Many would disagree, but so what? The job of an opinion writer is to express his or her opinion, the way it is and as it is. Perhaps it has something to do with maturity. I know I was young and naïve at one time and I used to spend hours and hours arguing with our neighbours about the birth and reasoning behind the independence of our country. My passion ran deep into the conditioning that we all go through as Pakistanis, from our childhood.
I remember having a collection of Nasim Hijazi novels when I was a budding teenager, back home. My favorite was Khak aur Khoon (Dust and Blood), set against the backdrop of the bloody partition. I remember back in the mid-1970s, the National Film Development Corporation (NAFDEC) transformed it onto the big screen, keeping the same title. To my sheer disappointment and utter surprise it was a box office disaster. A couple of decades or so later, the movie made on the founder of this country, Jinnah, met the same fate. It repeated the same cycle of disbelief and disappointment. Yes, with age I have started to handle all these surprises and disappointments a bit better. The reality has started to sink in and, somehow, I am able to grasp and handle realities.
The reality is that Nasim Hijazi wrote fiction, and no matter what the backdrop of his novels, fiction remains fiction. We as a nation are fed a lot of fiction, even in our textbooks. I remember being an internet warrior like another friend of mine who wrote a piece and shared his 40 plus years of coming of age in the US in a local magazine. The changes he went through are very similar to mine. The reality, when it starts to sink in, sets you free.
At most local gatherings, when I share my views, those views irk a few, upset some, irritate and, at times, make a few totally angry. The anger comes from the fact that reality starts to sink and the emotional side of the brain starts to battle with the rational side. All the disappointments we mutually face tend to make sense and we just, somehow, want them to magically disappear.
When I bring up the idea that we are actually Indians or of Indian descent, it upsets a lot of my friends. How can we be Indians? Somehow, being Indian is an issue with a lot of my fellow countrymen. An ultra-superiority complex starts to engulf our thought processes; not to mention, the ‘two nation theory’ conditioning makes it much harder to accept. No matter what you say or suggest, or provide as an explanation, it is discredited. The fact is that there is a bit of India in all of us. The land we call ours was formerly known as India. We changed its name but we could not change the essence. The essence is what we share with our quarrelling neighbours.
Those of you who honestly think that I have lost my marbles with age ought to go to an absolutely foreign land and gather in a room with a bunch of people from various different countries. You will find an instant kinship with an Indian because of our relatively similar language, customs and food. That in itself is the real essence. This essence or way of life that we call culture or customs, define our everyday lives. It is interesting to witness, when you are on this exercise of self-discovery, that we have more than food and clothing in common — aspirations for emphasis on education and a competitive quest for betterment are also our mutual staples. We are the proud people of what was once known as the subcontinent.
No matter who you talk to outside their respective countries, whether it is an Indian or a Pakistani, both yearn for a South Asia free of fear and full of harmony. On the surface, all of this sounds very interesting and in itself very noble but the reality is far uglier. When I bring to the fore that the root of this ugliness is buried in a historical wrong called the partition, it just infuriates a lot of my brethren. The battle between the emotional and rational sides of the brain rages on at jet speed. In most cases, the emotional side supersedes.
Yes, I know that right or wrong, the line of demarcation is a reality. The line of demarcation defines geography and there is no denying that. However, the bigger question that I raise and often get no clear or convincing response from my brethren is: does it negate history? History is so blatantly clear that there is no room for denial. I know I can go on and on about this subject and stir up the usual back and forth. People with inflamed passions are the ones who have brought us to all of this. To those full of this blind and meaningless fury, it is time for the exercise that I mentioned above. Just try it and I am sure the truth will start to do its magic on you as well.
The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at [email protected].
He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar