A Piece of Land in Search of a Nation!

September 05, 2008

Shamas-ur-Rehman Toor

It was early morning of August 14^th this year when I was sending “Happy Independence Day” text to my local and international fellow Pakistani friends. I was wished them the Independence Day and also prayed to Allah for peace, prosperity, and harmony in the country. As I was sending the SMSs, I was receiving responses from my friends, mostly in form of “same to you”, “Jashn-e-Azadi Mubarik”, “Pakistan Zindabad”, etc. But then came a message from a very valued friend, Mansoor Bhai. The text read, “61 years ago, a nation was searching for a piece of land. Today, a piece of land is searching for a nation; Happy Independence Day!” The message struck me. It felt the profoundness of the truth it told. It pinched deep in my heart. I was both touched and sad. The sense of an insight got mixed with the thrill of the Independence Day. I picked up my cell phone and dialed the number of Mansoor Bhai. A usual warm, energetic, sincere, and welcoming voice greeted, “Happy Independence Day Shams Bhai”. I said slams and told Mansoor Bhai that, “I was truly touched” by his message. I told him that his message “said a lot in a single sentence”. “You are right, I took it from a book written on Pakistan”, said Mansoor Bhai. I talked to him for a while, reminded him about the function on August 16^th (Independence Day Celebrations that I had organized on the weekend) and then hanged up. But the words had done their job, deeply engraved on my thoughts, and carved on my heart, “61 years ago, a nation was searching for a piece of land. Today, a piece of land is searching for a nation”. These words never left me any day until I am writing this, almost three weeks later, on September 5, 2008.

But how true is this! Today, Pakistan stands a nation divided on several grounds. We are divided by political differences. We are divided by invisible yet strong and tall walls of provincialism. We are first Punjabis, Sindhis, Blochis, and Pathans. We are Pakistanis in the end. Our regionalism has engulfed our nationalist spirit. Our local differences have overwhelmed our concerns for the country.  We are Pakistanis divided in locals and Mahajrs. We claim to be an Islamic republic yet we are divided by our sects. Pakistan was founded to give equal opportunity to all Muslims – and of course all minorities – yet as we see that we are divided into ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, the rich elite and the poor, the resourceful and the depressed, the feudal lords and the mazaras, the industrialists and laborers, and the powerful and the weak. We are divided based on our economic interests, our social classes, and even our casts. We are one country yet a divided nation. I remember reading one of speeches of Quaid-e-Azam in which he said, “united we stand, divided we fall”. How much have we really honored the words of our beloved Quaid? We are an utterly divided nation in every dimension. No wonder we have underachieved as a nation and country.

How sad is this! We have too much in common yet we are divided. The threads that tie us together are far stronger than the gaps of our differences that divide us. We are one Pakistan and one nation, tied in a strong social fabric that was woven over centuries. We may be culturally diverse but there are so many parallels that can be drawn across our cultures. We may speak different languages but we all know Urdu –   In fact, I am learning some Sindhi these days and I am astonished to notice a huge similarity between Sindhi and Punjabi. After all both provinces are geographically so close and have enjoyed historical ties through trade and agriculture. After all Allama Iqbal had rightfully pointed out that the four provinces – which currently constitute Pakistan – were most suitable to be merged together into a federation. As a country with Muslim majority, we may differ in our schools of thoughts but we believe in One Allah, one Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and one Quran. We may say “amen” aloud or silently, but we still pray towards Ka’ba and fulfill our foremost religious duty. We may even follow different religions but we still share the values that our elders have taught us. The values that underscore hard work, compassion, mutual respect, integrity, honesty, harmony, and peace.

We have sadly come to be less tolerance but more aggressiveness, less considerate but more revengeful, less actions but more talk, less work but more expectations, less contribution but more demands, less ingenuity but more hypocrisy, less reason but more analysis, less logic but more argument, less knowledge but more information, more claims but less substance. We seem to have lost the sense of direction amid the era of globalization. When other nations are forgetting their local differences and developing a sense of reconciliation, we are encouraging hostilities and going nowhere. We have seen India overcoming the differences of its hugely diverse population from north to south and east to west. We have seen China building itself as a united nation upon its diverse cultures, geography, and over 50 ethnic groups. We have seen the shattering of Berlin wall diminishing the differences among East and West Germans. We have seen South Africa emerging as a strong nation after the demise of Apartheid. We have seen South and North Vietnam coming together to build a progressive country and a rapidly growing economy. We have seen countries like Singapore, Malaysia, UAE, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, UK, and USA who enjoy peace and harmony despite their diverse nations. Aren’t these examples enough for us to see ourselves as one nation and one country? If over one billion Indians and 1.3 billion Chinese can live in peace and harmony, why can’t we 162 million folks achieve the same?

We are proud to have “unity, faith, and discipline” on the emblems of our organizations but we are nowhere close to what Quaid envisioned as Pakistan. We have not even started moving towards that direction. How can a fragmented nation move in one single direction to achieve one clear goal? We have become a nation that is forgetful, with short memory, and as if our senses are either paralyzed or simply dying away. We choose politicians who have been tested and failed repeatedly. Our social systems are frail at the best and corrupt at the worst. We put our personal interests before our country interests. Our social customs have lost the message of our religion. Dual standards have become our standards. Our sayings and actions do not match. Our work ethics have grown poorer and corruption has soared in the society. Our laziness has won over the tirelessness that our forefathers have had.

We also do not take the ownership of anything we do. We shirk personal responsibility, let alone collective societal conscientiousness. We think everyone else should be responsible but me. If change has to come, it should just be air-born and I do not have to do anything that undermines my very personal interest. I am open to progress but this is change I object to. This attitude has taken the nation far away from taking collective measures in all aspects of life.

