economy under General Ayub Khan and Zia ul-Haq, growth did not
immediately pick up with the transfer of power to the military in 1999.
How did the poor fare under President Pervez Musharraf? Slow recovery from the
economic slump in the 1990s? Although firm estimates are not available, the number of
people living in absolute poverty continued to increase at the rate of 10 million a year from
1999 to 2002.
In the first full year of Ayub Khan's stewardship, GDP increased by 4.9 per cent
compared to only 0.9 per cent the year before. In Zia ul-Haq's first year in office, growth in
GDP climbed to 7.7 per cent compared to only 2.8 per cent the year before. In 2000-2001,
the first year of General Musharraf's rule, GDP increased by only 2.2 per cent as against
3.9 per cent in the year before. Yearly growth data can be very misleading and should not
be used to draw firm conclusions. Nonetheless, the economic strategy followed by the
Musharraf government put emphasis initially on stabilization rather than growth and
poverty alleviation. In the first two years of Musharraf's rule, the incidence of poverty
probably increased. In the middle of 2003 when growth returned to the country, there were
some 50 million people living in the pool of poverty, the largest number in the country's
history.
It would be tempting to conclude from these broad trends that the military was more
adept at economic management than the civilians; that democracy failed to deliver growth
52
and bring about palpable improvement in the lives of ordinary citizens. Economic
performance was particularly poor in the first post-independence decade and again in the
1970s and 1990s – the three periods when politicians were in charge. In the 1950s and
1990s, the economy suffered because of the quick changes in government which meant
that a consistent set of policies could not be followed. In the 1970s, while there was
political stability, the economy was profoundly restructured by an expansion in the role of
the state. Also, the political administration at that time was deeply suspicious of private
enterprise and private entrepreneurs were fearful that their investment could be subject to
expropriation by the government. What this points to is not that the military was necessarily
a better manager of the economy.
President Pervez Musharraf’s tenure started differently from those of his military
predecessors. Whereas the rate of economic growth picked up immediately after Generals
Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq took control, the economy languished for three years under
General Musharraf. It picked up smartly in 2002-05 but began to slow down again in 200506. As I will indicate below, my assessment of the economic future is considerably less
sanguine than that of Islamabad. What will be the political and social consequences if the
economy falters once again?
A number of positive developments and positive policies helped in reviving the
economy during 2002-03. These included an increase investor confidence and an increase
in the level of consumption. By far the most important determinant of growth recorded in
this period was the continuity in policymaking. The same set of actors dominated decisionmaking in politics as well as in economics. Continuity in policymaking brought foreign
capital into the country. A series of successful privatizations have brought new foreign
capital and the promise of new management practices into some vital industrial subsectors.
Changes in agriculture were also palpable as agro-processing was becoming a
significant business with the entry of new capital, introduction of new technologies, and
development of elaborate distribution networks. The dairy industry was at the center of this
development. Given the fact that this business reached a large number of people, many of
them poor, the modernization of the dairy industry was bound to have very positive social
consequences. A growing middle class which was already fairly large – perhaps as large
as 50 million – was providing the market for absorbing a number of new agro-processed
products.
Considering these positive developments why was there the need to worry about
the future? There were, in fact, four worries about the state of the economy in 2006 when
the government seemed to believe that it had set it on a high growth trajectory. One; the
high rates of growth during 2003-05 were not sustainable in the future. Without a serious
53
correction in the course of the economy, the rate of increase in the GDP was likely to fall
back to somewhere in the range of 4 to 5 per cent. Given the structure of the economy this
was the most it could produce. Two; at a rate of growth falling in this relatively low range,
the economy will not be able to bring about a significant change in the incidence of
poverty. The number of new jobs that will be created will be considerably less than needed
by a rapidly growing workforce. Rural-urban migration will continue to proceed at a rate
twice the rate of increase in population which in turn will place even greater burden on
large cities. These cities were already bursting at the seams, unable to fully cater to the
basic needs of the population.
Three; a combination of a large pool of poverty, increasing population of large cities,
and a boom fed by speculation in the capital markets and in real estate will worsen income
distribution which was already considerably skewed in favor of the rich. This could create
the basis for social turbulence. Four; if social turbulence occurred once again, it will
happen as the country moved towards the time when another set of elections must be
held. These elections will be more critical than the six that were held over the last 20
years. These will be important since the Establishment will be testing the people’s
acceptance of the hybrid system of governance it had been using to run the country. For
Pakistan’s political history, 2007 will be as much a turning point as were the elections of
1970 and 1977.
In 1970, the military gambled that by allowing the people to give voice to their
aspirations and frustrations they will be able to produce a viable and durable political
structure. That did not happen. The 1970 elections were fair but released tensions the
institutions available to the society, were too fragile to absorb. In 1977, Islamabad had
gone on to introduce a number of deep social, political and economic changes. Having
done that, it lost its nerve and was not prepared to test its popularity with the people based
on what it had given to them in the realms of economics and politics. It was apprehensive
that the old vested interests would be able to marshal enough response from the citizenry
to unseat the incumbents. The party in power resorted to massive rigging. The result it
produced was not acceptable to the people and the agitation that followed its declaration
brought the military back to power.
In the early 2000s Pakistan once again seemed to have entered the same phase of
good macroeconomic performance, poor distribution of the rewards of growth to a wider
section of the citizenry, and lack of absorptive capacity on the part of the political system it
experienced in the mid-sixties. As was the case during the period of Ayub Khan, outside
observers once again began to take note of what they perceived as positive economic
developments in the country. To take one example, in its issue of March 27, 2006
Newsweek International wrote a very favourable story on the country’s economic situation.
54
The situation did look good1. As Ron Moreau who wrote the story put it, “the proof is in the
numbers. Last year the country’s GDP growth hit 8.4 per cent, the world’s second highest
behind China, following two years of solid 6 per cent growth. This year the economy is
predicted to expand by 7 per cent. After years of instability, with the government and
military trying to distract people from their economic woes by waging jihad in Kashmir and
railing against neighboring India, a true middle class is now developing. Economic reforms
have given the government money to invest in health and education, and foreign investors
are eyeing Pakistan for the first time. In many ways the country has become the world’s
most surprising economic success story.”
This, with one important difference, was an accurate reflection of the state of the
economy at the time. A large middle class had begun to exert its growing economic weight;
it was buying cars and motorcycles in record numbers; it was purchasing “files” to lay claim
to residential plots in numerous housing estates that had sprung up in most major cities; it
was sending its children to expensive private schools; it was taking vacations in Europe
and the Middle East; it was going to Dubai to shop, it was spending enormous sums of
money on weddings and other celebrations. The middle class was in a festive mood.
There was also an increase in domestic investment not just in real estate but also in
the economy’s productive sectors. Industrialists were putting new money into textiles and
cement and investment was being made in the sector of agricultural processing. While
hard numbers were difficult to come by, there was evidence of change in the major cities of
the country. Large bill boards announced the offerings being made aggressively by
commercial banks for the purchase of homes, cars, consumer appliances and for personal
consumption. Mobile phone operators offered various services at affordable prices. A
number of other bill boards gave information about new housing estates being developed.
And, some more told of the arrival of new lines of dairy and packaged food products to the
market. Specialized trucks were transporting processed chicken, milk and other
agricultural products. The latter was a particularly important indicator of development. It
showed that agriculture was finally being commercialized and Pakistan may finally be on
the road to achieving the remarkable potential of its countryside.
The question whether Pakistan had managed to bring about the needed structural
change in its economy to ensure a rate of GDP increase in the range of 7 to 8 per cent
was vigorously debated after the government provided estimates of growth for the year
2004-05. Two points of view were articulated in this debate. According to one point of view,
the brisk performance in 2004-05 was the consequence of the happy confluence of a
number of positive events. Those who held that view – and I belong to that group – thought
1
Ron Moreau, “Pakistan’s turn around economy”, Newsweek International, March 27, 2006
55
there was a low probability of that happening again. The government, on the other hand,
maintained that the economic performance in 2004-05 signaled a significant break with the
past and had set the economy on a new trajectory of growth. Islamabad maintained that
growth was now built into the structure of the economy and will be sustained at a high level
for years to come.
The “confluence of happy circumstances” argument rested its case on factors such
as the extraordinary good weather the country experienced in 2004-05 after several years
of damaging draught. Draught had laid waste much of the country side. Once it ended and
rains came, agricultural production rebounded. Agricultural output increased by more than
7 percent in 2004-05 over the previous year. Perhaps as much as 1.5 percentage points in
the rate of increase of 8.4 per cent recorded in 2004-05 could be attributed to the bounce
back in agricultural output. However, this was not the only fortuitous event.
Some other sectors of the economy also began the process of recovery from a
decade and a half of stagnation. We know from the experience of many countries around
the globe that continuity in policies and palpable efforts at economic reform can bring the
economy back to its long-term growth path.
If Pakistan had not been beset by political instability and poor governance in 199399, the economy could have grown at the rate of about 5 to 5.5 per cent a year. That was
the structural rate of growth of those times. Instead the rate of increase was less than 4
per cent during this turbulent time. This gap between real and possible growth resulted in
“suppressed growth” equivalent to about 20 to 25 per cent of GDP. This began to be
released once political stability returned and there was continuity in public policy.
Stability was bought at the price of suspended growth. Islamabad need not have
accepted the strategy forced on it by the International Monetary Fund at that time. The IMF
favoured stabilization first and resumption of growth later. Once the IMF program was
done, the authorities, concerned with low growth, decided to stimulate the economy by
priming the monetary pump. I would guess that another 1.5 percentage points of the 8.4
per cent increase could be attributed to this policy stance.
Finally, we should take into account the large amount of foreign capital inflow that
augmented domestic savings and increased the rate of investment in the period after
September 2001. Over the 2001-05 period foreign flows amounted to some 8 per cent of
GDP a year. These added 2 percentage points to the rate of growth. Adding the
contributions made by these three determinants of growth – by good weather, by monetary
expansion, and by a sizeable increase in external savings – it is possible to conclude that
some 5 percentage points in the increase in national output in 2004-05 can be accounted
for by these essentially exogenous factors. Or, putting it differently, the economy’s internal
structures produced a rate of growth of only 3.5 per cent. Absent these happy
56
circumstances, the economy would revert close to the rates of increase experienced in
what the administration headed by President General Pervez Musharraf called the “lost
decade of development”. The rate will be a little higher – but not a great deal more –
because of the few structural changes such as the modernization of the financial sector
that were made since the military took power in October 1999. This then, was the line of
analysis behind the “confluence of happy circumstances” school of thought.
The official view, of course, was very different. It attributed the performance of the
economy since 2003 to good public policy. According to it, the revival of the economy was
owed to a number of structural changes made by Islamabad, particularly in the financial
sector. The Musharraf government was confident that it had put policies in place that
would continue to produce high rates of growth well into the future. The government
believed that the unusually high amounts of foreign capital flows could be sustained well
into the future. There was comfort in the belief that foreign investors had developed
confidence in the economy and will bring capital into the country to benefit from the
relatively high rates of return that had become available. This was particularly true for the
affluent members of the Pakistani diasporas – particularly those in the United States – that
had begun to invest in some sectors of the economy. There was indeed a significant
structural change in the stream of remittances sent by Pakistanis living abroad and these
people were investing in the country, history showed that their confidence will not survive
the re-emergence of economic and political uncertainty.
Why should one be sceptical of the government’s point of view? There were a
number of soft spots on the economy’s surface and several weaknesses in foundations on
which the economy’s structure was built. Among the soft spots were a high inflation, an
appreciated rate of exchange, rising trade deficit and possible bubbles in the real estate
and capital markets. Among the structural problems were the neglect of the sectors in
which the country had comparative advantage, dependence on external savings, supply
constraints on exports, dependence on one set of products and a few markets for
international commerce, poorly developed human resource, outdated physical
infrastructure and a poorly developed corporate sector.
What complicated the situation for the policy makers in Islamabad was the fact that
the period during which adjustments had to be made was the period when the country had
to prepare for another set of elections. These were scheduled for the fall of 2007.
Correcting the economic course when elections were just around the corner was a difficult
enterprise even for a mature political system. It would be extremely difficult for a country
that was still trying to find political legs on which to stand. There was, therefore, not much
time left to smoothen the economic wrinkles.
57
The economic story would have been a success if the current rate of growth in per
capita income could be sustained over a reasonable period of time; if significant reductions
were occurring in the incidence of poverty; if policymaking in Islamabad had been
thoroughly institutionalized; if economic decision-making had been decentralized to lower
tiers of government that are closer to the people and if a capacity had been created at
these levels to deliver services and development to the people. There were very few signs
of any of these things happening. Unless the course on which the economy was set was
changed quite significantly, the country could run into rough political and social weather as
it did in the closing years of the Ayub Khan regime.
58
JIHAD — MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ISLAMIC TEACHING
Dr G. W. Leitner
Introduction by Abdul Waheed
Chief Librarian, GCU
Dr. Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner *
* It is also reported that during his tour of Muslim countries he adopted a Muslim name,
Abdur Rasheed Sayyah. Sayyah in Arabic means traveller.
few years after the publication of Lord Macaulay’s famous report on
education (1835), a sizable school of thought emerged that considered
Western knowledge and skills to be the primary source of development.
This community was subsequently entitled the Anglicists. In the same period, another
group was founded which was not associated with the corridors of power. They were well
acquainted with the Eastern as well as the Western branches of knowledge. They believed
that Eastern languages, literature and associated knowledge was of no less significance
and therefore it did not deserve to be ignored. They believed that both the wings of
knowledge ought to be promoted side by side. This would ultimately lead to our
development. This group came to be known as the Orientalists. Their intellectual
achievements are a source of inspiration for us. In the context of the Subcontinent, two
Orientalists are quite noteworthy. One of them was Dr. Elvis Shpringer (1813-1893), who
during his 14-year stay in India, headed Delhi College, Hegly College and Madrassa-eAalia (Caluctta). The second gentleman is Dr. Leitner. Both of them were naturalized
Britons, joined the East India Company and came to India. Dr. Leitner was born in
Hungary. He left ineffaceable marks on the Subcontinent’s intellectual and educational
milieu. He will always be remembered as one of the pioneers and the head of Government
College Lahore, Oriental College and the Punjab University. He was the first principal of
Government College, Lahore and the first registrar of the Punjab University. He played a
pivotal role in the establishment of the other two institutions.
Leitner was born at Budapest (Hungry) on October 14, 1841. He was educated at
Constantinople and at King's College, London. His complete name was Gottlieb Wilhelm
Leitner. His father was a physician by profession. He was quite young when political
A
59
turbulence erupted in Hungary in 1849. His father decided to migrate to Turkey in order to
avoid the uncertain situation in Hungary. Initially he settled in Istanbul and resumed his
medical practice. Leitner received his early education over there. For five years, he studied
in Barossa and Malta apart from Istanbul. He also studied at the Protestant College, Malta.
Although his early education was completed in Christian institutions, he also started
attending several Islamic seminaries in Istanbul and Barossa since his early years. He has
made numerous references to the Turkish seminaries that he had attended, in his articles
on Islam, printed in various newspapers and journals of England. Apart from religious
education, he learnt Turkish and Arabic languages. This helped him in accessing the
elementary sources of Islam.
In 1858, he left Turkey to go to England. He was educated at Constantinople and at
King's College, London. After completing his studies he joined King’s College and taught
Arabic, Turkish and Modern Greek languages. In 1861, he was appointed Professor of
Arabic and Islamic Jurisprudence in the same college. He organized the Oriental section of
the college. After a while, he was appointed the Honorary Fellow of the College. The
following year, he received his MA and PhD degrees from Freiberg University. During this
period, he had started writing and compiling many booklets, which include the
philosophical rules of Arabic, which was later translated in Arabic and Urdu.
Sadly, the ambitions of Dr. Leitner were not fulfilled, for the institute relied too
heavily on Dr. Leitner’s personal enthusiasm and wealth, and it did not survive his early
death. In 1898, he fell ill, and in January 1899, on medical advice, he travelled to Bonn to
bathe in a spa at Godesberg. He contracted pneumonia during a cold spell in February,
and on 22 March 1899, he died in Bonn at the age of 58. His body was returned to
England and was buried on 6 April 1899 in the Cyprian Avenue of the Brookwood
Cemetery. The funeral of Dr. G. W. Leitner, a remarkable linguist, and the world’s most
famous Orientalist, took place at Brookwood Cemetery on Thursday afternoon. The body
had been embalmed, and since its arrival in England, it lay at Brookwood awaiting the
arrival of his only son Henry Leitner, from America.
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Inscription on the tomb of Dr G.W. Leitner
THE LEARNED ARE HONOURED IN THEIR WORK
GOTTLIEB WILLIAM LEITNER
ORIENTAL INSTITUTE WOKING
BORN 14TH OCTOBER 1840 AT BUDAPEST
DIED 22ND MARCH 1899 AT BONN
LINA OLYMPIA LEITNER
HIS WIFE
DIED 24TH MAY 1912 IN LONDON
AGED 64 BONN
The Lord is my shepherd therefore can I lack nothing.
Yea, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. (Ps. XXIII)
Al-‘ilmu khayrum min al-maali
HENRY LEITNER
Only son
Born Lahore 1869 — Died London 1945
Leitner spent almost 22 years in India and returned to England in 1887 for good.
During his stay in India, he went back to England several times on account of his poor
health or his participation in the International Conference of Orientalists (Vienna, 1873).
The time that he had spent in India may be termed as the most important part of his life.
During this period he wrote a scholarly and comprehensive book in Urdu, History of Islam,
in two volumes, with the help of a Muslim scholar, Maulvi Karim-ud-Din, who was the
District Inspector of Schools, Amritsar, Punjab. These two volumes were later published in
1871 and 1876.
During his stay in India, he regularly participated in the International Congress of the
Orientalists where he would present his findings as research articles. He continued to
participate in these meetings even after his return to England. He also contributed in
organizing these meetings. In the 1889 meeting, which was held in Stockholm (Sweden),
some objections were raised to certain articles presented in the meeting. The Orientalists
from France and England lodged strong protests against these objections. Leitner was
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among them too. At last, he decided to launch a separate Congress. He wrote many
articles in support of his perspective and got them printed in various newspapers. He
called a meeting of the Orientalists who supported him in his cause. A large number of
European Orientalists opposed him and decided to boycott his Congress. Nonetheless,
Leitner succeeded to hold a Congress in London in 1891. The second session of his
Congress was held in Lisbon, Portugal in 1893. It failed to meet success.
Leitner’s entire life is devoted to his struggle for the cause of education. It seems as
though he had a special knack of establishing educational institutions. Wherever he
stayed, he employed his peculiar abilities. His stay in India was most productive in this
context. Upon his return to England, his interest of establishing institutions remained intact.
Immediately after his return, he founded the Oriental University Institute where all the
major languages, literature and religion of Muslims and Hindus were taught. He wished it
to be the acknowledged centre for this field of study — a role that was later acquired by the
London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, which was established in
1916. He also established a museum along with it where he preserved the antiques he had
discovered during his expeditions in the far flung areas of North Western Frontier regions.
Adjoining these buildings, he constructed a beautiful mosque in Woking. It was meant to
serve the religious needs of the Muslim students residing in England. The mosque is still
there serving the needs of the Muslims of that area.
He started six journals in Sanskrit, Arabic, English and Urdu. The following critical
journals in Sanskrit, Arabic and English published by the Oriental University Institute
became widely read.
Sanskrit Quarterly Review.
Al-Haqa’iq: an Arabic Quarterly Review. Its chief editor was Dr. G. W. Leitner but it
was mainly edited by Syed Ali Bilgrami and Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Khan. It was printed
and published in Hyderabad Deccan, India.
The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review. It was edited by Dr. G. W. Leitner
himself and was published from England.
Reprints of some of the scholarly contributions of the Asiatic Quarterly Review were
published for wider circulation. Titles of some of these reprints were: (1) Mohammedanism
by Dr G. W. Leitner; (2) The Non-Christian View of Missionary Failures; (3) Child Marriage
and Enforced Widowhood in India; (4) The Truth about the Persecution of the Jews in
Russia; (4) Misconceptions about the Islamic Concepts of Jihad.
He wrote numerous articles and books on education, religion and social life of the
people living in India. But his unique research is his book Dardistan that deals with social
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life, religious beliefs and dialects of various tribes and ruling families of Kashmir,
Afghanistan, Ladakh, Badakhshan, Gilgit etc.
Sir Lepel Griffen started an English magazine, Asiatic Quarterly Review. Leitner
was appointed its editor in January 1890. He held this post until his death. He himself
wrote quite a few articles for this publication. Most of them served as revised appendices
to his previous books and articles. The present article Jihad — Misconceptions about
Islamic teaching by Dr G. W. Leitner was published in Asiatic Quarterly Review, October
1886.
JIHAD — MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ISLAMIC TEACHING
Meanings of the word jihad
The subject of jihad is so thoroughly misunderstood both by European scholars and
by the bulk of Muhammadans themselves, that it will be well to point out what really
constitutes jihad. In order to do so, it is necessary to analyse the word and to show when
and how it was first used.
Etymologically the root is jahd, “he exerted himself”, and the substantival infinitive
that is formed from it means “utmost exertion”. Its first use amongst Arabic authors refers
to that particular exertion which takes place under great difficulties, and, when applied to
religious matters, it means an exertion under religious difficulties on behalf of the true
religion.
Keeping in mind the strictly logical, philosophical, historical and ethnographical
applications of each Arabic root, it will be seen at once how a word of this kind would be
subject to interpretations according to circumstances. Taking into consideration the
surrounding life of an Arab, we are confronted first and foremost with his domestic and
natural relations. We then follow him out of his tent, and we see him deal with his camel or
his horse; we follow him on predatory expeditions, and we see him in the lonely desert as
he complains of the disdain of his beloved, of the arrogance of a neighbouring tribe, of the
melancholy prospects of his country, and of the perversity of his heart in not finding full
solace in community with God. Here are all obstacles to be overcome, and if he forces his
camel or horse to take a desperate ride through the night so as to surprise the violators of
his peace before the early morn, it is jihad; if he appeals to his kinsmen to shake off their
lethargy and to rally round the tribal standard or to spread the opinions of the true faith, it is
jihad; and if he abstains alike from worldly cares and amusements in order to find that
peace which meditation alone can give in spite of an obdurate heart, it is jihad. Nor can the
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student’s jihad in poring over his books, the merchant’s jihad in amassing money, the
ploughman’s jihad in winning food from an obstinate soil, be forgotten.
So that when people say that jihad means the duty of the Muhammadans to wage
war against a non-Muhammadan government or country and call this jihad (although it is
possible to conceive that under certain circumstances this use of the word might be
legitimate), they really talk nonsense, and cast an undeserved libel on a religion with which
they are not acquainted.
It would be more just to deduce sanguinary precepts from the Old Testament, or to
find an encouragement to slavery in the Epistle of St Paul which enjoins Onesimus, the
runaway Christian slave, to return to his heathen master. If Christian theologians, bearing
in mind the nature of the mission of our Saviour, find a voluntary sacrifice for the salvation
of mankind in him, who on the cross complained that God had forsaken him, we might as
well pause before we explain jihad as meaning in its entirety what it might mean in the
mouths of Muhammadan warriors. If it is the duty of the Christian soldier to fight for his
government, irrespective of the cause in which he is engaged, it would clearly seem that it
was not less his duty to fight for that government when engaged in a crusade against the
unbeliever or against the oppressors of the Christian community. Similarly, if the
Muhammadan warrior is engaged in a Crescentade against those who do not allow their
Mussulman subjects to perform the commonest of religious duties, who expel them from
their homes and confiscate their property, simply and solely because they are
Mussulmans, if such oppression is committed as a breach of treaty, if even a single
Mussulman cannot live undisturbed by the infidel, it does not seem to be an unrighteous
cause for him to exert himself in an effort of jihad which will then assume a peculiar sense.
Inter arma silent leges, to which we may add et religio, though not necessarily every form
of pietas, and we may still have our pious warriors, who died in the Holy Land, and the
Saracens may also have their pious martyrs, or shahidin, who perished fighting on infidel
soil.
Gross misinterpretation
After this lengthy, but not unnecessary, preliminary observation on the meaning of
the word jihad, I will now examine the causes which have led to its present gross
misinterpretation, and I shall then quote the passages bearing on the sacred war and on
the conditions under which alone it can be waged. This inquiry will not only be of
academical interest, but will also perhaps be of some political importance, because it is
immediately connected with the question of the Khalifa and of the Imam, as understood by
the two great sects, the Sunni and the Shi‘ahs respectively, and by the Sunni sub-sects of
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Muhammadan subjects. The matter is still veiled in considerable obscurity, in spite, if not in
consequence, of the explanations that have been given from interested standpoints. We
shall then be able to understand the precise authority of the Sultan of Turkey on the
Muhammadan Sunni world, we shall then discover whether and how far the Mahdi was
right in opposing Egyptian encroachment and the invasion of the foreigner, and, if he was
right, whether this fact has, or can have, the faintest influence on the attitude of
Muhammadans under Christian rule, whatever their condition or treatment. I shall show
that it has not, and cannot have, the faintest influence on the attitude of Muhammadans
under Christian rule, whatever their condition or treatment. I shall show that it has not, and
cannot have, such an influence from a religious point of view, and I shall go further and
prove that the most suspected class in the Muhammadan community, the so-called
Wahabi, is the one that, under all circumstances, is the foremost in deprecating resistance
to constituted authority, however obtained and by whomsoever exercised.
With the utter submission of private interests and feelings to a usurper we have no
sympathy, as being opposed alike to common-sense and the natural feelings of mankind,
but we have no hesitation in asserting that it is impossible for any modern Christian
government to commit those acts which would alone give a colour of justification to a jihad
by its Muhammadan subjects, even with the prospects of success and the temptations
held out by a victorious neighbouring Muhammadan power among the least patient of our
Muhammadan fellow-subjects.
An Islamic Confederation, therefore, as suggested in the last number of the Ittila, a
Persian newspaper published in Tehran, under the presumed direction of the Government
of the Shah, may be an interesting and perhaps even a politically important suggestion. To
consider for a moment that a Shi‘ah interpretation of jihad will have an effect on Sunnis, or
that a Shi‘ah explanation of jihad is consistent with their religion if it implies an attack on
non-Muhammadan governments, especially by their own subjects, who are assumed to be
under a tacit treaty of allegiance with it, would be far indeed from truth. We ourselves
entirely sympathise with every effort to cement the feeling of brotherhood among the
various Muhammadan sects, but we are equally convinced that, in proportion as it rests on
a religious basis and as that basis is understood, the result will be the deepening of the
loyalty of our Muhammadan fellow-subjects.
Assuming the translation of the Ittila article given by the Globe to be correct, I find
nothing in it that is an appeal to passion or prejudice. There is nothing in the passages
quoted from the Koran which can be construed as an incitement to rebellion. The hand of
God would be over their (the believers’) hands… (48:10); superior worth would belong unto
God, His apostle, and the true believers, and the unbelievers would be smitten with
vileness and afflicted with poverty, are evidently passages capable of another
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interpretation than that of waging war with unbelievers. If the religion of the Gospel and of
universal brotherhood says that it has not come to bring peace to the world but strife, or if it
enjoins “to give Caesar what belongs unto Caesar, and to God what belongs unto God,” it
may be inferred that it would be unlawful to give to Caesar what belongs to God, or to say
there is peace when there is no peace. No doubt, the Ittila refers to the doctrine of jihad,
just as an oppressed Christian community would, in the words of Milton, call on the Deity
to avenge His slaughtered “saints”, but from such a reference to the main object of the
article there is indeed a great distance; this object is distinctly defined as being that of a
defensive alliance. The passage is as follows.
True connotation of jihad
“If all Mussulman nations were to form a confederation for the sake of defending
themselves against attacks from without, they would acquire power and strength, and be
able to overcome all other nations, just as they did in former times. Let all dissension which
now separates the different Mussulman nations be put aside; let the nations form a
defensive alliance; and, should any power attack any one of the Mussulman nations, let
none remain neutral, but let all co-operate in repelling the enemy; let them combine their
wealth and property for the support of all - and then no aggressor would have a chance of
success. If Prussia had fought single-handed against France, she would have been
defeated, and would never have acquired her present glory. Why was she victorious, and
how was it that, from being at best only a second-rate Power, she has become one of the
great Powers, and how is it that the fame of her mightiness has pervaded all the world?
Simply because she had formed a confederation of all the German States. Mussulman
states should follow Prussia’s example, and not forget that union gives strength. We wish
to see all Islam united in a defensive alliance only; no state should interfere with the
internal affairs of any other state, and the confederation should exist only for joint
action against an aggressor. Other nations would then not dare to attack, the
Mussulman states would be able to protect their liberty, independence, and
nationality, and defend their property and country with glory and fame against all
aggressors. Now that Islam is not united, protection and defence are impossible, as
every state singly is too weak.
Whoever aids in this cause will make himself a glorious reputation in both worlds,
and his name will be mentioned in the history of Islam till the end of the world, and never
be effaced from the pages of time. Is such a confederation impossible? No, certainly not.
We have now shown the result of dissension and that of union, and unless Islam forms a
confederation it will neither be safe from attacks from without nor be able to return to its
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ancient power and its glory of former days. All intelligent men are advocates of a
Mussulman confederation, and are of our opinion. It is the duty of every true believer to
exert himself to the utmost to attain this end; any neglect would ensure terrible and fatal
consequences.”
I consider this appeal to be neither unnatural nor impractical; on the contrary, it is
one of the best signs of the times. Already at Lahore, Lucknow, and other places, Sunnis
and Shi‘ahs in India are prepared to sink their differences for the common social and
political good of their fellow-Muhammadans; nor does this concession imply any disloyalty
to Government. It rather implies the growth of a common citizenship cemented by the
same allegiance to the same Empress, and as regards the Muhammadan states
unconnected with India, it would indeed be well if they formed an alliance for defensive
purposes under the aegis of Great Britain, instead of that of Russia, and the former is now
prepared to assume that protectorate.
Concept of jihad in the Bible
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out
of it thou wast taken; for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. iii. 19).
The nature of the ground, to the cultivation of which the first man was addressed, is
sufficiently indicated in the verses preceding the above quotation, which describes it as
“cursed”, and as yielding “thorns also and thistles”, except what great labour might win
from an obdurate soil for the sorrowing worker. This labour might be accompanied by
prayer, but it was itself a punishment, and it was reserved to Christianity and to modern
civilisation to impress that laborare est orare.
In Arabic and in the Muhammadan religion, which it is idle to discuss without
knowledge of the sacred language in which it is written, the Biblical passages which we
have quoted might be rendered as follows:
“In jihad shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the jihadat” (stony and sterile soil).
As for the remaining part of the quotation, although it is admitted by Muhammadans
that we are dust and return unto it, the more common exhortation refers to the breath or
living soul which God ‘breathed into the nostrils of man’, whom He formed of dust, or rather
clay. We belong to God and unto Him shall we return, is the refrain to numerous verses of
the Koran.
As for the mortal coil, the Arab was formed of red clay, which is what the word
“Arab” means; and the coasts and bottom of the Red Sea, at the entrance to which he
places Eden, and which, according to Professor Haekel and others, now flows over
Limuria, the ancient seat of primeval man in his transition from the monkey, who ate the
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fruits of Paradise where we enjoy cakes, ever attract the notice of the traveller by their red
colour. EDOM, or Adam, or Idumea, whence the rugged Mount Sair reddens in the sun
from the reflection of the waters, means “red”.
Adam, too, was named and formed from Adama or “red soil”, so that if we are to find
our prototype and his lineal descendant, we find him in the Arab, whilst if any language can
be “the first” in the present cycle of mankind’s development during the last 6000 years, it is
Arabic. The reference to the soil and to the sexual relations of most of the words is, at any
rate, suggestive of its early historic origin. Their subsequent application to custom, religion,
and other motive powers of mankind, is instructive as the history of the Arabs and that of
human thought. But jihad is the one word into whose primary meaning sex does not enter;
it is simply that labour which Muhammadan religion has rendered identical with
prayer. Nor can we leave this interesting philological inquiry without remarking that, in our
opinion, great as are the disciplinary uses of Idio-Germanic studies, the logic and lessons
of the Shemitic Branch are unparalleled. We would direct the attention of students of
languages to that application of Arabic words with their hundred (in one instance 500)
meanings to those groups of associations connected with the life of that people which,
once understood, will create grand trunk roads through the jungle of its linguistic wealth,
and will establish principles which, sublime in their simplicity and sense, will not only
enable us to learn with ease the, by far, most difficult of all developed languages, but will
also solve many problems in human history and thought, with special reference to the
physiology, ethnology, and psychology of the people of the Arabian Peninsula.
Different meanings of the word jihad
We then assert that, like other Arabic roots, jihad has first a concrete and then an
applied meaning. This applied meaning varies according to the circumstances of Arabian
life and the development of Arabic literature, but never loses its original keynote of
exertion against difficulties. Unlike, however, other Arabic words, it is devoid of sexual
reference, and it is thus the purest Arabic word in all its concrete, allegorical, and abstract
applications, as it is also the noblest duty of a pious Muhammadan.
Jihad, therefore, in the first form of that root, is applied to exertion, and in the third,
sixth, and eighth forms to the unsparing exertion in speech or action, or in order to arrive at
a correct opinion in spite of difficulties. Thus, an examiner in dealing with a candidate and
a physician in treating a patient have tasks before them which tax their power; and so has
a petitioner who wishes to extract a favour from an official. The general result of these
efforts is that jahad is one who is harassed, fatigued, and grieved, and, above all, when a
famine befalls the land and the agriculturists are sorely distressed, both their condition and
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their efforts are “jahad”. Indeed, if we are told of a people simply that they jahad, it means
that they are afflicted with drought and dryness of the earth. No doubt, that, similarly, a
soldier’s fatigue party, the wearied wayfarer, and the jaded beast plied beyond its power of
marching, all are aptly described as jahad. To deprive milk of its butter, or to churn it, so as
to render it pleasant, or to dilute it with water; the desire of food of a hungry being or eating
plentifully of it, whether it be human food or pasture, is jihad. In the third form, which adds
the notion of causation to that of the original meaning, the object which causes exertion is
obviously put into the foreground, and as resistance is greater, so efforts must be
increased; therefore, as jihad is really the infinitive of this form, it is equivalent to the Latin
fortia pectora opponere adversis rebus. These adverse things are generally objects of
disapprobation. As with the Christian, the Mussulman has to wage war with “the world, the
flesh, and the devil,” and so jihad is of three kinds, namely, against a visible enemy,
against the devil, and against one’s self; and all these three opponents are included in the
term jihad, as used in the twenty-second chapter of the Koran, verse twenty-seven. Thus,
to fight an enemy under conditions of great difficulty and opposition, the enemy doing the
same, is jihad, it being remembered that the earliest enemies with whom
Muhammadanism had to fight for its very existence were non-Muhammadans desirous of
suppressing a hated religion. It was only natural that when reference was made to a “jihad
in the path of God” the word should have come to mean a fight in the cause of religion, and
that, finally, when the words “in the path of God” were dropped in ordinary conversation, or
writing, it should assume the meaning of a “religious war”, which it has kept to the present
day.
Various forms of jihad
The other forms of jihad continue the general meaning of the original form as
modified by the super-added value of the derived form. Thus, to the labourer it becomes in
the fourth form the entering upon land, such as is termed “jihad, a desert, a plain”, or
“open, barren country,” whilst in dealing with affairs that form adds “the necessity of
prudence, precaution, and sound judgement.” The physical result of this is the old man’s
hoariness and the appearance of white hair in the dark beard, but exertions steadfastly
prosecuted have the effect of both concrete and abstract difficulties being removed, and,
therefore, ajhad means that “the earth, the road, or the truth become open to him who
takes trouble,” and finally ajhad means that “the matter in hand becomes within one’s
reach.”
We now, passing over the sixth form as being very much the same in meaning as
the first, approach the eighth, which has had such an importance in the theological
government of the Shi‘ah community in which the mujtahids are the scholastic witnesses,
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commentators, and guides of the faith, whose words, whether it be at Lahore, at Lucknow,
or at Tehran, the faithful of the Shi‘ah sect find it impossible to resist. Indeed, the Shah’s
government is an absolute government tempered by the advice or resistance of the
Mujtahid-Ijtihad. Mujtahid as a conventional term means “a lawyer exerting the faculty of
the mind to the utmost for the purpose of forming a right opinion in a case of law
respecting a doubtful and difficult point by means of reasoning and comparison,” and,
similarly, ijtihad means “the referring a case proposed to the judge respecting a doubtful
and difficult point from the method of analogy to the Koran and the Sunnah.” If ever a
Mussulman rising were to become formidable among Shi‘ahs, the influence of the
mujtahids would have to be conciliated.
The simple noun, jahd, therefore, obviously means power, ability, labour, effort, a
stringent oath, or else the difficulty, affliction, or fatigue with which the above-named
qualities have to contend. Physiologically, of course, disease is jahd. The trouble of a large
family combined with poverty, or the difficulty of a poor man in paying exorbitant taxes, are
all jahd. Applied to land, jihad has already been explained to be the land, in which there is
herbage, or level and rugged land, sterile and ungrateful, though it is also applied to land
of which the herbage is much eaten by cattle in the form jahid. Mujhid, if referred to a
friend, shows that he is a sincere and careful adviser; if applied to oneself, denotes an
embarrassed condition, and if to one’s beast, one that is weak by reason of fatigue. The
passive participle of jahd similarly refers to the distressed condition of affairs, of disease, of
dearth, or drought; but we think we have said enough to prove that none of the
meanings in any of the forms necessarily implies the fighting of a man because he
is of a different religion, or the opposition to a non-Muhammadan government, and
that it even does not go so far as the word crusade, as animating a community in an
attempt to oust the unbeliever from foreign land in order to obtain the guardianship
of the Holy Sepulchre, or to simply wrest land from the Muhammadans for the glory
of a most Christian king.
(Jihad, to summarise the ordinary meanings as given by Arabic lexicographers, is
simply as follows:
Jahd — to exert oneself, endure fatigue, to become emaciated from disease, to
examine, to extract butter from milk, to wish for food, to live in straitened circumstances.
Jihadat — the hard ground which has no vegetation.
Jihad — war with an enemy.
Ijhad — the increase of white hair, the unfolding of truth, exertion, and (in special
applications) to divide and to waste property.)
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The Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) perception of holy war
When some people applied to Muhammad for permission to join in a holy war
against those who were oppressing Muhammadans, he replied to them, “Your true jihad is
in endeavouring to serve your parents.” The Koran, when using the word jihad, seems
preferentially to use it for war with sin: Whoever wages jihad in morality We will show him
the true way. Elsewhere (25:52), the Koran exhorts us to fight infidels with the “great jihad”,
the sword of the spirit and the arguments of the Muhammadan Bible. In the traditions
regarding the sayings and doings of the Prophet, a band of holy warriors is returning
cheerfully from a victorious war with infidels to the peace of their homes and the tranquil
observation of their faith. In passing the Prophet, they exclaim: “We have returned from the
small jihad, the war with the aggressors on the Muhammadan faith, to the great jihad, the
war with sin.” Christians should similarly, as representatives of the Church of Universal
Brotherhood, which yet is called the Church Militant, and which has as often wielded the
secular sword as it has that of the spirit, act on the words alike of St John and of the
ancient Arabic proverb: “Take what is pure and leave what is impure,” even from religious
opponents. Fas est et ab hoste docere, and although we are in a world in which, as
another Arab proverb has it, “one attar (originally a seller of the ‘atar or otto — essence of
roses) is of little use in an age of corruption,” we may yet hope that some reader may
address himself to the important subject of jihad without the preconceptions which have
hitherto prevented its investigation.
No compulsion in religion
The principal references in the Koran relating to religious war are found in the
following chapters:
No violence is to be used in religious matters, although the popular impression is
that this is the very essence of Muhammadanism. The second chapter of the Koran
distinctly lays down, Let there be no violence in religion (2:256). This passage was
particularly directed to some of Muhammad’s first proselytes, who, having sons who had
been brought up in idolatry or Judaism, wished to compel them to embrace
Muhammadanism. Indeed, even when the mothers of non-Muhammadan children wanted
to take them away from their believing relatives, Muhammad prevented every attempt to
retain them. The second chapter similarly says, Surely those who believe (viz.
Muhammadans) and those who Judaise, and Christians and Sabaeans, whoever believeth
in God, in the last day, and doeth that which is right, they shall have their reward of their
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Lord (2:62). These words are repeated in the fifth chapter, and, no doubt, several
Muhammadan doctors consider it to be the doctrine of their prophet that every man may
be saved in his own religion, provided he be sincere and lead a good life. However, under
the pressure of the followers of Muhammad, this latitude was curtailed and was explained
to mean “if he became a Moslem,” though this explanation is manifestly a faulty one,
because if an idolater became a Moslem, he would be equally saved, and so there would
be no difference between him and an Ahl-e Kitab (possessor of a sacred book) namely, a
Christian or a Jew.
