Daily Times

Nationalism is not in human psyche. It does not happen to humans naturally. There is no gain saying the fact that humans are social animals but the urge to be in close proximity with other humans among humans remains confined to small tribes and it’s not natural for humans to feel an urge to get connected with millions and billions of people for existence. This is how Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari relates “Nationalism” to human psyche in his book entitled “21 Lessons for the 21st Century.”

Harari does not negate nationalism inclusively and he beautifully constructs a context in the wake of which nationalism surfaced. He says that nationalism basically emerged when small human tribes found it difficult to deal with the challenges which needed collective efforts instead of individual ones. He illustrates it in this way. Initially, let’s suppose, humans lived in tribes along the bank of a river. To put it in Harari’s words, “The river was their lifeblood. It watered their fields and carried their commerce. But it was an unpredictable ally. Too little rain-and people starved to death; too much rain-and the river overflowed its banks. No single tribe could solve the problem by itself.” Because of being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the issue at hand, tribes came together to form a nation. However, coalescing tribes into a uniform nation did not turn out to be easy as these tribes had nothing in common except the challenge they faced collectively. Thus, the state carrying a nation in its lap had to rely on a constructed identity based upon particular literature, ideology and movement. To this, we can easily relate here in Pakistan.

Harari does not see nationalism as something negative rather he terms nationalism reflecting itself in the shape of benign patriotism as “the most benevolent form of human creations”. However, he considers “Chauvinistic ultra-nationalism”, which believes in considering one’s nation supreme and turning a blind eye to concerns that matter globally, problematic. This malevolent nationalism plagued the world in 19th and 20th century as per Harari and brought the world at the verge of two World Wars which resulted in vast carnage. People in their allegiance to their own states ruthlessly killed those who did not belong.

Currently, Pakistan is piling up diplomatic pressure over India at global platforms for taking Occupied Kashmir in its fold without taking into consideration its disputed nature and India has been trying to fend it off; however, the situation is literally turning into a pressure cooker which can give birth to reactive outbursts any time

In a dog-eat-dog competition for survival, states, as per Harari, suffering from macho-nationalism in 20th century indulged themselves in tech-revolution for better military equipment in order to beat their rivals and in their endeavours introduced a nuclear technology which carried the prospects of total annihilation of not only the opponents but also the world at large. However, when the world saw reflection of an apocalypse after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed with nukes, that gave a clue to states at large about the implications of pursuing ultra-nationalism and how letting it loose could result in humans’ annihilation because of nuclear war.

After observing self-annihilation because of crazy pursuits of ultra-nationalist desires, states collectively pledged after World War 2 to not give in to nationalism at the cost of disturbing global peace. According to Harari, that is why one sees Cold War era, though, brimming with tensions among nukes-equipped superpowers in the likes of the United States and Soviet Union yet every time a stalemate came, states-keeping in view the shadows of human annihilation that may take place in the wake of nuclear war-tried to find a way out. Its best reflection can come from the way the United States and the Soviet Union dealt with Cuban Missile Crisis in 1960s when the world was at the verge of nuclear war. Even after the cold war, ultra-nationalistic tendencies can hardly be observed in the globalised world.

However, the prospects of keeping nuclear war at bay, which is a huge achievement on the part of global community at large so far, seems slim in the wake of macho-nationalism being at display in India under the stewardship of Modi-led government. India’s latest attempt to remove the exclusive status of Occupied Kashmir within its constitution through scrapping of article 370 and allegedly its attempt to change demographics of Kashmir, which is a Muslim majority state, has soared tensions between Pakistan and India. It is important to mention here that both countries have nukes. Keeping in view the disputed nature of Kashmir and no space for discussion currently available over the issue, the situation is ripe for war as neither India wants to budge away from its position nor Pakistan can compromise on the disputed nature of the issue.

Currently, Pakistan is piling up diplomatic pressure over India at global platforms for taking Occupied Kashmir in its fold without taking into consideration its disputed nature and India has been trying to fend it off; however, the situation is literally turning into a pressure cooker which can give birth to reactive outbursts any time.

Interestingly, Modi’s government latest move regarding Kashmir has been getting a lot of social backlash from academic lot in India. While in conversation with one of my Indian friends who is pursuing PHD in the United States with major in History, when I asked her how the public reaction was in India towards Modi’s latest move. She put it in these words. “Indians are massively ignorant of their history. And over the last few years, Modi govt has successfully created a climate of toxic nationalism, islamophobia and Hindutva pride, all of which is now determining the disgusting public reaction in the country to this news [the latest issue of Kashmir]. India is going to burn under this regime. But the people are too busy celebrating their prejudices to notice the house is on fire.”

It is high time international community awakens to the issue of Kashmir. Kashmir is neither exclusively Pakistan’s issue nor India’s. It is a global issue and it needs global attention. Mere tinkering with the resolution of the issue on the part of global powers and the United Nations will not pay off. If it’s not paid heed, macho-nationalism may surface again in ruthless ways between countries equipped with nukes and we can’t afford that. The international community should not forget the lessons learnt from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The writer teaches at Department of Political Science in University of Management and Technology, Lahore