Touching on social customs, we have adopted everything from the west and forgotten what our original heritage was. We feel proud of doing things in western way and showcase a fashion statement of our so-called progressive attitude. We feel proud to talk English and the very fact that we are growing poorer in our own national tongue, Urdu. Our chests expands when we tell others that our children go to convents schools and are not very good in speaking Urdu. They hardly manage to speak the Urdu they have picked at home or from their cousins. We also feel proud when our children behave in cool western ways. We feel delighted telling others that our children now watch foreign channels and hence have been influence by some foreign ways of life. We don’t care if our new generation is not respectful to the parents or not carrying forward the values of our very own culture. We don’t even think of telling our kids anything about religion. We assume that the kids would pick the religion sometime during life, perhaps when needed.

We do not set examples for our children to follow. We discourage those who do things differently, to defeat the pseudo-modern culture. We don’t even care if we are feeding our kids with Halal money or the money we have earned through corruption or other illegal means. And we expect our kids to be humble, respectful, and obedient. How ironical is that! Eventually, the kids grow up confronting their parents and becoming a burden on the society. But that is how we have been shirking our individual as well collective responsibilities.

We are not ready to change our social customs. No matter what, we will go to every length to showcase our wealth and boast our power to others. To save our ‘nose’ is more import than saving our religion or even our morality in general. We will do corruption to earn money so that our children can go to best schools and not the affordable government schools. We will shamelessly demand kickbacks in every possible government transaction in order to make new clothes on Eid. We will not feel guilty in putting red tapes on files so that we can fill our pockets, no matter if it’s a matter of an old man’s pension or a middle class young man who is a sole bread winner of a large household. We are willing to spend tons of money on our lavish wedding ceremonies without paying a heed to the poor who do not have a single time meal. We have no idea that there are plentiful girls who are unmarried because their parents cannot afford the demands of dowry or the expense of wedding. We squander generously on festivals like Basant but forget that there are those do not have money to pay for their school/college tuition fee. We spend thousands on branded clothes ignoring those who can not afford buy new clothes on Eid. We don’t really think beyond ourselves anymore. “Me”, “I”, “Mine” is the most important priority left in our life.

It does not come to our minds that we are building ourselves and getting richer at the expense of a larger society. That we are contributing to the destruction of our future generation at the cost of our temptations and short-term ambitions. That we are annihilating the dreams of someone deserving and hard working. That and depriving someone of one time meal. That we are leaving a father stand guilty in front of his little innocent kids, giving them news that they cannot have new clothes that year. That we are leaving a mother silently announcing to the household that there is no meal that hour and they will have to go hungry. That we are leaving someone helpless in the hospital who cannot afford to pay the costly bills. That, through our selfish actions, we are adding another knife to the slow but mass slaughter of the fate of a nation.

 Where are the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the Holy Quran? Have we forgotten that personal sacrifice, sense of unity, self-transcendence, responsibility, dignity, honesty, integrity, and discipline were the fundamental values that enabled the Sahaba-e-Karam establish the great Islamic empire? Have we forgotten that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) emphasized so much on the Haqooq-ul-Ibad (the rights of the people)? Have we forgotten that the Holy Quran stresses so much on the ephemeral nature of the world and inspires us to prepare for the Next World by living a righteous life? Have we forgotten all the golden examples of the societies that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and his Sahaba established all around the world? Have we forgotten that there were no poor to get the money of Zakat during the rule of Hazrat Omer? I can only reiterate the words of Allama Iqbal from his poem ‘Jawab-e-Shikwa on this: “Thay tu aba wo tumhare hi magar tum kia ho” (They were your forefathers but what are you?). Iqbal also said elsewhere: “Ganwa di hum ne aslaf se jo miras paai thi” (we have lost the legacy of our forefathers). How true are these words! If we are proud of anything today is the greatness of our forefathers. But we have not done anything to carry forward the legacy. We have not done anything that we can be proud of or claim as our contribution. There is nothing that we can say with pride as our contribution to the global society or even to our own people.

How tragic is that the sense of collectiveness has evaporated from our hearts! We do not feel connected to each other as a nation. We don’t really care whatever happens to the country. What we only care is to strengthen the shell of selfishness around us, by getting richer and stronger; doesn’t matter if our means are legal or illegal. We don’t understand that our small actions cause a much larger effect. We don’t seem to appreciate that our everyday life significantly contributes to the long-term future of the nation. We ourselves undervalue our effort, action, and deeds with reference to our national development and future. That is also understandable as no one has told us or done something to realize us that each and every individual of our nation can make a difference, no matter how small it may be. Hardly any leader has come forth to say that everyone of us matters, each soul counts, each brain offers, and each perspective is valuable.

We, as a nation, have been taken for granted as a bunch of votes which are means to legitimize a selected class of our society to reach the parliament and fulfill their personal agenda. No politician has taken us serious or regarded us as a society that has a future and that deserves to stand with pride in the world community. We have been exploited in the hands of few political elites who have adeptly followed the policy of the British, ‘divided and rule’. British divided and ruled other nations. Our politicians divided our own nations and imposed the rule of others on us. How sad that our nation yet awaits someone who can stand for all of us, who can unite us as a nation, who can restore our national pride and our dignity in the international community, who can bring us a sense of reconciliation, who can realize us that there is much more that unites us than what separates us, who can rejuvenate the sense of national spirit and one Pakistan, who can think beyond himself and who has a long-term vision, who is willing to lead our nation to a progressive future, who can put our nation and country the first, who is on the side of poor and needy and yet able to amalgamate other classes of our society into a coherent fabric of one single nation, who can realize the dreams of Allama Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam and finally return a nation to the peace of land the world today calls Pakistan.