In Acts x. 35, the Apostle Peter similarly states that “in every nation he that feareth
God and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him,” and yet we do not infer from this
that any religion is sufficient to save without faith in Christ. The fact is that there is an
essential difference between the chapters delivered at Mecca and those delivered at
Medina. In the first case, we have the utterances of one who, as a true prophet, calls
people to repentance and to a godly life apart from worldly considerations. In the chapters,
however, given at Medina, we necessarily find these worldly considerations paramount,
Muhammadanism struggling for its very existence, and being confronted, not only with the
necessity of legislation among its own followers, but also with the organisation of war, and
with the circumstances that give rise to it or the results that follow from it; so that it is
obvious that instructions given to warriors or in a code of legislation must differ from
appeals to salvation. It is only in bearing in mind the circumstances under which each
particular instruction was given that we can come to a right conclusion as to whether war
with infidels, as such, is legitimate or not.
We have no hesitation in stating that an unbiased study of the Muhammadan
scriptures will lead one to the conclusion that all those who believe in God and act
righteously will be saved. Indeed, the ground is cut off from under the feet of those people
who maintain that jihad is intended to propagate the Muhammadan religion by means of
the sword. It is, on the country, distinctly laid down in the chapter called The Pilgrimage,
that the object of jihad is to protect mosques, churches, synagogues, and monasteries
from destruction (22:40), and we have yet to learn the name of the Christian crusader
whose object it was to protect mosques or synagogues. Of course, when the Arabs were
driven from Spain, to which they had brought their industry and learning, by Ferdinand and
Isabella, and were driven into opposition to Christians, the modern meaning of jihad as
hostility to Christianity was naturally accentuated. Indeed, jihad is so essentially an effort
for the protection of Muhammadanism against assault, that the Muhammadan generals
were distinctly commanded not to attack any place in which the Muhammadan call to
prayer could be performed or in which a single Muhammadan could live unmolested as a
witness to the faith.
72
Permission to fight against aggression
Fighting for religion is, indeed, encouraged in the second chapter, which was given
under circumstances of great provocation, but even in that it is distinctly laid down: And
fight for the religion of God against those that fight against you, but transgress not by
attacking them first, for God loveth not the transgressors; kill them wherever you find them,
and turn them out of that whereof they have dispossessed you, for temptation to idolatry is
more grievous than slaughter; yet fight not against them in the holy temple until they attack
you therein, and if they attack you, slay them, but if they desist, God is gracious and
merciful; fight therefore against them until there be no temptation to idolatry and the
religion be God’s, but if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against the
ungodly (2:190-193). In other words, fight sin but not the sinner in times of peace. Again, in
the third chapter, when the Lord of Hosts is invoked as being more powerful than all the
confronting armies of enemies, when the Koreish endeavoured to induce the
Muhammadans to return to their old idolatry as they fled in the battle of Ohud, the
encouragement to fight given in that chapter has, of course, only special application: How
many prophets have encountered foes who had myriad troops, and yet they desponded
not in their mind for what had befallen them in fighting for the religion of God, and were not
weakened (in their belief), neither behaved themselves in an abject manner … (3:145).
God gave them the reward of this world and a glorious reward in the life to come (3:147).
And again, We will surely cast a dread into the hearts of the unbelievers (3:150), in allusion
to the Koreish repenting that they had not utterly extirpated the Muhammadans, and to
their beginning to think of going back to Medina for that purpose, but being prevented by a
sudden panic which fell from God.
Again, in the fourth chapter, Fight therefore for the religion of God, and oblige not
any one to do what is difficult except thyself. This is in allusion to the Muhammadans
refusing to follow their prophet to the lesser expedition of Bedr so that he was obliged to
set out with no more than seventy men. In other words, the Prophet only was under the
obligation of obeying God’s commands, however difficult. However, excite the faithful to
war, perhaps God will restrain the courage of the unbelievers, for God is stronger than they
and more able to punish. He who intercedeth between men with a good intercession
shall have a portion thereof (4:84-85). And further on, When you are saluted with a
salutation, salute the person with a better salutation (4:86). In other words, when the purely
Muhammadan salutation of Salam aleikum is given by a Muhammadan, the reply should
be the same with the addition, “and the mercy of God and His blessing.” Again, in the eight
chapter, All true believers! When you meet the unbelievers marching in great numbers
73
against you, turn not your backs on to them, for whoso shall turn his back on to them in
that day, unless he turn aside to fight or retreateth to another party of the faithful, shall
draw on himself the indignation of God (8:15-16). The fact was that on the occasion when
the injunction was given, Muhammadans could not avoid fighting, and there was,
therefore, a necessity for a special strong appeal; but jihad, even when explained as a
righteous effort of waging war in self-defence against the grossest outrage on one’s
religion, is strictly limited in the passage to which we have already alluded and which we
now quote in extenso from the chapter entitled Al Hajj (The Pilgrimage):
Permission is granted unto those who take arms against the unbelievers, because
they have been unjustly persecuted by them and have been turned out of their
habitations injuriously and for no other reason than because they say: our Lord is God.
And if God did not repel the violence of some men by others, verily monasteries and
churches and synagogues and mosques, wherein the name of God is frequently
commemorated, would be utterly demolished (22:39–40).
74
MYTH OF THE SECULAR WEST
K. Ahmed
MA 
any of us believe the West is what we see in the movies. They’re
“modern”, “open” and “secular.” So, our new generation believes
being “religious” is being “backward” and “conservative.” It is true
that many in the West have discarded orthodox prudence but the actual number of
atheists or non-believers in religion throughout history has always remained very low. A
statistical analysis of the population of the US reveals that 40 %of Americans go to
some religious services, 67 % believe in hell, 85 % believe in heaven, and 86% believe
the Bible is a revealed text.1 The West is here epitomized by the United States of
America, merely for the sake of convenience. The majority of the population of the US
is composed of Protestant Puritans. The difference between the Catholics and the
Protestants is that Catholics preach a religious hierarchy with the Church occupying a
position of significance in the ordinary lives of adherents. Less importance is given to
scriptural knowledge and text with more emphasis on an established and prescribed
form of religion developed through the ages. This leaves little room for research and
freethinking in religion and preaches blind adherence to established dogma. The
Catholics maintain belief in the miracles of saints and assert the essential role of Virgin
Mary’s intermediation in gaining salvation. The Protestant position is opposed to these
views and advocates fierce individualism by rejecting prescribed or Church ordained
form of religion. Profound significance is given to Scripture with commentaries, saints
and intermediaries assuming the background. The favourite maxim of the Protestant
Church is “every man his own Bible.” This marks an important change in the religious
life of a contemporary Christian; he no longer finds himself under the coercive eyes of
the Church and is relatively free in the observance of rituals. With this, room for
extended interpretation of scripture has opened. Gradually, the Bible began to be
treated as “just another book” and not something restricted to an elite hierarchy of
priests. This resulted in the democratization Christianity. The layman gained access to
the Gospel and gained more knowledge concerning dogma than the Catholic Church
would have allowed him. Furthermore, Protestantism does not bind an obligatory
system of ritual. This means that there are fewer occasions of “mass gathering” in the
contemporary Christian world in contrast to the daily and weekly obligatory prayers in
M
1
Frontline, Volume 21 - Issue 06, March 13 - March 26, 2004
75
Islam. Another corollary springing from the “personal religion” doctrine of Protestantism
is the dumping of old ideals of morality. For this reason personal lives are no longer
governed by ideals advocating prudence. Tolerance in terms of points of view,
philosophies and sex has increased. This imparts the impression that religion has been
effectively sidelined in the West while the reality is that this temperance is a
consequence of Protestantism itself. The contemporary Protestant believes he is
personally responsible for his deeds to the Divine and not to a frowning pardoner of the
Church, and that Christ has already paid for his sins by being crucified.
Most Americans and many Europeans are Puritans, which is a sect within the
Protestant Church. Puritanism advocates the doctrine of pre determination and asserts
that God’s Grace (which essential for Salvation) is already determined and certain
individuals have been “selected” in this regard. In this context, material growth is taken
as a sign of God’s favour and an indication that the financially prosperous individual is
“selected” and on his way to Heaven. This accounts for the rise of Capitalism in the
Occident. There is a perpetual struggle for monetary ascension among ordinary
Americans and this Capitalism is exactly what the American government promotes in
the world. Technological advancement can also be traced to this ongoing struggle for
financial growth between competing multinational corporations who try to present
newer and better products than the rival firm.
The crux of the argument is that the West never abandoned religion; they merely
discarded Victorian standards of morality such as abstinence, self-restraint and
chastity, and came to regard them as forms of repression. This “emancipation” so to
speak, also brought along other developments. The United States of America became
the nation with the world’s highest crime, divorce, homosexuality, incest and rape rates.
Tim Weiner in the San Jose Mercury News, March the 13th, 1991 cites the Senate
Judiciary Committee report depicting “Americans killing, raping and robbing one
another at a furious rate, surpassing every other country that keeps crime statistics”
with Congressmen of the view that “The United States is the most violent and selfdestructive nation on earth.” With the shift in values, family values also changed and
with the desertion of traditional moral standards, marriage came to be regarded as a
burdensome binding contract. Hence sex outside marriage and its depiction in the
media became an integral part of the emancipation. A new phenomenon was
cohabitation i.e. couples living together before marriage. This would ensure the pair
made the right choice in choosing one another. Contrary to expectations, the hit and
trial method lead to a sudden rise in the divorce rate, which increased, from 708,000 in
1970 to 1,175,000 in 1990. During the same period the marriage rates remained
virtually static, despite the rise in marriageable- age population. Each year, almost 1
76
million teenage women in America become pregnant.1 78% of teen pregnancies are
unplanned, accounting for about 1/4 of all accidental pregnancies annually.
Approximately 40 % of young women become pregnant before they are 20 years old. 2
The number of abortions performed in the U.S in 1999 was 1,365,730.3 The poorer the
young woman, the more likely she will become a mother. Today, one of every three
children born in the U.S. is illegitimate.4 1 in 5 female children are subjected to incest,5
while 500,000 cases of incest occur per year.6 Every year 3 million teens acquire a
Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD). And the number of persons in the USA with
HIV/AIDS is close to one million.7 By 1994, the number of recorded sexual offences in
Britain had risen to 32,000. This means that on average, one rape occurs every hour in
England. According to official statistics provided by the US Department of Justice, in
the USA, 1.3 women are raped every minute. This equates to 78 rapes each hour,
1,872 rapes each day, and 683,280 rapes each year. A study carried out by the
National Council for Civil Liberties shows that 38% of men use their power and position
at work to rape women. The U.S census reports, 1.3 million women currently have a
mental disorder due to rape, entitled Rape Related Post Traumatic Disorder (RRPTSD). 3.8 million women in USA have previously had RR-PTSD, and roughly 211,000
women will develop RR-PTSD each year. George Bush commenting on the situation in
his country asserted in 1999:
During the more than half century of my life, we have seen an unprecedented decay in our
American culture, a decay that has eroded the foundations of our collective values and
moral standards of conduct. Our sense of personal responsibility has declined dramatically,
just as the role and responsibility of the federal government have increased. The changing
culture blurred the sharp contrast between right and wrong and created a new standard of
conduct: ‘If it feels good, do it.’ And ‘If you've got a problem, blame somebody else’.8
U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics with Comparative Statistics for Women aged 20- 24, New York: AGI,
1999, p. 5.
2 Teen Pregnancy Rates in U.S.A
Available: http://www.coolnurse.com/teen_pregnancy_rates.htm
3Abortion Rate in U.S.A
Available: http://www.abortiontv.com/Misc/AbortionStatistics.htm#United States
4 Quoted in the Journal of the Family Research Institute, Vol.15 No.7, Nov 2000
1
Excerpted from: http://www.totse.com/en/politics/political_spew/gender.html
Excerpted from: http://islam-usa.com/s3.html
7 Excerpted from: http://www.avert.org/statsum.htm
8 ibid.
5
6
77
The Answer: Evangelism
At a time when nations face crises that threaten the social fabric, the need for a
new theory, a new philosophy of life emerges. Through the new Weltanschauung the
leader(s) guide and steer the nation to prosperity. During the last era the shell-shocked
intelligentsia and policy makers of the US desperately felt the need for some regulating
order in the society. At this time the Neo-Cons gained ascendancy, bringing with them
many charged with Evangelical zeal. The Evangelicals, a dominant group of Protestant
Puritans, are devoted in spreading the message of the Bible and winning converts
because they are of the conviction that the souls of non-Christians are doomed to
eternal damnation. They are convinced of the absolute truth of the Gospel and believe
they have been divinely selected for this purpose.
Evangelists believe they have to perform special tasks because they have
been Divinely selected for a special purpose in God’s plan for the world. Thus they
believe they have a duty to perform in world. Today, there are many Evangelist
organizations in the US working on social and political fronts. These organizations raise
slogans against homosexuality, abortion, pre-marital sex and a number of other issues.
Evangelists have also entered the realm of politics. When the West faced an acute
moral crises these Evangelists started to climb the ladder of influence in American
social and political life. Frontline1 has traced this gradual rise to power:
A high point for the explosion of evangelical investment in secular politics came when the
preacher Pat Robertson ran a failed campaign to become the Republican Party's nominee
for President in 1988. The effort created a network that led to the formation of Robertson's
Christian Coalition (created with his assistant Ralph Reed, now an adviser to President
Bush). In 1994, the Christian Coalition's effort helped the Republican Party win control of
Congress - and the party, from then, has become effectively the political arm of the
Christian Right. At the national strategy conference of the Coalition that year, Robertson
rallied the troops: “The world is going to be ours, but not without a battle, not without
bloodshed. We are not coming up against just human beings to beat them in elections.
We're going to be coming up against spiritual warfare [against Satanic forces]. And if we're
not aware of what we're fighting, we will lose.”
A very prominent Evangelist in international politics today, is the American
President. George W. Bush considers himself to be a “born again Christian.” Bush, in
his youth, was struggling with business failures and drinking problems. He soon made a
1
Frontline, op.cit
78
life-altering decision in the 1980s after spending a weekend with long-time family friend
Billy Graham. In the words of Bush himself “It was the beginning of a new walk where I
would recommit my heart to Jesus Christ”. 1
A PBS press release promoting The Jesus Factor, Thursday, April 29th, 2004
presents interesting news concerning the motives of the American leader before he
became the President of the nation:
On the day that George W. Bush was sworn into his second term as governor of Texas,
friend and advisor Dr. Richard Land recalls Bush making an unexpected
pronouncement. “The day he was inaugurated there were several of us who met with
him at the governor's mansion,” says Land, president of the Southern Baptist
Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “And among the things he said to
us was, ‘I believe that God wants me to be president.’ ”
Norman Council writing in the Newtopia Magazine2 asserts,
George Bush and his administration embody the dual meanings of evangelism ... Mr. Bush,
who has let it be known that he himself is a born again Christian, makes no bones about
declaring his faith nor about his feeling that God whispers in his ear: “I could not be
governor if I did not believe in a divine plan that supersedes all human plans... My faith
frees me. Frees me to put the problem of the moment in proper perspective. Frees me to
make decisions that others might not like. Frees me to try to do the right thing...”
Council goes on to say:
Though Bush is by no means the only President who has made it clear that he is a
Christian, biographer Steven Mansfield says about Bush that “[he is] is among a small
number of American presidents to have undergone a profound religious transformation as
an adult... he came to the presidency, then, with the zeal of the newly converted.”
The American government has many Evangelists in the military and the White House. In
October 2003, the United States news media reported that the new Deputy Undersecretary
of Defence Lt. General William Boykin had recounted his exploits in Somalia against Osman
Atto a decade ago: “I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real
God and his (Allah) was an idol.” A few months later, again in uniform, Boykin told another
1
2
Excerpted from: http://www.churchofcriticalthinking.com/archives/print000051the_jesus_factor_on_.html
Council, Norman. Evangelism in Social, Domestic and Foreign Policy. Newtopia Magazine
Available: http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/archives/content/issue15/feat ures/evangelism.php
79
group that the U.S. would win the Global War On Terror “because we're a Christian nation,
because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian and the enemy is a guy named
Satan”.
Boykin is a heroic figure within the U.S. military. A member of the top-secret Delta Force
commando unit, and is now in charge of the mission to hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Both Bush and Boykin are evangelical. From his role in the trenches, Boykin has been
brought into the policy section to help run GWOT (Global War On Terror) by President
George W. Bush. “Why is [Bush] in the White House?” asked Boykin at one of his public
events. “The majority of Americans did not vote for him. He's in the White House because
God put him there for a time such as this.” In other words, for Boykin, Bush is in the White
House to run the crusade against the heathen. Bush’s spiritual advisor at the White House
Franklin Graham believes Islam to be “a very evil and wicked religion.” One of the
explanations for Bush's religious language is that the people are religious and so they not
only tolerate, but expect their leaders to act in a religious manner. Presidents routinely end
their talks with the statement “God Bless America”, a slogan that is frequently seen on
bumper stickers behind cars. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower championed and
signed a Bill that placed the motto “In God We Trust” on all U.S. currency and in 1956
Congress adopted the phrase as the “national motto”.
For our “modern” intellectuals these figures convey only one message; wake up and
the smell the coffee; the world is anything but secular.
80
“IMAGINED” UNITY AS BINARY OPPOSITION TO REGIONAL
DIVERSITY
Dr. Tahir Kamran
Chairperson, Department of History
“U
nity” in most cases, does not essentially come through the multitude
of “human wills” coming together on the basis of commonalities such
as language, geographical contiguity, economic interests or historical
experiences. More often than not, these commonalities are deployments conjured up by
the powers that be to notch up their desired goal by striking unity among units that have
some similarities and some disparities. The exigencies of time and the stakes of the elite at
a given moment determine and decide the similitude or dissonance/incongruity to be
cultivated and driven deep into the consciousness of the masses in order to constitute a
new social and cultural configuration. In the lines to follow, “unity” is conceptually analyzed
as some thing “imagined”; as an instrument by the elite of the society. The elite ensconcing
the very core of the society deploy “unity” as a controlling mechanism for those inhabiting
the periphery who invariably adhere to divergent cultural and social values. Hence unity as
a machination of the elite has also been scrutinized in this narrative. Thus before dilating
on unity as a construct shaped up by the elite for the sole purpose of self perpetuation, it
seems mandatory that the very notion of “elite” is explicated in the context of political
theory before stretching the argument any further.
The term “elite” denotes “the group selected or regarded as the finest, best, most
distinguished the most powerful etc.” Elitism as a political discourse can be traced back to
Plato. Plato while addressing the question of the plausibility of democracy as a system with
a capacity to ensure good government, states “a radical form of natural inequality” as the
fait accompli in any social formation. Thus the conception that human beings were “born
with souls of gold, silver or bronze,” and were therefore, disposed towards very different
stations in life. This legitimized social hierarchy lending justification to class based society
with the elite at the helm. Similarly, the classical elitists such as Pareto (1848-1923),
Mosca (1857-1941) and Michels (1876-1936), after declaring democracy as “a foolish
delusion” pleaded that “political power is always exercised by a privileged minority, an
elite.” In his famous book The Ruling Class Mosca underscores the inevitable existence of
two classes in every society – a class that rules and a class that is ruled. He also contends
that “the resources or attributes that are necessary for rule are always unequally
distributed and, further, a cohesive minority will always be able to manipulate and control
the masses in a parliamentary democracy.” Alex de Tocqueville's notion of “the tyranny of
81
the majority’”, J S Mill's inference “wisdom cannot be determined by a show of hands” and
the Madisonian system which champions a network of checks and balances in order to
ward off majoritarian tyranny, all unveil the problems of democracy.
Ever since the dawn of democracy, print capitalism or modes of communicative
action have been successfully deployed to influence public opinion in favour of the
objectives of the elite. That is how in 19th century Europe, Unifications of Italy (1861) and
Germany (1871) were forged by the elite of both countries appropriating “the General Will”
notion advanced by Rousseau, thus attaining the "bourgeois nation state". The idea of the
nation state came with a shift in the political profile of Europe when the divine right of the
monarch was questioned and the elite assumed nationalistic loyalties, bringing the idea of
the nation state into dominant discourse.
At the same time, inclusion into the elite was no longer determined by birth or
lineage alone. In the 18th century, a large number of bourgeois moved into the coveted
ranks of nobility by virtue of the wealth they had accumulated in the post-enlightenment
era. What enabled one to secure a spot among the noble was the economic productivity
that he accrued. Therefore, any person’s ability to contribute in the material progress of
his/her person as well as the society became the criterion the "new" elite had to fulfil. In
France, for instance, the revolutionary leadership formed the new elite. Even Marxists
could not escape from producing new elite. Old exploiters of the class conflict were
replaced by a new breed of exploiters.
In the Subcontinent, nationalism came with colonialism bringing about a
fundamental change in the character of the Indian elite. The major chunk of the Indian elite
hailed from the urban middle class with western political and intellectual orientation. The
new "bourgeois elite" passionately sought for "unity." When this unity was conceived on
the basis of religious affinity, common language and similar cultural patterns, with
democracy being imposed from above, it created new social and communal fissures in a
society that was intrinsically heterogeneous in terms of religion, culture and ethnicity. Thus
the efforts to forge unity in order to carve out one nation eventually led to separation. If the
Muslim League pursued a separatist agenda, the Indian National Congress too, cannot be
exonerated from the blame of pressing Muslims and Harijans (Dalits) hard to join the
mainstream organization for the sake of "unity," arguably, at the expense of their
independent existence.
Hamza Alvi points Northern India as the place where modern Muslim consciousness
emerged as a consequence of the Vernacular Language policy introduced by the British in
the 19th century. After the displacement of Persian as the official language, English
became an instrument of empowerment. The Aligarh Movement spearheaded the upsurge
of Modernist Islam with western rationality as its mainstay. Muslim nationalism started in
82
Muslim-minority provinces of Northern India like UP and Bihar.
The crucial point worth taking notice of is the interface between religious tradition
and modernity with the former subduing the latter and consequently making modernity
serve the purpose of tradition. That point can be illustrated from the introduction of the
printing press in South Asia. Religious texts like Behishti Zawar by Ashraf Ali Thanawi and
Fazail-e-Amal by Maulana Zakaria or the multiple versions of Tafasir (Exegesis) were
churned out edition after edition, profoundly influencing sensibility formation in Muslim
middle class. Interestingly, the Muslim masses literate in modern education, were
favourably inclined to the scriptural Islam exemplified in Deo Bandi Islam. Those not
agreeing with them in political matters zealously followed them in religious matters.
The conceptual underpinnings of Muslim Nationalism were North India specific i.e.
puritanical Islam embedded in the traditions of Sheikh Ahmed Sirhindi and Shah Walliullah.
The puritanical brand of Islam proliferated at the expense of Sufi ethos; an essential
ingredient of the religious traditions of the Subcontinent that had accorded communal and
sectarian amiability to South Asian Islam. Political, social and cultural changes wrought
about by the advent of colonialism ascribed a new meaning and character to Islam.
Consequently, Islam was divested off its inclusionary character assuming thereof, a
xenophobic complexion and an aggressive exterior. Deo Bandi Movement and Ahl-eHadith as a result, made tremendous progress, emphasizing strict adherence to the
fundamentals of Islam.
Deobandi Ulema opposed the creation of Pakistan. From Zia ul Haq's time Deo
Bandis have become quite obstreperous actors in agitation-politics; Jamat-e-Islami and
Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam are the major representatives of that sect in the realm of politics.
Deo Bandi Ulema entered politics with the Khilafat Movement in 1919. The religion
preached by Punjabi Sufi poets has been obliterated by the consistent propagation of the
ritualistic and literalistic version emanated in the region.
During the1970s and 80s, a large number of Pakistanis went to the Middle East for
employment. They reaped tremendous pecuniary benefit from their employment abroad
and also imbibed a version of Islam peculiar to Arabian social and political circumstances.
Those Pakistani expatriates became a very potent agency in the spread of Ahl-eHadith/DeoBandi Islam. Hamza Alvi's assertion appears to be spot on when he imputes
local bourgeois (Pakistani ruling elite) as mere agents of metropolitan bourgeois
ensconced in Washington and London. Deo Bandi Islam was accorded salience by the
same Pakistani ruling elite and became a cardinal attribute of Pakistani Nationalism.
Hence, Pakistani Nationalism and identity were quite conveniently divested off the
indigenous social and cultural ethos and re-inscribed in the light of the cultural tradition
whose core lies in North India. It is therefore unique that the conceptual and ideological
83
foundations of our Nationalism are located somewhere else (that “somewhere else”
obviously enjoy the status of an enemy country). Punjab is the bearer of the Deo Bandi
legacy and the champion of a Nationalism in which its own traditions figure nowhere. So,
for “the silenced space” that the Punjab has secured for itself, in the Pakistani epistemic
milieu, at least partly Punjab itself is to be blamed. The Punjabi ruling elite pleads for the
centralization of the state structure, emphasizing Islam as the most potent unifying force
among the federating units.
Urdu holds tremendous importance second only to Islam as the cultural symbol of
Pakistani Muslims. It was so potent an agency that it set South Asian Muslims on the
separatist course during the last quarter of the 19th century. Urdu attained maturity as a
language for common usage and became a vehicle of literary expression through the
patronage it secured from the nobility in Hyderabad (Deccan), Lucknow and Delhi
respectively.
In 1851 Urdu was accorded the status of a vernacular and became the medium of
instruction in the province, thus undermining any prospects for Punjabi to attain any
measure of respectability as an empowering instrument for the general populace. Under
these circumstances, natives could secure government jobs only if they were fluent in
Urdu. English replaced Persian as the administrative and court language and Urdu
substituted Punjabi as the language of interpretation. A large number of Punjabi Muslims
therefore, accepted Urdu not only as the vernacular but also as their religious and cultural
symbol. Muslim Organizations like Anjuman-e-Islamia vociferously supported Urdu in
Persian script and lamented the soaring opposition in the province initiated by outsiders
with the collusion of influential Hindus. Anjuman-e-Punjab (Anjuman-e-Ishaat-e-Mutalib-eMufida-e-Punjab was its full name), an elitist organization conceived ab initio by Dr.
Lietner, Principal, Government College Lahore and Col. Holroyd, Director Public
Instruction, and ardently supported by Macleod, the Governor of the province. It eventually
came into existence on 21st January, 1865, at Sikhsha Sabha Hall Lahore. The promotion
of vernaculars and oriental languages like Urdu along with Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit in
the province was its prime objective (Salamat 1997:11-2). The Government of the Punjab
provided pecuniary support to it on the recommendation of Dr. Leitner. (Kashmiri : 56-57)
Urdu literary figures like Muhammad Hussain Azad, Altaf Hussain Hali and Nazir Ahmed
worked with the above-mentioned British officers for the promotion of Urdu.
The generalization about Punjab as a political and cultural hegemon vis a vis other
provinces and regional entities within the context of Pakistan, has to be contested.
Punjab has forsaken the most for the larger interests of Pakistan. Language, culture,
history, social values and literary ethos have been put under the subservience of the
cultural inflow from main land North India. Hence, Punjab in order to ensure unity among
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the federating units, has offered the biggest sacrifice that has gone unacknowledged.
Without nursing any grudge or ill will for Urdu, it is nonetheless, good to have as many
languages as possible because multi-lingualism becomes a source of cultural enrichment
and allows for a more tolerant and interactive society to come into being.
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DOGMA, FREETHINKING AND EXCLUSIVISM
M.S. Ahmed
BA ΙΙ
rientals face the dilemma of choosing either the conservatism preached
by religion or the modernity, that they believe is associated with
Westernisation. The first task at hand is to prove that religion is not the
antithesis of freethinking and does not hinder intellectual growth. The notion will not be
refuted citing Quranic verses promoting man to acquire knowledge.
The age that Muslims refer to as the golden era of Islam proceeds roughly from
the demise of the Prophet (P.B.U.H) to the destruction of Baghdad. Certain scholars
extend the epoch much further up to the time of the Renaissance in Europe. Whichever
the case may be, the Renaissance effectively marks the West’s taking over the reigns
of intellectual growth from the Muslim world. Before the rebirth of learning in Europe,
the Muslims enlightened the world in terms of Astronomy, Medicine, Biology, Physics,
Chemistry, Philosophy and Mathematics. The only scientists during the age were
mullahs with long beards who used to deliver lectures on science and philosophy after
conducting the Friday prayers. The mosque was not only the centre of worship but also
of learning. Interestingly, the world’s first university is not Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard
but Jamia tul Azhar – the grand mosque of Cairo. Jabir Ibn Haiyan, whom the Occident
calls Geber, is known as the Father of Chemistry. Al-Khawarizmi, in the words of Phillip
Hittin,1influenced mathematical thought to a greater extent than any other medieval
writer. He is regarded as the founder of Algebra, The very name Algebra has been
derived from his book Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah. Al-Kindi wrote sixteen books on
Astronomy, eleven on Arithmetic, thirty two on Geometry, fifty two on Medicine, twenty
two on Physics, twelve on Philosophy, nine on Logic, five on Psychology and seven on
Music. Known in the West as Alhazen, Ibn al-Haitham made a thorough examination of
the passage of light through various media and discovered the laws of refraction. He
dealt at length with the theory of various physical phenomena like shadows, eclipses,
and the rainbow and speculated on the physical nature of light. He is the first to
accurately describe the various parts of the eye and give a scientific explanation of the
process of vision. He also attempted to explain binocular vision and gave a correct
explanation of the apparent increase in size of the sun and the moon when near the
horizon. He contradicted Ptolemy's and Euclid's theory of vision that objects are seen
O
1
Quoted in Muslim Scientists and Scholars.
Available: http://www.ummah.net/history/scholars/
86
by rays of light emanating from the eyes; according to him the rays originate in the
object of vision and not in the eye. Through these extensive researches he is
considered the Father of Modern Optics. Ibn I Sina’s Qanun fi al-Tibb, known as the
Canon in the West, is an immense encyclopaedia of medicine extending over a million
words. In Kitab al-Kulyat fi al-Tibb, Ibn Rushd (known as Averroes in the West), has
thrown light on various aspects of medicine, including the diagnoses, cure and
prevention of diseases. The West translated the book as Colliget. The Muslim world
had literary figures the likes of Ibn i Tufail, the author of Hayy ibn Yaqthan (Alive, Son of
Awaken) a philosophical romance and allegorical tale of a man who lives alone on an
island and without contact with other human beings, discovers the truth by reasonable
thinking and is shocked upon contact with human society because of its dogmatism and
other ills. This was in the 12th century. The West required another five hundred years to
come up with Gulliver’s Travels. Many of the theological doctrines presented by St.
Augustine had already been presented by Muslim scholars. Imam Ash’ari and Imam
Abu Hanifa dealt with the perplexing concept of fee will and pre-determinism. Ibn-eKhaldun is today considered by the West to be the real founder of Sociology rather than
August Comte.
The object in presenting this short account is not to highlight the achievements of
the Islamic world but to argue that if all of these great philosophers and scientists who
provided the basis for scientific development to the world, lived during the time of
theocracy, how can religion impede intellectual growth? Many of them were active
mullahs and almost all devout, bearded, Muslims. In fact, today most of them would be
labelled Fundamentalists. Islamic theocracy is radically different from Papacy; it is not
the rule of the Mosque, Mullah or a hierarchy. Nowhere does Islam preach a hierarchy;
this is entirely a Catholic concept that Muslims borrowed. The Catholics had a Priest,
Bishop, Arch Bishop, Council of Elders and a Pope and so we imitated them to fashion
titles like “Mullah”, “Mufti” or “Grand Imam”, which have nothing to do with Islam. These
people have usurped authority because the ordinary Muslim has severed his
relationship with the Quran, eschews freethinking, avoids carrying out research and so
depends entirely upon the Maulvi of his particular sect.
Now, what does Fundamentalism connote? The word Fundamentalist was first
mentioned in a book titled The Fundamentals financed by a missionary organization run
by Lyman Stewart – one of the founders of Unocal. Stewart and his Evangelist
organization believed in a literal, conservative interpretation of the Bible and laid down
the fundamentals of being a good Christian. A “good Christian” therefore, had to be a
fundamentalist. Some years later a conflict ensued between the conservatives and the
liberals. The conservatives were opposed to certain areas in scientific research and
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wanted greater say in American politics. The liberals started calling them
fundamentalists in the propaganda war between the two factions. The liberals emerged
victorious but the conservatives were soon to return with the neo-cons. The conflict
however, had rendered a negative connotation to the word fundamentalist thus making
it part of propaganda vocabulary.
Another point requires due attention. Distinction needs to be marked between
established traditional dogma and the fundamentals of a religion. This means that
differences may exist between the actual teachings of a religion and the practical
manifestation of that religion. For instance, nowhere does the Bible say that the earth is
flat, yet this remained a doctrine of the Church for centuries. It would be fallacious to
ascribe this error to Christianity and argue that Christianity imposed restraints on
freethinking. On the contrary, the established hierarchy of the Catholic Church checked
intellectual growth. The Catholic Church did not recognize the right of divorce. This was
a severe restraint on human freedom but again Christianity cannot be held responsible.
Problems occur when a corrupt mob usurps religious authority. When liberation from
the “established” hierarchy of priests took place in the form of the Protestant revolution,
the era of enlightenment commenced in Europe.
Now, let us see whether modern man requires religion or not. Many argue that
religion imposes bounds on the freedom of the individual. Let us imagine a Freudian
society where there is absolutely no restraint on the impulsive behaviour of man and
every individual enjoys maximum liberty in matters of gratifying his desires. What would
be the result of this unlimited freedom? If one is furious at his neighbour for disturbing
him he has the right to murder him at the spot. If his children create a racket they too
deserve the same treatment. Sigmund Freud and his associates declare the carnal
drive in man to be the essential driving force in the universe and brand all restraints on
sex as repression. Hence in our free society every individual must enjoy the right to
indulge in the gratification of his physical desires at the cost of his neighbour’s wife, his
own siblings, children and anybody who attracts him. Would the social fabric and the
family system manage to exist under such circumstances? The inevitable answer is in
the negative implying that human beings require a certain regulating order to govern
and organize their lives. Religion is this regulating order. Whether religion is actually
revealed or not and if any other ethical code of behaviour framed by a certain
philosopher is superior to contemporary religious dogmas is not the subject of the
present argument. Nor is it required to offer a discourse citing evidence in favour of
fideism. It will require another treatise to examine the superiority of Islam over all other
man-made or revealed religious systems.
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The West witnessed the erosion of the social fabric after discarding the prudence
advised by religion in the early 20th century, and has now returned to (Evangelist)
Christianity with a new vigour, while Muslims, facing annihilation, have failed to realise
this.
89
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Asmaa Rafi
MA ΙΙ
don’t have any high ideas to present to The Ravi, nor do I have a philosophical
treatise or a paper on politics or culture. However, I mean to share something
which I believe is important enough to write about and communicate. A few
days ago I was walking with a friend of mine when he tripped over a stone and said “hai
ram.” I was astonished at this utterance. To my knowledge he is a Muslim, but doesn’t
mention “Allah” much, sticking to “yo”, “hi” and “bye” instead. Last year Lahore started
celebrating “holi” using spray paint. And this year our TV channels had an Indian actor
introducing his franchise on Independence Day; could things possibly get more ironic?
Next year he’ll probably be included in our list of national heroes like Aziz Bhatti, Rashid
Minhas and Dr. Khan. What has happened to our generation? Is this what we gained
independence for? Either we’ve started taking more interest in Hinduism because we are
not satisfied with our religion or we are just too inspired by them. I think it was Sonia
Gandhi who once said that India had already defeated Pakistan in the cultural war. While
Indian thinkers are employing every means to overwhelm us, our intellectuals are striving
hard to welcome and celebrate a complete ideological invasion.
The present generation is more rational in its approach but lacks a belief-system; a
philosophy of life. We do participate in welfare activities. We do run campaigns for the poor
and the handicapped but most of these campaigns are sponsored by foreign multi national
corporations that have their own corporate interests to gain. Moreover, what happens
during these events is also something that is, or at least was, completely alien to our
culture. Anyone who has ever attended a rock concert knows what happens in secluded
corners. Take another instance; the annual Islamic festival of “Eid.” We anticipate the
occasion, fast, pray and then finally celebrate by dancing to Indian songs. History books
say Muslims of the subcontinent sacrificed their lives because they did not want to recite
vand-e-matram. There were riots because Hindus played songs near mosques; today, we
do that ourselves. Our conduct is ample proof of the fact that we have forgotten our own
values. Pakistanis are fascinated even by their religious terminology. Words like sindhoor,
rakhi, mangan sutr and mandir have become part of our vocabulary. We have started
adopting their rituals. Our marriage ceremonies resemble theirs. A friend of my brother is
named “Saifullah” and is often laughed at because his classmates say he has a queer
name with a “maulvi touch.” I’ve seen people replace their real names with “modern” ones
I
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like Bobby, Pinky, Sam, Sherry, etc. Making boyfriends and girlfriend and going out on
dates is pretty much “in” these days.
I know many readers will respond by saying that the world has changed and we live
in a global village where we have to forego our cultural identities and adopt a global
culture. Fine, good answer, but if we are changing ourselves by imitating others, are others
also changing and adopting some of our values? If we celebrate “holi” have Indians started
celebrating “Eid?” If we celebrate “Valentine’s Day” do people in America observe
Ramadan? After all, St. Valentine was a catholic priest remembered for his religious
services. Do people in Europe observe days for Muslim heroes, for instance do they have
an Ibn-e-Khaldun Day or a Tipu Sultan Day in Germany? I don’t think our philosophers and
“modern” intellectuals can answer these questions. A cultural exchange is a mutual
learning experience, not a one-way flow. We are not globalizing ourselves; we’re on the
losing side of a cultural invasion.
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THE ART OF LYING
Khaled Ahmed
Former Editor The Ravi, Political Analyst
Note: The views expressed are those of the writer and do not represent the publication.
Editor
ying to us is like water to fish. A free society lies less than a traditional
society because it inculcates fewer false values. Individual lies are less
lethal than collective lies. A lie is usually harmless when it is an “internal
comment”, more to do with feelings than with things outside. All of us lie about our feelings
because no one can prove us wrong. Politicians lie through their teeth and know what they
are doing. This is because they are leaning on the collective mendacity drilled into the
mind of the people through “nation-building”. The villainy of lying derives from the textbook.
The politician expels verbal excrement and the public mind is already moulded in the
shape of a bidet to receive it as it plops. Nationalism is the tree on which the fruit of lies
grows.
The “people-are-wise” lie: All politicians at one time or another will say it, and no
one is immune. When this ball of stale air is expelled, the stink is pervasive but we are
trained to gulp it without choking. It goes like this. The people of Pakistan are no fools; in
fact, they are wiser than the politicians and those pesky professionals that interpret our
economic indicators. “You can’t fool the people of Pakistan; whenever they give their
verdict it is always the right one”. On evidence, so far the people of Pakistan have chosen
stupidly.
The truth is that this lie has no foundation in any verifiable data. Again and again
they tend to elect politicians who enrich themselves at the cost of the nation and spread
anarchy around. “Mass” wisdom is absent in the repetitive act of welcoming generals to
power. It is difficult to see how the people of Pakistan can be called wise or even good. No
objective indicators underpin this political lie. The people of Pakistan are not educated. If
you compare them with other nations in South Asia they are the least enlightened, if
literacy rates stand for anything. As a workforce, they are hardly competent, 60 percent of
them being physically unfit. The fact is that the people of Pakistan are at the lowest rung of
intelligence – let alone wisdom – in the country and the region.
The “we are spiritual while the West envies us” lie: Our politicians like to travel
abroad, preferably on state expense. They say if you want to travel, join the Kashmir
Committee because there is no obligation on you there to achieve any results while you
visit the fleshpots of the West. The politicians mostly like to tour the UK or the US (The
L
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clerics are especially attracted). Details of what they do over there are not unknown, but
when they return, they bestow on us the following civilizational insight. The West is devoid
of spirituality because it has banished religion from public life. The West is in fact looking to
Pakistan to give it the guidance it needs in spiritual enrichment.
The truth is that Pakistani politics mostly runs on the basis of emotion (walwala)
and not on the basis of reason (aql). Politicians have fed on the smelly fast-food of
propaganda about the state’s spirituality which mostly leads to high levels of corruption.
Not acting on the basis of reason is no proof of spirituality, but that is how we deduce our
spirituality. So far the politician has no clue about how to act spiritually; neither does the
nation. Dipping diagnostically into the non-spirituality of the West can be very enjoyable.
There is a carnal relationship between our West-visiting politicians and the lamentable lack
of spirituality of the West. They make a great play of sacrificing their purity by frequently
visiting profane regions, all for our sake, and, needless to say, at our expense.
The “Imam Husain example” lie: During the ashura every year our politicians
have their chance of issuing their “messages” to the nation. This is a rare opportunity to
exercise the brain to extract a “lesson” in life. The sacrifice of Imam Husain tragically
comes in handy for their current round of mudslinging. Imam Husain died for the sake of a
principle (The politician assumes that he is included in this principle-respecting category).
The next thing he does is paste the entire episode of the martyrdom of Husain on
to his own plight, which is usually a state of grave risk at the hands of accountability in
which details of his past corruption are being laid bare for public consumption. The
politician in power is Yazid, of course. His subliminal message is that he is indeed the
Imam who has to challenge the power of the unjust opposing politician in power. The real
Imam must be greatly offended that a Pakistani politician is equating himself with him.
Each year this ritual of spiritual usurpation concerning the family of the Holy Prophet takes
place in Pakistan. Great confusion is caused by the hijacking of the Imam’s example in
equal measure by the just and the unjust, the last denomination being simply a
mathematical value.
