Daily Times

History of India Marx says is no history; it is the history of invaders. History of Pakistan is the history of plunder, privation, and pulverisation. It is a sad saga of an imperialist’s design, of a prophylactic decolonisation, of religious chicanery, of political deceit, of direct coercive armed rule or Bonapartism and indirect class based intervention of the Pretorian-guards to protect the interests of hegemonic classes, a Gramscian Caesarism.

No country has suffered so many political purges as did Pakistan where premiers tumbled like ninepins and the process even now is unrelenting. A politically underdeveloped society is a logical outcome when a mass of people whose fate is at stake either remains alienated from the struggle of its liberation or lacks any organised political structure that could lead it through the trauma of freedom. The political movement led by the middleclass especially backed by the feudals remains reactionary and in face of a political challenge falters. For the civil-military, bureaucracy this situation is ideal, it surreptitiously grabs the power. Under these conditions, the capitalistic mode of production tends to create a civil society for its dialectical necessity but it remains too anaemic to resist the political state dominated by the bureaucracy having its roots embedded largely in pre-capitalist relations.

In advanced capitalist states, the civil society acts as the major bulwark of the political society. Both institutions are equally well equipped to serve the class interest of bourgeoisie. They are harmonious and act in unison to maintain the hegemony of the dominant interests though sometime to appease masses they ruffle few feathers between them. To maintain the myth of an Orwellian democracy difference of opinion is not only accepted but encouraged as well.

In Pakistan, the situation is quite different. All institutions, without exception are working to preserve the system that has gone redundant. In a futile attempt to rescue what “cannot-be-rescued” the redeemers have nothing to offer but to exchange one type of fetters with the other thus revealing their anti-people identities. The chaotic judicial activism, torpedoing the political parties that can no more serve the dominant interest, an unqualified support to men of destiny and the age- old strategy to rule by promoting religious fundamentalism lead to a single conclusion that the hegemony of the ruling class is in jeopardy. Despite using its coercive tools the Pretorian-guards are finding themselves facing the wrath of people. The legitimacy or persona of being a saviour has long lost its appeal it is the existence as a parasite on national exchequer, which is under question. For once people are openly stating their “blessed no to their predators”.

People are becoming conscious of their misery and the political gimmickry of their rulers. Once this horde realises its potential it will not give its tormentors time to repent. Did someone mention the French revolution?

The complete lack of faith in every institution is apparent. Barring a slim urban youth kept deliberately uninformed to its history, the majority is fully aware of its powerlessness of not being able to dent the system. The politicians can measure the depth of alienation hence to win the people every political shenanigan is in vogue. If one is spewing his delirium against a religious minority, to cater to the religious inclination of a certain religious sect the other is paying visits to shrines. Except for seeking political mileage there is no sublimity in kneeling to kiss the stair, one intends to trample later. These profligacies are nothing new but in the present atmosphere of religious fascism, prevailing in Pakistan such a step is a chilling endorsement of the forces of regression. One cannot describe a bizarre action akin to this as coincidental. In the capitalist society coincidences and chances are always planned, every act of a human transpires from certain objectives, conscious or unconscious and what can be more objective than the pursuit of money that determines one’s status and power that emanates from money relations.

By reducing both the faithful and faithless to mere producers and consumers the exchange society turns, religious faith and personal character of an individual a private affair, something sacrosanct. Yet it keeps a vigilant eye over a man who is vying for the highest office of the state because the scandals too have an exchange value. Following the footsteps of others, a charismatic leader in Pakistan has recently started feeling the bite of religious conscience ‘that teaches man to bite’ especially when nothing but power is in one’s sight. Under scrutiny is not his faith but the time chosen for this latest flirtation with faith. Is it a sign of anxiety, the fear of becoming irrelevant, as the last probability of his ascension to the throne appears to elude him?

The beneficiaries of status quo who instead of changing the system tinker with it end up staging melodramas to convince their supporters of their spirituality and righteousness. They want them to believe that when economics deserts the offerings made to please the metaphysical powers could attain the desired results. This is cunning of reason in which apparently, the exchange seems fair, the promise is made or the debt is paid yet the other party is deceived. By subjugating to a metaphysical authority, one declares one’s allegiance to oneself by degrading his physical being to a non-entity. In other words, one saves himself by annihilating his own self, his self-esteem. This is Machiavellian, sacrificing one’s self-esteem for power reeks of fascism and Pakistan scarcely affords to have a cocktail of it.

The ruse of reason has always been a salient feature of an exchange society. It presents the market as a living reality, an organic whole, alive and sensitive to the slightest change in apparently stable yet innately anarchic conditions. Market becomes a fetish, only reality that appears reasonable no matter how irrational its consequences turn out to be. Even self-preservation promoted as human instinct does not survive in its original form but has a bad conscious. One can only preserve oneself by preserving the institutions. The term such as stab of conscience is alien to the capitalist society; every emotion needs to conform to the laws of market. It does not mean people do not love or they have no ideals but sly Eros and idealism remain subjected to the formal reason; purpose and productivity dominate emotions.

When Nietzsche declared the death of God for His piety for men, he was in fact declaring the victory of technology over metaphysics and aesthetics both. “Chastity,” he says “is a virtue with some, but with many almost a vice… not a few who sought to cast out their devil entered themselves into swine.”

Nevertheless, people are becoming conscious of their misery and the political gimmickry of the rulers. Once this horde realises its potential it will not give its tormentors time to repent. Did someone mention the French revolution?

The writer has authored books on socialism and history. He blogs at saulatnagi.wordpress.com and can be reached atsaulatnagi@hotmail.com

Published in Daily Times, July 11^th 2018.