Pakistan is currently stumbling from one constitutional crisis to the next and is under Damocles’ sword of ever-threatening economic collapse. Society is divided into different political, religious and ethnic camps. And politicians deliberately spread populist fake news to guarantee that they will stay in power. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, for example, provided a narrative that the US allegedly forced him out of office in a political coup because of his independent foreign policy. And in return throw new government under Shehbaz Sharif Khan now proposes to instigate a rebellion against them in the military.
But facts don’t matter in Pakistan. Both the government and the opposition are deliberately polarizing public opinion in order to gain more votes in the next election. Everything is right for them. Sometimes the religious card is played for this and inciting against minorities like the Ahmadiyya, sometimes the old anti-Americanism card is issued again.
Lack of foreign exchange, poor administration and nepotism have repeatedly brought Pakistan to the brink of collapse. If that weren’t enough of a problem, climate change is now having increasingly damaging effects. During this year’s rainy season, not only major cities like Karachi but also most of the underdeveloped province of Balochistan were flooded, with devastating consequences. Entire villages and regions were submerged in the flood.
Far from the founder’s liberal ideas
Thousands of people lost all their belongings. The poorly equipped emergency services failed miserably and given the vastness of the flooded area, the military rescue efforts were insufficient to be able to help everyone in need. Nonetheless, many prime-time political talk shows on Pakistani TV stations show a never-ending circus of politicians bickering over issues that ignore the day-to-day problems of the majority of the population.
In such a loaded atmosphere, a moderate, solution-oriented approach has almost no chance of being heard. Like a few weeks ago the world famous economist Atif Mian presenting a comprehensive analysis of Pakistan’s economic policies and proposed solutions for the ailing economy, a storm of hatred erupted against it on social networks. Not because of his expert opinion, but because of his religious affiliation. The economist is a self-proclaimed Ahmadi Muslim.
On the 75th anniversary of its founding, Pakistan has fallen further and further away from the liberal ideals of its founder, Jinnah. Official historiography or school curricula fail to mention that many of Pakistan’s founding fathers were themselves religious minorities. It is known that Jinnah is a Shia, the President of the Muslim League, Agha Khan, is an Ismaili, and the author of the famous Pakistan Resolution, Zafrullah Khan, is an Ahmadi. That diversity is long gone. Pakistani society is rapidly becoming more radical, more divided and more chaotic, and there is no bright spot at the end of the tunnel.
“Hinduization” India
Things don’t look much better in neighboring India. In the 75th year of its independence, Indian society was polarized along religious identity. In particular, the Muslim minority of more than 180 million people are feeling the effects of their marginalization on a daily basis. A “Hinduization” of the “world’s greatest democracy” has long begun. It all started with the storming and destruction of the historic Babri Mosque in Ayodhia in 1992 by a mob led by the Hindu nationalist BJP party.
At the time, Hindu nationalists called for a temple to be built on the site of the mosque, which they believed to be the birthplace of the god Rama. But before the authorities or judges can make a decision, the mob destroys the church. The polarization of society’s religions brought the BJP into government in 1998. In 2020, current Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone for a new temple complex on the site of the destroyed mosque. In recent years, right-wing Hindus have consistently given the narrative that their identity has been suppressed. Reorientation in school curricula, in commemorative culture or in historical politics must reverse this. The Indian cultural character that is more than a thousand years old is considered an intervention by the colonizers.
According to fanatics, this should now be “corrected”. “Correction” is a euphemism for the total suppression of Muslim culture, identity and possibly the Muslim population. Suddenly, Muslim-sounding city names were renamed to “Hindu”, so Allahabad city name was changed to Prayagraj and Gulshanabad city to Nashik, or the nameplate on which Urdu was painted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0qDTMEjx54
Increasingly Islamophobic mood
The fact that this name change is not based on historical facts certainly doesn’t interest anyone. Religious fanatics from all walks of life are known to be difficult to make sense of. For example, in 2018 the Prime Minister of the BJP of the state of Tripura claimed that the Internet was an invention of ancient Indians and had been mentioned in the Hindu book Mahabharata.
In film and television, Hindu kings are praised for their “heroic deeds” and Muslim rulers are portrayed as bloodthirsty aggressors. The message behind the framing is clear: India is first and foremost a Hindu nation. In an interview, a senior member of the BJP said in 2015, Muslims were second-class citizens in India, who kindly have to adapt to Hindu customs. In early 2022, during a conference in early 2022, Hindu extremist leaders publicly called for genocide against Indian Muslims, forcing the Supreme Court to intervene. Islamophobic comments by BJP spokesman Nupur Sharma, who has since been ousted, also matched the heated atmosphere.
His comments are particularly relevant in the Gulf Arab states, India’s main economic partners call for boycott of Indian products. The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ efforts to put these statements into perspective cannot hide the fact that these criticisms are handled very differently in India. Many BJP supporters have defended Sharma’s remarks and there have been retaliation against critics.
For example, on June 12, 2022, bulldozers were deployed to destroy the family home of 24-year-old Muslim activist and BJP critic Afreen Fatima in Allahabad. The day before the demolition, police accused Afreen’s father, Javed, of being the mastermind behind protesters against the BJP spokesman’s Islamophobic comments. Shortly thereafter, he received orders to vacate the house, as it was to be demolished the next day due to “lack of planning permission”.
Gandhi’s democratic values and Nehru’s secularism were put aside
Officials are not interested in the fact that the house has been there for more than 20 years and that property taxes are paid regularly for it. Also that Javed is not the owner of the property, but his wife. There is also no court order for demolition. The house was destroyed within hours. According to many observers, the move was not a legal dispute but an act of revenge by the radical Hindu Prime Minister in the state of Uttarpardesh, Yogi Adityanath, who wanted to teach Muslim critics a lesson on BJP policies. On June 11, Saturday, Adityanath’s representative tweeted a picture of the bulldozer with the caption, “Remember, every Friday is followed by Saturday.”. The next day, a bulldozer destroyed the home of the activist and his family.
Gandhi’s democratic values and Nehru’s secularism were gradually replaced. Voices calling for more tolerance and minority rights are branded as traitors to the Hindu nation. The atmosphere is becoming increasingly aggressive, especially on social networks. There have been repeated deadly attacks against Muslims and other religious minorities. The masses, it seems, dictate politics or are used in fraudulent calculations to create an atmosphere.
If the internal problems of the two countries are not enough, the Kashmir region conflict between the two nuclear powers is still smoldering. The withdrawal of Kashmir’s special status by Modi’s government in 2019 exacerbated the conflict. In addition, India is playing an increasingly important role in America’s new containment policy towards China. The meeting of the informal security alliance QUAD (US, Japan, India, Australia) in May should serve as an example. Tensions between India and China have risen in recent years.
Against this backdrop of conflict and trouble, people view the 75th Independence Day of the two countries with mixed feelings.
Muhammad Lukman
© Qantara.de 2022