The “complete code of life” lie: The politician will never give up this gambit
because it emanates from the most unthought-of and unexamined part of our brains. In
fact, in an ideological state almost 80 percent of the brain is formed of swathes of
“received” but unexamined data. Why shouldn’t the politician skewer us with this
argument? While we squirm on the spike of this immaculate squelch, the politician walks
away producing obscene sounds from his armpits.
The Quranic phrase has been twisted around to extract the sense of coming to an
end of the faith. That which has been made complete should normally come to an end. But
that is not the real import. That is not the meaning of how the faith has unfolded in the past
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centuries. The political use of it is a conversation-stopper. It is sprung on you when you
demand reform or an improvement of law. The responsibility that our politician averts
through this lie is that of using the brain. As a leader he is supposed to resolve our crises
of concept and precept. He is innocent of intellect but he is chary of the endangered
species called the intellectual. He flails around for a getaway phrase and grabs this from
an air already thick with flying platitudes.
The “Castle of Islam” lie: This lie has been manufactured to raise the status of
the prize the politician wants to pluck. Pakistan was not made simply to relocate and
rehabilitate the Muslims of South Asia. It was not made reactively only to duck the evil of
the cruel majority of Hindus, but to establish a utopia which would stand as a model for the
rest of the Islamic world. In the scenario that the politician develops, Pakistan is a kind of
ideal that all the other Muslim states are clawing their way towards in a paroxysm of envy.
Why was it inconvenient for Pakistani nationalism to accept a “normal” state in
which normal human beings lived normally as in other ordinary states? The truth could be
that other claims of “exclusivity” could not be upheld easily. If Pakistan was for the Muslims
of India, why didn’t all the Muslims of India come to Pakistan? If Pakistan could not draw in
all the Muslims, why was it made in the first place? The early ideologues thought that it
was not enough simply to say that Pakistan had come into existence “somehow” and that it
would be like any other imperfect state of the world trying to become better through
evolution. Pakistan was designed with the teleology of a model state that all the Muslim
states would emulate. The need was not of giving some Muslims of India a separate
homeland but to provide the entire Islamic world a unique experiment in utopia-building.
The “one Muslim is equal to ten Hindus” lie: This is a post-Mughal sociological
fallacy that the politician uses when he wants to purge all residue of rationality in him. The
Muslims had to reconcile to the status of a non-ruling minority and this is how they
accomplished it. This is the moment of frothing from the mouth in which the already
partially dysfunctional mind is switched off. The politician dips deep into the poisoned wells
of an India-centric nationalism for this gem. What is invoked is a venue of personal combat
in which a rotund jangia-clad Muslim wrestler puts a skeletal Hindu down without much
exertion.
The lie goes way back when Muslim invaders vanquished the Hindus in India and
forced them to engage in commerce and acquire assets which they had to guard. The
possession of assets by Hindus pauperised the Muslim masses but made the Hindus into
prosperous cowards. A coward needs brains to survive; a brave man made of pure brawn
needs hardly any brains. The Muslim who is equal to ten Hindus is therefore without the
faculty of thinking “before the fact”. There is a corollary to this lie, that of the “cunning
Hindu”: don’t make a deal with India because the Hindus will deceive you. There is an
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admission of the simplicity of the warlike Muslim. Other “warlike” races too, like the Sikhs,
are proverbially thinkers-after-the-fact. After 1947, and even before 1947, the Hindu
coward used his brain to confront the brave Muslim. He secured his assets through
flexibility and finesse. The Muslim made his state into a warrior state and soon threatened
the entire trading world with disruption. The assets-guarding Hindu finally acquired the
military means of defeating the Muslim who was supposed to be equal in strength to ten
Hindus.
The “if the Muslims unite” lie or the “umma” myth: Politicians have a “lastresort” argument that is unfailing in its terminal effect. How do we resolve the problems
dogging us at the global level? Of course, the politician has hardly any clue about how any
problem can be resolved. More likely, he is a part of the problem, and demanding a
solution from him is like placing a razor in the hand of a monkey, as they say in Punjabi.
When a politicians leaves all solutions to the moment of unity among the Muslim
states he is actually targeting a number of unspoken objectives. He knows that if this union
happens, Pakistan will reap the benefit of the treasury of some high per capita income
states like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. What will Pakistan offer to the kitty of this unity? Don’t
ask, it will be its unlettered masses that grow ten-to-a-minute. Unavoidably, the politician is
thinking in terms of war. At the back of his mind, he is thinking of a battlefield in which the
shouting rabble is Pakistan and the cascading coffers belong to other Islamic states. The
truth however is quite unpalatable. Far from uniting, the Muslim states have a backlog of
scores to settle with one another. The first big divide is the Shia versus the Sunni schism
which runs across many states. There are internecine territorial squabbles too that are
more urgent than the obligation to unite and confront a common enemy (read the West).
The “Muslims are being made to suffer everywhere” lie: Perhaps borrowed
from the Jews, the politician today begins his speech with litany of the victim hood of the
Muslims. Who is giving this undeserved drubbing to the Muslims? The West in general and
the US in particular. Despite the fact that medieval “crusades” have been discredited in the
Christian West, he will repeat the “salibi” onslaught every time he is asked to speak on
Islam today.
Muslims are no different from other nations in terms of suffering. Apart from the
Palestinian issue, other “centres” of Muslim suffering are more complex than meets the
Muslim eye. The suffering of the Chechen is a tale of folly only if you care to read how this
rather rough and mentally foreshortened nationality turned its face away from the
wonderful example of the next-door Tatar Muslims. The Bosnians were saved by the
Americans; the Albanians were saved by NATO. There is unsavoury statistic behind this
myth of suffering. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq by America, Muslim economies have
taken off and reached historically unprecedented levels of prosperity. Iran for example, has
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increased its oil revenue from $18 billion to $73 billion annually and now wants to make the
bomb to use it (not against Israel with which it will achieve mutual deterrence) to dominate
the Arabs.
Politicians and their boring lies: All politicians lie. In Pakistan election
candidates have to extol Islam. Politicians think they have to keep the lowest denominator
in mind and it doesn’t matter if the more canny voters grasp the blatant lying they resort to
in their electoral image-building. When the politician fields questions like ‘what book has he
has enjoyed most’, and writes ‘the Holy Quran’, most readers feel like puking at the
hypocrisy. But all this is fair in elections. You have to present yourself as the perfect man
who does everything right according to the ideology of the country.
It must be admitted that in an ideological state lying is more elaborate and deeply
ingrained than in democracies. If you are playing on the religious wicket you have to do
some divine lying. In India, Lal Krishna Advani of the BJP became Lord Krishna as he did
his grotesque rath-yatra, clutching a fake bow with fake arrows. Let us take a look at a
survey of 2002 which gives us a glimpse into the layers of mendacity under which our
leaders conceal their real selves.
The “I like simple food” lie: In its Elections Special edition, Jang (8th October
2002) published a survey of opinion taken from Imran Khan (Tehreek Insaf), Farooq
Leghari (Millat Party), Mian Muhammad Azhar (Quaid League), Allama Tahirul Qadiri
(Pakistan Awami Tehreek), Raja Zafarul Haq (Nawaz League), Makhdoom Amin Fahim
(PPPP), and Qazi Hussain Ahmad (Jamaat-e-Islami). These were views expressed from
their personal lives. Needless to say, all of them said the dress they liked was shalwarqameez. To the question what kind of food they liked, only Imran Khan was “brave”
enough to name dishes other than sada khana listed by Leghari, Azhar and Zafar. Qazi
simply ignored the question.
Amin named biryani while people who have visited Tahirul Qadiri know that he
prefers roast chicken at all times. His answer was jo paka ho kha leta hun (will eat
anything cooked). Imran Khan named fried fish, desi chicken and sajji. This is credible, if
we accept that he has got over his passion for dahi-bhalla of yore. Politicians usually eat
quite well and quite a lot and especially go crazy in the season of mangoes!
The “my ideal man is Holy Prophet/Allama Iqbal” lie: To the question who is
your ideal, any mug in Pakistan will say Prophet Muhammad PBUH. No one can challenge
this assertion without being accused of blasphemy. This also gives the high-seriousness
that ideology demands at all times. Imran Khan comes up with Allama Iqbal, but Allama’s
son Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal says the great poet was apostatised in his lifetime.
Had Imran Khan really been a devotee of Allama Iqbal and read his writings he
would not have plumped for him as his ideal in our pious environment. Or he would lose
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his elections. None of the others significantly chose Allama Iqbal. Does that mean they
have read the great poet-philosopher while Imran Khan has not, beyond a few very
“ideological” couplets used and abused in Pakistan (often against democracy)? The safe
bet for Leghari, Qadiri and Qazi was the Prophet PBUH. Azhar chose the Quaid and Zafar
plumped for Iqbal and Quaid both. Amin chose a less ethereal figure, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The “I always read books” lie: To the question what they did with their spare
time, Imran, Leghari, Qadiri and Zafar thought they read books while Azhar, Qazi and
Amin met friends and family. If our leaders are such good readers one should expect high
intellectual achievement from them, but that is not the case. All of them are intellectually
average with Qadiri giving evidence of a marginal “liberation” of the mind despite his
clerical status.
Next comes the bombshell, putting the politician to his real lie-detector test. What
book have you liked best? Four (Imran, Leghari, Qadiri, Qazi) out of seven put down the
Holy Quran, equating book to scripture, and passed up the opportunity to name the book
that had thrilled them most. Qazi added hadith, tafseer and Maududi’s Tafheemul Quran.
Zafar said Islamic books, Azhar history books and Amin, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai’s Risalo.
The subliminal message from Qazi was that he adhered to the world view of the founder of
Jamaat Islami, while Amin posted his Sindhi identity once again with an eye to the
province’s rural vote bank. No one, it appears, reads for pleasure.
The “The Quaid is my favourite leader” lie: When asked their favourite leader,
four (Imran, Azhar, Zafar, Qadiri) immediately plumped for the Quaid, once again a safe
bet on the eve of elections. Leghari was silent, Qazi named Maududi and Amin chose
Bhutto. Imran put Churchill together with the Quaid. Immediately the choice of Churchill
makes one think of the reason. First of all it means he must have followed his
extraordinary political career and his great multi-volume histories of the World Wars and
the English-speaking Peoples.
One shouldn’t expect Imran Khan to name Ali Abbas Jalalpuri’s volumes in Urdu,
especially the one on Allama Iqbal’s ilm-ul-kalam, but one is nonetheless impressed by his
interest in Churchill. Qazi’s choice of Maududi will unwittingly widen the various
confessional gulfs that already exist within the alliance, the MMA. The general impression,
looking at the choices made by the leaders, is that they either don’t look at the world
around them or are too scared politically to tell the truth. In that light, Qazi’s choice of
Maududi, when the others were choosing the Quaid, is treasonable. After all Maududi had
said cruel things about the Quaid.
The “I dislike liars most” lie: One choice, apparently quite unimportant, betrays
the real malaise of Pakistan. What kind of person you dislike most? Imran said
wicked/hypocrite, Leghari corrupt, Azhar liar, Qadiri hypocrite/embezzler, while Zafar
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postured piously saying he hated no one. Fahim said the same while Qazi simply ignored
the query. There is uniformity in what all citizens of Pakistan hate: hypocrisy.
Questionnaires given to film actresses have elicited the same answer. It simply means that
hypocrisy is rampant in Pakistan while corruption is merely a consequence of that.
Hypocrisy flourishes where virtue is enforced through ideology. In Pakistan,
hypocrisy is easy to put on because the requirement is that of piety; and virtue is another
name of public display of religious faith. Three leaders (Leghari, Azhar, Zafar) said “noone” to the question “who is your favourite singer”, while Imran chose Nusrat/Abida
Parveen and Qadri chose Nusrat/Um Kulsum. Qazi chose the great Egyptian reciter of the
Quran, Abdul Basit. Amin showed more taste by choosing Mehdi Hassan and Iqbal
Bano/Farida Khanum. The dryness of the first three leaders should forewarn the voters.
The “I want women’s rights under Islam” lie: If women are at all alive in this
country they should look at what these great leaders said in answer to whether women
should be veiled. Everybody said “according to Islamic teaching”, while Qadri was specific,
saying hands and face would have to be left open. Only Amin said “liberal”, meaning
hopefully that the veil as decreed by the ulema is not needed. Imran’s hiding behind “within
Islamic teachings” is a dodgy answer. The truth is that all clerics are agreed on the veil,
while in Pakistan the veil has not been enforced by the state. At the most, a fundamentalist
general made dopatta compulsory on PTV.
Why should our leaders show a clean pair of heels when it comes to the question
of veiling? Why couldn’t Imran Khan be more courageous? Is his courage reserved only for
George Bush because that gives him a leg-up? One can’t blame Leghari because his
posturing is of a piece with his general dryness. A contradiction comes to the fore when
the question “are you interested in history” is asked. Everyone says “very much” while
earlier they had muted reference to such great historical works as the world histories of Ibn
Khaldun and Toynbee because they had to plump for the Holy Quran as their most
favourite book. Only Amin Fahim was modest, saying thori-bohut dilchaspi.
The “I like arranged marriage” lie: The next question was what kind of leaders
do you think the people want? Everyone was right in what they said: honest, uncorrupted,
“clean”, etc. But, for God’s sake, what will the people do with these endlessly boring
individuals who give no evidence of wit? For instance, on the controversial question of
“love marriage”, Imran hedged by saying he was for pasand ki shadi, which one hopes
means the same thing as love-marriage, and thus saves him from forswearing his lovemarriage with that excellent lady, now gone, Jemima.
Leghari leaves the column blank, a clever thing to do because couples marrying
for love daily get dragged to jails with courts barely coming to their help. Qazi was
marvellous: shadi se pehlay muhabbat ki pingain barhana awara gardi hai. Azhar, alas,
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abstained while Qadri qualified his acceptance of love marriage with parents being a part
of the package deal. One wonders how many votes the leaders will get answering like
this? Imran Khan tipped this writer out of his chair answering “no” to the question: did you
ever fall in love? How the hell could he marry for love without loving? Of course, Qadri and
Qazi loved only the Prophet PBUH, and Amin loved only the masses. Ha, ha!
The “I don’t watch TV” lie: The favourite actor of Imran Khan and Amin Fahim is
Dilip Kumar. That will lose some votes but the fact that Dilip is a Muslim under threat from
the BJP’s religious fanatics might save the day. Obviously, Leghari leaves the column
blank and Zafarul Haq who once tyrannised the population of Pakistan as General Zia’s
religious minister, had to say he had no favourite actor. None of the leaders chose a
“female” film actor, if you please! When it came to favourite films, the leaders turned out to
be perfect bores.
The last good film Imran Khan had seen was Bridge on the River Kawai while
Qadri had seen only (courageously) The Message on the life of the Prophet PBUH, which
was banned in Pakistan. It should come as a great surprise to the voters that these leaders
only rarely watch TV while, as rulers, Pakistani leaders are known to be glued to the TV. In
fact, most of them neglect their duties to either watch it or figure personally in this fatal onscreen romance. All of the seven leaders think Allama Iqbal is their favourite poet while
only Fahim has the guts to say Faraz. True to character, Leghari leaves the column blank.
Will some leader also read the classics like Mir and Ghalib?
The “I want women employed according to Eastern tradition” lie: On the
question of employment for women, old Qazi leaves the column blank obviously because
he finds the topic distasteful. Zafarul Haq takes his Nawaz League far to the right by
adding mashriqi rivayaat kay dayeray main.
Imran Khan says he wants women employed outside the household. This marks
his growth as politician away from his first unpleasant born-again phase when he was
under the nefarious influence of Murtaza Malik and wrote those threatening articles taxing
women to stay at home. He has a better measure of Pakistani society and doesn’t want to
lose votes by saying he doesn’t want women to seek employment. When asked to say
something “beautiful” none of the seven could come up with anything uncloying and nonplatitudinous. What else could you expect?
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THE LANGUAGE OF LOYALTY
A JOURNEY INTO ORWELL'S NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR AND KOESTLER'S
'DARKNESS AT NOON'
Basit Noor Khan
Old Ravian
ords are fate! Whatever is expressed orally or through the written word
matters in a “nightmare”. They decide the party member’s future (since
there are no ‘individuals.’) They decide the stability of the Party.
If complete surrender to the dictates of Big Brother or No.1 is to be enforced, words
need to be very closely examined. There is no possibility of totalitarian rule, if there is no
possibility of controlling words. Language must perform an ablution of its own, if it is to be
allowed as a medium of communication and propaganda. It must glorify ‘God’ and
denounce all heretic thought. It must be rid of all possible blasphemies. It must be the
‘Language of Loyalty’.
What Orwell does in ‘Ninety Eighty-Four’ is fundamentally important. He probes
deep into the philosophy of language manipulation, which produces amazingly effective
results in a totalitarian state.
How can continuous propaganda, through the distortion of the Truth presented in a
convincing language, be a primal weapon in the hands of a dictator? How can narrowing
down the possibilities of language crush all rebellion? His answer is Newspeak!
Koestler, on the other hand, shows the subtle brilliance of language levels varying
according to the loyalty levels of Party members. He creates Ivanov and Gletkin and then
there is the fundamental discussion about Rubashov’s use of language. Ivanov has won
the battle of words against Rubashov but what is a nightmare without the regal use of
torture. Rubashov, like Winston and Julia, submits his tongue to the language he most
despises.
Roy Harris in his analysis of Newspeak explains the fundamental role of language in
totalitarian settings:
“The Newspeak of 1984 is a deliberately distorted language, designed to ensure
the political enslavement of its speakers. Its aim, as Orwell describes it, is that thoughts
not approved by the Party “should be literally unthinkable.” That final horrendous vision at
the end of the novel, where we are told the details of the program by which Newspeak will
eventually replace Oldspeak entirely – that vision of how the deliberate manipulation of
language could make freedom of thought impossible – remains one of the most chillingly
powerful in the whole of English literature.”
W
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Newspeak is language, which ensures undeniable loyalty. And although it is not
completely enforced in Oceania in the year 1984, it does have a strong influence on
Oldspeak as well. No Party member is allowed to utter in private or public, a single letter of
dissatisfaction with the Party. The complex network of spies, telescreens, thought police,
etc., makes it necessary for the members to observe complete discipline. It’s a world
without heresy. But still Oldspeak does allow Party members like Winston and Julia to
express themselves as ‘submissive heretics.’ Oldspeak has flaws. Loyalty can be
challenged through words and the Party is working frantically to replace Oldspeak with
Newspeak. Newspeak ensures loyalty to Big Brother. Orwell has particularly added an
appendix to the novel titled ‘The Principles of Newspeak’ and explains the function of
Newspeak in the totalitarian nightmare:
Newspeak was the official language of Oceania and had been devised to meet the
ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year 1984 there was not as yet
anyone who used Newspeak as his soul means of communication, either in speech or
writing … It was expected that Newspeak would have finally superseded Oldspeak (or
Standard English, as we should call it) by about 2050.
…The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the
world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but also to make all
other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been
adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought – that is, a thought
diverging from the principles of Ingsoc – should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as
thought is dependant on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and
often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish
to express, while excluding all other meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them
by indirect methods.
Winston is ‘fortunate’ to be living in 1984 in Oceania. He still has Oldspeak to
confess his horror in. He still has a medium to express his hatred and fears. Julia too is in
the habit of cursing a lot and makes use of vulgar words to release her hatred. It is also
paradoxical that the same Oldspeak is the prime cause of Winston’s pain and suffering in
the cells of the Ministry of Love.
The problem arises from the fact that Winston thinks in Oldspeak. He is not different
from everyone else around him in doing so but then he is not like every one else either.
For the Party members the same Oldspeak combined with diction borrowed from
Newspeak is a medium of communication necessary for a smooth functioning of Party
mechanics. Various tactics ensure that Oldspeak’s diction remains confined within
acceptable limits. It does not, despite its hazardous potential, pose a threat to the ‘loyalty-
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level’ of Party members. The Proles of course don’t matter much in this linguistic exercise.
Propaganda and prohibition is enough to administer language usage. But Winston is a
rebel whose thought process utilizes the potential that Oldspeak envelops. The level of
loyalty in the language in which he thinks is unacceptable. He knows it but doesn’t stop. It
seems as if he is enjoying, to its maximum, the liberty provided by Oldspeak. As long as
there are words to express thought, Winston shall remain a keen practitioner. It is only
after his conversations, midst the torture with O’Brien, that he actually learns the language
of loyalty. He realizes that the party does control all language and even thought-language.
The loyal Party members have no words to express any undesirable thought. Such words
still exist but they cannot be used and soon Newspeak will eradicate such a possibility.
The end to his language freedom is as effective as it is painful. O’Brien makes him
remember his power to express himself in his diary and mercilessly seals his fate with
these words:
“‘Do you remember,’ he went on, ‘writing in your diary, “Freedom is the freedom to
say that two plus two makes four”?
‘Yes,’ said Winston.
O’Brien held up his left hand, its back towards Winston, with the thumb hidden and
the four fingers extended.
‘How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?’
‘Four.’
‘And if the Party says that it is not four but five – then how many?’
‘Four.’
The word ended in a gasp of pain. The needle of the dial had shot up to fifty-five.
The sweat had sprung out all over Winston’s body. The air tore into his lungs and issued
again in deep groans which even by clenching his teeth he could not stop.”
The torture process continues and the intensity increases. Winston takes a lot of
time to learn his first lesson in the language of loyalty. And eventually begins
understanding its usage.
“He opened his eyes. O’Brien had drawn back the lever.
‘How many fingers, Winston?’
‘Four. I suppose they are four. I would see five if I could. I am trying to see five’.”
His education continues on in the most painful manner till he learns the language.
His loyalty to Big Brother and to the Party is sealed forever:
“Almost unconsciously he traced with his finger in the dust on the table: 2+2=
…‘They can’t get inside you,’ she had said. But they could get inside you. ‘What happens
to you here is for ever,’ O’Brien had said. That was a true word.”
Winston finally forgets all but the language of Loyalty.
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Ian Grey in his biography ‘STALIN – Man of History’ recollects an important event:
Stalin was away at this time with Zhdanov at the holiday resort of Sochi on the shore of
the Black Sea. He was evidently surprised by an announcement made in Moscow on
September 10th, 1936, that the investigation of Bukharin and Rykov had been closed, as
no evidence had been found against them. On September 25th, 1936, he and Zhadnov
signed a telegram to Kaganovich, Moltov, and other members of the politburo, which
read: “We consider it absolutely necessary and urgent to appoint Comrade Ezhov
Kommissar for Internal Affairs (NKVD). Yagoda has obviously proved unequal to the
task of exposing the Trotskyite-Zinovievite bloc. The OGPU was four years late in this
matter.”
The same happens in Rubashov’s trial. Ivanov is the official in-charge of procuring a
confession out of Rubashov. He is to make Rubashov accept all the “absurd” crimes
supposedly committed by him. But he is not just an inquisitor. He is also Rubashov’s old
friend and is actually indebted to Rubashov for saving him from suicide. Thus both his
conduct and ‘language’ while dealing with Rubashov are affected by his past and fail to
display the loyalty level desirable for a man in his position. The sensitive nature of his duty
of procuring false confessions from ‘legendary’ Party members requires blind loyalty. He is
the Yogoda who must pay the price. The way he deals with Rubashov reflects a hidden
passion to soften the noose around Rubashov’s neck, which is absolutely unacceptable to
No.1. His language is not completely loyal.
“Ivanov blew smoke rings and watched him with the same tenderly ironic smile.
‘Don’t become aggressive,’ he said.
‘Make allowances,’ said Rubashov. ‘Did I arrest you or did you people arrest me?’
‘We arrested you,’ said Ivanov…He bent forward and blew the smoke of his
cigarette into Rubashov’s face.
‘I do not want you to be shot,’ he said slowly. He leaned back again in his chair. ‘The
devil take you,’ he repeated, smiling again.”
Ivanov still shows signs of old comradeship. He, like Rubashov, is a veteran of the
revolutionary game. He does not possess the level of loyalty that would save his neck. It is
ironic that he will be killed before Rubashov. His words and smiles will seal his fate.
Ivanov does succeed in convincing Rubashov to sign the confession. At the end of
their last meeting, Rubashov has already half-surrendered to Ivanov’s arguments. Even
here Ivanov displays a generous behaviour. His language is still polite and ‘human’. But
the Nightmare has no room for humanity.
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“He stood next to Rubashov at the window, with his arm round Rubashov’s
shoulders; his voice was nearly tender. ‘Now go and sleep it off, old war-horse; to-morrow
the time is up, and we will both need a clear head to concoct your disposition. Don’t shrug
your shoulders – you are yourself at least half convinced that you will sign.”
Such sweet flexibility, no matter what the results, is absolutely unacceptable to
No.1.
Ivanov like Yogoda gets death for his services. His loyalty level falls below the
Neanderthal level or maybe rises above it. Thus Gletkin the Neanderthal must come into
action like Ezhov. His language is stern. His method is sadistic. He believes in all the
absurdity that ‘is’ the Rubashov trial.
Gletkin dominates ‘The Third Hearing.’ Ivanov has been dealt with. And it takes a
while for Rubashov to fully understand the loyalty conscience working in Gletkins’s
consciousness. His language is without sentimentality and his behaviour equally abhorable. His first impressions on the ‘veteran’ Rubashov reflect the hypnotic levels of
unquestioned loyalty in his words.
“‘I am ready to make a statement,’ he said and tried to control the irritation in his voice.
‘But on the condition that you cease your tricks. Put out that dazzle-light and keep these
methods for crooks and counter-revolutionaries.’
‘You are not in a position to make conditions,’ said Gletkin in his calm voice. ‘I cannot
change the lighting in my room for you. You do not seem to fully realize your position,
especially the fact that you are yourself accused of counter revolutionary activities, and
that in the course of these last years you have twice admitted to them in public
declarations. You are mistaken if you believe you will get off as cheaply this time.’
You swine, thought Rubashov. You filthy swine in uniform. He went red. He felt himself
going red and knew that Gletkin had noticed it.”
Of course who wouldn’t confess to all that nonsense in No.1.’s Nightmare? What
dazzled the Western leadership most was the fact that celebrated legends of the Russian
revolution confessed to ridiculous crimes under Stalin’s rule. And the Gletkins with their
blind loyalty ran the machines during the bloody purges. When they utter falsehood; it is
spoken with a confidence lacking even in the speakers of truth. “ ‘Experience teaches,’
said Gletkin, ‘that the masses must be given for all difficult and complicated processes a
simple, easily grasped explanation. According to what I know of history, I see that mankind
could never do without scapegoats.’ ”
He makes sure that Rubashov, under his torturous inquisition learns to choose the
‘right’, loyal word to admit to all ‘his’ crimes. Rubashov is finally left with a single word of
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his own – Dormir. His trial is a success. He speaks the language of loyalty and gets the
reward of death as a criminal.
The nightmares leave no room for blasphemies. Those who utter words of their own
seal their fate. Be it Winston, Rubashov or even Ivanov, those who fall below the accepted
levels of totalitarian aesthetics rise above the Neanderthal. Humans are not supposed to
exist in their world!
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THE MUSLIM FEMINIST VOICES
Dr. Fawzia Afzal Khan
Old Ravian, Professor, Montclair State University, USA
alman Rushdie tells us in the New York Times (Friday, Nov 2, 2001),
that “highly motivated organizations of Muslim men” – whom he labels
“Islamists” – have been “engaged over the last 30 years or so in growing
radical political movements” all over the Islamic world, movements that have produced
the terrorists who not only destroyed the symbols of the freedom-loving West and killed
6000 innocent people in the process on 9/11, but who have been systematically
destroying the very societies of which they are a part, with much of their savage venom
focused on the female citizenry. In a parenthetical aside, Mr. Rushdie sighs, “(oh, for
the voices of Muslim women to be heard!)”.
Well, I have news for Mr. Rushdie. Muslim women HAVE been speaking out
against the obscurantist Islam he decries in his essay, for years and years and years,
although clearly Mr. Rushdie, and many others, have not paid them much heed. There
are Muslim women who are feminists, theologians, writers, lawyers, activists, scholars
both in the “Islamist” societies he paints with a broad brush, as well as in the “West,”
who have been engaged in a two-pronged struggle against BOTH extremism as well as
– and this is where their difference from Mr. Rushdie arises – the unjust foreign policies
of the United States that have contributed, and continue to contribute, to the “hijacking”
of Islam for terrorist ends. Dr. Nawal El Saadawi for instance, has written over 20
novels exposing the hypocrisy of Egypt’s rulers in their cynical use and abuse of Islam
to whip up public support for their repressive policies against free-thinking writers and
intellectuals. For her criticism of Egyptian state repression (aided and abetted by the
foreign intervention of the United States), she got thrown into jail by Anwar Sadat, a socalled anti-Islamist! Many other Muslim Feminists across the Orient, including the
women of RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan, are not
willing, unlike Mr. Rushdie – to comprehend what happened on 9/11 merely in terms of
Islam and its regressive politics of blame directed at the West, and particularly at the
United States. In a conversation I had with Dr. Saadawi shortly after the attacks on the
WTC, she expressed the hope that the attacks, devastating as they undoubtedly were,
might, in the long run, prompt the US to rethink its foreign policy, particularly in the
Middle East.
While I think Rushdie is correct in asking Muslim societies to look inward, to
take “responsibility for many of our own problems” so that we can then begin to “solve
S
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them for ourselves,” he is disingenuous in implying that such “problems” can be “fixed”
in isolation from global politics and economics.
What about the statements we have seen in recent weeks from RAWA, posted
on the internet? In these, we are hearing the voices of revolutionary Afghani women
who have been speaking out against the atrocities of the Taliban regime for the past
twenty years at grave risk to their own lives, yet, who has been listening? In a
statement that began circulating on September 14 th, these women express their “deep
sorrow and condemnation for this barbaric act of violence and terror” that was
committed against the innocent people of the United States, yet they also wish to
remind the world that, unfortunately, it was “the government of the United States who
supported a Pakistani dictator in creating thousands of religious schools from which the
germs of the Taliban emerged.” They also point out that Usama Bin Laden had, at one
time, been the “blue-eyed boy of the CIA.” What is scariest of all, perhaps is the
following observation, that “American politicians have not drawn [sic] a lesson from their
pro-fundamentalist policies in our country (Afghanistan) and are still supporting this or
that fundamentalist band or leader.” They are referring to US support of the so-called
Northern Alliance, which, according to a spokeswoman of RAWA, has committed
worse atrocities than even the Taliban, including the rape of 70 year old women. Do all
of these observations of the Revolutionary Women of Afghanistan amount to an unfair
and crippling “politics of blame” against the US as Rushdie would have it? And if so,
what does it mean that such a misguided view of world politics is held and being
propagated here NOT by fundamentalist “Islamists,” but by their victims and staunchest
critics, the ordinary Muslim (not Islamist) women of Afghanistan?
Perhaps we should consider carefully the bone-chilling consequences
foreshadowed by RAWA in the following statement: “The US government should
consider the root cause of this terrible event, which has not been the first, and will not
be the last one too.” Perhaps we should read this statement juxtaposed next to a
statement issued by the Joint Action Committee for Citizens Rights and Peace, a
committee comprised of the Institute of Women’s Studies, Lahore (IWSL), as well as
several other women’s groups and NGOs in Pakistan, and issued on October 3 rd, 2001.
“Civilization,” note the JAC members, “is not synonymous with capitalism or global
political and economic power.” Hence, the members of this coalition committee strongly
believe that forms other than the use of violence can, and must, be worked out for
conflict resolution, and they are therefore, unequivocally (like RAWA), against the US
waging war on the innocent people of Afghanistan. They are quick to point out that in
the current crisis in which the world finds itself, America has played no small role, to
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say the least; such an analysis leads them to the inevitable conclusion that echoes
RAWA’s warning:
In this context the international community must note the resentment generated by
insensitive and unjust policies of the United States, particularly in their unconditional support
to the aggressive policies of Israel towards the people of Palestine and in their sustained
campaign against the people of Iraq. It should be remembered that much of the terrorism in
Afghanistan and Pakistan stems from international interventions in the region including by
the United States for its own political ends in which Usama Bin Laden himself was originally
an ally of the US.
Lest we be led into agreeing with Rushdie’s thesis that such an analysis
smacks of a “paranoic” Islamism that wishes to “blame all its troubles on the West and,
in particular, the United States,” we would do well to remind ourselves that the
statement was issued by largely secular, certainly anti-Islamist women’s groups and
NGOs of Pakistan, who make explicitly clear that they have, “persistently called upon
the authorities in Pakistan to take a firm stand against those groups that have promoted
violence, sectarianism, and extremism in our country.”
Thus, it is indeed possible, I would say crucially important, to comprehend the
current world crisis not in a simplistic way as “this is about Islam” or “no it is not about
Islam,” but in the complex ways that the women of the Muslim world have been seeing
and describing it even before T-Day 9/11. The world should listen to these voices, the
female voices allied with the “secularist-humanist principles” Rushdie seems to think
don’t exist in the Islamic world.
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IDEOLOGY, RELIGION AND DEVELOPMENT
K.M.Azam
Old Ravian, Former Senior Economic Advisor to the UN
Introduction
akistan, throughout it existence has been seized with the paradigms of
religion and development. The religious divide, in the form of the two-nation
theory, led to Muslim separatism and eventually to the creation of a
homeland for Indian Muslims. However, Pakistan's founding fathers, Iqbal and Jinnah, saw
the creation of Pakistan as the first step towards the universal brotherhood of man under
one God. They were also seized with the issues relating to ensuring the economic wellbeing of the citizens of the new state, especially the masses and the poor.
However, the role of the third paradigm, Ideology, has not been adequately defined
and understood. This lack of understanding has been the cause of tension and turmoil in
the Pakistani society, leading to the erosion of the rule of law and good governance. A lack
of appreciation of the critical role of Ideology has led to the wastage of public and civil
efforts expended in this regard.
P
What is Ideology?
An ideology is a set of ideas, shared by a nation or a social group. Ideology
represents a certain picture of social reality and sets up desirable values and goals for a
society to strive for or preserve. In any society there is a constant interaction among
reality, ideology and socioeconomic institutions. An ideology is a system of ideas that
aspires to explain the world and to change it. This term was first introduced at the time of
the French Revolution, by the French philosopher, A.L.C. Desutt de Tracy, who defined it
as a science of ideas. Its aim was to prepare Frenchmen for the sovereignty of reason and
to transform France into a rational and scientific society. Desutt de Tracy's original
conception of ideology may be identified by the following five characteristics:
1. An explanatory theory about human behaviour and the world
2. A socio-political program
3. A struggle for the realization of the above program
4. Recruitment of loyal adherents
5. Appeal to the masses while giving some role to intellectuals
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The commonly recognized ideologies are communism, socialism, fascism, and
certain types of nationalism. These ideologies belong to the 19 th and 20th centuries i.e. a
period in which secular faith had increasingly replaced traditional religious faiths. Thus,
some historians of philosophy have called the 19th century the age of ideology.
Nowadays, political theory like politics itself, has been acquiring certain ideological
characteristics. The term “ideology” has been used in a pejorative sense in HegelianMarxist philosophy, implying false consciousness. Marx believed that ideology was a set of
beliefs with which people deceived themselves. Subsequently, however, ideology became
a hallmark of Marxism and party ideologues occupied a position of honour in communist
states. While Marxism is an exemplary paradigm of an ideology, one can also dub the
economic science of Adam Smith – an expression of bourgeois interests – as the ideology
of capitalism. Freudian psychology has dubbed ideology as an unconscious rationalization
of class interests. Various other thinkers have linked ideology with religious enthusiasm,
rationalism and romanticism (love of the ideal and scorn for the actual).
Ideology exhorts action in military terms and its literature is replete with martial
expressions such as struggle, resistance, march, victory and overcoming. Ideology is
perceived by some as a threat to a pluralist civil society. The following tabulation highlights
this divide:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Civil Society
Ideological Society
Citizens’ loyalty is instinctive
Citizens loyalty is impassioned
Social and moral values reflect habits, Social and moral values reflect a
customs and traditions
conscious and reasoned adoption of
formulated creeds
Welfare and happiness of citizens is the The achievement of specific aims is the
primary objective
primary objective
Tolerance of others’ opinions and Zealous and violent guarding of the
objectives
Weltanchauung
Favours pragmatic approach for the Favours
pre-conceived
doctrinal
solution of problems
approach for the resolution of problems
and issues
It has been said that in the past century, ideology has filled more graves than all the wars
of the world fought for king and country.
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Ideology and Religion
Ideology being man-made cannot be equated or mixed up with the everlasting
divine precepts. Any such mixing up will, on one the hand, confuse and weaken the
ideology and, on the other, compromise the pristine purity of divine edicts. Religion, based
on divine revelation, aims to create a peaceful and happy human society through
purification of spirit, faith, worship, and inwardness. Ideology on the other hand, is
concerned with the establishment of an ascendant worldly order based on a political vision,
mass mobilization, militant spirit, and rule of reason. While religion's aim is to create a
tolerant society without conflict, the aim of ideology is the zealous and violent guarding of
one's worldview and the creation of conflict to dominate others. It is, therefore, not
surprising that the age of ideology in Europe has been the age of turmoil and conflict,
including two world wars. In the Muslim world as well, ideology has converted Islam, quite
contrary to its pristine spirit, into a militant creed aiming at domination of the Muslim
nations through power projection.
The aims and methods of religion and ideology are poles apart. Although, it may be
possible to supplement religion with ideology or vice versa for a short span of time, but
these two cannot be successfully combined for a long period. This combination is bound to
prove fractious and end up in a failure. Historically, ideology has been employed to
reinforce religious activism. For example, in the city-state of Florence (the birthplace of
modernity) Girolamo Savonarola was able to launch a movement of ideological
Christianity, with new militancy and intolerance, in pursuit of a puritan utopia. In the same
vein, our religious dignitaries are striving to attain their Elysian fields through an ideological
Islam. Machiavelli was the first philosopher to link ideology with terror.
Ideology and religion fall in the same logical category in that both are total systems
concerned with questions of truth. However, the differences between the two are more
important than their similarities. The following tabulation highlights this divide:
1.
2.
RELIGION
Divine order
Vision without programme
3.
Faith, worship and inwardness
4.
5.
Purification of human spirit
Revelation
IDEOLOGY
Worldly order
Vision with a practical political
programme
Mobilization of groups, classes or the
nation
Militant spirit
Reason alone
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Ideology and Pakistan
The term “Ideology of Pakistan” was never used by Pakistan’s founding fathers. I
am told it was used for the first time by General Nawabzada Sher Ali in 1972. Pakistan's
founding principle was Tawhid and the two-nation theory and not an ideology as such.
This notwithstanding, a queer mixing up of ideology and Muslim piety took place in
the subcontinent during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Simultaneously, two farreaching developments in Europe occurred. In 19th century Europe, Great Britain emerged
as a supreme colonial power, while in the 20th century the world saw spectacular power of
ideology take hold of Italy and Spain under Fascism, of Germany under Nazism, and of
Russia under Marxism. At this juncture of time, the Indian Muslim social reformers and
religious leaders were overawed, on one the hand by the military might and technological
advancement of their colonial master Britain, and by the power of ideology on the other.
These Muslim dignitaries, who were ardently searching for a methodology of
regaining their past glory in India, instinctively looked towards the West for the solution of
their national ailments. Perhaps, quite naturally, in those circumstances, they believed that
by copying Western thought and practice, they would regain their place in the sun. The fact
that this proposition was contradictory in terms, somehow escaped their attention.
Obviously, our religious elite wanted to regain their bygone glory as the Muslim power and
not as some new secular force. This amounted to a cardinal misunderstanding on their
part. It is, however, surprising that such an underlying contradiction should have remained
obscure to them for so long. Indeed if they wished to progress on the lines of the West
they should have forsaken Islam and adopted the secular creed of the West
wholeheartedly. They failed to appreciate that it is just not possible to mix or dovetail
secular concepts with the divine paradigm of Islam.
Subsequently, our religious leaders became enchanted with the dramatic success of
European ideological parties. They found the ideological political model under which
relatively small dedicated, motivated and disciplined party cadres had dominated entire
nations, of particular relevance to an Islamic revival. This model gave them hope because
they were aware of the difficulties that lay in the path of turning out ideal Muslims in any
large numbers. Their hope lay with a small number of pious and motivated Muslims
assuming the leadership and dominating the Muslim masses.
It was due to the overpowering influence of the West that an influential majority of
the Indian Muslim political and religious elite almost totally adopted the Western mode of
thought. Under the West's influence they adopted material progress as their objective,
undermining the importance of spiritual progress. This ideological shift affected our
national life in a number of ways. Under its sway, we came to believe that success and
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supremacy can only be achieved through power and not through morality. As a result of
this change, our attention was diverted from the Islamic objective of building a new man
(insan sazi) to Western concepts of mass media, mass movements and power projection.
