Daily Times

This piece concludes my attempt to sell you geography; the hard sell, if you will.

Climate is a product of geography.  Whether it’s hot or cold, wet, dry or humid; it’s a by-product of the latter. And geographically speaking, Pakistan is a rare country. Despite its small size, it has considerable access to the sea; a sizable portion of the country is desert, sandy and mountainous. And, despite a predominantly hot and humid clime, it has some of the highest and coldest peaks in the world.

Geography and climate combine to typify the kind of food that is common to the country, the dress, the nature of man and the kind of animals the land breeds. To some degree, it sets the baseline for prevailing cultural trends. Of all these side-effects — the latter remains the most dynamic.

In colder climes, peoples are more physically energetic and need high protein diets; preferably red meat. In hotter climes, people tend to use chillies, condiments and whatnot in larger quantities; meaning that the food tends more towards grease and gravy. In hot climes, people generally eat less red meat and tend to prefer mutton.

Consequent to the kind of food, in hotter climes an afternoon nap or siesta is usual. This consumes some of the working time utilised by people in colder climes, reducing the working hours available in a day. But, even without the siesta, residents of hot climes generally tend towards relative lethargy; they are usually less productive per hour of work.

Among the diverse subjects I was tasked to teach at a local women’s university some years ago, was culture. When I asked the girls what ‘corrupted’ them most; the invariable response was ‘ads’; those featuring skimpily dressed females. On inquiring as to how many of them or their friends had followed suit, as it were, the entire class could find but a mere handful

Even dress — another by-product of geography and climate — effects productivity. The male lungi or dhoti, even the shalwar is intended to make the oppressive heat less intolerable. Trousers, including long-johns, are for colder weather. However, these are less restrictive in terms of movement as compared to our local dress and, therefore, assist in productivity.

I mentioned culture earlier but it deserves to be pondered here in greater detail. Culture includes the predominant religion, which may be said to evolve over time. In other words it adjusts to invasions and adapts to international developments; but makes haste very slowly. Our culture has been shaped over hundreds of centuries. But even in relatively recent history — we have been influenced by Arabs, Turks, Persians, even Hindus; and have absorbed something from each.

Our shalwar is an adaptation of the Turkish salwar. Urdu, the national language is a mix of Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, even some English words. Our entire marriage ritual is an adaptation of Hindu customs. Whereas Muslim law entitles a daughter to inherit less share of the parental wealth; Hindu law gives her nothing. Therefore, Hindu parents ensure her share by way of her wedding dowry. Our custom of the father selling his soul, even his future to endow his daughters, comes from Hindus.

In recent times, the mass media has brought about a cultural invasion from the West. Thus have we altered our attire, mannerisms and language to a great extent; though more slowly than some of us might believe. Among the diverse subjects I was tasked to teach at a local women’s university some years ago, was culture. When I asked the girls what ‘corrupted’ them most; the invariable response was “ads”; those featuring skimpily dressed females. On inquiring as to how many of them or their friends had followed suit, as it were, the entire class could find but a mere handful. This is an example of culture being dynamic; but at a rather gradual pace.

The social dogma that demands government censorship might be motivated by clerics but our unquestioning nature is a socio-cultural inheritance and, as I have written in an earlier piece, represents the worst failing of our education system. Over generations, we have been repeatedly told not to question our elders or teachers and to respect them for their relationship to us; not for their state of learnedness, wisdom, character, and overall capability. It may thus be said that when genius appears in children — this happens in spite our efforts, not because of them. And, these instances are extremely few, though not, far between.

Is all this entirely due to geography? Not entirely, no. But geography and its climate made the basis of our physical and mental constitution. Geographic compulsions dictated whether we would invade or be invaded and; these have resulted in who influenced our culture, to what degree and what extent. Diversification of the study of geography has contributed to the emerging importance of related subjects like demography and anthropology.

We may boast such national traits as tolerance and obedience, not to mention oppression. Yet blatant and deliberate miss-governance is a psycho-social characteristic that has grown from our basic constitution, which, has, in turn, shaped and modelled our approach to education. It might have taken the French some time to revolt in 1789 and the English to execute King Charles 1 in 1649, but the American fuse lit much quicker in 1776, when they revolted to oust the British. Was this due to the climate? Perhaps it was.

Will the wretched peoples of this country ever say, “Enough?”? I don’t know. Is this also due to geography? In my view, it certainly plays an important role.

Although I have completed my attempt to sell geography, I intend employing this same context to explain the current geopolitical drama that is unfolding and leading the globe further down the path of insecurity in my next piece. Stay tuned.

The writer is a retired brigadier. He is also former vice president and founder of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI)

Published in Daily Times, October 29^th 2017.