What is the difference between Indians and Pakistanis?
There was none before 1947! for almost a thousand years, they were enslaved by the Moguls and latter by the British for 90 years
Freedom bells rang in 1947, more Hindus = India, more Muslims = Pakistan, though almost as many Muslims as in Pakistan were left dispersed in India, add to that the bone of Kashmir dangling between the two – result of a flawed partition by the Brits, and later hunger for power that led to break of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh
It is a universal truth that people who practice any faith, be it Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity or Islam tend to think very high of themselves, and generally much lower of those who don’t
In the case of India and Pakistan this was just one point of differentiation, worse for India as unlike Pakistan which being smaller in size and more homogeneous in ethnic mix and religion, Indians are far more diverse in ethnicity and faiths, hence they had no choice but to proclaim “secularism” – it was a halfhearted ugly pill that the fanatic type Hindus swallowed, a chip on their shoulders. Finally Narendra Modi, their extremist Prime Minister of recent, brought those Hindustva dreams back to life! The chosen people who’s temples were converted to mosques and many converted for logic or per force were now finally free to take revenge and proclaim their identity
The trouble was that the expression of their intent and desire was and is far more violent by any humane society’s standards. For example, killing a man on the assumption that he had beef in his house, or raping and murdering even young Muslim children forget adults in Jammu & Kashmir were all rooted in religion, fundamentalism, racism and genocide
Pakistan was simply lucky! The minorities there were literally a minority in sheer number terms unlike India so they seldom made trouble and adjusted seamlessly. In India even where the Muslims tried to adjust the labels on them as usurpers of yore had the Hindustva vigilantes on their heels
There never was any real secularism in India, while Pakistan never claimed the same and embraced Islam as the “state religion” in practice unless a member of minority openly desecrated Islamic tenants or holy figures all was cool
So an average Indian is left talking big to accommodate a huge yet diverse land and people, and in the same breath tries to fit the state narrative of pint sized Pakistan as the “enemy, troublemaker state”
Pakistan on the other hand doesn’t blame India for its’ problems, but focuses on uprooting corruption and bias from its ranks, but this is a very recent change, in the past we too were quite akin to our Indian counterparts, blaming India and being dogmatic when it comes to faith
Few know that Pakistan is one of the few places in the world where a majority Muslim Army fought against a majority Muslim Taliban and extremist types. I don’t know of the US Army or Police ever actively fighting the KKK for we did exactly that in equivalence in Pakistan. Nor do I hear of Indian Army or Police active against the Cow Vigilantes or hate mongers – in fact quite the opposite! Never heard of Israeli Army punishing fundamentalist type of Jews. But we in Pakistan can proudly say we killed Taliban who bowed to the same God we did for they were spreading hate and killing the innocent. I don’t know how many other nations can even came remotely close to this?
Our army and government united in uprooting hate thinking and terrorism, we may be a poor and corrupt nation but we have atleast set the right example in eliminating faith in dealing with hate and terror, even if they be our “own”
Thus an average Pakistani is often talking solutions while an average Indian is often talking problems
I don’t blame the Indian at all! I may have done the same! After all remember huge yet diverse land? Religious baggage especially in the lower classes and you get the picture
The writer hopes one day the people of India and Pakistan will rise above their flags and faiths and learn to respect each other as humans
That day, as of today, is far, if at all even in sight
Pakistan has a long way to go, a very long one, but atleast we know where we have to go, I do hope our more hateful world community brothers and sisters get to see theirs too!
But dreamers like me hope against hope!
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Musings of Crystal Kazmi 