Under this ideological shift, we became alienated from the cultural and spiritual
forces that had shaped and guided our destiny for a millennium. The result of this
conceptual shift was that while we were unable to achieve worldly success, we also lost
our inner world. Under this conceptual shift we changed our paths. We forsook the original
tradition of Islam based on relationship with Allah, cleansing of the spirit, tolerance and
sincerity, and instead adopted the path of Ideology based on ideology, party, conflict and
revolution. Surprisingly, although our political and religious elite were trying to regain our
bygone Muslim glory in India, yet they had never paused for a moment to reflect on how
that glory was achieved and sustained over a period of almost a thousand years. Certainly
this glory was not achieved due to any ideology or ideological fervour. In this long period of
time neither any religious elite party was launched nor any Islamic movement started. No
doubt the military prowess of the Muslim conquerors had something to do with it, but it was
a miracle wrought by great personal examples of piety and selflessness set by Muslim
scholars and saints in particular and by the Muslim civil society at large. Their cultural
impact was such that it completely changed the Indian society.
As opposed to this, the recourse of our post-1857 religious dignitaries was to the
West, not to Allah. They did not beckon their compatriots towards Tawhid, but towards
Western education and technology. This intellectual trait of theirs had led them to the
articulation of various ideological and institutional fixes for the salvation of Muslims in the
modem era. Little did they realize that their salvation lied not in a particular system but in
their inner relationship with Allah. If that relationship was truthful, all types of political
institutions would give good results but if that relationship was faulty nothing, including the
Caliphate, would work well.
Conclusion
Our intellectual orientation towards the West and the pursuit of the European
ideological path led us to a cultural and spiritual stagnation from which we have yet to
emerge even after 59 years of independence. The underlying reason for our cultural and
social malaise is the mixing up of two divergent human traits of ideology and religion,
which has resulted in mutilation of three vital human relationships: those between man and
God, man and man, and man and nature. Generally, we enter inter into these relationships
not with fullness of our being but only with some fraction of it. As a result, man's
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relationship with God is fractional, man's relationship with man is manipulative, and man's
relationship with nature is exploitative.
These fractured relationships can be restored by an ardent belief in Tawhid. But,
Tawhid to most of us remains an empty word. Its full potentiality can only be realized by
following, both in letter and spirit, the aforementioned pristine tradition of Islam. Allah must be
truly met and addressed, not merely thought of and expressed. Allah should never be
reduced to a dogma or a law or confined to various places of worship. Also, for a fuller
realization of Tawhid one will have to adopt the stance of “realization” in addition to that of
“orientation”. The later stance, connected with ideology, takes the world as static, legalistic,
analytical and systematic; while the former stance is creative and participatory. It realizes the
possibilities in things through the realization of one's own potentialities and operates within
an open horizon of possibilities. This, indeed, is the path of Sufism and also of the mystical
system of other religions.
The end result of the Western orientation of our leaders was a spiritual and cultural
compromise. Our religious dignitaries had forgotten one eternal lesson of history that the
nations, which do not fear death, become the rulers and those who fear death become the
ruled. It is Tawhid which makes man free and it is wuh’an (love of this world and fear of
death) which enslaves man. Unless we Pakistanis become conscious of this eternal truth
we will remain lost in the maze of dependence, servitude and helplessness.
In the aftermath of 9/11, Islam, in spite of contrary claims, has, once again arisen as
a controversial issue between the East and the West. Ironically, the emerging conflict was
nurtured by the West itself. In their mistaken belief the West thought that a rigid, backward
looking and ritual-oriented Islam was a “safe” Islam, while an enlightened, Islam of
universalism, egalitarianism and brotherhood of man was a “dangerous” Islam. History has
turned a full circle. It is the West-supported, rigid, backward-looking, and thus militant
Islam, which is now confronting Western globalization incorporating neo-colonialism,
exploitative capitalism and aggressive modernity.
Indeed, a peaceful benign and stable new world order can only be established on
the principles of respect of all humanity and universal brotherhood of man. Muslims and all
other nations and creeds of the World should join hands in promoting this Nation of Man,
as Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has said all people belong to the family of Allah. In Divine
recognition of this fact, the Prophet of Islam has been called the Mercy to Mankind.
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THE “IDEOLOGICAL” DEBATE
Faisal Nasir
BA ΙΙ
t has become a matter of habit for many of our intellectuals to renounce the
founding basis of the country. “Ideology” has now come to bear a negative
connotation. The word reeks of rigidity, oppression and coercion. Muslim
exclusivism and separatism which provided the impetus to the Independence
drive have increasingly come under fire. Some have confused ideology with religion and
renounced both.
Ideology connotes a set of ideas or a weltanshauung followed by a group, people or
nation. The important point that we need to clarify is that there is NO COUNTRY IN THIS
WORLD OF OURS THAT DOESN’T HAVE AN IDELOGY. Pakistan has an ideology, Israel
has an ideology, Europe has an ideology and even the US has an ideology. Capitalism
itself is an ideology; the class system, exploitation of the poor/proletariat/Third world,
laisses faire and free market are the principles of this ideology. Expansionism is an
important and inevitable component of the Capitalist ideology. That is why the days of
Empire have not ended; one colonial master has simply replaced another.
Like every other country on the globe, Pakistan too, needed an ideology. The
founding fathers chose Islam for this purpose. But things didn’t go all that well. This does
not have much to do with ideology. Many of the power holders who supported the Pakistan
Movement were feudal lords, nawabs or aristocrats in the Punjab and Sindh and tribal
chiefs in the Frontier and Baluchistan. These people took over the reigns of power soon
after Independence. The landed gentry forged an alliance with the rising gentry i.e. the
bureaucracy and thus reinforced the class system diametrically opposed to Islam/Ideology.
Islam and capitalism are diametrically opposed to one another but we in Pakistan have
preferred capitalism over religion. A smattering of religion was sprinkled over the
enterprise to fool the common man. He was told that he was living in the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan, established on the basis of religion and that his state would be a model state
for the rest of the Muslim world to follow. The state in reality remained “Islamic” in nothing
but name. We celebrate Islamic rituals, observe festivities and enjoy “holy” holidays and
that’s it. The caste, class and interest systems, all vehemently rejected by Islam, remain
firmly embedded in our social fabric.
Sectarian violence has increased in the country. Many place the blame for this
development on ideology. It is important to note that there are also other peripheral
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developments along with sectarianism; a continually mounting inflation rate,
unemployment, corruption, illiteracy, eradication of the middle class and brutal treatment of
the proletariat. Intolerance is the trickle-down effect of all these developments. This, in no
way, is intended to defend intolerance but you have to sow what you reap. The Afghan
Jihad has also had its impact on our domestic situation. The Kalashnikov culture and the
influx of refugees numbering to more than three million have not helped in improving
circumstances.
In our country the elite spend most of their energies in ensuring that they stay at the
top, the (almost extinct) middle class fights to get its rights and the lower class fights to
stay alive. Since we do not value merit in any field, frustration keeps on mounting and is
unleashed in waves of crime and violence. Ignoring all of these factors and placing the
blame entirely on ideology would be missing the mark. The fault lies not in our ideology but
in us. Unless we change our system, nothing will improve.
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CULTURE AND IMPERIALISM
Syeda Hira Jaffar
BSc ІІ
Vision without power does bring moral elevation but cannot give a lasting
culture. Power without vision tends to become destructive and inhuman. Both
must combine for the spiritual expansion of humanity.
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
y offering a deep analysis of the situation, Iqbal gives a message which
speaks volumes of his deep love for humanism, his concern for world
peace and his hatred for imperialism. He goes on to say: “… the tyranny of
imperialism struts about covering its face in the masks of democracy, nationalism,
communism, fascism, and heaven knows what else besides. Under these masks in every
corner the earth, the spirit of freedom and the dignity of man are being trampled … After
subjugating and establishing their dominion over our weaker people, they (colonizers)
have robbed them of their religions, their morals, of their cultural traditions and their
literatures so that the leach of imperialism might go on sucking their blood without
interruption”.
It is ironic that a philosopher of Aristotle’s stature legitimizes slavery. “Aliens” do not
enjoy the status of citizens in Plato’s Republic. The fruit of this thought was the false idea
of Western superiority and so we had T.E. Lawrence, H. Palmer, John Philby, G. Hogarth
and Stuart Chamberlain serving as agents of western imperialism. These gentlemen tried
and succeeded in inculcating deplorable concepts like racism and territorial nationalism in
the heart of the East. Mr. Lawrence has shown how he duped the Arabs in his Seven
Pillars of Wisdom. Many Muslims took him for a mystic; the reality was that this “British
Sufi” was on the pay roll of the MI6. It is on record that the World Zionist Organization
celebrated the occasion when the Turks forsook the Ottoman Caliphate; the irony is that
many Muslims celebrated with them. Even today there are many who rejoice when a
Muslim regime is overthrown and a Muslim country is “liberated.” Yes, the Ottoman Empire
was corrupt, the rulers far from immaculate, but nationalism and particularly Arab
nationalism was an alien concept which the West used to put an effective end to the
Caliphate which was, at least in name, a single political body with a 1300 year history.
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They then proceeded to carve out new Muslim/Arab countries, gifting them to sultans,
emirs and monarchs who promised to sell oil rights to Western Oil firms.
The Imperialists convinced many Muslims that their pre-Islamic culture and
traditions constituted an integral part of their identities. It was another gentleman from T.E
Lawrence’s camp who “revealed” to Sultan Abdul Hameed of Turkey that the Turks had a
peculiar script of their own which was superior to the Arab script used in the Caliphate.
How jubilant his soul must have been when “modern” Turks eventually discarded the Arab
script. This resulted in ill-will between the Arabs and the Turks and Mr. Lawrence did his
job to instigate Sherif Hussein into launching the Arab Revolt of 1916. The celebrated
Gamal Abdul Nasir showed an enduring fascination for secularism. The Egyptians actually
told their women to go and study in Paris and act, dress and walk like them! They were,
and still are, under the impression that people progress by baring skin.
In his last poetic creation “Armaghan-e-Hijaz”, Iqbal describes a world in turmoil,
“The world again faces a battle between the spirit and the flesh. Modern civilization has
brought forth its beasts.”
Moreover, Iqbal says: “The result of the (false) idealism of Europe is a perverted
ego, seeking itself through mutually intolerant democracies whose sole function is to
exploit the poor in the interests of the rich. Europe today is the greatest hindrance in the
way of man’s ethical development.” A lot of Europe’s burden is now shared by the USA.
Iqbal has also hinted at the Zionist connection.
In a letter to Prof. Nicholson, Iqbal writes:
I find it philosophically impossible to ignore a social system which exists with the express
subject of doing away with all the distinctions of caste, rank and race, and which fosters a spirit
of un-worldliness so absolutely essential to man in his relations with his neighbours. This is
what Europe (let me add USA) lacks and this is what she still can learn from us.
In the end, we must find indigenous solutions to our problems.
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THE PATHOLOGY OF POWER
Inayatullah
Old Ravian, Former Ambassador of Pakistan
We live in the era of the world's only super power – the United States of
America.
look at history tells us that there always has been a dominant power with
its attendant culture and institutions. There were the Greeks. Remember
Alexander the great, Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. Then came the Romans
with their vast empire, their law, and institutional frame work. Muslims too had had their
day. Europe reasserted itself with its Reformation, Renaissance, Industrial and the French
revolution. Resurgent European states with their new ways and weapons conquered
practically the whole world, disseminated their ideas and introduced their institutions in the
occupied countries. A fall out of the ΙΙ World War was the disintegration of the colonial
regimes and the emergence of two super powers, USA and USSR. The cold war between
them came to end with the collapse of the latter.
Here, one may take note of the kind of world we live in today. Unlike the days of the
earlier empires there is a recognized international system in which the United Nations is at
the centre stage. The UN Charter and the Human Rights Declaration, inter alia, govern the
international conduct of these states. There are also global institutions like the International
Court of Justice and the Human Rights Commission.
The sole super power, the USA too is bound to follow the rules of the game laid
down by the international community in the above mentioned charters and institutions as
well as a number of other international codes of conduct and conventions.
In 1991 the US President, the senior Mr. Bush announced a New World Order. This
was to be based on justice and freedom. The junior Mr. Bush is now at the helm of affairs.
During his presidency new rules and doctrines have been enunciated. Even before the
9/11 catastrophe, he had taken certain steps which were characterized by unilateral action
– moving army from the Koyoto Protocol on environment and the trashing of the ABM (Anti
Ballistic Missile Treaty), to mention two such cases. 9/11 further changed the scenario. Mr.
Bush lost little time to invade and occupy Afghanistan and later attacked Iraq, which, along
with Afghanistan is still under occupation.
Power is a heady drink and it can turn one's head and make you arrogant and
overbearing. It also blurs the vision.
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In this day and age, as the dominant world power America is expected to set a good
example. It is after all, the oldest and the leading democracy and prides itself on
adherence to such values as freedom, justice, human rights and democracy. Time and
again the US President has been telling the world that American policies and interventions
are meant to safeguard and spread liberty, justice and democracy. But the actual record
depicts quite a different picture.
How Iraq was attacked bypassing the UN Security Council and on grounds which
have since been found false! This does little credit to the leading power of the world which
professes to be just and fair. Can you force a people to become democratic by occupying
their country? Do you remain credible if you indulge in such acts as holding human beings
in cage-like prisons for years without trial? What do Abu Gharaib and Guantanamo Bay
signify? The pictures of the detainees splashed on TV screens and in the international
press leave little doubt about the sincerity of American claims.
Does it behove a super power to support a country which violates UN resolutions
and which kills adversaries deliberately in cold blood? How can USA keep supporting
Israel when it defies the UN and blatantly violates the basic rights of the Palestinians, day
after day? There is also the case of the Chechens being slaughtered by the Russian army.
Earlier the USA was critical of the Russian treatment of the Chechens. It has changed its
approach and is now calling Chechens, who are fighting for their right of self determination,
terrorists. The same goes for Kahsmir. This double faced behaviour contradicts the
sermons by the American President on justice and freedom. And how can you declare that
you are determined in spreading democracy on one hand and openly bolster a potentate
or a dictator who negates the democratic norms and values on the other?
If selfish motives, resulting in occupation of countries and control of their resources
govern the thinking and practice of the mightiest government of the world, surely it has no
right exhort others to follow the path of justice and fair play.
We live in the age of globalization, the age of instant communication and in the era
of the internet, the World Wide Web and cable television. Supermarkets and multinationals
have eroded the sovereignty of the state. The developing countries in particular are most
vulnerable as they literally are on the receiving end.
Are there any possibilities of countervailing forces emerging to balance the super
power's influence and intrusion? Is Europe in a position to withstand this domination?
Can China and Russia resist the tidal wave of American culture and economic
thrust?
Can the so-called Ummah, or the OIC develop enough clout to take a stand to
defend the rights of oppressed Muslims?
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Can the UN General Assembly be strengthened to protect the interests of smaller
and weaker states?
As things are, not excluding miraculous possibilities, there are little signs of any
material change happening for quite some time.
One effective way to address the issue is for the people and governments of the
various countries which suffer the onslaught of modern imperialism, to strive to acquire the
knowledge, skills competence and strength which come from peoples' participation in
governance and decision making – democratic qualities and attributes which generate real
power and influence and characterize dominating societies and states.
If this is not done, one will have to wait for the internal weaknesses of the dominant
state to sap its strength in due course, pushing it to decline and disintegration. This may
well be wishful thinking and in any case, will take a long time.
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NEO – IMPERIALISM
THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN – EPISODE # 2
Ahmed Zohaib
BA ΙΙ
ueen Victoria did us a huge favour by proclaiming herself “Empress of
India” on January 1st, 1877 in the Mughul stronghold of Delhi, extending
her sovereignty over “native chiefs” whose dynasties were far older than
that of the Queen herself. Lahore had been the city of kings in antiquity and London a
marsh the Romans didn’t even bother to clear. But this is where the process of
“civilizing” people started. The colonial enterprise sought warrant to exploit from “the
White Man's Burden” or simply put – the white man’s capitalist lust for power. And so,
Asia and Africa were “civilized” by subduing people, condescendingly referred to as
“natives” by the British. However, the British made a cardinal error; they introduced
liberal education to their colonies. This system produced men who fought the British,
eventually leading to the fall of the greatest Empire the world had ever known. But the
Americans have learned from the mistakes the British made.
In devastated Iraq and graveyard and dump yard Afghanistan, you will not see
Americans setting up universities, colleges or even schools. The British made GC
Lahore, Kinnaird, King Edward Medical College, Lahore College, Queen Mary and
many other institutions. The Americans will not be setting up MIT and Harvard or Policy
Research Institutes in Beirut or Baghdad. Furthermore, the British had lost their resolve
and ability of carrying the burden of Empire after the devastation of World War ΙΙ. Britain
was a shell-shocked, exhausted and slowly recovering nation. The cessation of
colonies at this point was inevitable. The Americans, who had risen to power making
the most of the Wars, wanted small lackey states to curtail the Soviet Union in their
Great Game. A united India would have been a staunch ally of the USSR, as the
Indians proved after Independence. The colonies fought the colonizers but
independence was granted not gained because both the Americans and the British
wanted it that way.
There’s another catch; the introduction of British liberal education that enabled
the locals to stand at par with their masters served as a double-edged sword – yes, it
aided the Oriental in confronting the West but it also deprived him nearly of everything
that differentiated him from the West. He was brainwashed into giving up his identity
and adopting, rather imitating that of the Colonial master. This was, for the retreating
Imperialists, a final, ingenious blow that they delivered to the “natives.” He was no
longer a simple “native” – he was an Indian or a Pakistani. Nationalism had effectively
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replaced Pan-Islamism people like Hali, Iqbal and a host of other greats whose names
eschew the writer’s challenged memory, had fought and died for.
Another psychological development was the inception of an unconscious
inferiority complex in the “natives.” They came to regard their own (former) selves as
brutish, tainted heathens and imitating the Colonial master became a means of
lessening this inferiority. That’s why you see the gentry and landed aristocracy in this
country trying their utmost to show that they are completely “English Medium” and have
never, even in their wildest dreams, thought about holding a fork in their right hand
while eating out.
This scheme was not restricted to the sub continent; it had its beginnings in the
conflict between the Arabs and the Turks during the days of the Ottoman Caliphate.
Alright, it was probably not even near an ideal Islamic Caliphate and the Turks were
wrong in brutally suppressing the Arabs and their language from whom they had
inherited their ascendancy and the Arabs weren’t perfect Muslims either, but
nonetheless, if the end of the Khilafat was all the doing of Muslims themselves, why are
there prominent foreign names that feature in connection with the Arab Revolt of 1916?
In his book titled Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Mr. T.E. Lawrence has shown how he duped
the Arabs which led to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire once and for all. This
gentleman was fluent in almost every dialect of Arabic and wandered about in the
Arabian Peninsula making friends with the Bedouin tribes and discussing the Quran,
the golden days of Arab ascendancy and their present misery. Hussain ibn-e-Ali, the
Sharif of Makkah was his closest friend. The Arabs took him for a Sufi while he was
busy telegramming the MI6 about the uprising he had instigated.
Coming back to the point, the Americans will not make the mistakes the British
made and consummate the unfinished task. They will invade culturally, psychologically,
ideologically and then militarily. However, to keep the number of body bags within
acceptable limits they will not deploy complete battalions of the US Army in their
colonies. Instead they will develop “local” authorities and install puppet regimes and call
on Muslim armies to do the dirty work. In a single stroke of genius, they’ve corrected a
grave British error; the natives faced the “gora” and decided to confront him because an
active, visible presence of the self-imposed master creates defiance not only to his
person but everything he stands for. This includes his culture, ideology and values. So,
the Americans have pitted Muslims against Muslims – natives against natives – to
obliterate defiance on the one hand and any idea of Muslim Unity or Pan Islamism on
the other.
Secondly, the impetus to the British Colonial Crusade was the Evangelist zeal of
spreading the message of the Bible and introducing civilization. The Americans are
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spreading “democracy” with an Evangelical zeal far greater than the British; they have a
president who believes God speaks through him!
Where does the buck stop now? It appears the people behind the New World
Order have carefully planned for a complete victory in every conceivable way. Pan
Islamism was the only threat to Capitalism. Is there a way out? The White Man’s
Burden Episode # 2 seems headed towards a thumping success.
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WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Eqbal Ahmed
Published in The Ravi 1977
o my knowledge no other institution of higher learning in the Untied States
offers courses, or even a single course, on imperialism or the Third World as
part of its core curriculum. Yet we can draw streams of knowledge from this
these topics about our past and future, about culture no less than history, literature as well
as politics, economics and also psychology, and above all, about the varieties of power
and their pervasive impact on the human condition. It is a subject which, given an informed
and imaginative structuring, would offer an essential sequel to what passes in most
universities as Introduction to Western Civilization. For, a course on the Third World will of
necessity be a comprehensive study of Western civilization from the 16 th century onwards.
The Third World consists of continents and peoples who have been assigned names. The
term “The Third World” is itself an assignment from the First World. At the end of World
War II the structure of world power had changed. The war had catapulted the United
States as a superpower, established the Soviet Union as a potential rival, and brought to
near ruination the great colonial powers of Europe – Great Britain, France, Holland, and
Belgium – weakening their ability to hold on to the colonies where people were demanding
self-determination. After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, other countries
of Asia and Africa decolonized rapidly. The cold war added some urgency to this task as
each of the two power blocs sought to gain influence in the newly independent states.
This new reality demanded new nomenclature. It was not good politics any more
to describe Africa as the Dark Continent, or Asia as an undifferentiated Orient. But old
outlooks die hard. So, English and American scholars came up with the term Backward
Nations. The backward reacted often loudly and occasionally with wit that was razor sharp;
“Mr. Gaandi, Mr. Gaandi”, asked the English journalist, “What is your view of Western
civilization?” Mahatma Gandhi, whom Winston Churchill had in 1945 called a “half-naked
Indian fakir”, replied with a saintly smile “Ah, it would be a nice idea.”
Backward nations were soon replaced with non-western nations but this did not
click as Latin Americans laid claim to be Western and did not want to be thrown in with
Asians and Africans. Thence came under-developed countries; a term that responded to
the United States’ recently articulated policy of promoting development first via the Point
Four Program then through the Agency of International Development (AID).
Underdeveloped was in currency for a while. But it too was found lacking proper PR
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content. Thereupon, a number of American and British academics attempted to link
empirical realities to diplomatic convenience. They offered various appellations: New
Nations, Emerging Nations, Transitional Societies and, from a famous Latinist, Expectant
Nations. Never one to be left behind in the race of academic functionaries, Professor
Samuel P. Huntington of Harvard produced a tome that introduced us to changing
societies, in Political Order in Changing Societies, which had a life as short though not
quiet as meteoric as his latest invention – “The Clash of Civilizations”. More enduring was
the Princeton-based modernization theorists’ Developing Countries. This one was a PR
coup of high order. It proved quite pleasing to the rulers of the countries so named as it
placed their ill-governed states squarely on the path of progress. Two problems
intervened: first, the 60s youthful radical scholars insisted that most of these “developing
countries” were in fact under-developing in spite, rather because of generous US aid.
Additionally the French, whose interests in their overseas colonies are not to be ignored,
found les pays enen vois de development far too great an encumbrance upon their proud
linguistic heritage. That’s where Professor Pierre Jalee, a Frenchman of Marxist
persuasion, came in joining the past with the present, and dividing up one world into three
according to their links with the capitalist market. The First World dominated the market by
virtue of its advanced economies, power, and colonial history. The Second World
consisted of countries which had separated from the market by revolutionary means. The
Third World, consisting mostly of the First World's former colonial possessions, was underdeveloped, produced raw materials arid cheap labour, and remained dependent on the
First World powers which controlled the market to the detriment, he so argued, of their
dependencies.
The great virtue of this paradigm was that it reflected historical and empirical
realities, a fact welcomed by Third World liberals and radicals alike. It was also a complex
enough formulation for the idea to be ignored and the terminology to be acceptable to First
World policy makers. Thus, the Third World became the most enduring of the names given
to the ensemble of dependent countries while the central argument of Pierre Jalee's
Pillage de Tiers Monde was all but forgotten.
Four observations are in order. One, the end of the Cold War and the virtual
dissolution of the “socialist bloc” have left a big hole in Pierre Jalee's paradigm. For all
practical purposes the Second World has disappeared. All its constituent countries have
entered the “market”, mostly from positions of such weakness that they resemble the Third
World countries. Only a few of these, primarily the expected members of the enlarged
NATO alliance, are to be admitted into the exclusive First World club. The world is truly
bipolar, now as it is divided between the two categories of rich and poor countries. The
latter are divided among themselves, as the poor often are, between the abject and the
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hopeful. It is safe to predict then that the rich shall fear and demonise – as they have done
through the ages – those among the poor who appear defiant, or show signs of seeking
autonomy and an independent will. The international environment has naturally begun to
ring with phrases like “rogue states”, “clash of civilizations”, and the “Chinese threat”. We
ought to keep a critical stance toward these, lest we fall prey to the psychosis of yet
another era of ideological warfare.
Second, who gives name to whom is a question of power, be it benevolent or
harsh. Parents give names to children, owners to their pets, and lords to their estates.
Masters gave names to their slaves so authoritatively that their original African names
were forever forgotten. Power, we must never forget, is more or less unequally distributed
in nearly all spheres of life – internationally, nationally, and often in the family. The greater
the inequality – whether racial or sexual, between classes or nations – the higher it stands
as an obstacle to peace and human liberation. Viewed thus, the Third World is a metaphor
for unequal exchange. To reduce this inequality; and eliminate it where possible, is an
enlightened, educated project. The “expectation” then is that the educated person would
discern its patterns, within and without, and work at obviating it. After all, as Karl Marx put
it, the function of knowledge should be to comprehend reality in order to change it.
Third, this brief narrative of how the term came about alerts us to problems of the
relationship between knowledge and power. This age-old question has far greater urgency
today because the nature of power has changed and is changing greatly as intellectuals
play an exponentially larger role in society. Hence the pressure on and temptations for,
intellectuals to conform to the exegesis of power have vastly augmented. The problem is
compounded by the fact that during the last two centuries the tradition has deepened with
the intellectuals’ collaboration with the state. In the ancient and mediaeval ages some
intellectuals and artists received the patronage of rulers and their courts. In so far as
association with them added lustre to regimes and often rendered them memorable, they
served legitimizing and historical purposes. But only rarely did they play the role of
intellectual functionaries, putting their knowledge in the service of power in the operative,
strategic sense of the word. Only in the modern, capitalist age of Western expansion did
mankind experience large-scale and strategically significant collaboration between
intellectuals and imperial states.
A large body of recent scholarship has shown the ways in which such an alliance
distorted both the functioning of the state and society's perspectives. During the two world
wars, which were technologically modern wars involving European societies, this alliance
gained ideological sanction. During the cold war, it was so institutionalized that nearly all
the big names in my profession became identified with the United States government, a
fact that eventually alienated me from the university environment. Far too many academics
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have had a hand in overthrowing elected governments, ordering secret bombings, killings
of millions of innocent people, and sanctioning the torture of prisoners. Far too many
journalists abandoned the fundamental tenets of independent of the press, the truth or the
law.
As educated persons we all have to choose whether we want to be like Henry
Kissinger or Noam Chomsky, Father Daniel Berrigar or Cardinal Cook, I.F. Stone or Abe
Rosentha. The choice will confront you, perhaps all your life, and will always be yours to
make. I should merely underline that higher education is intended to serve two primary
purposes: it imparts skills and enhances one's opportunities for social mobility and
economic well-being; and it is expected to refine one's mind and elevate one's morals.
Four, while inequalities of class and sex had existed throughout history, its
patterns became more complex and global in the modern era than in any other epoch in
human history. Never before had the world been so divided by sharply differentiated
modes of production which range from the primitively manual to the mechanically
automated. Never had there emerged such wide gaps in the knowledge that people
possessed across continents. Paradoxically, this development occurred in the age of
enlightenment, rationalism, and democracy, of unparalleled progress in science,
technology, and the discovery of consciousness and the human mind.
The paradox inevitably enters into our lives, as it did in the lives of heroic, historic
figures. The 60s radicals used to recall bitterly that Thomas Jefferson, undoubtedly one of
the greatest liberal thinkers of the modern age, was a slave owner. But we often failed to
reflect on the culture and economy that shaped men and women of Jefferson’s era in such
a fashion that they could practice slavery and also dedicate themselves to the exciting
proposition that all men are created equal. Theirs was a generation that found it difficult to
develop organic linkages between the abstract principle and individual lives. How can we
explain that difficulty in the age of what Karl Polanyi has called the great transformation?
There are several answers to this question of which one is central: the patterns of extreme
inequalities on a global scale and of great gaps between ideals and praxis were products
of modern imperialism, a world system driven by capitalism and a constantly advancing
technology which augured the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century, and continues
to compel the process of globalization in our time.
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MANKIND’S LAST BEST HOPE
Shamshad Ahmad Khan
Old Ravian, Former Foreign Secretary and Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the
UN
orn out of the three great upheavals that gripped the world in the first half of
the twentieth century, the two great wars and the great depression, the
United Nations was meant “to save succeeding generations from the
scourge of war” and to provide a “moral edifice” for the re-ordering of the global system,
which would be based on justice and equity and which would be governed by rules, laws,
values and cooperation. It was established to pursue the twin goals of peace and
prosperity. For the realization of these goals, it was hailed as "mankind's last best hope".
Unfortunately, the world that ensued was neither just nor equal. Hard realities soon
intervened to interrupt the rebuilding of the world on a “moral edifice.” Poverty, hunger and
disease represented world’s growing socio-economic malaise. Economic disparities kept
widening. Global peace remained as elusive as ever. Inter-state conflicts and intra-state
implosions continued to cause terrible human suffering and massive dislocation. Injustice
and oppression remained unabated.
The exigencies of the Cold War became new imperatives in the realm of realpolitk.
In a polarized world, the UN became another arena for the clash of ideologies and
political confrontation between the two hostile blocs in the post-World War II world.
Global security order came to be shaped by nuclear weapons, which proliferated
vertically and laterally to give the erstwhile imperial powers a sense of "destiny" and
"invincibility”.
The major powers sought to monopolize the international security order by basing it
on nuclear weapons. The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was the first effort to build a legal
regime that would eventually be used to legitimize possession of these weapons by the
five, while denying them to others. In that sense, the NPT was a quasi moral/political
expedient. Nuclear weapons became the corner-stone of the global security architecture.
The Security Council, responsible under the Charter for the maintenance of
international peace and security, remained hostage to the Cold War power politics.
Strategic expediencies of the major powers kept it from taking positions based on
principles. Major global issues on which the UN had taken a clear position through Security
Council resolutions remained on its agenda without any follow-up action.
B
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The unresolved questions of Palestine and Kashmir continued to pose threat to
global peace and security. The veto power blocked any meaningful progress towards the
implementation of the Security Council's resolutions. For all practical purposes, it was the
major powers and not the UN that called shots in matters of peace and security.
In those years of "chilling" confrontation between the US and the USSR, the
developing and non-aligned countries bore the torch of the United Nations. The defence of
its principles and pursuit of its ideals for the next fifty years were to be in the hands of the
newly emergent nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which were imbued with the
idealism that had charged their struggle for deliverance from the dark days of colonialism.
The seventies were still heady days for the United Nations or for those who actually
believed in its vision. The poor and dispossessed nations, emerging from centuries of
exploitation of their lands by the colonial powers, sought to assert their stakes in the global
economy by demanding a new international economic order.
The end of the Cold War had provided an opportunity to revert to the concept of
collective security and acceptance of the UN as an instrument of international legality. The
post-9/11 world, however, witnessed unprecedented erosion in the role, authority and
credibility of the UN. Today, the UN is no longer a meaningful arbiter on issues of global
relevance and importance.
The world remains afflicted with the same problems as experienced in the preceding
century, perhaps in their acutest form. The iron curtain is no longer there, but the poverty
curtain continues to cut across the face of this earth dividing humanity between two
unequal halves, one embarrassingly rich and the other desperately poor.
There is no let-up in violence and the causes that breed despair and defiance.
Armed conflict remains pervasive. Historical grievances and outstanding disputes remain
unaddressed. Wars of aggression and attrition, invasions in the name of self-defence,
military occupations, massacres and genocides, human tragedies and humanitarian
catastrophes, and a culture of extremism and violence continue to define the “new world
disorder”.
Economic adventurism of the 19th century is back in the form of new unipolarity.
Might seen wrong by all has never been claimed so “right. The humanity finds itself divided
on economic and religious lines”. Global development agenda has been set aside, if not
shelved. Internationally agreed development goals and commitments have been overtaken
by new priorities driven by overbearing global security agenda.
Terrorism is the new scourge afflicting our world and a phenomenon that transcends
all boundaries, which in recent years, has affected the political, economic and security
environment of all regions, countries and societies. Unfortunately, the war on terror has not
gone beyond retribution and retaliation.
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There is no prospect of long-festering issues coming to their just and final end. Iraq
is still burning. Afghanistan has yet to breathe peace. Palestine is tired and has given up.
Kashmir is devastated and disillusioned. The world had never been so chaotic and so
complacent.
The UN had also never been so helpless and ineffective in meeting its Charter
obligations. Its role has been circumvented by the unabashed use of military power which
is now the universal norm. The new unipolarity has left very little space for the UN to play
any meaningful role in addressing the issues of global peace and security.
What aggravates this bleak scenario is the growing inability of the international
community to respond to these challenges with unity of purpose. There is no global
consensus on major peace and security issues or on how to address them. The events of
the last three years have immeasurably shaken the international system which is no longer
governed by the rule of law or universally established norms.
No doubt, the UN has not fulfilled its promise of peace and prosperity. The critics of
the UN would even say that it has failed to live up to the lofty ambitions enshrined in its
Charter. It has resolved no major disputes, nor has it prevented many conflicts. It is no
more than a debating club, producing voluminous and repetitive resolutions without
concrete results in terms of their implementation or enforceability.
Its supporters and defenders, on the other hand, feel that the UN has served the
purpose of saving humanity during the second half of the twentieth century from the
recurrence of the great disasters of the first half. It has provided a universally
representative inter-governmental forum for "dialogue and decision" on world’s issues with
the engagement of all relevant stakeholders, including multilateral institutions and civil
society.
It has also contributed towards evolving global consensus and cooperation on major
socio-economic issues and has built, through a series of high-level conferences and
summits since the 1990s, a normative framework of internationally agreed goals and
commitments. In particular, the Millennium Summit in New York (2000), the Financing for
Development Conference at Monterrey, Mexico (2002) and the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002), have brought the global development
agenda into a sharper international focus, and given it a new political momentum.
An objective assessment would support the view that despite its failures and
constraints, the UN remains “mankind’s last best hope.” It may not be fair to blame the UN
for what it has not been able to accomplish. The responsibility for its failures including nonimplementation of its resolutions lies with its members and the onus for making it effective
enough to carry out its Charter role also rests on its membership.
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The need for a strong multilateral institution capable of meeting the challenges of
the new age has never been greater than it is today. The world leaders, at the Millennium
Summit five years ago and again at the world summit in September last year, pledged to
spare no effort in strengthening the UN and making it a more effective instrument for
pursuing the common goals.
If the UN of the 21st century is to be prevented from meeting the fate of its
predecessor, the League of Nations, its "structure and culture" will have to be adapted to
the realities and challenges of today's changed world. This warrants an attitudinal change
on the part of the governments and states which, instead of indulging in meaningless and
ritualistic annual debates and sterile rhetoric, must take decisive steps to restore UN's
credibility and authority as an effective instrument of international legitimacy.
The UN needs reform that would make it stronger, more representative and more
effective inter-governmental organization. The democratic principles of "sovereign equality
and one-state-one-vote" must remain the basis of its strength and participatory character.
This would require restoration of the primacy of the General Assembly as the chief policymaking organ of the UN and democratization of the UN Security Council to enable them
acquit their Charter role in pursuit of global peace and development.
The Charter stipulates that “armed force shall not be used, save in the common
interest”. But what is that common interest? Who is to define it? Who shall defend it and
under whose authority? And with what means of intervention? Answers to these questions
cannot be left to any one country or power to determine. Unilateral armed intervention
under any pretext is a breach of moral and multilateral norms.
No country, however powerful or dominant, should resort to pre-emptive use of force
unless it is authorized by the Security Council within the scope of Articles 42 and 51 of the
UN Charter. Collective action based on collective interest should be the only legal option
which must be pursued under the aegis of the UN Security Council.
The working methods of the UN system also need to be reviewed and streamlined
to ensure greater efficiency and coordination in implementation of the decisions and
internationally agreed goals and commitments. In cases where the Security Council is
prevented from acting effectively, the General Assembly should be able to operate under
"Uniting for Peace" authority and adopt mandatory resolutions concerning global peace
and security.
The reform of Security Council is a complex issue and has been the subject of
protracted discussions at the UN for over a decade now. The vast majority of the UN
membership would like to see the Security Council democratized through comprehensive
reform encompassing its enlargement, decision-making including the question of the veto
and the Council's working methods.
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UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been a staunch advocate of UN reform and
keeps urging the member states to take a "hard look" at the existing architecture of
international institutions. He established, in November 2003, a 16-member high-level panel
comprising eminent persons of stature and experience to recommend measures needed to
strengthen the existing multilateral institutions and processes.
Apparently, the panel, in formulating its recommendations, was unable to rise above
the political expediencies or respective national interests of its members. Its report came
out only with half-baked approaches and divisive formulae which have triggered further
debate and controversy at the UN.
There is very little prospect of an early inter-governmental consensus emerging on
its recommendations in critical areas of concern to most countries, including Pakistan.
These include UN Security Council reform, criteria for use of force, pacific settlement of
disputes, sanctions, peacekeeping, thematic aspects of human rights, rule of law,
democracy, nuclear non-proliferation, weapons of mass destruction and terrorism including
its definition and legitimization of freedom movements.
Security Council Reform: The panel proposed two alternatives for consideration
by UN member-states, both of which sought to expand the membership of the Security
Council from fifteen to twenty four, one involving six new permanent members without veto
and three new non-permanent members divided among the major regions, and the other
suggesting eight new four-year-term renewable seats, two each for Asia, Africa, Europe
and Americas and one two-year-term non-permanent seat.
A deadlock situation now prevails with a large number of UN member-states
opposing any expansion in the permanent category while calling for increase only in nonpermanent seats. Pakistan and many other important like-minded countries in the form of
an informal group called “Coffee Club” have for years been engaged in a campaign against
expansion in the permanent category. They have consistently maintained that the objective
of reform and expansion of the Security Council should be to make it more transparent,
participatory and democratic.
On the other hand, four major contenders for permanent membership of the Council,
namely Brazil, India, Germany and Japan which have formally designated themselves as
G-4 are pursuing their own campaign for increase in both categories involving addition of
six permanent and four non-permanent seats. They also want veto power for the new
permanent members.
The present five permanent members known as P-5, with the exception of China,
are not opposed to the creation of new permanent seats but are not ready to share veto
power with them. They have divergent positions on the number and criteria for filling those
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seats. With the exception of Africa, all regional groups are also divided because of deep
differences between the main contenders and their regional rivals (Pakistan and China visà-vis India, Republic of Korea and China vis-à-vis Japan, Italy and Spain vis-à-vis
Germany and Argentina and Mexico vis-à-vis Brazil).
OIC and Arab countries have taken a joint but somewhat vague position stating that
any proposal neglecting representation of the Islamic Ummah in any category of members
in an expanded Security Council would not be acceptable to the Islamic countries. Beyond
this declaratory stance, however, the OIC in keeping with its tradition remains divided.
Several OIC countries have individually promised support to India, Japan and Germany.
Meanwhile, Egypt makes no secret of is its own ambition for a permanent seat.
The overwhelming majority of the UN membership, as reflected in the official NAM
position, is against expansion in the permanent category and wants an increase only in the
non-permanent category to make it more representative of the current UN membership.
Similarly, there is strong opposition to the continuation of the veto power which is
considered anachronistic to the Charter's principle of sovereign equality of states.
The suggestion to create a new category of “veto-less” permanent members makes
a mockery of the Security Council and the UN Charter. The very concepts of permanent
membership and veto power, remnants of World War II, negate the principles of
democracy and sovereign equality. An ideal solution would be the abolition of both the
anomalies which only represent the vestiges of power and privilege.
But in today's world, there is no room for ideal solutions. Instead of creating new
permanent seats, a new category involving an appropriate number of "semi-permanent"
(renewable three or four year-term) seats could be created to be filled through regional
rotation. Similarly, if the veto power cannot be rescinded altogether at this stage, at least
the use of this prerogative should be rationalized by subjecting it to at least two
concomitant negative votes of non-permanent members or one-fifth of whatever is the
revised number of Council’s elected members and restricting its application only to
decisions under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
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THE GREAT GAME
Zahid Kramet
Old Ravian, Strategic Analyst
he New World Order envisages 'globalization', and globalization, or the
Global Village paradigm, is effectively the brain-child of the multi-lateral
corporate sector, the principle bludgeon of which today is the World Trade
Organization (WTO). The WTO first and foremost advocates the free flow of capital around
the world.
Founded in 1995 after the Uruguay round of trade negotiations (1985-1994), the
WTO portends to be “a legally binding institution for world trade, based on agreements to
regulate the trade of goods, services and the trade aspects of intellectual property ...,” but
could easily be considered “imperialistic” in that it targets all of planet earth's natural
resources as the rightful preserves of capital-rich “syndicated corporations”, more
commonly known as multi-national corporations (MNCs). The WTO, supported in full part
by the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), acts as the vanguard
to these monolith global enterprises and undertakes to guarantee a consistent and pliant
socio-economic environment considered quintessential for the onward growth of capitalism
(read private enterprise) as a universal and irresistible force.
