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Pakistan and India have turned 60. On August 14 (Pakistan) and 15 (India), the two countries celebrated six decades of independence from the British (and each other, following a bloody partition).
Despite its fractious nature and lack of homogeneity, India has done well in rooting itself as a functional democracy and emerging as an economic giant. Pakistan has had a rough ride politically -- swinging between military regimes and elected governments -- but is tasting its share of economic growth. Bound by a common history and torn apart by politics, the countries are yet to find common ground to solve, as we love to call them, "outstanding issues" (read Kashmir, militancy) and have waged wars over them. The hangover from the partition, and the politics that led to it, was a bad one.
Having been born and raised in a free India, I believe the time has come for us to stop swearing at our neighbors and start some housecleaning. It's nation-building time. No surprises when we find that our internal challenges can be far more daunting than external threats.
Both India and Pakistan are at crucial junctures where we need to define clearly our identities as nations. What sets of values define our countries and/or set us apart? How do we want to be recognized? Are our values entrenched clearly enough for the rest of the world to count on us to abide by them when the going gets tough?
PAKISTAN: Muslim Democracy? Secular democracy? Authoritarian? Moderate Islamic State? None of the above? Unlike India, Pakistan has struggled with its political identity. The country has gone from democracy to dictatorship and back so seamlessly that it has left many of us, for who the right to vote is a given, flustered about what the people of the country really want. The confusion begins with founder Muhammed Ali Jinnah's original vision for Pakistan: a secular Muslim-majority nation. In his August 11, 1947 address he had said:
You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State.
But the country didn't quite take the shape of Jinnah's vision. Pakistan's image in the world has been that of an Islamic nation, guided by the religion, while India is viewed to have established the separation of state and religion far more definitively.
Today Pakistan is at a turning point in its political history. It is poised for a change that is likely to be far more sustainable than the ones in the past. Unlike what we expect of autocrats and their regimes, President General Pervez Musharraf has faced some scathing civil opposition at home and has even reversed unpopular decisions, caving in to public pressure. He allowed (had to?) the Supreme Court to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry who he had suspended alleging corruption, and reportedly warded off pressure to declare a state of emergency in the country.
An election is due in Pakistan this year. The country will take one more stab at democracy. This may also be a good time for the people to decide what kind of democracy they want. Do Pakistanis want their country to be a moderate Muslim state or a secular democracy as Jinnah had originally conceived? Will religion be a private matter or will all and sundry sit on judgment? Who gets to define what is Pakistani?
This curious "Sonnet 1947" by Freddie on MicroPakistan gets to the heart of the question:
How shall I compare thee to the Promised Land?
A dream unfulfilled, a desire unquenched,
Yours is a concept gone badly out of hand,
Soiled by murderous enmities deep entrenched.
Are you the successor to the Caliphate,
Bringing salvation to your constituents-
Or are you just another secular state?
Too often have our hopes been viciously bent.
Who is the king of your sublime destiny,
What do you profess is your vital essence?
Are we to anticipate some harmony,
Or just more ineffectual effervescence?
You are an enigmatic wish scarce defined,
Thy foreboding future yet to be divined.
The skepticism can be stark sometimes. Anjum Niaz paints a bleak picture of Pakistan past and present in Dawn's Weekly Magazine. (Dawn, incidentally was founded by Jinnah). Embodying herself as Pakistan, she writes:
Once upon a time, I was a wiz
