Daily Times

Considering the trauma that naturally comes with Partition — and the fact that the subcontinent had two within a quarter of a century (’47 and ’71) — it is understandable that a certain degree of hangover persists to the present day. Yet there are interesting points of divergence in the manner of sentiments evoked by the horrors of the past in different countries.

India, for example, has still not ‘forgiven’ Pakistan for the subcontinent’s epic cesarean section that gave birth to the Islamic Republic, the so-called Fort of Islam. In parts of the world where Pakistani and Indian working classes rub shoulders — predominantly in the Middle East, Europe and America — a faint degree of resentment is still detectable, though mostly progressive circles in both communities digested history’s evolution long ago.

Yet nationalist sentiments ring much louder back home. India’s strong tilt to the far right over the last few years — personified in the Modi sarkar’s stellar rise to power — bases itself primarily on exclusion of the other and for more than the last seven decades has focused on Muslims, predominantly, of the subcontinent. Of course, this hate is now directed towards Pakistan.

Sadly the other side of the divide, our land of the pure, is not much different either. From the political fraternity to the security establishment all the way to the mullah lobby, nothing sells as effectively as anti-India sentiment. It forms the crux of our political identity. It is at the centre of the military’s strategy and if the mullah could help it he’d raise India above the devil himself.

But Bangladesh is a different case. True, the hatred evoked by the ’71 tragedy has few parallels in the modern world outside the African continent. But unlike India — where those who lost landmass to Partition turned out the more bitter of the two — it is Dhaka that is still consumed by the past.

Journalists who’ve been on foreign assignments, where Bengali counterparts have also been invited, will tell you how former brothers from the eastern wing will still confront Pakistani journalists at the first possible opportunity and pose disturbing, offensive questions about the ’71 war.

Of late Dhaka’s been hand-in-glove with New Delhi on the same issue. And they don’t even care to put a veneer of political correctness over it either. Nothing was more ‘in your face’ than when Modi went to Dhaka and waved ’71 in the face of Pakistan for the whole world to see. Prior to this, India had rarely admitted such an active role in the breakup of Pakistan.

But there’s only so much they can do. For all their photo ops and aggressive rhetoric, their hatred can at best be symbolic. Pakistan has not been isolated no matter how hard Delhi and Dhaka tried. If anything, primarily because of CPEC and the new developing China-Russia-Pakistan alliance, Pakistan is emerging more balanced internationally. But hate is a difficult demon to get over, as the Bengalis continue to find out. Their government’s initiative — of funding an anti-Pakistan video game — betrays the helplessness and frustration Dhaka continues to suffer from.

Titled ‘Heroes of 1971’, the game provides players with a simulation, of sorts, of the violence that led to the breakup. And, of course, no prizes for guessing who the good guys are, or what their primary task is. This way, years after the war — when even the next generation is well into adult life — the government cleverly keeps the collective conscious focused on the hatred of a bygone era. It literally involves everyone, once again, in the war.

The oldest market adage, that ‘supply creates its own demand’, is perfectly at play in Bangladesh. Suddenly all strands of society are finding themselves locked in pitched battles with the Pakistan Army. At home after work, on the way home on a bus, or anywhere else for that matter, they just conveniently jump into the world of their smart phones, take up their virtual rifles and begin freeing captured Bengali freedom fighters from Pakistani army bases, save poor Bengali girls from being raped by Pakistani soldiers by shooting the latter with their virtual guns. Then they go on to liberate the whole country all over again. And then they do it over and over again.

Of course it would have been one thing if some of Bangladesh’s rising IT professionals, or even a bunch of rebellious professionals, had been behind the launch of the game. But it’s entirely another matter when the government itself envisages sponsors and spreads the initiative. And the diplomatic message is not lost of Pakistan.

Unfortunately, these road blocks, from both India and Bangladesh, come at a time when Pakistan has genuinely tried to mend fences and move ahead; first suggesting long term economic linkages and then a steady revision of unsettling political issues so yet more progress is possible. And both Delhi and Dhaka have rebuffed a good number of such initiatives, culminating in their shameful boycott of the last SAARC summit in Islamabad.

By trying to embarrass Pakistan over the failure to hold SAARC, they not only held back yet another opportunity for long overdue regional integration, but also ended up casting themselves in a most unflattering light. Now the regional powers that matter are more focused on Pakistan than India. Even Iran, India’s last relevant regional partner, is once again considering options now that the Chinese and Russians have also realised Pakistan’s willingness to forge a new trade and security paradigm in South Asia.

The Indians and Bengalis can play as many diplomatic and video games as they like, but in focusing all their energies on dirtying Pakistan, they are willingly opting out of a process of evolution that Pakistan is an integral part of. The more you analyse the forces behind South Asia’s new transition, the more Pakistan, not India or Bangladesh, is turning out to be the hero.

The writer is the Resident Editor, Daily Times Lahore, tweets @yourafiq and can be reached at yourafiq@gmail.com