The MNCs appear to function on a particular premise: that if and when the
institutions of any nation state fail to provide, the mandatory stable and predictable
platform for the expansion of capitalism, it becomes incumbent on western capitalistic
alliances to resort to the militarily option, respectively using the pretexts of “war on terror”,
“weapons of mass destruction”, “freedom”, and “democracy”, as the opening gambits.
That computation is considered particularly composite in the case of nation states
where a purportedly turncoat tyrant is the residing sovereign authority, or where “anarchy”
(read over-assertive national sovereignty) appears an imminent threat. To foreclose on
such an eventuality the doctrine of “pre-emptive strikes”, comes into play, unsurprisingly
against resource-rich countries.
Oil is the one resource that figures foremost in almost every equation, and countries
advantaged by large tapped oil reserves are kept under the closest of scrutiny.
Archetypical of such countries is Muslim Iraq, (with the more than 6 percent of the worlds
known oil reserves) where a once favoured dictator, was suddenly and inexplicably found
to be out of control and threatening to upset the applecart for the leviathan western
headquartered oil cartels.
T
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Using the 9/11 episode as the pretext for a pre-emptive “war on terror”, these
syndicated oil corporations, courtesy a controversially elected US president, and close
aide but legitimately elected UK prime minister, first launched US and British troops into
Afghanistan in pursuit of the elusive Usama bin laden and his nimble “terror” network, and
next into Iraq in pursuit of some nebulous “weapons of mass destruction” – predictably in
perfect complement to the multi-trillion dollar military industrial complex.
The buck doesn't stop there (pun intended). Earmarked earlier were countries
denoted as the enlarged “Axis of Evil” comprising Libya, Syria, and Iran, all oil producing or
strategically adjoining Muslim countries, with an extraneously shielded Oriental and
communistic North Korea featuring in the “Evil Empire” multiplex, allegedly due to its
nuclear ambitions, more likely as a threat to South Korea and other Oriental WTO South
East Asian associates lying in dangerously close proximity. “Freedom” and “democracy”
are the buzz words employed to justify war on any country, while “resistance” is defined as
an act of terror, or simply “terrorism”, with the result that great empathy is conveniently
curried in the western world through its largely biased media when retaliatory actions
target the civilian populace of “civilized” countries ostensibly threatening their stability and
way of life. These “civilized” nations are inevitably developed countries which have
historically banked on their more advanced technology to physically impose their
economic, social and military ascendancy (read colonize) on developing countries
privileged by natural resources, but considered caught in the time trap of antiquated
culture and tradition. Western imperialism is today chiefly directed against the oil-rich
Muslim Middle East, but since the demise of the USSR, also encompasses forcibly
bringing the mineral-rich Muslim Central Asian Republics (CARs) into the MNC fold.
With the pathways into these countries blocked by Muslim fundamentalists (Taliban)
in Afghanistan to the north-west of the South Asian subcontinent, and to the west by
Muslim clerics in an Iran with nuclear aspirations and belligerent attitude towards Israel,
the task of these modern-day imperialists appears cut out for them. More so, with their
military forces making less than anticipated headway in Iraq – the touch-stone country –
where “democracy” continues to remain elusive.
Paradoxically, it is another Muslim nation, Pakistan, which has remained the most
steadfast MNC ally in the region. Roundly criticized for going the nuclear route earlier,
Pakistan's military government has somehow managed to stay the course of “enlightened
moderation” propagated by its principals in the West. As a consequence, the country has
suffered heightened discord and dislocation, augmented by the gross abuse of power by
the ruling military regime intruding into space traditionally licensed as the domain of
arguably an inept body politic, but a suitably trained civil service, and competent civilian
professionals.
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Still, given the track record of parliament steered by the badly funded civil
bureaucracy, it is most unlikely that the restive situation in and around the country could
have been tackled by these institutions. It was inevitable therefore that the sole surviving
superpower (read largest MNC control centre) would opt for the army as the more
predictable, compliant and disciplined workshop to orchestrate the WTO programme.
This programme has several salient features or principles, of which the main are:
-
The principle of the most favoured nation, by which countries are made equal
regarding market access.
-
The principle of equal treatment for foreign and domestic goods, service providers,
trade marks, patents and copyrights.
-
The principles of transparency, obligation acceptance (compatible tariff
arrangements), and predictability.
The proponents of globalization argue that WTO membership is advantaged by:
-
Access to markets in other countries under the most beneficial conditions.
-
Signal to foreign investors regarding the stability and predictability factors and
minimal economic risks.
-
The development of trade economy and stimulus to modernization and reform
from economic legislation, all leading to the cementing of economic, cultural and
political bonds and the global village ideal.
However, for a country aspiring to join the organisation there is a list of prequalification
conditions that include:
-
Full support to the government in power to enable the negotiating team the
possibility of direct participation in the reform of regulations.
-
Implementing effective reforms on the foreign trade system plan, as well as wider
legislation aimed at a trade market and legal system comparable to the systems of
developed economies.
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-
Taking on board the entire public in the country – business and scientific circles,
consumers’ associations, members of parliament and the media, for a national
consensus.
-
Adequate financing and staff strengthening of state institutions for accession
negotiations and acceptance obligations
Detractors to globalization and the WTO rules and regulations in third world countries
contend that:
-
These conditions are hard to meet in the case of most developing countries
plagued by unrest stemming from poverty and the gross disparity in incomes.
-
The free movement of capital is synonymous to the principle of privatization of the
government sector and state-managed enterprises, causing dislocation,
unemployment, and the exploitation of labour.
-
The demand for the elimination of farm subsidies handicaps third world agrobased economies in the face of the $ 360 million agricultural subsides provided to
first world farmers annually.
-
And that the intellectual rights predisposition, taken together with the push for
enhanced utility rates, will constrain growth in both the agricultural and industrial
sectors leading to high debt accruement and unmanageable inflation.
The idea of a world government based on universally applied laws, albeit at this
juncture on the economic front alone, cannot be condemned outright, and with 148
countries already subscribing to the cause and another 25 countries aspiring for
membership, the MNC funded WTO movement is unlikely to be contained. However, there
is and always will be resistance to the use of force to attain political and/or economic
objectives, and so long as the “pre-emptive military strikes” option is used to accelerate
matters, rather than Confidence Building Measures (CBMs), there will neither be any
resolution to the ongoing conflicts in the Muslim World, nor will the WTO be taken as
anything other than a neurotic “hatchet service” for the imperialistic ambitions of the MNCs
and the military industrial complexes of the western world.
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THE OIC AND THE THIRD WORLD WAR
Capt. Niaz-ul-Haq
Old Ravian, Consultant in Institutional Reform and Strategic Communications
T
his paper is dedicated to the people of the Muslim world; the people, who
suffer at the hands of those who, in the name of “national security”, plan,
organize and conduct actions that cost the lives of millions of innocent
people. These people are slain in the way of meeting the demands of political thugs.
These thugs in turn, are victims of agencies and cults who place these leaders where
they are in the first place.
As we all know, we all seem to be involved in this so-called “war no terror” which
has brought nothing but misfortune upon innocent people across the world. The USA
maintains that her presence in Iraq is critical to “freedom around the world.” People like
Ken Livingston, Mayor of London, Mr. Robin Cook, British MP, and Mr. George
Galloway, another British MP, think somewhat differently and so do many hundreds of
millions world wide. Some countries of the European Union remain opposed to the war
but have not openly and officially condemned it.
In his testimony before The US Sub Committee on Foreign Relations, Mr.
George Galloway stated that 100,000 Iraqis and 1600 US soldiers had died so far apart
form the thousands of Afghan men, women and children. Of course, all this is known to
the world.
Time and again the Almighty Allah states that He does not love the aggressors
nor does He love those who spread corruption in the world. The “war for freedom” is
supported vehemently by engines of hate such as FOX NEWS, BBC, CNN and of
course, the mighty organs of the western press, for their own reasons.
It is enough for us to remember that the evil of the Second World War resulted in
the death of 45 million Christians and according to the Jews, 6 million Jews. In this
holocaust of 51 million people, evil took its toll.
As Almighty Allah says in the Holy Quran “I do not bring evil upon you, you bring
evil upon yourselves.” In this case, Adolph Hitler was a direct product of the evil
generated by America, Britain and Europe at the time.
Precisely, such is the case today. Evil, of the accumulated kind, fast envelops
the world in more or less the same areas as of yester year. These imbeciles who
believe they control the destiny of the world may actually be presiding, on a daily basis,
the future slaughter of their own people whom they think they are protecting in the
name of freedom.
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For example, who would have thought an assassination at Sarajevo would have
resulted in the First World War? Who would have thought that a man named Adolph
Hitler, clearly threatening the powers, the Jews and even attacking and annexing
countries for the entire world to see, would remain unstoppable, while America, Europe
and the Soviet Union looked on helplessly? Nothing could stop what was coming to
America, Europe, Britain and the Pacific.
I hope I have made the point. It is simply this that evil has now set in motion the
downward slide and the countdown to the Third World War has begun. How so?
Please look at the jockeying for energy sources in the Gulf and the Central Asian
States by China, Japan, and the USA. France and Germany can be cut off from these
sources of energy at any time. Russia has recently Okayed a huge pipeline project in
favour of Japan when China was desperate to have the same.
A very testy relationship exists between the USA and Europe; the same type of
relationship exists between Europe and Israel. Japan (favouring the USA) and China
have a problem between them and separately over Taiwan.
Huge populations in the United States and Europe came out on the streets
against the war in Iraq as Europe believes that the war in Iraq favours Israel, which it
considers a threat to itself. France gave VIP treatment to Yasser Arafat whereas Israel
spat on him. Toni Blair found it difficult to bow his head in respect at the grave of
Yasser Arafat. Much more can be written on this subject. Suffice it to know that the evil
that has set in is now on its own momentum throughout America, Britain and Europe.
Lies and the effect of lies have taken the world away from peace and harmony.
Is it possible that all that we see and read in the international media is nothing but lies?
We may not see these lies, but Almighty Allah does. The reasons for the First World
War were no different from the reasons for the Second World War and they are no
different from the reasons for the Third World War.
The OIC and the Arab League, to this day have not shown any memorable
action to further the cause of the Muslim Nation. What the OIC can do is to provide a
set of references and advisories to all Muslim states on how these Muslim States
should view developments rising on the horizon with respect to the Third World War.
The OIC should suggest, amongst other things:
a.
That all Muslim States should observe complete neutrality in the event of war.
Indeed if any of them have any special relationship WITH ANY OF THE WESTERN
INDUSTRIAL POWERS, THEY SHOULD BEGIN TO DISTANCE THEMSELVES
SOONER THAN LATER.
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This essentially means that no ship or aircraft or road transport should be
allowed to touch the soil of that Muslim country if the means of transport being used is
carrying military weapons or material of any kind.
b.
That oil will continue to flow as per normal routine.
c.
That only if approved by the OIC, Muslim states will provide only humanitarian
aid to civilian combatant nations.
d.
That bridges be established between Islam, the Vatican, Canterbury and
Judaism.
e.
That the OIC begin dialogue with the Coloured Nations of the world who have
been victims of the Protestant white over the centuries.
It is my belief that, in spite of us and not because of us, Almighty Allah will spare
us the ravages of the coming war as He did in the First and the Second World Wars.
Praying for the forgiveness of Almighty Allah is all very well but, as we appear to have
some time, “anticipated awareness” needs to take place to protect and save as many
Muslims and Christians and non-believers from the ravages of the coming war.
This war is likely to be a little different. As the game continues to be economics
and “the bottom line”, and as usual, with no holds barred, this time it is likely to be 150
million dead in America and Europe and we all know why.
OIC OBJECTIVES 2005-2030 – BEYOND THE THIRD WORLD WAR
Recently there has been much talk with regard to the role of the OIC. Before
anything else, I believe it is very important to provide some direction to the Muslim
World through the OIC. In order to do so, we may need to identify the areas in which
the Muslim World would like to show some interest, keeping the growing unrest world
wide in mind.
Some of the areas in which we may like to show interest are as follows:
A)
International political developments by country, by region, by beliefs and forms of
government.
B)
Health
C)
A common Defence mechanism / command – this is the growing necessity
particularly between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
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D)
International Law and its implications on the Muslim World vis a vis the world
powers.
E)
Muslim think tank on growing national and international trends with a think tank
devoted solely focusing on the growing possibility of a Third World War.
F)
Energy in all its forms.
G)
Common market and currency.
H)
Protecting and strengthening our values.
I)
Media development.
J)
Bridge building with Judaism and Christianity – extremely important.
K)
Information and statistics.
L)
Sports.
The overall objectives of the OIC in the coming 25 years should be as follows:
1. Developing the headquarter manpower and other Organizational requirements of
the Secretariat to fit needs.
2. To identify the objectives of each of the areas given above.
3. To ensure that the Islamic position is known and felt in all international forums
and to ensure that the OIC is there.
4. To make rigorous efforts to link up with Judaism and Christianity to ensure
harmonious transition, from a troubled world to peace and harmony for mankind in
the future. This is a major area for future development.
5. To develop and maintain a uniquely Muslim communication strategy to enlighten
the world on Muslim concepts and expectations.
6. To keep sharp focus on developments in the world for the purposes of defence
and long-term strategic interests of the Muslim states particularly in view of the fast
deteriorating situation in Europe and America and the possibility of the Third World
War.
7. To settle trade disputes between Muslim states and have unified action when
dealing with WTO.
8. To empower women and protect their rights as enshrined in the Holy Quran.
9. To ensure the preservation of Muslim values in all the Muslim states in order to
prevent the possibility of men marrying men and women marrying women as found in the
“civilized” West.
These suggestions come at a time when the world is in the grip of evil. This
includes the USA, Europe, Britain and parts of the Muslim world. With the great
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uncertainty that exists now in the European Union after the French and Dutch “no's”, it
appears that a single major catastrophe of the “Archduke Ferdinand” type could trigger
another World War. The Muslim World should be prepared for all such eventualities
and there is no better way than utilizing The Organization of Islamic Conference to
further protect the Muslim Nation in the months and years ahead. A forward looking
Organization, anticipating events, would be far more helpful than an organization that
practices “OH! I SEE”, as its inspirational philosophy.
The essence of all that has been written is the basic need and flavour for the
“Muslim Touch” in world affairs. The “Muslim Touch” will be felt by the world if there is
unity amongst the Muslims of the world. The OIC can achieve that.
Trying to imagine the turmoil in these nations is futile. Trying to save ourselves is
a more fruitful exercise and Pakistan and the Muslim world will need to lead the way in
helping to protect mankind from itself.
What the OIC needs to do is to anticipate and be future oriented. When German
Chancellor Willy Brandt and Mr. Brezhnev addressed a Press Conference in Bonn
many years ago, the waiting journalists asked them “What were you discussing in your
meeting?” Mr. Brezhnev replied, “We were making arrangements for the next 50 years”.
The essential ingredient of Muslim leadership is knowledge and faith that rejects
the lust for power. It is this quality of leadership that has been missing from Pakistan. In
the process we have rejected our legacy as being outdated. It is this proud legacy that
the OIC will have to re-establish all over the Muslim world. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia
will together have to be the leading lights in future actions of the OIC. Atom bombs in
no way make us powerful – FAITH, UNITY AND DISCIPLINE for the entire Muslim
world, do.
As Almighty Allah is with us (provided we recognize Him), the OIC has a huge
advantage. The Governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are directly responsible to get
the OIC ready for the next 50 years; beyond the Third World War.
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THE POWER PARADOX
M.A. Niazi
Former Joint Editor The Ravi, Analyst, Executive Editor The Nation
onsidering the relative power ratio between the West and the Muslim world,
it would seem that it is former which is making the running, which will
determine the course of world history, which will decide the fate of the
Muslims, much as it arbitrates the destiny of the rest of the world. Yet the paradox is that
the only people with a genuine choice, with the ability to give a new turn to the future of
mankind, are the same powerless, impoverished, battered, besieged and fragmented
Muslims.
After the collapse of communism, within the USA, which leads the West, there were
two views of the shape of things to come, expressed by Francis Fukuyama and Samuel
Huntington. Fukuyama postulated The End of History that capitalism had won, that
humanity had chosen the path to prosperity and plenty. Huntington, on the other hand, saw
The Clash of Civilisations looming, foreseeing challenges to capitalism from Islam and
Confucianism. Both assumed that capitalism was beneficial for mankind, and that
opposing it was therefore harmful.
Huntington was proved dramatically right by 9/11. Or was he? Is the War on Terror
what it says it is, or is it something else? Until the US invasion of Iraq, it was possible to
argue the former; afterwards, the latter has become glaringly clear. The War on Terror is
about maintaining a system of control, of ending all resistance to the post-Cold War World
Order.
Actually, a very valid question is: why bother to resist? If you follow the Western
prescriptions, you do not necessarily obtain great prosperity for your people, but a large
elite can be co-opted, directly or indirectly, into the system. It little matters that the system
is exploitative, especially if you can make your way into the ranks of the exploited. There is
one view of the world, that there have always been exploiters and exploited, and always
will be, so why not be on the side which is more comfortable?
That might be inarguable if it was the only view of the world available. However,
there is a persisting trend in human history, of men who stood up and said that there
should be no exploitation, that there must be justice between man and man, and indeed
between man and animal, between man and the world he inhabits. Some of those who
made this proposition also made an extraordinary claim: they claimed to have been given
this insight by the Being who created the Universe, and that this Being had given them the
task of conveying this alternative worldview to their peers. One such claimant went further.
C
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He claimed that his message was not to his contemporaries alone, but to all mankind. He
was Muhammad ibn Abdullah, a Quraishite trader of Makkah.
Whatever the truth of his claim, human history changed. Even today, about 1.3
billion people (including this writer) accept his claim. It is possible to argue that his
alternative worldview was backed by one of the most sophisticated set of systems, which
answered many of the difficulties that had been faced by practitioners of other previous
religions. Most marked was the fact that, especially after he became the head of a small
state in Yathrib, his systems approached collective life with as much focus as personal.
Islam was therefore a complete way of life, and left no realm of human activity untouched.
Unlike Christianity, where the main issue was how to govern church-state relations,
Islam developed a theoretical model of the state itself, as well as a considerable body of
state practice. This still casts its shadow over the Muslims of the world, who therefore see
good reason to challenge the presently dominant state model, that of the sovereign nationstate. The modern state comprises both geography and people. Islam recognises only
people. The Islamic accommodation of the modern nation-state has only been made
possible by ignoring its own model, which has created a series of theological debates, and
has led to inherent contradictions while attempting to apply Islamic precepts to modern
situations.
That perhaps explains why Muslims were very active in the East-West, North-South
and Right-Left debates that occupied the second half of the 20 th century, but Islam was
more or less absent. The clash of Adam Smith with Karl Marx, expressed in myriad
variations on both sides, left space for a third alternative, but few Muslims were interested
in exploring their religion’s capacity to provide an alternative. They preferred to take sides
in the debate, leaving Islam to provide piecemeal arguments in favour of their chosen
position. Marx lost, and the world was left to face the rapacity of Smith’s minions.
The New World Order is one in which the only significant freedom is that of the
modern corporation to exploit the resources of the world, including human resources, to
create profits. Profits for whom? Not entirely clear. Studies of the modern corporation are
veering disturbingly to the conclusion that its ultimate goal is not clear, and these fictional
entities may well be existing primarily for their own interest, not to serve human beings.
Capitalism is different from other ways of life in that it appeals to men’s base instincts,
primarily to the profit motive. What’s in it for me? All other major belief systems, whether
the three Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, Buddhism, or even Confucianism and the Tao, even
Marxism, are based on an appeal to the higher aspirations of men. Capitalism stands
alone as appealing to their meanness.
Capitalism’s main opponents, Christianity and Marxism, were defeated respectively
in the 19th and 20th centuries. Christianity has been fully integrated into the capitalist
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system as one of its pillars. To survive, it has become malleable, ever adaptable to the
latest fad. Marxism took a double body blow when the USSR disintegrated, and when the
Communist Party of China defected to capitalism.
This would explain much of the turbulence in the Muslim world. Improperly equipped
with the ideological tools of their faith, Muslims inchoately realise that the world order they
are being asked to join is not in accordance with their worldview. Either they must change
their worldview, or they must fight, not just militarily, but with ideas and systems. However,
since they also sit on a lot of the world’s energy, the lifeblood of capitalism, they also face
much stronger and better organised opponents, who have exploited their military and
economic predominance of the last four centuries to impose their own systems on them.
This imposition has been in a distorted form, designed to maintain capitalist control.
Muslims therefore find that not only are they themselves confused about how to play their
role in the world, but their governance systems are not in accordance with their
aspirations.
One option is acquiescence. If you can’t beat them, join them. That is a perfectly
valid option. Capitalism is different from nationalism in that it can afford to give up racialist,
nationalist and cultural prejudice. Joining the club will bring benefits for individuals, which
is the whole point of the exercise. The number of individuals will increase, because
capitalism recognises that economic prosperity is no longer the zero-sum game the
mercantilists thought it to be.
However, there are two objections to doing so. First, too many Muslims believe that
their faith is the truth, that Muhammad ibn-e- Abdullah (peace be upon him) was indeed
who he claimed to be, the last Messenger of Allah, and his message is not merely
important in how we order our affairs in this world, but there is another world, much more
important, than this. ‘Another world’ is perhaps the wrong term, ‘unseen extension of this
world’ is perhaps more accurate. This provides a key difference between capitalism and
Islam. For the former, the logic of relative strength must be obeyed. For the latter, the logic
of relative strength in this perceived world is incomplete, for it does not factor in the
strength of Allah, His ability to reward and punish. It is this more extended worldview that
creates the clash of civilisations, and unless Muslims can learn to abandon it, they are on a
collision course.
Reluctantly, therefore, fragmented, full of uncertainty, confused and almost
paralysed, therefore, Muslims are standing up on their own, without the crutches of
nationalism or Marxism, to face a new world with their Book and their Prophet.
However, as matters stand, they will be crushed. That they are oppressed as
peoples and suppressed by their rulers, is not the result of any deep dark conspiracies
against them, but because of their own failings. If they are to resist capitalism, and
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ultimately overcome it, they need to strip themselves of certain illusions, and accept the
logic of their faith. Within those illusions lie the solutions of many of their problems,
perhaps all.
First, most importantly; a decision on where to go. Muslims should not ask merely
for respect, or their due place in the world, nor hark back to past glories. If their belief is
correct, the present system is unjust, and they are duty-bound to combat injustice.
Therefore, the task is immediate and external, not internal. The Muslims must realise that
they have on them the burden not just of themselves, but all exploited peoples of the Third
World, as well as all exploited classes of the First World. If they cannot provide a better
alternative, which promotes individual as well as collective peace, then they should not
bother trying to be another, larger, bully in the playground.
Second, which follows from the first, they must accept the logic of their common
dilemma, the dictates of their common faith, and the pressures exerted by their common
opponent. These lead towards a single conclusion: political unity has become a pressing
need, perhaps the only means of survival, rather than a laudable goal. Once it is by and
large accepted that a single state is the initial political goal of the Muslims, it can then be
debated what should be its shape, its structure and how it is to be brought into existence.
(This is an alien concept, so it is worth pointing out what its contours would be.
Taking the OIC membership as a basis, it would be the world’s largest and most populous
state, twice the size of Russia, and slightly more populous than China, spread across large
parts of Africa and Asia, with a toehold in Europe. While it would be linguistically diverse, it
would have fewer languages than India. Most significantly perhaps, it would include over
75 percent of the world’s crude oil reserves, 60 percent of its natural gas reserves, and
about 40 percent of its uranium.)
However, as a preliminary concept, it should be clear that such a political entity
would only be viable if it included certain conditions. First, that it be participatory, in that
people felt empowered in choosing their rulers and in managing their affairs. This thing is
too big to hold together by coercion. Second, it would have to be tolerant, perhaps even
celebratory, of diversity, both ethno-linguistic and sectarian. Any attempt to impose any
uniformity beyond a bare minimum would create tensions impossible to control. A corollary
is that no single people or sect would have a lead role. As a matter of fact, by the way, no
single sect or people has an absolute majority in the Muslim world.
Third, the underpinnings of the state would have to be derived from Islamic
concepts, rather than any other ideological, administrative or historical framework.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to find an agreed basis for unification.
Fourth, Muslims have to rediscover that their faith does not provide for a kinder,
gentler capitalism, combined with certain rituals and an attitude towards life. They should
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realise that Islam provides holistic and integrated political, social, judicial and economic
structures, which are subject to constant adaption to circumstances, but not to change.
Indeed, these structures are Islam’s true gift to non-Muslim mankind, for they offer a way
out of the barren desert that capitalism will turn the world into.
Fifth, Muslims have to cleanse themselves of the intellectual subordination which
has led them into carrying on a discourse about Islam in Western terms. To take a few
examples: Religious-secular is not an Islamic debate. Without going into detail, suffice it to
say that the Muslim state is theoretically, and historically always was, both intensely
secular and intensely religious. Then, whereas sovereignty in the Western model is
monolithic, Islam distinguishes between sovereignty, which appertains to Allah alone, and
which is manifested on earth in the Sharia, and authority, which is the people’s. Also, while
the capitalist model provides rights which people can claim or forego, Islam creates duties
which people must fulfil. Whereas someone might assist another to commit suicide,
because the latter has given up his right to life, for a Muslim, who is duty-bound to protect
life, it is impossible.
Finally, the most important issue. It is so important that if Muslims cannot carry it
out, they would do better to abandon the enterprise and make their peace with the West.
They must reclaim for themselves control of Islam and its internal discourse from the
quasi-clergy, which has no sanction in Islam. Uniquely among world religions, every
Muslim is his own priest. There is no authority who can prohibit him from performing any of
its rites or rituals, or whose permission needs be sought. There is no sacrament. There is
only knowledge, more or less. Unfortunately, most Muslims lack sufficient knowledge to
challenge the statements of the quasi-clergy, who might be self-serving or ill-informed. For
this task, which is essential to the survival and progress of the Muslims, considerable effort
is required. It implies seeking out and absorbing a sizeable body of knowledge without
institutionalised support, and without being able to devote oneself to this task full time.
However, it is an essential component of any Muslim renaissance.
At this point in human history, Islam has much to offer the world, primarily a vision of
a society and a polity in which exploitation and injustice is actively opposed, not built in.
However, between the vision and the reality there is a gap so wide as to be a chasm. Yet
hopefully, it will not become an abyss.
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WHY DO STATES DESIRE NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
Kamran Shahid
Lecturer, Department of History
n a short span of fifty years the world has witnessed the gradual but
transatlantic spread of nuclear weapons. The great tendency towards nuclear
proliferation has spread from the continent of America to Europe and from
Middle East, South Asia to the South East Asia. Why do states desire nuclear weapons?
There can be more than one reason that urges states to develop nuclear power. One of
the factors is that states (like USA and USSR) want to attain world power status or to enjoy
regional superiority (like China). However the Neo Realists School lead by K. Waltz firmly
believes that national security plays the most dominant role in persuading a state to
become a nuclear power. States like Pakistan become more desperate to attain nuclear
power when they have to encounter a four times stronger enemy like India. For Waltz, if
America does not provide a security umbrella to the (conventionally) weak states like
Pakistan, the US has no right to criticize defensive nuclear programmes. Weaker states in
order to redress their conventional weakness against a grand enemy are fully justified in
keeping nuclear weapons.1
But the argument sparks a new debate; what would be the world like with a large
number of nuclear states? Is there any logical ground to justify the nuclear proliferation or
the spread of nuclear weapons? Can the spread of nuclear weapons guarantee a secure,
peaceful and stable world?
In addressing these questions I have come by two schools of political scientists. The
first is termed as “proliferation optimists”2, or the advocates of nuclear proliferation.
Whereas the second school contains theorists like Scott S Sagan, who reject the
proliferation on the basis of the “Theory of Organization”3.
The first school establishes the argument that the spread of nuclear weapons could
be justified on the basis of states security and survival in an anarchic interstates system.
For this school the spread of nuclear arsenals would make the states more rational,
responsible and certainly diminish the chances of war. They support their thesis with the
logic and effectiveness of the “deterrence theory.” The “deterrence theory” successfully
prevented nuclear war in the five decades of the Cold War. Political theorists ranging from
I
K. Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons, New York, Norton Publishers, 1995.
Ibid
3 Scott Sagan, The Perils of Proliferation: Organization Theory and The Spread of Nuclear Weapons,
International Organization vol. 18, no.4, 1994, pp. 66-107.
1
2
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Bruce B Mesqinta, William Riker, John Mear Sheemer, and Peter Havoy to K.Waltz
represent this school of nuclear optimists1. Bruce Mesqinta supports “selective” nuclear
proliferation in those regions of world where small or weak non-nuclear states encounter
nuclear-armed enemies. He believes that the possibility of war decrease to zero when all
nations possess nuclear weapons2. And last but not the least Peter Lavoy conceives a
stable and peaceful South East Asia with Pakistan and India as nuclear powers. Out of all
the above-mentioned proliferation optimists, K. Waltz emerges as the strongest propagator
of the spread of nuclear arsenals, describes them as a strong guarantee to external,
regional and global stability3.
Counter Argument
The support for the spread of nuclear weapons has also been bitterly criticized. First
of all, nuclear weapons are a key source of power; they retain the potential to transform
leaders (who control them) into dictators. The situation becomes worse in poor or politically
unstable states. Unstable regimes and lack of effective leadership could lead to a nuclear
civil war. This domestic disorder in one state would generate fear in the neighbour states.
It would initiate a nuclear armament race; which could escalate to a nuclear war4.
For Waltz, this argument is baseless because, first of all, an under- developed state
could only become a nuclear power in the climate of political stability and financial
prosperity. The priority of their leaders is to modify economical and political structures. It
takes them too long to concentrate, administrate and raise funds for the development of
nuclear programme. Secondly, most of the under-developed states are being ruled,
directly or indirectly by their militaries. The military is least interested in nuclear weapons.
The military derives its strength from the control and command of the traditional warfare.
Unlike scientists they prefer to lead troops in the battlefields. Thirdly, even if a politically
unstable state goes nuclear, it is absurd to think different groups would fight for the
possession of these weapons. What are they going to do with the arsenal? For Waltz it is
foolish to think that in a civil war nuclear missiles would be used against civilians and
nationals of a same country5.
Waltz, op. cit.
Mesquita and Riker, An Assessment of the Merits of Selective Nuclear Proliferation, Journal of Conflict
Resolution, vol. 26, no. 2, June 1982, p.283
3 Waltz, Ch. 48, op. cit.
4 Waltz, Ch. 1, op. cit.
5 Ibid
1
2
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Scott Sagan and the “Organizational Theory”
Scott Sagan rejects the logic of “nuclear deterrence” on the basis of his
“Organizational Theory”1. He shows deep concern over the spread and reckless use of
nuclear power particularly by rising nuclear states. He argues that the spread of nuclear
weapons is a devastating threat to global peace, because “many current and emerging
(nuclear states) have either military-run governments or weak civilian governments.” The
military leadership shapes their national policies. And due to the military's “organizational”
strength the country's policies do not aim at achieving national or “objective interests” but
rather aim at “parochial interests” of the military's bureaucracy. The military-led nuclear
states would never preserve peace because “the military organization or professionals
have narrow military objectives and “common biases.” They are unable to control nuclear
weapons in a rational and responsible manner. The military’s “biases” always favour
“preventive war” rather than political or diplomatic solutions. The military is short-sighted in
waging wars and obtaining results. They never realize the economical and political costs of
war.2 During the Korean War (1950), for example, the military officials of Truman and
Eisenhower, under the logic of “better now than later” tried their best to persuade their
governments to start “a nuclear preventive war”. In both cases the civilian government of
the US crushed the military’s hopes3.
Secondly, Sagan rejects the view made of the “nuclear optimists” that nuclear
deterrence is an effective source of security, which discourages arms races and
extravagant military expenditures4. Sagan supports his point by citing the example of the
Cold War.
Lastly, Sagan believes that the spread of nuclear weapons among underdeveloped
countries imposes a great threat pertaining to the “accidental” use of nuclear weapons.
This “accident prone” feature of nuclear programmes in underdeveloped states would bring
the world closer to serious nuclear accidents.
On the basis of these organizational defects Sagan strongly advocates nonproliferation of nuclear weapons in order to save the world from massive catastrophes.
Sagan, op. cit.
Ibid
3 Truman’s Report to the Nation on the Korean War, The New York Times, September 2, 1950, p. 8
4 Sagan, op. cit.
1
2
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Nuclear Optimist's Response
The optimist school vehemently rejects the “organizational theory”. First of all,
nuclear weapons are a relatively cheap but effective way of establishing a second strike
force. These forces deter aggressors and prevent wars. The example of Britain during the
Cold War serves the purpose. England made it known to the Soviets that she had Hbombs (when she had none), which served as an effective deterrent against Moscow 1. The
Cuban crises was quickly resolved by both the super powers as they knew that the “stakes
were high”2.
Secondly, Waltz believes that nuclear weapons would not be used recklessly or
irresponsibly by the military organization. The significant reason is that the military believes
in the “policy of caution.” They only use force when other options are closed.
Lastly, optimists reject that new nuclear states are incapable of developing safety
measures for their nuclear programmes. It is relatively easier for small states to look after
their limited stocks of nuclear warheads. And even if small states fail to prevent nuclear
accidents the consequences would be limited to a small scale. Greater dangers rise from
big powers. Small states don't have the “stuff to affect the global peace”3.
Conclusion
Scott Sagan and other opponents of nuclear proliferation are right in expressing
their deep concerns over the spread of nuclear weapons. The very existence of nuclear
war heads jeopardizes peace and stability. No one can predict whether nuclear states
would or would not responsible while using the nuclear option. Moreover the risk of nuclear
accidents also remains valid as long as states possess nuclear stock piles.
But from the realist standpoint Sagan’s organizational theory appears to be a flawed
doctrine. It is a short-sighted theory of foreign affairs which would hardly find a place in the
statecraft of any sensible government. Would Scott Sagan or any other powerful state
come to safeguard the borders of conventionally weak states like Pakistan against mighty
aggressive states like India? In the world of politics there are no friends, no relatives, but
only competitors, rivals and enemies. The world is an anarchic system of states where
(due to lack of a central authority) every state depends on its own power (military) or
capacity to safeguard the vital interests of her people. And as maximum security can never
Waltz, op. cit.
Ibid
3 Ibid
1
2
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be achieved without the complete destruction of the enemy therefore, states engage in
struggles for power that often lead to the power politics of war.
Nuclear weapons have changed the phenomenon of security and defence once for
all. They have emerged as a cheaper but relatively effective source of preserving territorial
boundaries of nation states. The logic of nuclear deterrence is praiseworthy in the sense
that it brings the (conventionally weak) states like Pakistan in a strategic position to
maintain balance of power in Southeast Asia. Nuclear arsenals guarantee peace and
security to every nuclear country.
States desire to have nuclear weapons not to annihilate mankind or to inflict injuries
on the masses of the enemy state. Nuclear proliferation indicates a bright and stable future
like the one the world has already been witnessing since 1945.
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KNOWLEDGE, INFORMATION AND THE PUBLIC
Abdul Waheed
Chief Librarian, GCU
odem information technologies bring great benefits and yet pose great
problems. The benefits and problems are not new, nor is the fact that
new technology should prove a mixed blessing. If we look back we find
instances in the past in which our ancestors viewed new developments with a mixture of
pleasure and dismay. What is significantly different today is that modem information
technologies have been and will continue to be so powerful that their benefits and
problems are unprecedented and involve us all on a global scale. Perhaps these are at
once the best of times and the worst of times.
One outstanding benefit of information technology is the strengthening of a great
variety of communities of interest. Information technology allows formation of many new,
smaller communities of interest, and it also allows existing, larger communities of interest
to attain a trans-national character. The high motivation of common interest, combined with
ease of communication, allows such communities of interest to be extremely flexible and
productive; thus, they may contribute more to scientific, technological, and artistic progress
in a greater number of areas than formal or governmental organization do.
New electronic databases provide selective access to the specific information that
people need. Information technologies increasingly support service industries and
contribute to the improvement of the quality of service. These technologies create
enormous job opportunities in the area of software development and production.
Information technologies make life more convenient and efficient by permitting people to
work away from their offices and plants, by promoting security, and by providing everyday
conveniences.
Problems, which have been and will be created by information technologies, are
many. Significant differences already exist in the amount of information available in
different regions, and these differences will probably increase. In information rich regions,
the information supply is much larger than can possibly be consumed, yet in these regions
people have difficulty in obtaining precisely the information that they need. Some
governments in information-poor areas may be wary of new information and reluctant to
promote certain types of communities of interest, despite the fact that remote access to
information-rich regions can be made by means of low-cost terminals.
People are confused by the enormous flood of informative data. They are concerned
about the validity and interpretation of data and have difficulty in obtaining understandable,
M
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informative summaries. Data bases are a powerful tool for solving this problem; yet, for
data base services to be available to everyone, tremendous efforts must be expended in
collecting, entering, colleting, updating, and coding (for retrieval) very large amounts of
data.
In some developed countries, a majority of the labour force already works in service
industries. Yet, performance evaluation in these industries has been difficult. In particular,
the quality of service provided by information technologies is not easily evaluated. In the
information industry itself, which is a labour-intensive service industry because of the cost
of software, no appropriate way of evaluating a software product is yet known.
While information technologies provide significant job opportunities in software
production, these same technologies may result in considerable displacement of labour
through automation both in manufacturing and in commerce. Transition of the labour force
from old jobs to new jobs is not generally easy and it is made less easy if trade unions are
rigidly organized by craft and if insufficient retaining facilities are provided.
We are in a transitional stage. For people who wish to use information technology to
shop, to learn, or to entertain themselves, neither sophisticated software nor a sufficient
amount of information is yet available. So, we must explore the benefits and problems of
this technology with the intention of finding ways to promote benefits and alleviate
problems. This article makes such an exploration.
In some parts of the world, a great deal of information is gathered and made
available in various forms every day. In other parts of the world, very little information is
generated or made available. It is clear that in the present world, an information explosion
and an information dearth coexist. Information technology has promoted the dissemination
of information yet, because of economic, political, religious, ideological, educational, and
other reasons, there are large differences among regions in the amount of information
available.
If we look at the situation in terms of electronic information facilities, North America,
Europe and Japan have a combined population that is less than 30 per cent of the world's
91 per cent telephone-using population yet, these regions have 83 per cent of the radio
receivers, and 89 percent of the television receivers of the world. As to other media, these
areas also generate a large proportion of information: newspaper circulation 78 per cent;
book titles published 83 per cent and cinemas 88 per cent. More than 80 per cent of the
databases that are accessible to the public are in developed countries like USA, UK etc.
Undoubtedly, these figures suggest how geographically uneven information
resources and distribution channels are with less than 30 per cent of the world's population
exposed to a glut of information while the rest of the population remains information
hungry. As we look at the statistics in terms of media, we find that annual growth rates
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differ significantly with respect to media: telephone 6 per cent; television receivers 8 per
cent; radio receivers 6 percent; book titles 2 per cent with newspaper circulation and
cinemas remaining essentially constant. These statistics tell us that a significant shift of
use from non-electronic to electronic media is in progress; in other words, information
services are becoming more dependent on technology and capital. This may accentuate
the imbalances between information rich and information poor regions.
The HEC Digital Library programme was initially introduced as a collaborative
project of the UK based International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications
(INASP), in connection with the implementation of their Programme for the Enhancement
of Research Information (PERI). Implementation of the PERI programme in Pakistan
allowed the HEC to provide a vast quantity of scholarly publications to both public and
private sector varsities. Inclusion in the programme enables the participating institution to
access over 23,000 scholarly publications. A complete listing of the Publishers involved in
the programme may be found at the Digital Library Website, accessible through
httv://www.gcu.edu.pk/librarv/S_FullJour.htm
The convergence of data processing techniques and telecommunications has
provided enormous opportunities for processing, storing and disseminating information. IT
has changed the way we have been communicating and has enabled us to access
required information globally. The GC University Library is striving hard to respond to
technology challenges. The Library is maintaining an 800-page website on
www.gcu.edu.pk/library. The site provides important information about the library which is
beneficial not only to the GCU community but also to the world outside.
The HEC has also explored the provision of free online books. All public and select
private sector institutions in Pakistan have been provided initial training in this regard. In
order to assess the performance of educational institutions participating in the programme,
usage statistics in term of the number of articles downloaded have been collected for the
year 2005. There has been a significant and definitive increase in the total number of fulltext articles downloaded over the previous year. Overall usage has been exemplary,
whereby a total of 666,986 full-text downloads from public sector universities have been
recorded, with about 350,000 downloads from the participating private universities and
local research institutions. The usage statistics compiled for the year 2005 signify that the
cost, per article for our Digital Library calculates to less than $2.3 per article, which is
borne by the HEC.
In information-rich regions, many television and radio programmes are scarcely
watched or heard, and a large fraction of newspapers, journals, commercial catalogues,
and books are thrown away. People intuitively feel that a much larger amount of
information is supplied than can possibly be consumed or digested; yet no one knows how
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much information is supplied or consumed through various media and which of the media
significantly contribute to the information explosion. There have been some statistics about
individual media ratings. These have been provided chiefly to advertisers to help them in
choosing among media. In addition, international organizations, national libraries,
publishers, associations, post offices, and common carriers have published statistics on
books, mail and telecommunication. These data tell us something about the scale of
individual media but do not provide an overall view of the information flow in a society.
