Daily Times

Nationalism, developed from perennialism, tribalism and ethno-symbolism, is a political and socio-cultural ideology adopted by nations to mark their supremacy over others or to motivate the people to defend the political, economic and cultural sovereignty of their country against any aggression. Nationalism signifies the assertive right to freedom, self-determination and sovereignty of ethnically homogenous people or a cluster of ethnically heterogeneous people living within a defined geographical territory bound by a common language, culture, history, a sense of pride in their historical heritage and shared aspirations for grandeur and prosperity.

The nationalism is not synonymous with patriotism. While nationalism is a tool with the state to deal with external situations, patriotism is employed to overcome internal difficulties within a state. Rather, the patriotic feelings are whipped up to strengthen nationalism in a given situation. Nationalism is also different from sub-nationalism in its definition and scope. The sub-nationalism is fueled by unjust, arrogant, disdaining and condescending attitude of the majority ethno-cultural and religious community towards the relatively smaller components of a nation.

The nationalism as an ideology gained prominence in the eighteenth century. The Westphalian Agreement of 1648 ending the 30 years long wars in Europe and defining the principles governing the co-existence of nation states – big or small by geography or population -sustained the political system for a century or so that remained vulnerable to the hegemonic designs of major countries and finally gave way to the growth of nationalism and wars within Europe triggered by the irresistible expansionist designs or accessing economic resources.

The devastating military conflagrations that included the Napoleonic wars pulverized Europe. The defeat of Napoleon in Waterloo by the General Willington-led grand military coalition brought respite to Europe but failed to extinguish the smoldering embers of nationalism. It resurged in the form of disastrous Nazism and fascism and triggered the two World Wars to the devastation of humanity and human civilization. This proved the tendency of nationalism to transform into economic avarice, ethnic arrogance, cultural chauvinism and military aggression. The two World Wars forced nations to establish the UNOas a collective watchdog to help sustain the international order that was emerging from the ashes of the Second World War.

The Sub-Continent of South Asia is well familiar with the phenomenon of nationalism. It is irony of history that the mainstream parties spearheading the movement for independence failed to prevent the nationalist feelings from degenerating into cultural and communal arrogance with Hindu nationalism vying for Hindu majoritarian rule; Muslim nationalism aspiring for an independent country and Bengali nationalism assertive in Bengal and Assam. This cultural and communal fragmentation defeated various constitutional schemes for having one successor state in post-British India.

Finally, the Sub-continent was partitioned into two states. The original scheme of the partition of the Sub-continent envisaging the Punjab in Pakistan, and the whole Bengal and Assam as a separate country was conspiratorially altered by the British Viceroy, Mountbatten in connivance with the Congress leaders, dissecting Punjab and Bengal. This prompted Mr. Jinnah’s famous remarks that he had received a moth-eaten Pakistan.

The veil of liberalism, secularism and democracy which was hiding the burgeoning majoritarian fascism in India has been finally cast away by the fascist Narendra Modi

Both the countries have had to grapple with the sub-nationalist feelings of many ethno-linguistic and religious Sub-nationalists like Kashmiris, Sikhs, Tamils, Goanis, Nagalandis and Assamese, Mizoramis and many others in India, and Bengalis, Sindhis and Balochis in Pakistan. A veteran Indian intellectual, MJ Akbar in his ‘India: a Siege from within’ credited secularism and democracy as the shock absorbing tool to prevent ethno-religious and ethno cultural nationalism from fragmenting India. There is no doubt that a multi-religious, multi ethno-culture and linguistic country of the size of India could hold itself together by a liberal, secular and democratic disposition.

The other ethno-cultural nationalists might have been pacified but the Jammu and Kashmir state kept simmering with insurgency since the early years of independence. After the occupation of the bigger part of Jammu and Kashmir by India in the backdrop of the spontaneous uprising of the Kashmiris against their Dogra Maharaja in 1948, the dispute regarding the accession of the state landed in the UN Security Council at the behest of Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru which passed a number of resolutions upholding the right of the people of the valley to self determination through a UN-supervised referendum.

Though enjoying a ‘special status’ in accordance with a specifically formulated clause in the Constitution of India – duly concurred by the State’s Constituent Assembly – in the early 1950s which guaranteed against undue trespass on their land by others converting them into a religious and cultural minority, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have since made it abundantly clear on many a occasion that nothing less than self-determination was acceptable to them. Their struggle for freedom has ebbed and risen in the past seven decades even in the most repressive unrepresentative administrations or Governor’s rules.

The veil of liberalism, secularism and democracy which was hiding the burgeoning majoritarian fascism in India has been finally cast away by the fascist Narendra Modi. What has emerged from behind this thick veil is a Nazism believing in forced conversion, ethnic cleansing concentration camps and genocide. The tyranny and oppression perpetrated on the innocent Kashmiri people before the cruel lockdown of August 5 was simply a glimpse of what would follow in the second phase of this fascist’s plan which would dwarf the cruelty and vulgar crimes committed in the holocaust and the Nazi concentration camps. Would the world community need such a shock to realize its collective duty towards humanity.

The people of Kashmir would continue their struggle for freedom amidst the pathetic silence of the world community. The Pakistani nation is determined to stand or fall with their Kashmiri brethren. Only the major powers can save the region from the prospective holocaust by a meaningful intercession. Today or tomorrow, India will have to concede to the self determination of the Kashmiri people.It should not be blind to the precedent of Irelanders, Bosnians, Albanians, Kosovars, South Sudanese and East Timorese whose will for freedom finally prevailed.

The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books