Information consumers do not have means for selecting the information they need
and for acquiring accurate information they can trust. One may find that nothing useful was
gained through buying and reading a best-selling book or that the facts and figures in one
book directly contradict those in another. Audiences are often frustrated at finding no
television programs of interest.
Greed, self-interest and callousness account for some failures of communication but
there are other factors contributing to such failures. The world in which we live has become
increasingly opaque and overwhelmingly complex. We cannot possibly understand it in the
sense that we might understand a small, closely knit community. We must perceive the
world outside as it is represented to us. Is this the real world or is it a myth that stands in
the place of something we cannot possibly understand or do not wish to understand?
These questions dealing with the quality of information are difficult to address and far more
difficult to answer.
Human communication takes place within a community of interest. People think and
act within that community, and they communicate in moving others toward or away from
what they regard as appropriate thoughts and actions. Only certain information is relevant
communication within a given community of interest because only certain information is
appropriate, makes sense, and will be understood.
Our world has outgrown the reach of the comprehension of a single mind. It is
divided into countless communities of interest. These communities are intellectual rather
than geographical. A physicist, a banker or chess player may have more in common with a
colleague in a foreign land then with a next-door neighbour. The multiple communities of
interest grow from natural interests. Shared interests are diverse and varied. Each
individual belongs to many communities of interest and these multiple memberships
provide natural and valuable paths of interchange. A mathematician may be interested in
the stock market and in riding a monocycle. An engineer may be interested in poetry and
archaeology. A farmer may be interested in science fiction and politics. A person who is a
member of many communities of interest becomes a valuable link in the society.
Information technology plays a complex role in our complex way of life. In serving
us, various information services interact in many ways with the people they serve. Some
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forms of information services support almost all communities of interest, ranging from the
individual and the family to large business and cultural organizations. The postal and
telecommunication service are among these. In many countries toll telephone calls are
increasing faster than local telephone calls and overseas telephone calls are increasing
even faster than toll telephone calls. What we are witnessing is a society in which both
human relations and business transactions are proceeding on shorter and shorter time
scales. Life has become less leisurely, less planned and more immediate. The increase in
toll and overseas telephone calls also tells us that communities of interest are becoming
more far-flung.
Some modes of information service support only specific communities of interest.
Books are among these. Nothing matches the diversity of books. With rare exceptions,
each book reaches only a small fraction of the total population. Yet, a successful book may
reach a large fraction of those deeply interested in a particular area, be it yoga, tennis,
hieroglyphics, or general relativity. A book can also serve a narrow community of interest,
for example, the worldwide community of specialists in some field of science. This has
been particularly true since text editing and computer-aided composition have become
available; these can provide excellent print without the tiresome procedures of manual
publishing.
It is generally accepted that periodical publications must have a substantial
readership in order to survive. Periodical publications also serve smaller communities of
interest. A large number of highly specialized periodical publications are appearing,
particularly in business and technology. The subscription price for some is extremely high;
this seems to show that they serve particular communities of interest better than general
financial or technical journals. A large number of club and society bulletins that were typed
on mimeograph, are now produced with the help of word processors and offset printing.
Facsimile and tele-text help smaller communities of interest. A tele-text message or a
digitized facsimile message can be temporarily stored and then forwarded on a user's
request. This function, known as mailbox service, together with quick production of hard
copies at the receiving end, provides significant convenience to highly specialized
communities of interest, especially in business and technology.
Many of the most useful databases operate in conjunction with mails. A key word
search can be made from an online terminal and titles and abstracts can be examined.
Articles of interest can be ordered through the terminal and can be delivered through mail.
Databases serve a large number of communities of interest and are maintained by a host
of governmental, institutional, non-profit, and commercial organizations. They provide a
great variety of journals, books, and reports; indices covering both domestic and
international company, product, and industry formation; dissertation indices; lists of
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foundation grants, specific, detailed information pertaining to law, medicine, and other
fields and all sorts of numeric statistical data and physical and chemical handbook-type
data.
Perhaps the most drastic change in serving specialized communities of interest is
the use of databases. Chemical Abstracts, Dialog, EBSCO, LEXIS, Springer and other
bibliographic databases are providing bibliographic retrieval services to professionals.
These databases selectively disseminate current information in a user specialized field.
They also provide retrospective search, over a period of a decade or more, on the user’s
request. The information provided is secondary information, namely, the title and abstract
of an article, the author's name and affiliations, and the journal name and issue. In some
cases, the information also indicates where copies of the article can be found. Some
services also supply a copy on request. Many databases are accessible free of cost on the
Internet, e.g. http://www.gcu.edu.pk/library/E_trails.htm
Powerful communities of interest that are known as NGOs, play a significant role
in consulting, advising, and sometimes criticizing government organizations. In the area of
library and information management for instance, the International Federation for
Documentation (FID), the International Federation of Library Association and Institutions
(IFLA) and many others are known for their outstanding contributions.
As the society becomes larger and more complex, the problem of communicating
within communities of interest becomes more difficult. At times, some governments may
wish to make society simpler and more uniform through centralization and drastic
restrictive legislation concerning whatever may be deemed to be antisocial, unfair, or
simply unpopular or different. Other governments may wish for communication to take
place meaningfully and effectively by pushing power towards communities of interest,
whether intellectual, technological or cultural.
People want to obtain proper and accurate information in the right amount; not too
much, not too little. They may wish either to obtain comprehensive, informative summaries
or to acquire selectively detailed information, some of which might be original data.
Increasing use is being made of databases to meet such demands. Some databases,
notably bibliographic retrieval services, selectively provide information summaries such as
titles and abstracts of current scientific papers as well as of back numbers. Some other
databases provide businessmen, scientists and engineers with various indicators and
original data in numerical form. Still other databases, typically tele-text (PTV, for example)
provide ordinary people with information to serve day-to-day needs. Data for these
services must be collected, collated, compiled, and processed in a timely way and with
care to assure its authenticity and validity.
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The usefulness of data base services depends not only on the quality but on the
quantity of information that can be provided to users at a reasonable cost. In particular,
videotext services which are aimed at non-specialists, require the participation of a wide
range of information providers, including news agencies, publishers, libraries, advertisers,
and travel agencies.
During the last quarter of a century, the time and effort required for such
housekeeping chores as cooking, cleaning, washing, heating, and book-keeping have
been greatly reduced by the use of such appliances as refrigerators, cooking ranges,
vacuum cleaners, washing machines, air conditioners and electronic calculators.
In view of the rising cost of energy and increasing concern for security, information
technology has an important role to play at home. In fact, micro computerized security
systems are rapidly appearing on the market and private guard firms are now providing online security services. Centralized and adaptive surveillance and control of lighting, air
conditioning, and other utilities may contribute considerably to energy saving. If an
adaptive-pricing mechanism is introduced for peak and off peak hours of utility
consumption, computerized control of utilities will bring significant benefits to both
suppliers and consumers.
As a result of the extensive use of some appliances and reduced work hours,
people at home now have more time for learning, health care, and entertainment. In future,
computerized learning systems will be used by students and citizens of all ages to refresh
and extend their knowledge. Hardware for home learning may either be stand-alone
systems or on-line terminals. In the case of stand-alone systems, videotapes that contain
teaching programmes, dictionaries, and other teaching materials can be purchased or
leased from distributors. In the case of on-line terminals, sophisticated interactive learning
programmes will be implemented in central computes that permit simultaneous access
from a number of terminals.
To meet the needs of terminals with high resolution and powerful local capabilities,
central systems will have to be able to switch between large numbers of broad-band
cables. They will have to take, store, retrieve, and update very large amounts of
information in various forms. In addition to this, software development will be a crucial
factor for learning, health care, and entertainment at home.
After examining issues related to IT, it becomes obvious that governments should
not interfere with the growth of communities of interest across national boundaries. The
strengthening of communities of interest not only helps citizens of all countries but, more
importantly, works toward greater world stability by allowing people to identify and solve
common problems across national boundaries. Thus, strengthening and linking these
communities of interest will help in the gradual and constructive reorganization of world
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communities based on cooperation and mutual help. These positive and integrative forces
aid in achieving world stability based on a deeper level than diplomatic bargaining or
balancing of military forces. Given the perilous situation of the world today, stability should
be the foremost concern of every government. For this reason all governments should
facilitate the growth of communities of interest. Education and re-training should be
provided during this period in order to shift displaced workers to newly created jobs. There
should also be better education and training for the youth in order to fill the needs of the
future.
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EPIC OF FAITH
A SHORT HISTORY OF A.R. LUTHER
Dr. Sultan Shah
Chairperson, Department of Islamic Studies
haykh Abdul Rauf Luther was not born a Muslim. His father’s name was S.
Gandamal. His parents were followers of Hinduism and Sikhism. His real name
was Munshi Ram. He was born in 1916 in Sialkot District. The land of Sialkot is
known for its fertility and beauty. It has given birth to intellectuals and poets like Allama Dr.
Muhammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmad Faiz. A.R. Luther had a special love for his homeland.
He mentions his date and place of birth in the following lines:
S
In Sialkot District of Punjab,
Where hearts of Warriors and learners throb,
Which is the soul of Pakistan;
In 1916 I was born.
He embraced Islam at the age of 16 according to the information published in
newspapers on his assassination but it seems that he embraced Islam when he was more
than 16 years old. He was pulled into the realm of Islam by some invisible power and he
left his home and his family for the faith. His journey to Islam was the result of the special
blessings of an unknown saint who worked as a gardener.
He passed his Matriculation examination in 1931. He took some sweets to the
gardener who said, “The real result will appear after two years. I am happy that you have
passed that examination as well. May Allah bless you!”
He attended Government College Hoshiarpur and later gained admission to Sadiq
Egerton College Bahawalpur and passed his F.Sc examination. According to Dr.
Sahibzada Anwar Ahmad Bugwi Munshi, Rauf was a student at S.E College Bahawalpur in
1933-34. Sahibzada Abdul Ghafoor Bugwi who was a son of Maulana Muhammad Yahya
Bugwi (1878-1957) was his class fellow and friend. Both started attending the Dars-eQuran by Prof. Muhammad Afzal from the same college. He once visited Bhera along with
his friend Abdul Ghafoor Bugwi and met his father Maulana Muhammad Yahya Bugwi
before his conversion to Islam. Rauf has beautifully composed the following lines regarding
his education and conversion:
School to school, college to college
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As my future could acknowledge;
From place to place I traced,
Then, all alone, Islam embraced.
Shaykh Abdur Rauf has not mentioned where and when he embraced Islam. Dr.
Anwar Ahmad Bugwi has mentioned that he embraced Islam at the hands of Maulana
Muhammad Yahya Bugwi and his name was changed from Munshi Ram to Abdur Rauf
after the name of Maulana’s deceased son.
After taking his F.Sc examination at S.E College Bahawalpur, he went to Taunsa
Sharif. He moved to Bhera (District Sargodha) for religious training from Maulana
Muhammad Yahya Bugwi. Maulana Bugwi was the Khatib of the historical mosque built by
Sher Shah Suri in 947 AH, 1540 AD. A month later his father, brother, uncle and some
Hindu, Sikh and Christian leaders approached the Maulana and asked him to hand him
over the young Rauf to them. His father tried his best to convince his son but he refused to
go along with them because he was a Muslim and his parents were infidels. After a long
discussion, it was decided that an open discussion on religion would be held. Rauf agreed
on the condition that if he was defeated in the discussion, he would accompany them, and
if they were defeated they would embrace Islam. So a Munazira was held the very next
day. The year was 1933. Abdur Rauf explained to them the religion of Islam with particular
reference to the personality of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him). He was able to reply
all the questions. On the seventh day they were all convinced that Islam was indeed the
only true religion.
Abdur Rauf’s father tried his best to incite trouble. Hindu newspapers
“Milap” and “Partab” published statements issued by him. He alleged that his son was
forcibly converted to Islam. Rauf, however, refused to budge:
Abandoned every thing for God,
I was on a voyage to my Lord.
After some time Abdur Rauf returned to Sial Sharif. He requested Khawaja Sahib
many a time to teach him to recite the Holy Quran. But every time the Khawaja Sahib kept
quiet. Then, one day, during the month of Ramadan, he asked Abdur Rauf to open the
Holy Quran and listen to him as he recited from his memory. This single reading was
enough to teach Rauf the entire Quran.
Abdur Rauf also composed poetry in English. It seems that he had studied the
poetry of great English poets like Shelly, Keats, Byron Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Milton
and Chaucer.
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Shaykh Abdur Rauf served in the Press Information Department of the Government of
Pakistan and retired as Assistant Director. About his services he has composed the
following lines:
In servitude my life was hired,
Until with honour I retired,
Serving the Army and the Civil,
Now I keep my dainty vigil.
On September 2, 1988 an unidentified young man assassinated Abdur Rauf. A
group of medical students went to his house and mistook him for one Emmanuel Luther,
alleging that he had blasphemed against the Holy Prophet (PBUH). This is how Rauf met
his tragic end.
Shaykh Abdur Rauf Luther has composed numerous poetic works. His “Epic of Faith”
is the first versified biography of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in English. Rauf has composed
beautiful verses pertaining to the life of Prophet. In the beginning he has written 15 stanzas
under the title “To My Reader”. A.R Luther says about the versified biography of the Holy
Prophet (Peace be upon him):
The picture of Muhammad’s Life,
Portray shall I in words of life;
Enshrined is he in numerous books,
Which people read to happier looks.
An authentic version I shall offer,
For the intelligent, average reader;
Not all incidents or features,
But the salient and the sweeter.
Luther talks about the birthplace of the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace and
greeting) in the following lines:
Mecca is the Ummul Qura,
Mother of the towns of Arabia,
In sterile valley Mecca lies;
No cultivation can surprise;
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No wells, no trees, no gardens,
No valleys green, no fruit orchards.
The poet praises the family and forefathers of the blessed Prophet Muhammad (May
peace and blessing of Allah be upon him):
Distinguished members of Quresh,
Were privileged powerful Quresh,
Custodian of the Holy Kaa’ba,
Was the virtuous head of Mecca;
The oligarchy of the Chiefs,
Were leading members of the house,
Of Kossay to have full control,
Functions – religious, political,
But now entrusted Ka’ba’s keys,
To a man of Abdul Dar’s house
The wells of Zamzam with Hashims,
To maintain law were the Tayams;
But Abdul Muttalib was a man
Of influence, Character firm.
He was the eminent chief of all,
His dignity was loved by all,
He was at the height of power,
He was acknowledged far and near.
About the father of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) and Abdul Muttalib’s son, Luther
has composed the following verses:
His favourite son was Abdullah;
Most handsome, lovely Abdullah;
And once he thought of sacrifice,
For the God of Ka’ba, for love to rise.
Said some Chieftains of Quresh,
“To compensate kill in his place,
One hundred camels, but save
Abdullah’s life, the charming boy”.
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After describing the conditions of the age of ignorance (the Jahiliyya period), the
poet talks about the birth of Muhammad (Upon whom be peace and greeting):
It was the time when Muhammad was born,
Mercy for the universe was born.
Baby – Prophet in prostration,
With first finger towards Heaven,
Played on lips, “There is one God,
Muhammad is His Prophet”
When Abdul Muttalib was asked about the name of the baby, he replied:
And lo! He spoke aloud and said:
I’ve named my Muhammad,
He is the hope, so such name,
Excel he shall in fortune, fame.
According to the custom of Arabia, Muhammad was entrusted to a foster-mother,
Halima, of the tribe of Hawazin:
Amena was informed in a dream,
The babe would be suckled by one
Of the tribes of Abu Zuhaib,
So heard Halima of that babe,
Surprisingly, she rushed to the place,
And there she went the babe to trace.
So as soon as she got the child,
Abundant milk suddenly flowed,
Her thin lean ass was now marvel;
Her cattle were now growing fat,
So happily she did relate.
The poet has composed beautiful poetry pertaining to the Prophet’s earlier years.
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In Mecca born posthumous child,
When he was six his mother died;
Lo! There he was doubly orphan,
Abdul Muttalib was his guardian,
He too died two years after,
Without protection, shelter there
Abu Talib was his guardian now,
He was his uncle, to love brew.
When war broke out between the Quresh and the Hawazin, the Holy Prophet
(Peace be upon him) helped his uncles:
In the twentieth year occurred war,
Notoriously called Harbal Fijar,
Muhammad, in it took no part,
Except to gather arrows discharged.
Nikkah:
On the eve of Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to Khadija Abu Talib read the
“The benediction of the greatest God,
Creator, Sovereign, lovely Lord;
All praises are to God alone,
Made up posterity of Abraham
And Ismael, his son, and gave
Us sacred land and made us brave.
We are the guardians of the House,
A pilgrimage for all Arabs;
We are the judges of all men,
May he be Bedouin, Kith or Kin.
Muhammad the son of Abdullah,
My nephew, with grace of Allah,
Surpasses everyman in looks,
He has no stain of any books.
In virtues in intelligence,
Khadija loves him with her heart,
He reciprocates on his part.
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So I unite them now together,
A pair fine; each other’s shelter.
To celebrate marriage declare:
What is essential for dower
Responsibility I undertake,
Ye come, we marriage celebrate”.
About the last days of the Prophet of Mercy (Peace be upon him), Luther
underlines:
Health of the Prophet continued
To wane, Arabia had been subdued,
Eleventh year of Hijra,
Was severest for Medina,
He got a violent pain in his head,
Which with Prophet’s illness mingled.
The poet has told about the sad demise of the Prophet of Islam (Upon whom be
peace and greeting) in the following lines:
Now there was violence in his pain,
He was feeling the greatest strain
Declared freedom for all slaves,
Distributed Dirham, Dinars;
Raised his eyes towards the Heavens
Bade his soul ascend to Heaven.
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WILL POWER – A REQUISITE FOR SUCCESS
M. Usman Siddiqi
BA ΙΙ
ould you stick to an unpleasant, hard or monotonous job until you had
completed it? Would you keep a promise if it meant trouble or inconvenience?
Would you stick to a diet? Have you ever set out to do away with a bad habit
and been completely successful? If your answer is "No" then this article is especially for
you. Tremendous achievements have been achieved by men and women whose only
asset at the beginning seemed to be the unconquerable power of their will. In the world of
business and politics, education and sports, they gained success through sheer
determination. If only we could be like that!
Unfortunately most of us have a wavering resolve. We cannot make up our minds
on an issue. We lack complete control over ourselves. When confronted by a challenge,
we want to succeed but too often the “I can't do it” syndrome overcomes us. Can anything
be done about it? Is it possible to strengthen the will? The answer is an emphatic “YES”.
It is quite possible for an ordinary person to develop a strong will. He needs to
understand how the will works and then to take a few simple steps. Will is a power that
resides within us – strong, efficient and powerful like the engine of a car – but this engine
needs to be tuned and started.
Will power, like intelligence, is a hypothetical construct. Simply put, it is something
imaginary. But the imagination is the basis of creative thinking, it imparts a person his
individuality that distinguishes him from others and ensures success. Imagination is the
fuel that fires our desires. It is the will that realises these desires. The will has an
interesting relation with the imagination.
Suppose we place a 30/1 ft. wooden plank on the ground. Everybody will be able to
walk along this plank easily without stepping off the edge. Now, imagine this plank placed
at a height that equals that of our Clock tower. Not many would be willing to brave the
venture.
Why is it that you would not tremble if the same plank were on the ground and be
certain to fall if it were raised to a height of 150 m? Simply because in the first case you
“imagine” that it is easy to go to the end, but in the second instance, you “imagine” that it is
not. The imagination in such situations is in conflict with the will and usually triumphs over
it.
W
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This explains why we feel our will is weak. It is weak because we “imagine” that it is
weak; remember “it’s all in the mind.” The will becomes strong when it is not in conflict with
the imagination; both must work in consonance.
You would not be reading this piece if you did not desire to strengthen your will.
Begin by building up your imagination. Start in a very simple way by learning to observe
properly. As you go about the area where you live, try to notice as much as possible. Try to
see things others usually pay no attention to. When you get indoors, shut your eyes and try
to recall what have you saw. A few minutes of this exercise daily will help you in becoming
more observant, conscious and help to develop your imagination.
As you grow more conscious and your imagination becomes stronger, direct this
new found strength towards your will. Imagine the person you would be if your will were
strong. See yourself in certain situations and imagine how you would act. Concentrate on
this picture for a few minutes everyday. Hold it in your before you go to sleep. This may
seem to be a very simple exercise, but it is effective; the subconscious will use this picture
to transform your character. Now you are ready for the next steps in training and
developing your will. Take out a few minutes every day and practicing the following
exercises.
Make your mind completely blank keep it so for some time. This is not as easy as
it sounds. It is difficult to arrest the flow of the stream of consciousness. Push the thoughts
that bombard the mind away. Take out five minutes for this exercise daily.
Concentrate on only one thing in the room. Fix your mind on an ornament or a book
lying on the table. Keep your attention fixed on that one object for at least a minute. Try to
concentrate on the object a little longer each day, giving it your complete attention.
Everyday, force yourself to do at least one thing you don't particularly want to do.
Make a game of it, and find the fun of overcoming dislikes and laziness. Most of us leave
many things undone because we don’t feel doing them. Force yourself at least once every
day.
Practise these simple exercises regularly. You will be surprised at the difference
they will make in your mental life in less than a month. Now, let us come to the larger
issues. Sit down and think quietly about life and your place in it. Where are you going?
What do you want to be and what do you want to do? What is the aim of your daily
existence? Write the answers down.
Find out from yourself where you want to go and work out the way you are going to
follow to get there. Remind your purpose to yourself every day. However busy you are,
whatever discouragements you meet, keep reminding yourself. This is where the
imagination aids the will.
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The time for taking a decision will come. When it does, consider the various
alternatives and possibilities. Consider them in light of your goal. Think carefully, and don't
postpone your decision. If you need time to consider, make sure that you set a time-limit.
Remember; it’s all in the mind.
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THESE WOMEN – A MYSTERY UNSOLVED
Raees Abbas
Old Ravian, Student of Medicine at Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur
Note: The views expressed are those of the writer and do not represent the publication.
Editor
lthough a woman can become Valentina Treshkova, exploring the space,
she might make it to the rank of a general in the army, she might embrace
high executive positions in the world of business, she might soar high in
the air flying an aircraft in the endless skies, and these champs of feminism can even sit in
a parliament numb and dumb in scarlet and gold with hot lipsticks on. Indeed a woman can
become anything she wants to but cannot switch sides with man. She is trying her level
best to step into the shoes of man but will not emerge triumphant in the end.
You might today induct them in the armed forces but they will never become
anything close to the likes of Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexander the Great or
Adolph Hitler. A woman will always love to live in the fantasy world of Barbies, cute kitties,
scintillating flowers, fluttering butterflies, charming colours, exotic colognes, sentimental
hues, mythical fairies and fascinating dreams. For that is what a woman is meant and
supposed to be; and you can’t really change her constitution. A woman’s chief concern is
moving to her own house after she has had found a spouse of her own choice and bear
her own cute kids; for, a woman is a woman. But how things are shaping up at present
imparts the impression that womanhood is in danger.
I do not know what the consequences will be when she will try to do things which
are not a part of her constitution. If you go against the laws of nature, you are asking for
trouble. Although women can build their muscles and wrestle at par with men, frailty is a
trait which can never be divorced from a woman’s disposition.
Time has seen philosophers and thinkers go mad trying to understand women.
What a woman really wants is for sure, a zillion dollar question. You can expect anything
from this Pandora's Box at any moment. Her queer behaviour has always added to the
perplexity associated with her being. She has always been depicted by her changing
moods, complex nature, capricious wishes and erratic attitude which intensify the belief
that she is something abstract and unfathomable. In the Biblical myth, man’s fall is initiated
because of Adam’s uxoriousness. Our poor father suffered because he listened to his
spouse!
A
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Today, NGOs shout, scream and spit a lot about women’s rights 24 hours a day.
Male chauvinism is a “presumed” thorn that pricks them, but it often makes me think that
the reality is the other way around. In the present era, it's more about women's bias
towards men. I’ll give you the actual truth: woman is influencing, manipulating and making
the most of man. In most families today, husbands are being driven by their wives; ask any
professor at GC, he’ll tell you. Today, Eve thinks she is just what the doctor ordered;
immaculate and too good for Adam. Woman is actually constricting man’s breathing space.
Men are subjected to female chauvinism.
The time has come for us to change the age old adage about woman being
dominated by man. Male dominance is an out dated idea; now it’s a woman's world.
These days you come across women steering and coercing men, rather than men
driving and forcing women. Husbands have emerged as the most miserable race world
over. Just imagine a couple in a sleek automobile; while Eve speeds away, Adam is
engaged in managing the kicking, stomping, screaming, hair-pulling babies.
An anecdote involving my uncle who happens to be a single lawyer, helped in
clarifying many difficulties for me. The tale goes something like this. One pleasant evening
my uncle reached his friend's place in the hope of avoiding the monotonous routine of
preparing arguments and defending the cases every morning. He thought he would sit with
his friend for some time, relax his nerves, share a laugh about what's happening these
days and have a cup of coffee. He walked straight into his friend’s house and saw him
trying his best to hush his bellowing two year old. For forty odd minutes, the battered,
beaten and bruised father tried in vain but the baby refused to deviate from his ruthless
course of terror and destruction. In his college days this helpless father used to be an
ardent supporter of antifeminism and believed that women should be confined to their
homes. As luck would have it, his wife worked in a multinational firm while he managed the
kitchen, the children, the laundry and the home in general when he was not managing his
office. His six year old was hounding his younger to get the stethoscope from his father’s
neck, failing to achieve his designs he slammed the crystal vase on the floor in foaming
fury. The poor father handed over the instrument to his son. The younger chuckled at the
elder, giving him a triumphant look, "see this is how you get what you want, you dud.” “You
called me a dud!” a grunt, a leap, call for war and both leapt for each other’s necks.
Fortunately, before any serious damage, both were pulled away from each other and
scolded. The wretched father saw his old friend now and greeted him. The two year old
immediately burst into another whimper. The father handed over the spoon he was holding
to his friend and took the baby. The two siblings arrived and took the spoon away from the
friend. The baby started crying again, so the father took the spoon and gave it to the baby.
Now the siblings started crying so the father gave the baby to the friend and the spoon to
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the siblings but the baby started crying again so the father took the baby in his arms. The
siblings started fighting again so the father gave the baby to the friend and gave the spoon
the siblings. The baby started crying again so the father gave the spoon to the baby but
the siblings started pulling his tie and the baby hit the friend’s nose with the spoon. The
friend gave the spoon to the siblings and they started fighting again and the father started
crying. Not being able to endure any longer, the friend decided to leave.
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OF ACTORS AND POLITICIANS
Imran Qureshi
Old Ravian, Quality Editor, The Post
f course politicians have to be actors and in their tenure in office, have to
act many roles and present many dramas. Currently, on the political scene
we have some notable performers. We have comedians, like our notable
black-haired $$$ Sahib; we have suave heroes who “Ibad” Sindh, we have a whole
vaudeville if not of MGM but MMA and we have a huge number of villains and all of these
people provide endless (they keep winning “elections” with larger and larger mandates)
entertainment to the public.
But seriously speaking, let’s look on the other side of the coin; let’s talk about people
whose profession it is to entertain and having achieved fame and fortune, have now opted
for politics. Nowadays, many actors in Holly and Lollywood have turned to public office.
With due respect to the fact that some of these personalities like Schwarzenegger and
Clint Eastwood might prove as successful in important positions as they did pleasing their
fans on the screen, however we are so used to seeing them performing dramatic roles that
somehow it’s difficult to think of them as responsible men of state. I mean, lets consider
Schwarzenegger: when he concludes an important conference with Mrs. Polly Adam, the
75 - year old mayor of old people's homes, does he say, Hasta la vista baby? If he’s called
to an emergency meeting suddenly, does he jump out of the window, run helter-skelter
through heavy traffic often tramping on top of a line of cars and perhaps fire a few shots
around just to keep in the mood of things? When he has to deal with a very tough
proposition does he strip off his shirt, buckle on all sorts of weapons and rub camouflage
paint on his face? And most of all, what does he do when he has to “terminate” an
agreement? When he finishes an inconclusive session on law and order does he say:
You've just been erased?
Then we have Clint Eastwood. Does his aide have a hard time making sure he
doesn't strike his match on the head of some visiting dignitary? Does everybody in his
office head for cover when he's going to draw up a plan? And when he's got to make a
short speech, exactly how short is it? And if someone is thinking about daring to disagree
does he point his gun to his protruding skull and say: Go ahead, make my day?
Corning to the local scene we have the redoubtable Ms. Falcon (I won’t mention her
real name but it does have a bit of a bird in it). Fortunately she's so candid that there is
actually very little difference to her image on the screen and her persona as a politician. Is
it likely that she plans to enthral the Cabinet with a performance after debate has ended?
O
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Then of course we have the late legend himself, Mohammed Ali! We can just imagine him
pondering over some serious political problem then getting up and start singing a sad
song, just think about it; his staff would join him for the chorus and far away Zeba would
reciprocate his emotions and sing along with him. When speaking in the Assembly would
he have addressed the speaker as Judge sahaab in a tone that threatened to tear him to
more pieces than there were people in the Assembly, and present a moving tirade against
the zalim samaaj so much so that the Opposition was compelled to leap up holding guns
and try to make a break for it. Finally, when a resolution was passed in the Assembly,
would he have said, “Aaj itna nacho, itna nacho kay nach khatam ho jay?”
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MODEL QUESTION PAPER
R. M. Iqbal
MA ΙΙ
Note: The writer believes this is what a question paper should look like. Needless to say,
most of the readers will find themselves compelled into agreeing with Mr. Iqbal, however,
as a matter of principle, the views expressed are the writer’s only and do not represent the
publication.
Editor
Government College University
Annual Examination 2006
Time limit: 3 hours
Lunch break: 1 hour
Attempt some question. No question is compulsory.
Q.1 Explain the following with reference to the context. Write who uttered the line and
when:
“Jamshed your name has been struck off.”
“Roll no. 212 present sir!”
“Hide that cigarette … the proctor is coming.”
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Q.2 Multiple choice. Encircle the probable answer. (Accuracy does not matter,
remember; it’s the thought that counts).
What does the Pope represent?
(a) Girl’s Hostel (b) Horticulture Society (c) Christianity
Can you give a critical analysis of Daffodils by William Wordsworth?
(a) Yes (b) No
Whom does Keats address in Ode to a Nightingale?
(a) A Nightingale (b) An Elephant (c) An Ass (d) The President of the Dramatics Club
(e) Both (c) and (d)
What is the height of the Clock tower?
(a) 100m (b) 200m (c) Who cares!
Where would you come across Tony Blair?
(a) PG toilets (b) Love garden (c) Dangur Café (Under-grads café)
(d) London
Who is the biggest pain in the neck at GCU?
(a) Editor, The Ravi (b) Leave officer (c) Anyone who has the attendance register in
his hands
When was GC established?
(a) Before the creation of Pakistan (b) After the creation of Pakistan
(c) Somewhere in the middle (d) What’s done is done, let’s talk about the future
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Q.3 Write a note on the evils of the struck-off system. Also explain how you plan to
retaliate with the teachers involved in the process on the Day of Resurrection.
OR
Apart from debating, what else is the Debating Society completely clueless about?
Q.4 Write short notes on any two of the following:
(i) Duty leave (ii) Proctor (iii) Love garden
Q.5 What is a library card and where is it most likely to be used?
OR
Where is the Central Library located?
The University will re-open next year. Enjoy the holidays!
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GOLDEN MISERY
Dr. A.H. Khayal
Distinguished Professor, Department of English
O
ur 59 year history is a history of betrayal. The common Pakistani has been
brutally betrayed for 59 years. Our 59-year history is a history of
exploitation. The common Pakistani has been brutally humiliated for 59
years. Our 59 year history is a history of humiliation. Does the common man’s betrayal call
for celebrations? Does the common man‘s exploitation call for celebrations? Does the
common man’s humiliation call for celebrations?
We love celebrations. Celebrations have become our opium. But, unfortunately what
we celebrate on our national occasions is all fiction. If we can’t help indulging in our
passion for celebrations, why not celebrate realities instead of naked fiction? To be honest,
let's ask the writers of our national songs to compose social songs about our corruption,
about our bank-defaulters, about the looters of our national wealth and about the misery of
the masses.
He who said “Nature hates vacuum” must have been the citizen of a welfare state.
Since a welfare state guarantees subsistence for all its citizens, an empty stomach is
absolutely non-existent in a welfare state. No empty stomach; no vacuum. Unfortunately,
most of the third world states are ill fare states. They do not guarantee subsistence for
their citizens. Most of the stomachs in these states are generally full of emptiness. In these
states, nature loves vacuum. For example, England is a welfare state. In England, nature
hates vacuum. Pakistan is an ill fare state. In Pakistan, nature loves vacuum.
Once a Pakistani leader was asked, “Why don’t the rulers drink what the masses
drink? Why this colossal disparity?” The leader replied: “The rulers don’t drink ditch-water
because there is shortage of it in the country. The available quantity is hardly sufficient for
the masses. If the rulers were to partake of it, the partaking would create a shortage for the
masses.”
The ditch-water, which the masses drink, has certain mystical qualities. Instead of
breeding an acute sort of dissatisfaction for the state of affairs in the country, the water
enigmatically creates a frantic love for the land in them. Perhaps no brand of water in
human history has ever been so colossally mesmerising. Let the rulers drink whatever they
fancy. But let the ditch-water be the exclusive preserve of the masses.
In mongrel democracy, there are two codes of ethics, one for the governors and one
for the masses. The code for the governors lays it down that the governors can do no
wrong while the code for the masses lays it down that the masses can do no right.
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Generally, mongrel democracy is in operation in some of the poorest countries of the world
like India and Pakistan. The elected governors in these countries monopolise the
resources of the country to such an extent that not much is left for the masses. The preplanned starving of the masses is necessary for the stability of the country. Empty
stomachs bark but do no bite.
All the Muslims of the world have four things in common. They have a common
God, a common Prophet (P.B.U.H), a common Divine Book and a common hatred for each
other. Our history is a history of passionate love for one Prophet (P.B.U.H), our passionate
love for one Divine Book and our passionate hatred for each other.
When the 21st century came to the Muslim world and found our countries choked
with half-fed, half-naked and fully diseased workers, it nervously exclaimed: “What are
these parts? Am I driven by some demon into pre-historic times?” Our governments
rushed to the century’s rescue and reassured it, “There are two 21 st centuries; one for the
Muslim World and one for Europe. Unfortunately, there has been a terrible mix-up, you
caught the wrong plane and have landed in a wrong place.”
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RE-VIEWING THE RAVI, ITS RIWAIAT, AND RAVIAN-NESS
AT THE POST-POST-COLONIAL TURN OF ANOTHER CENTURY
Dr. Waseem Anwar
Former Chairperson, Department of English
et me convey my gratitude to the Editorial Board and Working
Committees of The Ravi 2006 for first asking me to write, then motivating
me for it, and then finally anthologizing my thoughts. Congratulations to
Ravians all over the world for a consistently devoted patronage of The Ravis, published
or to be published, since long; since the early decade of the 20th century I suppose. All
this time, The Ravi has delightfully digested decades to deliver timely messages about
the colonial, neo-, post-, and now post-post-colonial experiences that Ravians have
been through. The Ravi and Ravians have been through the pangs of inspiring creative
initiation, though all these phases of colonial encounters have overlapped to date in
terms of some hegemonic if not coercive design.
Now, what difference does The Ravi and its annually awaited appearance ever
since, has made or is supposed to make or will make in the lives of the Ravians or
those who realize its communal and social significance, is something we all wait to
share, always. Each year Gallup polls are arranged, interviews are conducted,
acknowledgements and official or unofficial letters are exchanged, mails and emails are
clicked, SMS messages are swapped, appreciation and criticism is communed, all
resulting in a dream for a change for betterment. No doubt, The Ravi, commencing as a
sub-continental articulation, has matured into a continental, global, and now for sure,
into a spatial strength as well. Technology and computational or cybernetic skills, like
they revolutionize every other aspect of our life, have also afforded their colour to The
Ravi – to its content, context, and cosmetic value. The Ravi now reaches us through
websites; it stays on our desktops; establishing an electronic contact through the
screen. Above all, we all look forward to a healthy and positive electronic change that is
essentially the outcome of the phrase quite synonymous to the title of The Ravi itself:
freedom of speech and expression. Of course the foremost responsibility of carrying the
tradition and particularly of bearing it as a requirement is The Ravi's riwaiat, its muchadored linkage with freedom of expression.
A riwaiat non-stop, a re-view unparalleled, a journey backwards in time and
history yet a movement onwards, a saga chronotope, The Ravi always embarks on
renewing the message of continuity by flourishing talent upon tradition – its hallmark. At
the point close to its centennial jubilance, I do not want to excavate all the trailing
L
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records of The Ravi, its riwaiat, its contact with the tradition as such, but for the last six
years, at the turn of the century, The Ravi has quite consciously picked on connecting
the themes of change, freedom, and technology linking them with tradition and talent;
an adequate though not a complete or perfectly discerned move. At least from that time
on that is at the turn of the 21st century, as The Ravi is completes its own century,
change, freedom, and technology tread together with riwaiat to forge a positive
relevance in the lives of our very talented posterity. The combination turns out to be
directional for understanding the neo- or post- or post-post colonial conditions we live in
today.
To my understanding, one common denominator that keeps the riwaiati or
traditional outlook and spirit of The Ravi alive quite differently is the loveable
dependence of its intellectual heritage on its literary flavour. The Ravi, I always argue
(adamantly and rightfully perhaps), is not or has never been a literary research journal
in its true sense but definitely a literary magazine that promotes critical thinking; some
pondering along with wondering. The expanse of its literariness draws on multi- and
interdisciplinary links that might generate in us enlightened empiricism to be managed
not simply through our minds, but also through our hearts. I do not mean that The Ravi
does not spark our cerebral capacities; at times it asks for a good mental gymnastic as
well, but I sense that it finally makes us feel reflectively and compassionately about the
conditions we as humans stride through. Like talking about technology in The Ravi
2005 with reference to the disciplines of Education, Economics, English, History,
Religion, Spirituality, Sociology, Psychology, Bio or Genetic Engineering, webs closer
the overlapping effects of socio-psycho or religio-economic hierarchies drawn for us
naturally or artificially amid the current challenging times, enlightening us finally by repositioning ourselves to become highly communicative global citizens. Similarly The
Ravi 2004 picked on exploring the value of academic freedom within GC University.
The Ravi 2004 employed multiple meanings and interpretations, while discussing the
issue of academic freedom at GCU. With change and transition as the theme of The
Ravi 2003, freedom in The Ravi 2004 appeared rosy yet pragmatic, romantic yet
rational. With the parental caressing of GCU, the temporal and spatial diameters of
change along with the imaginative stretches of freedom held value for technological
awareness imparted through The Ravi 2005. I do not say that The Ravis of 2003, 2004,
or 2005 could revolutionize the format or function of our thought process in light of the
constraints, but in their own manner they proved to be the casements for some
futuristic vision for us, as it was importantly required to do so at the turn of another
century in particular.
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For connecting The Ravi 2006 to its immediate or remote legacy, its riwaiat, its
tradition of promoting free and responsible speech, I would like to harp on the theme
around fast changing faces of technology and their impact on our sensibility, their
almost digital and magical effects towards permitting change into our lives, making us
feel freer amid our post-post colonial and post-post modern conditions. Perspectives on
technology and its effects on various walks of life, from Star Wars to genetic
engineering, from plastic surgery to plastic currency, from arts and sports to the
generation gap and to global and economic citizenship, from human feeling to human
spiritualism and finally, add to this intermingling of technological-aesthetics. As an effort
to forward this message, the illumined title and the colourful separators of The Ravi
2005 definitely implied how unobtrusively technology seeps into our senses as a new
art form, each day each moment.
We all know that the gifts of information technology have been innumerable and
unending and IT has deeply fused with human neurology. Now it determines not only our
behaviour but also our being. Not only part of human culture, technology has become a
culture in itself, a culture that acclimatizes our creative responses. Whether one likes it or
not, even the authors and artists and poets and dreamers stand bound to sketch dreams
through some neuro-techno cartridge. In a way, technology has developed into a passage if
not a permit to enter the world of dreams. I suppose, from the traditional gothic or fairy tale
culture to Tom and Jerry and Disneyland and from Star Trek to Dexter up to the
overwhelming smoky and spooky vampiric landscapes that teem with caricatured animation
along with navigation and aviation; technology is shaping the future of the globe for us
differently. Magic or Science, gadgets gear our imaginative Harry Potter-istic flights to
Wonderland! Technology helps connect the magical and scientific dreams and desires with
the social-historical-cultural demands of our surrounding realities. Keeping this in view, I
have always estimated The Ravi to be temporally trifoliate with its past, present, and future
dimensions of epistemological reflections. It serves as an on-going commentary on our
changing cultural profiles at a certain intellectual level to “blog” a discourse for our prevalent
space in freedom and our promised freedom in space.
Talking about space, we are definitely reminded of the human successes in the field
of space technology. Kennedy Space Centre and NASA recently declared the spectacular
test flight and landing of the “Discovery” shuttle, which is a milestone for human aspirations,
and a reply to the disastrous disintegration that overtook “Columbia” two years ago. The
Discovery mission declared a tenth planet for our globe, opening vistas for the poetscientists to dream further and delve farther into the cyber texture of our universe. In
addition, between tradition and change, the journey to and through space has grown to be a
joint project, a gender-collaborative assignment – a human drama in action and that too in
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space! Like nations and generations, women have refused to lag behind in experiencing the
non-gravitational catapults. More than a proverbial project, we dream that spatial tolerance
would integrate all the so-far marginalized species, human or non-human. Dr. Mary Ellen
Weber, a former astronaut, describes the human presence in space as an introduction to a
new civilization based on human free will, a step to a long-term plan 500 years hence. The
future journeys in isolation to and from space might replicate human ventures of new-foundlands of the past. Space certainly is to offer a contesting ground for more freedom for our
future post-postcolonial and post-post-Modern positions.
That space allows us to discover a new civilization is a truth yet to be explored
by social scientists and authors of the unknown. In our context, the changing face of the
GCU safe haven, with The Ravi 2006 as the representative and explorative voice of
tradition and riwaiat, we the Ravians, the regional scientist-poets and the dreamers of
the future, welcome human imaginings to interact within a freer space for providing
equal opportunities to all, for desires to open the gates of courage, knowledge,
enlightenment, and moderation to all such foreseeable spatial voyages. Whether the
challenge to live freely in space, to journey through technology for a civilization of the
future by risking one's life, is less than any holy project of jihad is a question fore
grounded for those who, through a senseless exhibition of violence and extremism, try
to curtail human freedom on earth and who try to cage the flying and floating doves of
peace. The enlightening message about human free will to dream, fly, and float
together through space for a better universal coexistence is a responsible one and
must be forwarded to the generations to come. The Ravi 2006 will do so, humbly. The
flight into discovering novelties about our neo and post-post-colonial existence may not
be perfect in the continuing riwaiat of The Ravis, but the connecting themes leave
lesser fears for any disastrous disintegration that may result in the absence of freedom
of expression and speech.
With change, freedom, and technology coming together at the turn of another
century, our colonial, neo-, post-, or post-post-colonial contact with talent and tradition
remains a continuity of the riwaiat that The Ravi and Ravians always celebrate, but the
need to re-understand and re-describe tradition or riwaiat as well as the traditions and
connotations about courage and knowledge becomes even more pertinent and dire. In his
re-searching article about the GCU motto “Courage to Know” in The Ravi 2005, Mr. Khaled
Ahmed very prudently reminds us in Syed Ahmed Khan's words that a stubborn attempt to
resist modernity by “nourishing the dead [tradition] is not an auspicious undertaking.”
Implying that one may revere tradition religiously, Mr. Ahmed rightfully alarms us to assess
that just holding fast and conserving tradition to evade genuine change for betterment is like
blocking the fluency of water. Ravi, mostly understood in Urdu by the name of the ancient
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river of Lahore (the Buddha Ravi) or by the knitting techniques of narration and storytelling,
results in ripples of responses and not in regression, retreat or stagnancy of statement.
Even in his supplementary lectures and talks (like the one at the International Writers
Conference at GCU on February 4th, 2006), Mr. Ahmad keeps highlighting further
complexities related to re-searching “Courage” and its possibly chauvinistic or coercive
connotations besides its sense of promised autonomy. The re-understanding of Courage
automatically leads to redescribing the parameters of “Knowledge” as well, its directional
deliberation from West to East or vice versa. But then whatever the educationists and
missionaries like Dr. G. W. Leitner (the first Principal of Government College Lahore in
1864) or his predecessors, including the famous philosopher Emanuel Kant, might have in
their minds about courage and its connection with knowledge put together, one of the
significant motives behind epistemological exchanges must have been to boost the courage
of the West/Occident (neither to say Colonizers alone) and to unravel the mysterious
exoticism of the East/Orient (nor to say the Colonized only). And then one does not need to
mention a list of writers, theorists and researchers like Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Iqbal
Ahmad, Homi K. Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Sara Suleri, and others, who have turned tables
with projects stemming from the re-readings of Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism.
Without getting into further details about the intensity or density of courage or the
direction or nature of knowledge, the lesson for Ravians lies in exploring their guts and
courage to re-discover and re-interpret the unknown; inviting a fundamental genuine
change that leads to further and freer enlightened understanding. In the light of the lived
experience, the project sounds to be a foremost and core-most requirement. Consequently,
The Ravi, its riwaiat and tradition, demand a re-viewing first and foremost, of the tradition
itself. As a sapling source of change, a currency of creation along with recreation, the GCU
tradition with its growing technological riwaiat and its Ravian-ness has all the capacity to
freely reflect upon the hubs of glory, grace, goodness, gardens or Governments – what so
ever that suits the generations and genders to come. It also has the scope to symbolize the
collegiality of the sciences, humanities, literatures and liberal and performing arts or
aesthetics to extend collaboration and creativity to the tradition through change. GCU has
the competence to be a lyceum of its own kind that merges and mutates into a union, unity,
universality, and above all a University of the future at the turn of The Ravi’s century,
envisioning spaces for more and more intellectual debates. The Ravi, riwaiat, and Ravianness are the avenues for such re-views and revivals, with courage to know the known as
well as the unknown, and then the courage to express as well as to bear with the
consequences of such an undertaking.
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THE BASEMENT
10 THINGS TO DO IN THE GCU FINAL EXAM
Talal Ahmed
FA Ι
’ve been around this place for some time now. For the benefit of those brilliant
academics who excel in things other than academics, and for the profit and
welfare of mankind in general, here’s a list of things that actually work in the
dreaded, dingy, sweat-stinking Basement where we all appear for the final exams. But
before I share my recipe for success, let me propose some recommendations to the
authorities.
Ahem! First of all, don’t you think it’s rather degrading to judge a student’s entire
career on the basis of a single stupid, three-hour exam? Let’s add a little colour guys … I
solemnly propose that half the marks should be fixed for the written examination and the
other half for communicative competence like chatting skills, ability to use the keyboard,
talking incessantly and bathroom singing. A portion of the written examination should also
appreciate the student’s creativity displayed in the remarks scribbled on various walls in
the campus. For further details consult the nearest toilet. Since we don’t have soap in our
lavatories, the next logical step is that we shouldn’t have professors in the classrooms.
Empty classrooms will help students in exploring their individuality.
Worms who consult the library all too often should be penalized. Seeking the aid
of the library is like pleading before the IMF, they both loan you see. The Hooligan Society
should be given representation in the University’s Board of Governors. What kind of
democracy are we preaching after all? Pestering teachers should be forced to consult the
university counsellor and the counsellor should be forced to consult the Hooligan Society.
We should have regular fashion shows to cater to the demands of time. And someone said
there should be separate pages for bridal wear in The Ravi.
Well now that’s that. Let’s get down to my reliable and time-tested list.
1. Get a copy of the exam, run out screaming “Hurrah! Hurrah! I’m rich I’m rich!”
2. Following the commands of the examiner, write your name neatly and clearly on the
question paper and proceed to make airplanes out of it. Aim them at the examiner’s back.
3. On the answer sheet find new interesting ways to refuse to answer questions. For
example: I refuse to answer this question because it makes me suffer severe constipation.
4. If it is objective type, answer in subjective form. If it is subjective type answer in
yes/no.
5. If it is a long question demand MCQs.
I
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6. As soon as the instructor hands you the exam, start laughing hysterically saying it’s
too easy and leave the Basement.
7. Every fifteen minutes, look around, stand up and say “Hail Hitler”, then sit down and
continue with the exam.
8. Attempt the entire exam in symbols and claim its Pashtu. If the examiner chides
you, start chanting Pakistan Zindabad.
9. Sit on your seat and ask loudly “Ok, when do we start for Gujranwala?”
10. If nothing works, take out your cell phone, stand up and say “Brother bin Laden I’m
coming” and run away from the Basement.
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SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CHIEF PROCTOR
Umer G. Saleemi
FA Ι
Oath of Honour
I, Umer Saleemi, age 19, 5’6, 125 lbs, dark, cute and single, solemnly render a vow of upholding the truth
and serving the cause of justice, whenever feasible, in the grater interest of my alma mater, when the interest
of the alma mater coincides with my own interests, and undertake the task of promoting honesty, integrity
and sincerity the Ravian way. The suggestions I propose are genuine, original and novel. I could think of no
better way of communicating my intent except through this prestigious publication, which I’m sure, will
become prestigious after I’m published.
f I were the Chief Proctor, I would have my office on the top of the Clock tower
instead of on the first floor. You see, the view is better from the top plus you can
keep an eye on everyone from up there. There’s lots of fresh air too. This will
also enable a better look at the Logia (and whatever goes on there … ahem!). We could
also have a huge hoarding with the proctor pointing out a finger and saying BIG
BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU! Let’s arrange for tele-screens in secluded, un-secluded,
clean, unclean, populated and polluted corners of the campus. We could have secret
microphones in the toilets to pick up nefarious designs for the chemistry practical.
Let’s see now, if I were the Chief Proctor I would also plant bugs on beautiful girls
and hunky boys to monitor their activities and prevent them from mixing up. Whenever a
muscle-bound moron would try to approach a chick I would reach the spot right in the nick
of time and “save” her (for myself). But wait, this ain’t enough, you may stop people from
acting but you can’t stop them from thinking. I’ll need to control their minds; maybe CNN
can help. We should have polygraph machines at GCU. This way we could force the truth
out of them, “Who exploded that stink bomb in the cafeteria? Who yawns the most in
class?” Better still, we would allow only students who pass the polygraph test to graduate,
“Did you plan to sneak away from the computer applications class? Did you even think
about marking your friend’s proxy?”
We know there are scanners in the library. I as the Chief Proctor, would plant
scanners on the entrances to the bathrooms, I am sure I don’t need to explain why. It’s
about time we did something about the poetry you find encapsulated on bathroom walls.
Maybe we could publish an anthology titled the Kalam-e-Baitul Khalaa.
I
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Let’s train a delta force for the campus. If a student is found wondering around with
his tongue hanging from his mouth, a highly-trained commando unit would corner him and
deport him back to his respective classroom.
In the end, let me say that I, in my humble capacity, have merely tried to serve the
institution that I call “home.” Let not the thought enter any mind that I have a selfish intent
or will try to gain any benefit for my endeavours. Long live GCU, long live Pakistan.
PS
Err … I was wondering if I could apply for a Roll of Honour on the basis of my services, not
that it means much to me, but you see …
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DOG GONE FUNNY
Mohammad Umer
FA Ι
he horizontally bestowed and cerebrally challenged people at The Ravi
asked me what I would do if I were a four-legged canine we
condescendingly refer to as a DOG. Well if I were to (fortunately) transform
into a dog, I would look for a beautiful, elegant and graceful … SHE-DOG. A bitch has
certain significance in a dog’s life. Every dog needs a partner of the respected opposite
gender; every human too if he wants to live a dog’s life. I would need a female comrade if I
were a dog, does that ring a bell?
But what kind of a family life would I have? Remember the time when the MCL
announced a Rs. 50 prize for killing a stray dog when they were turning mad? (The dogs
not the authorities) Oh God! Cruelty ad infinitum. Do human beings who have gone mad
receive the same treatment – NOOO SIR! If we started killing insane people, soon there’d
only be dogs left in this country. Any way, money on beheading a poor dog and, worst of
all Rs. 100 for a bitch, this was really dreadful. And so during the holocaust, insane dogs
were ruthlessly massacred by death squads. Isn’t it ironic people saying, “A DOG IS A
MAN’S BEST FRIEND?” All the money that went to the cold-blooded murderers could
have been used for making dog-shelters. If humans can get countries after struggling and
sacrificing for years why can’t dogs get shelters?
Sorry, I get a bit emotional when it comes to dogs. I’m a sensitive dog, err … I
mean human being.
Thanks to the numerous parties we have, I think the best place for dogs these days
is the GCU garden. What, dogs there already?
They say a flirt is a dog because he roams about aimlessly. Well, most of the
Ravians do exactly that. They say dogs drool with their tongues hanging out while flirts
drool when they see a gal. Well, most of the Ravians do exactly that. They say a flirt lives a
dog’s life. Well, ever been to New Hostel? If, with the reader’s permission I may digress for
a moment, I’ve noticed dogs bark first and then bite; most of the humans I know bite first
and then commence to bark. Does that make sense?
O’ you miserable people! Ever wonder why you have failed to develop and stand
among the civilized nations of the world? They keep their dogs in their bedrooms and their
bathrooms and are progressing and WE?!!? We are going down, you know why, because
we act like dogs but refuse to keep them with us. Think about it; go chew a bone.
T
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TOUCHÉ : THE EDITOR SPEAKS OUT!
o a large body of people enjoying hegemony over the nooks and corners of
GCU, there is but one intent, content and meaning behind life: to prove the
Editor to be the most unfortunate calamity ever to have hit Government
College University. Though the editorial board of The Ravi feels the same way,
nonetheless, in the greater interest of the student body, the faculty, South East Asia and
humanity in general, the Editor has determined to peep outside the cloak of journalistic
solitude and break the convention of Editorial silence thus far maintained. The Editor, at
the very outset, feels the urge to communicate that the purpose behind this ultimate riposte
is the service of mankind (especially womenfolk; preferably under thirty) the well-being of
all Ravians (not overtly or covertly opposed to me), and the prevalence of truth, honour
and justice.
T
To the historians who ink the scrolls of history, I entreat you:
Humanity must rise to the defence of this abandoned son of Adam!
A couple of days ago the Editor narrowly escaped a terrifying coup d'etat plotted by
certain MA students. The Editor was rendered unconscious with the aid of the reputed
socks of a certain resident of New Hostel, blindfolded, carried outside the University gates
and almost disposed off to the sewers of Nasir Bagh! As the Heavens would not permit this
heinous crime, the Editor gained consciousness while being carried – in rather indecent
manner – and produced the most hideous squeals ever heard. This heroic act managed to
gain public attention and the villains were compelled into abandoning their malicious plan,
leaving the Editor in the middle of Katcheri Road, where a horse had recently unburdened
himself. The perpetrators of this revolting felony must be brought to the altar of justice. The
Editor demands an immediate trial, proposes capital punishment and awaits
compensation. A letter has been dispatched to the President, the Press and the United
Nations in this regard.
Recently, the Editor was told, in rather unflattering terms, to keep his “big nose
outside the affairs of the students” (whose articles were denied print). Therefore, to this
bereaved and loathsome … err … I mean fulsome segment of Ravians, I the Editor in
person, would like to clarify, once and for all, that I am not an “empty vessel”, nor
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“intellectually challenged and physically bestowed” or “over-rested” and definitely not, in
any manner, “related to asses.”
Let us have an open trial; I have provided herewith, extracts from their
compositions, which, I am sure, will prove my point. Whether they deserved to be printed
or not, I leave the decision to the public.
I do not know why I am writing all this down … The felonious moon shines
alone like a magnificent (how romantic! I am going to use this image in some
poem) pearl playing hide and seek with menacing clouds. My hopes are all
dead, struck by a subtle doom (would not a dark face be better?)
Z. Nazir
Sir, you seem to possess a retrospective mind; an uncanny ability to use brackets and a
bad sense of humour.
Editor
The moderate function of human life is not the ossification of neutral ways.
Hunger for lust and for luxury is the innate secret that raises his prowess to
do even against humanity. All (man's) experiences, culture based and
biologically established, derive from an order, but at the end there seems a
futility when he asks himself who he is. Because, to be or not to be; that is the
question.
S. Noreen
If Hamlet had come across your reasoning he would not have needed to “feign” madness.
Editor
Mark my words; if you look around you will find truer truth and a whole range
of everything in infinite varieties … beauty both inner and outer, should be
like Lux soap. You can wash the rest? Yeah?
D. Talat
Mark my words; if you look in the mirror you will find a whole range of idiots. Yeah?
Editor
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I looked down over the parapet on the brown opaque water that the city had
soiled and muddied.
K. Nabi
X – Ray vision?
Editor
You can always be sure of the river. Sometimes the lion is in the inner cage
and you may not find a brass helmet outside the fire brigade station, but the
river is always there.
K. Nabi
I think this is what they call the “river of consciousness” technique.
Editor
My trouble is a deep and radical stiffening – a hardening of the arteries of the
spirit.
G. Ali
Intellectual constipation?
Editor
PS
This is what I told my professor when he said, "Why don't you give me your term paper?"
In the country, a bridge is a vantage point and a meeting place, but in the city
it is only a headstone.
S. Saleem
Something tells me you’re pre-engineering.
Editor
The modern man aches, he burns ... he yearns for companionship; his whole
being is set ablaze with agony, till he feels his inside turning into jelly.
S. Maqsood
What flavour?
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Editor
The important question is; why should an artist express his experienced
experience?
S. Mahboob
The important question is; who asked you to write?
Editor
The more the aesthetic value in a piece of literature, the more it will appeal to
the senses of the readers, and the more it will appeal, the more catharsis it will
create in the reader and the more it will create catharsis, the more it will be
educative and affective.
S. Mahboob
The more you keep on writing, the more people will keep on going mad.
Editor
The hollow words which have no significance actually reflect the glaring
reality that “YOU ARE NOT GIFTED.”
D. Fawad
Need I say more?
Editor
The fraction of time which separates the soul from the body and allows it to
warble in the air and dance on earth just like droplets of rain which are
brushed by the air from the right to the left and then from the left to the right;
that uncertainty of the soul which prevents it from espousing any other object
but nature is called "Moment."
A. Asif
"Timely" observation.
Editor
The Earth revolved around the sun for millions of years and as a result of this
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labour, a rose appeared on its surface, it again undertook the same labour and
a butterfly appeared on its surface.
R. Ahmed
It undertook the same labour again and this time you were born.
Editor
The Editor has also received court notices from a number of fuming ladies and gentlemen.
I shall take this opportunity to address them.
To Mr. Shahzad Saleem. {MA English}:
Your article on the usage of the English language was very enlightening. Next time, try
to write in English.
To Mr. Omair Rasheed. {BA Hons}:
Sir, I congratulate you on being elected the President. However, The Ravi is not
interested in the activities of the New Hostel Hooligan Society.
To Mr. Asif Majeed. {BA I}:
In the essay titled “Thoughts about great people” you were supposed to write what you
thought about great people, not what great people “presumably” thought about you.
To Mr. Sheharyar. {MSc Physics II}:
Everyone knows matter is composed of atoms. Please get a life.
To Mr.Shahid Mahboob. {MA II}:
NO! The Ravi is not interested in publishing your photo shoot.
To Mr. S. Ahmed. {MA Philosophy II}:
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I have sent your article to a psychiatrist along with your name and roll number. Consult
him at the earliest.
To Mr. Hassan Bilal Zaidi {Competitor for the Editorship of The Ravi}:
I shall see you in court.
To the In-charge of the Dramatics Club:
I am not implying that I was the right person, but you picked the wrong man for the role.
To the Advisor of The Ravi:
I shall never forget you struck my name off the University rolls!
To Mr. R. Mahmood Iqbal {MA English II}:
You still owe me Rs. 250.
When you’ve read all this, you realize this is probably what Shakespeare meant
when he said, “Here will be an old abusing of God’s patience and the King’s English.”
THEATRE OF ABSENCE
Sarmad Sehbai
Former Editor, Poet, Writer
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“Words have a posthumous tone.”
Taufiq Raffat
ords evoke the absence of things, they defer the image, but once the
object of desire appears, they fall silent against a Presence,
breathing and alive.
As 'Word' originates the very genesis, it is held sacred against the pagan and the
free-flowing nature of the image and since Visual is threatening and feared by the
Word, a culture of Absence is born that expresses itself in words and sounds; the
posthumous tones.
In a text-oriented society, Word must cancel the Visual to survive. It must
suppress and control the 'nowness' of performing arts. Dance and sculpture must be
declared profane. Natya shaster, the book of rassas, must be knocked off the shelves.
Buddha's statute must vanish.
What Word does to the Visual, embroidery of black ink does to the bodies of
actresses in our film ads; sanctifies and provides hijab to them.
Western rationalism and scientific revolution played havoc with the culture of
Absence. Remember the ad on MTV. Two modestly dressed Asian women go to the
pool shower and emerge in the next shot in their bikinis. The caption reads, 'Asia has to
change'.
The satellite eye casts a phallic gaze on a society that is wrapped in layers of
veils within veils; a womb like mystery. The phallic gaze hounds the veiled culture and
while the conflict to veil or not to veil becomes the ultimate dilemma, the dusky song
dies among floodlights, leaving one visible, and as we know, to be visible is to be
present.
W
Parday mein rehnay do parda na uthao,
Parda jo uth gaya to bhaithe khul jaey ga
(Don't lift the veil for if it is lifted the mystery will evaporate.)
No one could understand why the great Kathak dancer Naheed Siddiqui's
rendition of Faiz's poetry fell flat on the audience. Even Naheed couldn't comprehend
the incidentality of the Word in reference to body language. How could the combination
of two art forms and two great artists go wrong? Was Faiz's poetry lacking in something
or was there a hidden flaw in Naheed's performance? Was it the demonic revenge of
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art that had exposed the great masters? The visual and the verbal cancelled each other
and we had both Apollo and Dionysus, dead on the stage.
Kathak, a dance-form patronised by the Mughals, was more or less a textualised
version of Hindu dances, and in terms of craft still remains subservient to rigid
mathematical abstractions and intricate courtly manners. Perhaps the performance of a
kathak dancer could not out-manoeuvre its own textuality and the linear rendering of
the poem. Could it be that it's not going along but going against the text that liberates
the mercurial nature of the image like the death scene of the mother in Satyajit Ray's
Apu Sansar, which is done in cold silence but the whole screen shudders with emotion,
or a clip from Farjad Nabi's ‘Nusrat Has Left The Building,’ where we watch the
deserted streets inside the walled city against a text that narrates, khoob saja tera
angna baba, khoob saja tera angna.
Text is not just words but a given determinism. If the text narrates itself in
'duration' the Visual jostles for space. A painting banishes the serial 'unfolding' and tells
it all in one glance. In Art this dichotomy vanishes as it subverts the hierarchy of forms
and values; the linearity of narration. Here the Apollonian order is continuously
challenged and subverted by the Dionysius passion and the pagan force of the image.
Text and the visual, craft and passion, form and content, all are simultaneously
exorcised to create the miracle. Its alchemy, a mysterious and unpredictable freedom
from control and determinism.
The image preceding the word has its origin in pagan folklore, and in the
subcontinent, it has originated from Hindu animism. It is Lord Krishna who became the
archetype for the post partition Indian cinema, and continues to remain the same in the
dominant Bollywood blockbusters in the form of Amitabh, Shahrukh Khan and Govinda.
Pakistan, however, departed from this tradition to look towards the Mughal
princes and the nawabs of Delhi and Lucknow for her cultural identity. Inder Sabha, the
poetic opera taken as a model was later developed into the new theatre of Agha
Hashar, who made an attempt to blend colonial theatre with traditional notanki.
Theatrical rhetoric was at its height with Hashar. The native Sheikh-Pir, also known as
the Indian Shakespeare provided the model for the screenplay of Pakistani cinema.
The dance and music formula with havelis and castles nostalgic of Mughal glory
was occasionally intruded upon by western culture in the form of a villain which
eventually became Aslam Parvez with his smoking pipe and felt hat. He spent most of
his time in colonial bars drinking Vat 69. The villain of Pakistani Urdu cinema, along
with his props, was more of an amusement than a threat to the socio-cultural hierarchy.
He provided a brief interlude to the audience for some forbidden pleasures, a sneaky
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plunge into voyeurism. His was a marginal performance. If he lacked authenticity and a
real-life base, the hero commanded all the respect and popularity.
But in the early 1980s this hierarchy was challenged by the 'Other'. The fakehero of Urdu cinema faded against the spellbinding and charismatic personality of
Mustafa Qureshi and Sultan Rahi in whom boomeranged the long suppressed
archetype of the Punjabi folk hero, Jugga, the great dacoit. The birth of the Punjabi
villain destroyed the cinematic culture of Urdu movies. It was no longer the hero who
was fighting the establishment but the ruthless villain. The regional culture of folk
Punjab had toppled the mainstream aesthetics and the dying orthodox socio political
forces.
Close to the ruthless villain, stood the 'vulgar' comedian, pitching his show in the
Punjabi tradition of bhaands. The film-formula had its share of comedy that took over
the main plot with the growing popularity of comedians such as Munnawar Zarif,
Rangeela, and Lehri. No one wanted to see the inane idealisation of past grandeur. It
had turned into a farce.
It is not surprising to look at today's newspapers where all major theatre halls
are showing nothing but comedies.
Theatre advertisements proudly parade the kings of comedy. They are
announced as shehenshahs of zarafat, caricaturing the pomp and show of the Mughal
kings. Rangeela for one is an obvious hit on the Mughal king Mohammad Shah
Rangeela.
The 'vulgar comic' comes to life against the floodlights in his flashy clothes,
mixes Michael Jackson with Punjabi Rambo, pokes fun at the burger-families, mocks at
the privileged and the powerful, and offends the 'eminent-feminent' by doing mothersister to all those who cross his path. A series of stand-up comedians with a thin
storyline, the comedy theatre remains burlesque without any dramatic situations or
nuanced characters but the 'vulgar' comic is the laughter choking in the gutters of the
underworld, a miserable fool trespassing the orderly decorum, playing his trick with the
props of exhibitionism and bawdy movements, lampooning textual morality.
Flanked by the vulgar comic and the ruthless villain is the magnetic Punjabi diva
who stands opposite to the coy, dreamy, virtuous and de-sexed heroines of the early
Urdu cinema. The latent eroticism of the baji culture has sprung out full force on the
screen in the form of this energetic and sexually aggressive female gyrating to the
thrusting beat of Punjabi disco. She unfurls the feathers of defiance breaking the fetters
of artistic restrain and moral pretensions. Her desperate bursts of energy vengefully
subvert the mainstream aesthetics. The lineage takes its root from the evergreen rebel
Heer, Sohni, Sahibaan, and today she appears in the garb of Nargis who sought
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political asylum in Canada. She is the one who had provoked the anger of the high ups
by refusing to get off the stage. Our art critic, the armchair traveller of the stars, frowns
upon our own dirty dancing as in the high seriousness of our culture where text
narrates the moral order, spectacle has always been considered vulgar and common, a
low-caste genre, some leftover of the pagan world.
The vulgar comedian, the terrifying villain and the dirty dancer in the centre make
the great triangle of our 'get-real' culture. The trio rules the other Pakistan that lies
subliminally under the mainstream display of art and culture. They are the tragic flaws
of Pakistani performing arts. They all disorientate the audience and jolt them out of
hierarchy. They bring out a nightmare of grotesque figures of caricature and bathos.
The artistic poise, naiveté, and innocence are strangulated by graphic exaggeration. In
Pakistan, it is not art but the revenge of art, something that is self-annihilating.
What happened on the other side of the theatre market? There were groups who
were socially committed and politically motivated. Inspired by the Marxist revolution and
the newly adopted concepts of feminism and liberalism, they performed on streets and
in villages. They raised issues and brought socio-political concepts on stage. Anger
was the tone of their speech.
Unfortunately, on the eureka of parallel theatre, these self-styled Brechtians
spoke more of moral arrogance than the inherent irony of the epic theatre.
Alternative theatre did not have plots but manifestos. The actors talked to the
audience and never to each other. They did not have characters but hyperboles. Once
again, the text took over the Visual. Parallel theatre was not so parallel because its
reformative arrogance brought it to the same theological stance of the mainstream
establishment. Lapsing into moralising discourses, they avoided the existential crisis.
Oppression was textualised without the felt suffering, and hope was lauded without
instinctual celebration. It was politicking without humanity, power without sensuality.
The parallel theatre, in its enthusiasm, had broken the fourth wall and turned the stage
into a pulpit.
It was in the 1960s and early 1970s that on the fringe, young groups struggled to
explore the mystery and the magic of art. It was the mad mood of the post-partition
generation, which raised heretic questions and sought nirvana in music, dance, and
poetry -- the womb of art. It was the return of the Other, Dionysius grappling with
Apollo. In Pakistan, the movement of modern poetry revolted against the grammarians
and the custodians of conventional art. These were exciting times when the youth was
experiencing art through existential anguish and intuitional embrace of the Other.
Shakir Ali was painting his girl with the bird, Colin David his solitary nudes, Taufiq
Raffat was writing monsoon poems, Najam Hussain Syed was rediscovering Shah
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Hussain through his plays and poems, and Munir Niazi was exorcising words with his
surrealist images. Mystical voices of Pathanay Khan, Abida Parveen, and Reshma
were heard against the courtly mannerism of ghazal gaiky. Young girls and boys were
not doing G. B. Shaw or Moliere on their annual day celebrations but Strindberg, Ibsen,
Ionesco, Genet and Becket. There were no drawing room comedies, which provided
occasions to polish your English accent and to hobnob with the brown sahibs of the
country. This generation had made an existential choice of self-expression and
individual freedom that until then had been a virtual sin in a monolithic culture of textual
morality.
The answer to the heretic questions was nothing less than the wrath of God. In
the image of Cordelia, the fool was hanged by the men of stone. Fascism was
legitimised through divine rationale. The longest rule on this country had only one
basis, Absence.
Enters the 21st century.
The marketeer, hand in glove with the literary hack, has brought up the hybrid
child of cinema and theatre; television. They have a new text: monetisation of the
Visual. Here the Presence is deferred for the cash to take over. A feel good culture is
being cradled by the twin angels with their multinational wings fawning upon social
enlightenment. Ready-made statements are paraded and soundtracks of Hollywood’s
hits are clumsily aped on stage.
Hung on the transparent crutch of a detergent, led by the goat of his wit, limps on
the screen the Modern Gandhi, collecting plastic bags, a suave Caliban crawling under
the shadow of Arial. And a she-writer, above head and shoulders, allures young clients
to buy a shampoo.
But amidst this live farce, let's for a moment, reverse the situation by subverting
the main art scene. To our surprise we find not the hero but the villain fighting the
establishment, and to our common sense we realise that it's the vulgar comedian who
is playing the 'wise fool' and the 'whore' has become the stepping eve into the numb
boredom of a stony paradise, shaking the forbidden tree. Such are the semiotics of the
performing arts, processing real life from outside the theatre hall. But who will reverse
the scene. Shall we wait? He did say he'll come. He hasn't come yet. Shall we wait?
Shall we wait? Wait forever?'
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OF DETACHMENT, FALSEHOOD AND ABSURDITY
Dr. Saadat Saeed
Professor, Department of Urdu
racing the roots of Urdu Literature leads our intellectuals towards
disillusionment. Enver Sajjad, a prominent Urdu short story writer, observes
in "Kehar":
T
"Futile clouds are overshadowing the land shielding us. Our struggle for water ends
in vain. Where are the Fountains?"
We live under cloudless skies; our intellectuals have been anticipating showers of
creativity for ages. Their dreams lie shattered, their thoughts frozen, their pens either dry
or serving the purpose of writing eulogies. At times they ask: "Where do our intellectual
roots lie?"
For them Goethe’s words ring true, "Of turmoil's bitterest gain/Of love sick-hate/Of
quickening bought with pain." Iqbal alone, dealt with this question in his days. Bestowed
with an intellect par excellence, he attempted to integrate divergent Muslim communities
living in various parts of the world. A contemporary critic admiring him veritably states:
"He carefully considered the functions of poetry and literature as a vehicle of sociopolitical change. He was a multi-dimensional poet who, above everything, took upon
himself the responsibility to formulate a modus-operandi for the Muslims of his period in
particular, and mankind in general, in a period which was sterile and was looking towards
intellectual leadership. He combined in himself the thought of Nietzsche, Bergson and
Marx from the West, and imbibed the wisdom of the Quran and the philosophic thought of
the great Persian poet Rumi."
Our contemporary writers do not contemplate upon issues adequately before
attempting to resolve them. This is the primary reason behind their inability to gain and
maintain an audience. How can disillusioned and alienated writers fight the forces of social
injustice?Our writers are unable to conceive independent thoughts. Real literature always
emerges from political, cultural and theoretical dimensions of situational consciousness.
Conscientious intellectuals will never wonder, "Whither lie the fountains?"
They know the paths that lead to the fountains of creativity; it is a pity their pens
remain dry. They see the truth but avoid it. They recognize fabrications surrounding them
but seldom utter a word in opposition. They listen to the cries of people dying in Kashmir,
Bosnia, Africa, Latin America and the Third World but do not lift a finger. These writers “dig
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with greed for precious plundering.” Even our classical poets like Mir Taqi Mir, Nazir
Akbarabadi, Mirza Ghalib, Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi, Altaf Hussain Hali, living in the
feudal age, were sufficiently conscious about the wrecked ship of mankind. They shared
the sorrow, mourning, dread, pathos and crisis of their age. Today, Urdu writers are by no
means of one mind about purposive literature. Most lack the negative capability to portray
a man dying of tuberculosis and spitting blood on his own raiment. We all know that foreign
theories and alien concepts are gradually eroding our sensibility. The flowing oceans of
native concepts have been transformed into wastelands of slavery. Leaving aside a few
brave writers like Faiz, Faraz, Qasmi and Habib Jalib, none of our intellectuals had the
moral courage to call a spade a spade. Our intellectuals accepted opportunism as a new
virtue of contemporary literature. They claimed luxurious living as a human right.
The inquisition entailing significance is how can we create real literature? At the
moment, performing arts have assumed a solely commercialist position. Presently, our
literature is focusing on humanism, romanticism, criminology, hedonism and worthless
reformism that generate lust and frustration.
In this situation the only option left for the individual is to annihilate the possibilities
of his existence. There is no other way left for him except to waste the sources of his
creative self. TV literature, as I shall call it, is producing a mechanical conscience. The
tragic perspective of this literature imparts that human personality and emotions are
surrounded by “planned” limitations and dimensions. Can commercial literature be called
real? The answer lies in the negative because it negates “real” literature in the name of
literature itself.
Man and his society are grist for the commercial intellectual’s mill. He writes for
increasing his bank balance. He purchases new shares and tries to build an industrial
complex of literature and art. Old literary monopolies go bankrupt and new ones come into
existence. In such a situation how can writers compose with a free conscience?
In contemporary Urdu literature, the repetition of motifs such as detachment,
falsehood and absurdity seems to be the order of the day. One gathers that we have a
long way to go before we can think about questioning the rationale of such philosophic
positions.
These concepts occur in two different ways in our literature:
milieu.
1. Excessive use under the influences of new western literary movements.
2. Their natural growth in the background of the contradictions prevalent in our
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The second form becomes more meaningful when it is juxtaposed with domestic
conditions.
It is generally accepted that it is impossible for an individual to achieve absolute
freedom in a class-based society. According to Iqbal, this situation presents the weakness
of the “self.” Disoriented artists face several types of mental diseases. They find
themselves in a circumference of inaction. Committed artists and writers, on the contrary,
anticipate a society that allows for collective, personal and natural aspirations to be
fulfilled. In this respect, they struggle through their pens to realize the possibilities of
optimum human freedom. Instead of substantiating the ethos of the society based on
vested interests and passing a life of faithlessness, they struggle for a hopeful fulfilment of
the needs of a free human character.
The attack of Western Absurdist literature and scepticism with pronounced
emphasis on craft and detached from the social structure, has been alienating us from our
problems. The thoughts and culture in affluent societies differ entirely from those of
backward or underdeveloped societies. For us, social and literary experiences and styles
of the great writers of our age such as Eugene Ionesco, Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett,
James Joyce and several others can be acceptable only as a reference points; we do not
need to blindly imitate them.
The writers mentioned above lived in the era of scientific and technological
progress Space technology has widened the horizons of human flight immensely. Their
daily grind is relatively comfortable than the arduous living conditions in less privileged
tracts on the globe. These luxuries may not be harmful in themselves but their profusion
has created a situation of detachment, falsehood and absurdity.
Inventions were initially meant for the betterment of man and for making society
peaceful and comfortable. However, gross materialism and cut-throat capitalism have
prevented humanity from achieving its primary goal.
The motifs in contemporary Western literature and arts reveal that the Occidental
has become disrespectful, impatient, uncultured, angry, aloof, hostile, hopeless and
humiliated.
Nonetheless, he himself promotes oppression in favour of racialism. Drugs, alcohol,
mindless obsession with sex and war constitute his destiny. Quite a sizeable portion of
modern Western literature spins around eroticism and psychoneurosis.
Franz Fanon, George Lucas, Jean Paul Sartre, Eric Fromm and several other
writers and theoreticians have criticized the Western cultural scenario. They all agree that
the industrial and technical revolutions have resulted in the creation of socio-political
monopolies. Only the upper classes have gained social respect. The monopolists from the
affluent world have captured the economic resources and business markets of backward
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countries. Through their political mechanism, they can even steer the internal policies of a
third world countries. To execute their designs, they divide under-developed populations
on their internal issues. Problems concerning language, race and culture get importance.
The artists of these countries suffer from meaninglessness, servility, imported scepticism
and interest-stricken alienation.
Man, under these circumstances, thinks suicide to be the only solution. He becomes
detached and adopts the path of compromise.
Absurd Literature has no link with our existential dilemmas. We are living under the
influence of our particular indigenous meaninglessness, detachment and mistrust. Abul Ala
Moa'rri, an eminent Muslim scholar, writes, “Trust has disappeared from our time. Now the
origin of our wisdom is guesswork and presumptions. We ask a lion ‘Are you a lion?’ He
replies hesitantly, ‘Probably I am.’ ”
Our writers entangle themselves in psychic complexes springing from their
cowardliness, fear and mental poverty. According to Iqbal, this situation represents the
reality of disappearance or weakness of one's self. In other words, their mental syndromes
stem from situations concerning emotional and subjective repressions, existential and
moral inhibition and political and economic suppression.
Industrial and agricultural exploitation has ensnared not only our masses but has
also paralysed our artists mentally and emotionally. Several of them are not able to resolve
their inner contradictions, which lead them towards indifference and thoughtlessness. The
attitudes of indifference, exaggeration and shallowness have pushed teenagers towards
romanticism, unworthy commercialism, absurd idealism and erroneous experimentalism.
Our eminent writers endeavour to produce imitations of Western trends. They
disseminate in the fields of local literature, the seeds of Western mental disorders.
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WHEN GOD MADE ME…
AN INTERIOR MONOLOGUE
Miraat Farnaz Syed
Lecturer, Department of English
n the dead of night I was shaken out of my slumber by none other than my
very own little sister who skidded to a halt near my bed. The appearance of
the devil so nearby was enough to frighten away the last remnants of a
lovely dream…it was after ages that I was having a beautiful dream. Instead of being
usually chased around in the dark & dingy corridors by my friends cum foes who were
almost always armed with lethal weapons, I found myself wandering in the Grand
Gallery of the Louvre appreciating the grand masters…I was about to enter the Salle
des Etats when the crash & burn noises woke me up. Cursing my luck for the millionth
time in my life I woke up and tried to look as annoyed as I could…nothing doing…soon
I was listening to the lovely chatter of my sister who it seemed was reminded of her
home assignment at that very hour and came running to the usual scape goat…At
times I feel that my sun sign has a lot to do with it – Capricorn – the [scape] goat. Isn’t
it? Anyways she handed me a piece of parchment asking me to write an essay for her,
which she was supposed to submit the very next morning. Now it ran something like
this:
I
‘When God made me…He was simply showing off…’
I was about to raise a protest at this sheer flouting of my human rights...waking
me up & assigning me a task and looked up from the paper only to find her vanished
without a trace. Sitting up I felt like a nerd but in all honesty I did not appreciate seeing
the proof of it in the mirror. It was a sight to be seen…tousled hair, eyes hazy and
drawn and a piece of paper in my right hand…It presented a
Doomsday scenario and I was looking exactly like a person out of her grave and
about to be questioned, holding her deeds in her hand…hey! but wait a minute…why
do I think so negatively about myself all the time? I thought of delving deep into the
matter…upon closer inspection I discovered that it was not in fact an image of a scapegoat rather It was an image of a writer, a researcher that was staring back at me. With
this thought came a grin, which only accentuated my looks. With the angel of sleep
muttering a final farewell to me (I think it was a farewell or at least I would like to take it
207
that way) I could at last do one thing I have always been exceptionally good
at…ruminate…interestingly enough this time around the object of rumination was none
other than my very own image in the mirror. It had just dawned upon me that I had
always failed to notice my very own bookish appeal along with that lopsided grin…not
many people are blessed with that…with this modest thought the grin widened up to the
ears. And suddenly it came as an epiphany…When God made me He was simply
showing off…
“They must have broken the mould when you came in this world”, whispered
Vanity in my ears… My family keeps on saying that to me, isn’t it?
“But why is it that they only say this usually in the form of an outrage”, butted in
Sagacity, which couldn’t keep its mouth shut even at this odd hour…”Oh come on! It’s
only their way of expressing their love for me”, reinforced Stupidity bringing back my
fast fading grin to the surface…Of the aforementioned three sisters I love the third one
the most…its only she who acts as my guiding light in the times of trial & tribulation so I
owe it to her that I should pay heed to her more often. In this blissful state of mind with
the clock striking 12:30 I looked around and my eyes fell on the Half Blood Prince, the
latest Potter book. By that time I had already plunged deep into the river of humility
thinking about my accomplished feats and grand resolves. That very moment I was
reminded of yet another resolve made only a few hours ago before falling asleep…I
had sworn my allegiance to the DA, the Dumbledore’s Army, i.e.; vowed to kill Snape at
a single blow, mind you… and Voldemort…huh! This Voldy man didn’t have the guts to
face me…but then suddenly to my utter shock I found myself in the middle of it all. I
could see Snape running past me along with some other Death-Eaters. It was utter
chaos…the darkness illuminated by the burning cabin of Hagrid, the air filled with the
yelping of Fang who was trapped inside the cabin & the bellowing of Hagrid who was
standing outside…for a moment I thought I was freaking out, diving sideways to escape
the shooting rays coming out of the wands from different directions…but hey! What
about my resolve? Now God had provided me with this golden opportunity of seeking
my revenge upon Snape and better still stealing the limelight from all the DA
members…another opportunity to accomplish a grand feat. With this thought I ran after
Snape with my wand raised and my blood boiling with fury. I was running at my topmost speed thinking of all the curses that I had learnt by heart …”Crucio!” I shouted
pointing my wand at Snape only to find myself lying flat on the ground wincing &
writhing in pain. How could I forget this basic rule? The tip of the wand should have
been at Snape & not at myself. My heart stopped beating. I opened my eyes in full fear
of finding Snape standing over me crying Avada Kedavra…but what was this? Instead
of Snape I could see a familiar face standing nearby clad in her uniform & bellowing
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something at me, which was, kind of, strangely reminiscent of Avada Kedavra. I was
lying flat on the floor having fallen from my bed…though the pain in my back was so
severe that it seemed a fall from Eden. With one last angry look my sister snatched the
paper from my hand and stormed out of my room. The whole day through I could feel
myself haunted by that familiar feeling:
“Was it a vision or a waking dream?
Fled is that music---do I wake or sleep?”
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HER MAJESTY
Sohail Ahmad Saeed
MPhil ΙΙ
first noticed her person when I was about to enter the guest room of the Punjab
University Student-Teacher Centre along with my colleague. She was sitting
quietly and remotely by the water tap near the pavement leading to a veranda.
Her hands were holding a plastic bag very firmly. When she saw me observing her she
clasped the bag, folded her arms around it and hugged it against her bosom. It was very
early in the morning and I was tired after a two hundred mile journey, so I neglected her
and entered the room to take some much-needed sleep.
It was near noon, and after getting fresh we decided to have our brunch. Now with
open eyes I could see her profile in detail. She was busy in what seemed to be her
domestic activity when we came out of our room. She must be nearing her seventy or
perhaps was above seventy. She was fair complexioned, with an oval-shaped but wrinkled
face. Her hair, dusty and untidy or perhaps it were no hair at all but only something white
and brown which tried to hide her neck and ears successfully. Her small stature added a
sense of agility and swiftness to her movements. A dupatta round her shoulders, a printed
shalwar qameez and no chappal, she was washing her clothes or perhaps just soaking
them in tap water. She then wringed them and spread them over a hedge. That was all I
could see as we passed her on our way to the cafe.
After satisfying our hunger we ordered for tea. I lit a cigarette and gave one to Ali.
“Did you see that old lady Ali?” “Yes, she seems paagal.” “Yes she seems to be but she is
very calculating about her movements. Did you see the way she was washing and
spreading her clothes to dry?” “Yes that was impressive”, my friend agreed. We decided to
go to our room and to move for that day's appointment. Four youths were coming from the
opposite direction and seeing the old lady they said rather teasingly, “hello Meme sahib,
how are you. You are looking pretty this morning. Hey Meme sahib answer us. Madam.
Madam.” They passed her without getting any reply. But just when we were about to enter
the room we heard her hurling abuses at them. “Go say Meme to your sister, to your
mother, you @@@, $$$, %%%. She, I thought will never stop. It was a shock to us. Why
did she respond so late? However, the boys enjoyed all this and giggled with satisfaction.
For almost half an hour we heard her calling names to those wise guys. “Ali, she is very
eloquent and articulate”, I informed my friend. “She called these names in a very accurate
I
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and clear accent. And her vocabulary is quite rich and proverbial and peculiar as well”. “O
yes! The Roses”, Ali laughed and asked me to stop worrying about such a harmless fellow.
It was August and Lahore was hot and humid. There was no end to perspiration and
the room was uncomfortable for there was no air-conditioner. We wondered at the strange
architecture because the room was airtight. There was only one opening and that was the
door, which of course had to be shut during the night. However, it rained that night and the
weather suddenly became pleasant. We were in a good mood when we woke up the next
morning. There were mango trees in front of our room and many small plants in the grassy
lawn. “Ah, the touch of a garden”, I thought and considered myself lucky to be lodging in a
pollution free place. As I came out of the room to smell the freshly watered earth I saw a
small crow curiously sitting on a string. I was happy to see the young fellow for I hardly
saw any young crows. It looked cute with a blackish-brown beak and a wondering glance.
Then I realized that it was a complete family, a big one, resting on the nearby trees.
Suddenly all of them started their song and some of them landed across the hedge in the
other lawn just across the water tap and the roofed gallery. I took the jug to fetch cold
water from the electric cooler upstairs. And just then I saw Meme feeding the crows. She
was having a big piece of bread in her hand; her plastic bag rested under one thigh,
dupatta round her head and shoulders covering her chest. She was meticulously busy in
throwing the pieces of bread to the crows, young and old, and calling them to come and
eat. Her eyes, responding to the blush on her face, glowed like innumerable lamps. It was
not mere charity; she seemed to love the act. The crow family was responsive and was
obviously enjoying this unusual act of human generosity, for usually they are hated and
detested by almost every one in this country. She was talking to them but it was a strange
language. I couldn't make anything out of it. But the crows appeared to understand as they
hovered about her without fear ... and what is most incredible – without making any noise. I
had never seen so many silent crows at one place. The song was over. “What's wrong with
them?” I wondered. That evening I asked Sajid, one of the peons, about her, “Sajid, what's
her story? Do you know who she is?” “No sir, but she is harmless. I have been here four
years and she has not done any harm to anyone. She goes about her routine and just
stays near this veranda and water tap. You need not to be afraid of her. She is mad but as
I told you, quite harmless.” “But do you know who she is? Does she have a family?
Anyone? Any relative?” “Sir she was always alone as far as I remember. No one knows
her whereabouts. From where she came; we don't know. But some of the old storymongers of this area claim that she had a man with her who used to look after her. But
they never had a home of their own. Then he disappeared one day and no one saw him
again. He died or God knows what.
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One of the older fellows also told me that she is from India. But I have always seen
her alone here. I have never seen anyone visiting her. But she is harmless.” “But Sajid she
is abusive whenever someone addresses her as Meme!” “I don't know why sir, maybe
that’s her sport. What else can she do? They tease her and get rewarded. They deserve it.
What is their business to tease such a harmless woman?” I thanked him for his time. I told
Ali all this and he nodded without saying anything.
We were to leave in a day or two and I wanted to know her more. I don't know why,
but there was some mystery in her face which kept me enchanted. She must have been
pretty when young but now senility had painted her anew. There was a spark of life in her
eyes which mesmerized me. Her face was loveable because it was soft and friendly.
Though never near her I could smell her fragrance mixed with the fragrance of grass and
mango trees. She seemed to cast a spell on her surroundings and in these two days it was
already impossible for me to imagine the place without her. She was, I felt, an integral part
of the surroundings. The corridors, lawns. trees, grass, passerbys, crows and the water tap
– all incomplete without her. She was giving meaning to everything else by remaining in
obscurity. Inside the room, I was always aware of her presence outside. I felt an urge to
talk to her but I suppressed it, as I had no experience whatsoever of talking to mad
women. And throughout my life, since my childhood I was told and trained to avoid these
people. I was afraid even to go near her though I couldn't keep my mind off her.
It was to be our last day in Lahore. Ali had to visit some of his relatives living in the
Cantt. He planned to go there after lunch. I decided to stay indoors as it was very hot
outside. The wind refusing to come had given full room to the sun to mix its rays with
whatever water remained in the air and to shower it on our bodies, no matter how fast our
ceiling fan spun. It had been almost three hours since Ali had left. I was getting bored. The
evening was approaching quietly. As it was the last evening before our going home I
decided to have a short walk. I thought of the ever-attractive canal. The wide roads and the
canal in between them with a few boats and some water is a pleasant sight to those who
come but once in a while to Lahore. Just as I came out of my room I saw her sitting by a
tree. With her back against the tree and legs straightened she was perhaps relaxing. After
all, her home tasks kept her awfully busy. I remembered that she has to feed the crows
early in the morning, has to go to fetch her meals from somewhere, has to wash her
clothes, dry them and then fold them in a bundle to put them in that plastic bag, and most
importantly, she has to call names to all those who are jealous of her skills. She was in a
sombre mood. Everything was quiet about the place. Even the distant voices of the
pedestrians, and the sounds from the busy road were unable to disturb the charismatic
silence of the place. She was staring at something beyond my searching glance. She must
be looking very far away I thought. Unknowingly, I was within a few feet away from her
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when she changed her glance to catch hold of a nervous man near her. I cursed the
intensity of my absorption that often makes me unaware of my footsteps. Presently, I grew
uneasy being near her. But as I met her eyes, the spark in them seized my faculty of
thinking and I found myself sitting near her looking into her eyes. She smiled, no she didn't,
perhaps she did, I can't say anything for sure. I sat there for ages not knowing why. It was
a silent commune. We were just staring and staring; she had a piercing stare. Someone
laughed loudly and I rose from my stupor. I turned back saying, “Sajid was right, she is
harmless...” Overcome by a mysterious urge I turned and looked at her. She was again
looking at something that must have been hidden for my sight. I thought for a moment and
then the urge to communicate with her overpowered me and I said, “Amman, Assalam o
Alaikum.” She didn't reply. I felt stupid. “Meme, Assalam o Alaikum!” Nothing. Was she
tired or not feeling well? She must be for she didn't change her stance for a moment. I sat
down once again and whispered, “Amman, I have come from India. Your Hindustan.”
They say they had never seen her like that before. The place came alive all of a
sudden. The crows, the trees, and the grass, the corridors, the lawns, the pedestrians and
the water tap, all came alive with one stroke. There was such a hue and cry. Sajid ran for
my rescue. Meme had caught my trousers and she was crying and yelling in frenzy,
“Salam to your mother @@@, Salam to your sister you $$$ …”
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SIX DECADES OF INDEPENDENCE – CONSAMATTUM EST
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PAKISTANI AND AN INDIAN
Ahmed Zohaib
BCS Ι
Pakistani: Hello! How do you does?
Indian: Heh (smiles) rather fine, how are you?
Pakistani: Let me inform you that, I beg to state that with due respect, how happy
we are that India and Pakistan are now following doosti friendship.
Indian: Well, it took you some time to realize that, didn’t it?
Pak: Yeah. But let the graveyard bury the past.
Indian: You mean “let the past bury itself.”
Pak: Yeah, means the same, its all about burying, miti pao.
Indian: So, I take it you’re a Muslim. Are you a practising one?
Pak: Yeah. We practise creecut everyday in evening.
Indian: I meant do you pray regularly?
Pak: Absolutely, very regularly, every Friday.
Indian: I see, tell me have you done away with the other myths you used to cling to?
Pak: What you mean?
Indian: Do you still look up to your old heroes?
Pak: You see, we are not stagnant nation. We dynamite … ahh … dynamic people
and change with changing time. We keep on revolving our heroes. We follow laws of
advanced physics; hero today, zero tomorrow so new talent can come up.
Indian: I hear Pakistan tops the world in corruption.
Pakistani: We are placed on that list only because we forgot to bribe the bureau that
measures corruption rates.
Indian: Tell me, why are all the Muslim countries on the corruption list?
Pak: Muslim-brother unity; one goes, we all go.
Indian: So I see. And what has “Muslim-brother unity” done for Lebanon?
Pak: We burn tyres, destroy public property and chant “Down with Bush” every
month.
Indian: Ahh, I see, very good. I notice you don’t mind it much when your team
loses to India these days.
Pak: Yeah. That’s friendship. We are growing so friendly, soon we won’t mind even
if India takes over Pakistan.
Indian: You still have that mythical Two-Nation theory of yours.
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Pak: Don’t worry. Now, that theory means there are two nations inside Pakistan: the
rich and the poor, and these two nations can never become one and must have their
own cities, towns, houses and way of life.
Indian: What else?
Pakistani: To show our sincerity, this year we have celebrated Independence Day by
playing Indian songs on TV.
Indian: Good. That’s the spirit. We always were one nation; the stupid clergy
confused you guys.
Pak: Yeah.
Indian: So, no more Pan-Islamism?
Pak: Yeah, no more. We are out of the frying pan into the fire.
Indian: What do you mean?
Pak: The pan was keeping us away from the fire of progress. We’ve realized that
now and thrown it away.
Indian: Well, I believe you don’t revere those old conquerors anymore. Is the
Arabian Peninsula still the centre of your veneration?
Pak: No. We have new centre of ven … ventilation.
Indian: You mean veneration, and where would that be?
Pak: Bollywood.
Indian: Bravo! The real secular Jinnah would be proud of you today.
Pak: Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad! Dil dil Pakistan, Jan jan Hindustan!
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THE FALL OF HITLER
(Through the pen of Mr. William Shakespeare)
Aslam Iqbal
Published in The Ravi 1954
ACT  SC. 
Year: 1945, Place: Berlin
Enter Hitler, Goering, Goebbles, Himmler, Ribbentrop and officers.
Hitler: How now, can'st thou not see how doth the wind blow?
An Officer: All fareth well, my lord. Great Britain hath been licked, whilst USA lies
rotting in the Atlantic.
Hitler: Good! But methinks I feel some uneasiness about this whole war. Any fresh
news?
Officer: My lord, thy vassal waiteth near the wireless set, but so far the news
approacheth not. Our forces, me feeleth, tarry near Frankfurt.
Hitler: What villain! Who commandeth the 7th Panzer division? Oh traitors! Slimy
wretches; to play me false when victory is rushing out of doors to embrace our army.
Oh, treachery! Oh, infamy! Am I thus, to be tortured? Speak, thou low creature. Oh,
what a pale outside truth hath. (To Goering) Dost thou not comprehendeth my
situation? Succour me, brother.
Goering: Calm thyself, Hitler. Men, at times, are masters of their soldiers. The fault,
dear Hitler, is not in our army, but in ourselves that we are no good generals.
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Hitler: Goering, thou hast ministered to a mind diseased a balm and a potion that
hath a Freudian touch in it. Oh, that heathen Freud! But never fear; methinks I am
all right now. Friends (to officers) leave us now and do your duty – to the nation and
to the Fureher.
Officers Exeunt
Now, Goering, I want your help, your advice and your attention; tell me are we going
to be, after all that pomp and glory, licked by the accursed Allies? Is there really a
divinity that moulds our ends, machine-gun them how we will? Why dost thou not
speak? Tell me, is there really no hope, no victory, no choice?
Goering: Cousin Hitler, methinks I hear the droning of English planes, and, it says,
“Talk no more; Goering thou shalt not speak, Goering doth bore us – he hath –
murdered talk; talk that enlivens those damned political luncheons, and brings sweet
showers of joy, health and happiness.
Hitler: Pray, cousin, don’t be superstitious. If thou can’st talk, well and good. Adieu,
Goering, we’ll meet at lunch.
Goering: Adieu Hitler; Parting is no such sweet sorrow; And I’ll be happy if you die
to-morrow.
Exeunt
Hitler: To fight, or not to fight; that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The bullets and bombs of outrageous
Allies, or to advance men against numerous armoured brigades,
And by opposing end, myself. To fight; to hide;
No more; and, by hiding to say we end
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The tooth-ache and the thousand shell shocks
That an army is heir to, ‘tis a chance.
Fervently to be wished.
To hide; perchance to wait;
Ah, there’s the rub,
For in that hiding business
What enemies may come, when,
We have thrown off our stun guns.
Must give us pause. (Sirens go on).
What, audacious mortals, whilst thou come
So near my palace, my country.
I will show them what Harrenvolk can do.
Come you Luftwaffe, that tendon diesel engines
Finish them here. And fill me from the,
Parietal bone to ten do-Achilles, of direst cruelty.
Make strong our defences, and stop up
The access and passage to Germany. ,
That no sherman tanks shake my fierce purpose.
(Thunder and booming of guns.)
CURTAIN
ACT I SC. II
Eva Braun at the balcony of the Chancellery; Hitler standing on the pavement.
Pitch darkness. Air Raid precautions in vogue.
Eva: Oh, Hitler, wherefore art thou Hitler,
Renounce thy ambition, and refuse thy name
And we can still live happily in Brazil.
218
Hitler: Hark, my love speaks. Look the glow of her cheeks surpasses the glare of
those searchlights. But no I want my revenge. I am jealous; I must embrace that
green-eyed monster which mocks the sardines it feeds on. Revenge! Oh, Eva, thy
name is infidelity.
Eva: Ah, is it an illusion, or do I see my Hitler yonder. Why, darling, why so daring
and brave? Where is thy Gestapo escort? Where is Himmler? Why don't you come
upstairs? Stay, let me send the helicopter down to you.
Hitler: Eva, I desire to converse with thee on a serious matter. Thou seest this box
of chocolates I gave you last week; well, this box was found in the possession of
Henrik Himmler: Why did it go to him? Who gave him this box? Speak Fraulien Eva
Braun, I beseech thee to render me the reasonableness (or unreasonableness) of thy
conduct. Art thou quiet? Oh, all traitors? I am betrayed! But I'll have my revenge.
The English, Ruddy Hess, and a faithless woman are of imagination all compact.
Everyone sees more fiends than the Vast Nordic race can hold. Eva, I accuse you of
treachery, of infidelity to your cause, and of a certain degree of meanness that will die
with its owner.
Eva: Hitler, what art thou raving? I love thee, Hitler.
Doubt thou Germany is on fire
Doubt that the Allies doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar
But never doubt I love.
Hitler: Eva, enough no more. Thou hast out lived thy utility; I must extinguish this
candle and then I will die in peace. (Strangles her)
Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of a dictator. Today be puts forth
The armed might of Germany, tomorrow they conquer
And bear their blushing honours thick upon their bayonets;
The third day comes a time-bomb, a deadly bomb;
And, when be thinks, poor triumphant man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls as I do.
Falling like Lucifer, never to hope again.
Ah, Eva, with all thy faults, I love thee still.
(Stabs himself and falls dead)
Enter Goering, Goebbles etc.
219
Goering: After life's fierce fever, he sleeps well;
Treason has done him worst: nor steel nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign armies, nothing, can touch him further.
Goebbles: What dead; so soon!
Death lies on him, like an untimely frost
Upon the sharpest thorn of the field. Hitler thou art gone, but thy name will live
forever. In my funeral oration I will tell the people about you, my Fuhrer.
Himmler: Cousin, you can depend on me for any help. But see, the Red Army
approacheth Berlin and we must not tarry. Let’s evacuate thither to some obscure
corner.
Goebbles: No more, I shall have my way and do my duty. I still owe allegiance to
Hitler. (To his ADC) See that all arrangements be made in due time for the funeral,
Remember,
Age cannot wither him
Nor custom stale, his infinite variety.
CURTAIN
Act I Sc. III
Enter Goebbles, Goering, Himmler and numerous plebeians bearing the body of
Hitler.
Guns booming, missiles flying, planes droning;
Goebbles: Friends, Germans, Countrymen. Give me your tympanic membranes; I
come to bury Hitler and to praise him.
In fact, countrymen, to praise him first and then bury him.
The world hath told you (Damn it, but we must listen to them)
That Hitler was a dictator; if it were so (as it really were so)
220
Then I say, “So what!”
Hitler was my friend, faithless and unjust to me, to you and to all of us.
But I again say, so what!?”
(Voices) Yes, “So What!”
Goebbles: He hath brought many captives home
Whose ransoms, did his pickets full; Did this in Hitler seem cruel?
When that the Austrians have cried, Hitler hath laughed.
Dictatorship should be made of a milder stuff
Yet the world says he was just a dictator.
And the world, sure, is a damned mad house.
You all did see, that to the Reichstag,
He thrice showed the burning fire;
Was this just dictatorship?
You all did love him, without cause what cause withholds you Then to cry
for him?
O sense! Thou art fled to the Allies,
And Germans have lost their heads.
Bear with me, and I can take you safely out of Germany.
(Voices) Yes, we want security and peace, safety and happiness.
A Berliner: Methinks Goebbles does speak sense; but whether it is non or
just sense, I cannot tell.
Goebbles: O brothers! If you are shedding tears
Then prepare to stop them now.
You all do know this tweed jacket, I remember
The first time ever Hitler put it on,
'Twas on a winter's noon in his jeep,
That day he over ran the Czechs
Through this dear Hitler stabbed him self.
And as he plucked his good blade away;
Mark how the blood of Hitler followed it.
Judge, O’ you gods, how dearly Hitler lov'd himself;
This was the kindest cut of all.
For when noble Hitler stabbed himself
Gratitude, move strong than uncertainty
Quite chloroformed him; then burst his mighty heart,
And at the base of Bismarck's statue, dear Hitler fell.
O what a fall it was, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us went in the trenches,
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Whilst bloody planes roar'd over us.
(Voices) Burn those damned planes.
Where are the ack-ack guns?
Shelter, security, to the trenches.
(The drone of aeroplanes increase, sound of explosions)
Ghost of Roosevelt appears.
Ghost: Goebbles, beware the Ides of September.
Goebbles: Who art thou? O’ no. Thou hast no speculation in thine eyes.
Go, I don't fear thee.
Ghost: Beware of Ides of September and we'll meet again. (Vanishes. Noise
and the din of battle increases; planes, tanks, trucks etc. In the back ground
are seen Allie's tanks and forces advancing. The crowd gets panicky and
disperses)
Enter Stalin, Churchill and Generals Montgomery and Eisenhower.
Stalin: Stay there, fellows: listen. Thou art conquered, All that served Hitler, I
will entertain them. Go all of thee to East Germany.
Churchill: Hitler was the noblest German of them all.
He was nervous, and the super-ego and the Id
So mixed in him, that a psychiatrist ...
Might stand up and say to all the world
This was a specimen of daemonic abnormality.
CURTAIN
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SHOT ON LOCATION
Sarmad Sehbai
Former Editor The Ravi, Poet
f course, I am watching! I am watching! It’s the seventh day isn’t it? Oh
you did see that? They called it a symphony, yes dear, it was music in
the air. I loved the title. Don’t you think light designing was superb, and
my god, those fireworks reminded me of the 2001 carnival? Remember how we
greeted the new century. Shot on location, I can't believe so many people dying in a live
show. And I believe they didn’t use any special effects, isn’t that great. Oh, did you cry,
did you? Oh my god, poor you, but let me confess, so did I. Now what was that scene?
Was it the child looking for its mother or just the other way round? I mean the mother
looking for her baby, no, no, let me guess, yes, it was the mother, what riveting realism!
It was indeed a shock and awe show, life is so numb, and here is some excitement. A
willing face to be embraced by fire, an eye opening to a flame, a hand extended to be
amputated, a limb generously offered to the guests. Who has ever seen such hos-pital-ity. No, we made it on the sofa, three hits as we watched and watched, yes, we
clung to each other as if we had lost something, or we were about to fall apart. Yes
dear, those bursts really turned us on. Did you see those bearded men thronging the
narrow streets, celebrating, saluting the guns with roses? They looked so glamorous
under the giant wings of the sweet bird of liberty dropping those mouth-watering
biscuits
You see there is a whole new vocabulary of visual arts here. Like I loved the
kinetic targeting, the soft bombing, don’t you find it erotic? Soft bombing. I specially
liked the armless boy who looked like a cross. What was his name? Ismail or Ali?
Never mind, but it was a real treat; he had gifted his arms to the liberators. They say he
could always hug his uncle with plastic arms. Yes, there are Charities for it. The sight
was really a tearjerker. I was so depressed that I went for the Chinese soup and had a
hair cut in the afternoon. Oh you too were depressed, and what? Oh you were ready
with your S&M kit? How smart, I know it can calm you down. I guess you are right, I
remember when they showed rape clips from Bosnia, played all those screams and
mouth gagging. Isn’t it funny What they did in Bosnia we did it in our bedrooms. Wait,
let me check what they are showing next, oh yes, hang on a sec. Dear me, they say,
“Don’t go away. We’ll be back with you after the break. Stay on. Don’t leave us .There
is more to come.” Yes, yes, there is more to come!
O
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UNTITLED
Sania Sehbai
Former Editor The Ravi, Psychologist
otionless he lay, eyes moving, brain stuck on an audio track, his mother
saying “beta these people don’t belong to anyone, with no family, they
are freaks, stay away,” he stretched his arm jerking away the unwanted
shadow, irresolute it stood on his head.
Noor was born to a schoolmaster. He was obsessed with drawing, as an infant he
drew on his mother’s bosom, tiny hands making circles, waves. When he chose to become
an artist, his conventional parents were shocked but for him everything mundane was
meaningless, he had a passion in his narrow hawk eyes.
For Deena, Noor was fascinating, totally driven, not pseudo-artist but his blood
colouring the canvas. Her father Mr. Shirazi a rich industrialist, thought sending his
daughter to an art school was fashionable, he talked about Sadequain’s collection hanging
in his drawing room. He paid a heavy price for his love of collecting art, as Deena burst
into his office one day dragging in, Noor the poor artist.
Every evening Noor collected money to buy a bottle of local vodka. Only that brand
put magic in his fingers, making him draw and paint all night like a mad man. Two years of
poverty and surviving off scraps of Mr Shirazi’s kitchen, Geeti Ara was born. She bought
luck with her. People started walking away from Shirazi’s boring parties into a poor living
artist's exhibition in a caravan. Soon everyone in Lahore had to own a Noor painting.
Geeti Ara started learning ballet when she was four and kathak at six. Being the
offspring of artists, much was expected of her.
Noor in his new sprawling house was generous to fellow artists. It was an open
house. Everyone, no matter how weird, was welcome.
Finding herself dancing, Geeti performed exquisitely all over the world. In Canada
she met Mark. Unlike Pakistani males, Mark wasn’t chauvinistic, he was enlightened. He
appreciated her dance and accepted her for who she was. Mark made small obscure films.
All the colours of spring baffled them as they landed in Lahore. At the annual Shah
Jeevna Mela they experienced the phenomenal Maru Sain. In a fit like frenzy he played the
dhool and went into a trance dancing the dhamal, it was orgasmic. Mark wanted to make a
film of his composition of dhool with Geeti Ara dancing to it.
Maru Sain was very reclusive. Matu was his only chela who stayed with Maru like a
shadow. He diligently picked up every paisa every rupee note showered on Maru Sain.
M
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Later on this money would buy them hash, food and heroin that Matu occasionally
enjoyed.
Noor’s contact introduced Geeti and Mark to Matu. They invited Matu over to the
house. It worked like a charm, Maru Sain completed a mind-blowing composition with
Geeti Ara and Mark filmed it skilfully. Matu responded well to heroin and Geeti Ara,
whatever she said he abided by it. With Matu’s relentless efforts, Maru Sain’s life and
performances were also recorded. The film was a great hit in art circles and won many
international awards.
Matu became the invisible part of the family despite of his addiction and odd
behaviour. Mark and Geeti were engaged and started work on new projects.
It was a cold freezing night in Lahore but Noor’s house was nice and cosy with Geeti
packing and chatting. It had been a long busy trip as she and Mark had been buying things
for the house. They were getting married next spring. Noor teased her, “ your fan Matu has
been coming around everyday hoping to see you, how disappointed he will be to hear that
your are getting married and left without seeing him.” Geeti smiled fondly at her father and
said, “ I know abba but you know we don’t need him, our work is done.”
Noor left and Geeti Ara was alone in her bedroom humming a folk tune. Suddenly
from the bathroom door Matu sprung out, he had been hiding there waiting for her. He was
shaking; he started screaming, “I’ve thought of you every night while I laid next to the
stinking garbage. How beautiful you seemed yet so faraway, I just wanted to hold you and
smell your hair, so the stench of garbage would go away. I won’t let you marry anyone
else.” Mark came in, he had heard the loud voices. Matu shouted, “Not him.” in a second
he shot Mark, he fell down Matu then turned to Geeti who was holding Mark’s head in her
lap, he shot her straight in the heart.
In slow motion Noor saw Geeti being shot and falling on Mark, he ran to hold her
when he felt something tearing him, paralysing him. Noor lay there in the pool of the
collective blood of his daughter, his son-in-law to-be and his own, helpless, just staring at
Matu’s crazed eyes, Noor’s eyes asking him, “ Why?”
Noor’s mother’s words banging in his head as his heartbeat started sinking, “Beta
be careful, these people are freaks.”
225
TWO GRAVES AND A CAPER
An anonymous Old Ravian
Two graves and a caper
At the head, shading both…
Things meaningful and words hold together;
Words mean but never complete,
Thoughts stay half in dark.
So unthinking mind spins and weaves
To rediscover the lost link,
Entertaining new dreams,
Hoping, would come true, never complete…
The lateral half always stays in haze,
The other awaits.
The day lost is the day won,
One seeks the other, nevertheless
The other winks, but never
Rejoins the other half,
The ubiquitous world
Of murder and plunder,
Continues to lace patterns
Never revealing the truth,
Sought in harmony.
Words cheat and dreams too.
226
IF I COULD FIND A FRIEND
Sameer Afzal
FA ΙΙ
If I could find a friend today,
I would not ask for a greater store
If just one soul creeps near and say,
Shall we be comrades till yonder shore?
I would not count my gold tonight,
When the busy labour ends
My heart a greater wealth would hold
If I could say “I made a friend”.
If today, a friend I could find
Amid labour and stress,
Some toiling brother, a kindred maid,
Sure I shall deep seas wade.
It would not matter what reward
The toil has brought me on the way,
I shall say, “I thank thee lord”
For I’ve made a friend today.
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THE QUAKE TRIPTYCH
Ather Tahir
Former Editor, Poet
i.
Neelum Valley
Days it took
Down slopes, goat-tracks, gullies.
Of resting
Under autumn sky, leaf-less trees, by boulders.
Days with no food.
Water only from the mountain springs.
For days
I carried her
On my hands like an offering
With others bearing their wounded
Bruised, scarred, of broken limbs
On string cots, cotton-sheet stretchers.
The village collapsed on itself
Like steam-puffed chapatti off the griddle.
My mother's shawl bright
With flowers of summer pastures
Was dust-soiled, torn like her.
We buried the dead.
At the edge of the cornfield.
There were so many.
Rows of grownups, children.
All linked by blood
Or terraced fields
Our ploughs had shared.
Down, above the river
The dirt-road had cracked
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Like an over-ripe melon.
Rocks blocked
This life-line on the skin of slopes.
Mountains made new slants over village after village.
We reach town.
The hosp'tal, all we see
Fallen down.
Doctors in tents.
Here our own desolation
Many, many times is multiplied.
ii. Balakot
Houses here.
Shops selling pencils and copies and books and sweets there.
An ironmonger, a shop of house-things
And atta and oil and lentils
And tea-packets strung like pennants here.
And my school there.
A road from here
Over the bridge, over the icy river
To the forest and mountains there.
There was all this.
And people.
The bazaar is gone.
The houses, road, bridge, many people, my school, gone.
My friends' voices gone
Under the rubble like their bodies.
Some found. Twisted.
Dust covering them like shroud.
Others they searched for.
With iron rods and pick-axes and spades
Bare hands. Searched day after long day
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Among the debris and books and open satchels
For one, any one, who may still be there.
iii. Muzaffarabad
Giving always
To ploughshare tilt
Through seasonal sprouting
Perennial plenty, bearing branches
In cultivated order or nature's own way. This land.
With a shiver
The earth's dark design
Pushed the present into the past.
This is how the land can speak
A land pushing against itself.
Snows have come to mountains
Whitewashing pastures and pines
Denuding the late-fruit trees.
The wind carries seeping chill
To where we now stand, sit, sleep.
Not beyond measure
Yet all must submit to it.
And attend in the placid afternoon
To the slow, long aftermath.
And begin again.
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RESTLESS POEMS
For a beggar woman outside Pak Tea House in Lahore, frequented by poets,
writers and artists
Sarmad Sehbai
Former Editor The Ravi, Poet
First Portrait
Are you the mad spirit of the town
Or a witch whose shadow
Hovers over kids
That grow up on savage streets?
Under mercury lights
Solemn men drop
Calculated charities
Onto your thighs unwrapping
Like a book rest,
It’s hectic all night
Your face, a scream
Condensed to a shape
Eyes, two charred words
No poet will ever use.
And within the rib cage
Is trapped
Every wounded being
Tat has coughed out its life
Desires, the fevered moths,
Fritter against aimless lights.
And to your chest
Hangs a mass
Of unbearable poems.
Second portrait
For a beggar woman outside Queen Mary School, carrying an imaginary child
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You bring a vague dream
Into the washed sunlight
Of a children’s park
Who do you rock in your arms
Wishing its troubles
On yourself?
Strange mother
What sort of child is this
Who doesn’t even blink
But whose heart beats
Below the city’s galore?
Perhaps one day
Your child will be born
Or could it be
We have already killed it
And you wander among us
Looking for the murderer
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IN DYING KASHMIR
M. Munir Mian
Published in The Ravi, 1953
In a distant mosque, the muezzin calls
In a muffled chant from the House of God;
And Death grins behind ruined huts – in Dying Kashmir.
The hope of freedom glimmers still,
In dark alleys the murky eyes and
Despairing sighs yet measure time
In Dying Kashmir.
The moon caught pale in the Dale,
Pants like an ardent belle aching for love, and
Waiting for her beau, long over due
In Dying Kashmir.
The drone of planes in the silent sky,
The piercing bursts of machine-gun fire,
The muffled sobs of the mothers of the dead,
The Nightingale's songs, turned into wails,
Make the Hatos pause over their, Cha' a,
Make them wonder in despair,
Will freedom come? in reward for the fallen,
To those about to fall, And those who are living,
Though worse than dead
In Dying Kashmir.
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CONGRESS OF HELL
Allama Mohammad Iqbal
Old Ravian
Translated by R.A. Butler
1951-1996
Professor of Italian, Government College, Lahore
SATAN
The elements weave their ancient dance
Behold this wild world,
Dust and ashes of the hopes of Heavens’ exalted dwellers!
That Creator Whose “Let there be” made all things,
Today stands ready to annihilate them,
I it was who drew in Europe’s brain the fantasy of Empire,
I who snapped the spell of the mosque, of church, of temple,
I who taught the homeless that all is ruled by Fate,
And filled their guardians with capitalism’s hot frenzy,
Who shall quench the devouring blaze in him whose paroxysm,
The fires that rage in Satan’s soul have fed,
Or bow the crest of that time-withered palm,
Whose branches I have watered to greatness!
FIRST COUNCILLOR
Firm, without doubt, is the sovereignty of Hell,
Through it, nations have ripened to rot, in servitude
Wretches whose destiny is from age to age, to kneel,
Whose natures crave a prostrate worship,
No prayer uttered erect in which high desire can come to birth,
Or born, must perish, or grow misshapenly,
From our unceasing labour this wonder blooms,
Priesthood and sainthood are now servile props
For alien dominion Opium such as theirs was medicinable to Asia,
Had we needed,
The sophist’s art lay ready, no less potent than droning psalm,
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And what if the pilgrim zeal still shouts for Makkah and the Ka’bah?
Blunt is grown the sheathless scimitar of Islam!
To whose despair stands witness the new fangled canon,
Anathema, the Muslim who in this age draws his sword in holy war!
SECOND COUNCILLOR
The many-headed beat bellows for power,
Is this our bane or boon?
You have not learned what new mischief are about the earth.
FIRST COUNCILLOR
I have learned, but my scrutiny of the world assures me
Of no danger in what is only a fig-leaf hung to lust of Empire.
Was it not we, who dressed autocracy in democratic costume?
The true power and purpose of dominion lie elsewhere,
And do not stand or fall by the existence of Prince or Sultan.
Whether parliaments of nations meet or Majesty holds court,
Whoever casts his eye on another’s field is tyrant born.
Have you not seen in the West those demon governments
With rosy faces and all within blacker than Chengiz’s soul?
THIRD COUNCILLOR
While tyranny’s spirit lives on,
No fear should come to trouble us!
But what answer shall we give to that accurst creature,
That vile Jew,
That prophet of no Sinai, that Messiah without a Cross,
No Messenger of God, yet in his claps a Book?
How shall I tell you
How many a veil those godless eyes have shrivelled,
Heralding to nations East and West their day of reckoning?
What dire pestilence could out go-this!
The slaves have cut the ropes that held their lord’s pavilions.
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FOURTH COUNCILLOR
In the halls of mighty Rome, behold the anecdote
We have revealed once more the dream of Caesar
To Caesar’s offspring,
Whose strong arms enfold the Italian sea and make its tumbling waves
Now soar like the pine, now like the rebeck sob!
THIRD COUNCILLOR
He! When he casts the future, I do not trust him,
He has stripped Europe’s statecraft all too naked.
FIFTH COUNCILLOR
(TO SATAN)
Oh you whose fiery breath fills up the sails of the world!
When it pleased you, brought to light
All mysteries in your furnace earth and water
Become a planet panting with hot life.
We, once Heaven’s simpletons,
With you for teacher have come to knowledge,
And no deeper skill than yours in Adam’s nature has he whom men,
Poor innocents, magnify as their Preserver,
Whilst they whose only thought was prayer
And sanctification and rosary
May hang their heads in everlasting shame, mean beside you.
But though you have for vowed disciples, all the shamans of the West,
Their wits lose credit with me.
That rebel Jew, that spirit of Mazdak come again!
Not long, and every mantle will be rent to shreds
And tatters by his fury.
The desert crow begins to plume itself
Among the hawks and eagles
Dizzily the face of the world goes altering!
What we blindly thought a handful of blind dust
Has blown whirling over the vast of the skies,
And we see trembling, so deep sticks
236
The terror of tomorrow’s revolution,
Mountain and meadow and the bubbling spring;
Oh Master! On the brink of chaos lies
This earth whose sole reliance is your sceptre.
SATAN
(TO HIS COUNCILLOR)
Earth, sun and moon, celestial spheres,
All realms of matter lie in the hollow of my hand.
Let me once fuel the blood of Europe’s races,
And East and West shall see with their own eyes
A drama played out!
With one incantation I know how to drive mad
Their pillars of state and princes of the Church.
Tell the wise fool who thinks our civilization fragile
Like a glassblower’s workshop, to destroy its cup
And flagon if he can!
When nature’s hand has rent the seam,
No needle working logic
Of communism will put the stitches back.
I be afraid of socialists? – Street bawlers,
Ragged things, tortured brains, tormented souls!
No, if there is one monster in my path
It lurks within that people in whose ashes
Still glow the emblems of an infinite hope.
Even yet, scattered among them steadfast ones
Come forth who make lustration of their hearts
With contrite tears in the pure hour of dawn;
And he to whom the anatomy of the age
Shows clear knows well, the canker of tomorrow
Is not your communism; it is Islam
I know its congregation is the law’s upholder now no more
The Muslim runs with all the rest,
Makes capitalism its creed;
I know that in this dark night of the East
No shining hand that Moses raised to Pharaoh
Hides under his priest’s sleeve.
237
Yet nonetheless, the importunities of the hour conceal
One peril, that somewhere the Prophet’s faded path
Be discovered.
A hundred times beware, beware, that Prophet’s ordinance,
That keeps safe the honour of women,
That forges men and tries them,
That bears a death warrant to every shape
Of servitude, admits no Dragon Thrones,
Knows neither emperor nor roadside beggar.
It cleanses the wealth of every foulness,
Making the rich no more than stewards of their riches;
What mightier revolution could there be
In thought or deed that it proclaims:
Earth’s soil belongs to no earth-monarch,
But to God?
And well for us if those enactments still
Lie buried smugly out of sight and mind!
Felicity it is,
That the Believer himself has lost all faith.
Long may he halt entangles in the maze of divinity
And glozing comment on the sacred word!
May daybreak never invade the obscure night
Of that God-meditating folk whose creed
Might burst the spells of all the finite world!
Whether the Son of Mary perished once,
Or knew no death:
Whether the attributes of God from God are separate
Or are God’s true essence:
Whether “He who is to come”
Betokens the Messiah of Nazareth or
Some new Reformer clothed with Christ’s own vesture:
Whether the words of scripture are late-born or from eternity,
And which answer holds salvation for the chosen people:
Let those theologian’s graven images
Content the Muslim of this country
Keep him a stranger to the realm of action,
That on the chessboard of existence
All his pieces may forfeit
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Good, if he lies down in slavery till the day of doom,
Relinquishing to others what he calls
A transient globe,
And hugging such belief, such minstrelsy,
As serve to keep his eyes
Well bandaged from the theatre of life.
For yet with every breath I dread that people’s
Awakening whose religion’s true behest
Is to hold watch over all the universe,
Keep its wits bemused with dawn
Potations of its dregs of thought and prayer;
And tighten round its soil monkish bonds!
239