S. Akbar Zaidi’s bold assertion about the 1965 war against India has evoked a predictable response. While addressing a crowd of the Karachi literati, he turned the official position about the September 1965 war on its head by pronouncing that Pakistan did not win that war. This had a stunning effect. Social media in particular went bonkers, castigating Zaidi but also the newspaper that carried a selected content of the lecture which he delivered at the Karachi University.
Such a reaction was symptomatic of how we articulate our patriotic impulse through celebrating ‘victory’ over the ‘enemy’ in the 1965 War. Equally important is the fact that the patriotic impulse is demonstrated only through a jingoistic articulation against our ‘inveterate’ enemy -- India. How should the sentiment of patriotism play up during a time of peace is a question worth asking.
Since the expression of patriotism, in our case, is inalienably linked with the commemoration of the 1965 War and the hysteria it generates through anthems, songs and slogans, it becomes seminal in the germination of Pakistani patriotism which is always a momentary affair. The role these patriotic songs and anthems play on both sides of the border, whipping up the passion for war and violence, requires an incisive study.
It is an established fact that Pakistani patriotism is India-centric. India as the locus of animosity holds a position of absolute centrality in the formation of Pakistani patriotic sentiment. Patriotism, generally speaking, is generally conjured up in juxtaposition to some country or group, considered to be an enemy or, in the parlance of post-colonial theory, the ‘Other’. Since patriotism is a phenomenon that is ephemeral in its span and intensity, it appears as a flash and soon withers away, partly because it is whipped up extraneously instead of it growing on its own.
The reason for its hollowness can be understood by going into its history as a concept. Patriotism, mostly understood as a love of a country, becomes highly problematic when deployed in an ideological polity where the idea holds precedence instead of the territory. Interestingly, those upholding the primacy of ideology lend unequivocal support to the love of the country too. If you examine this phenomenon closely, it is a contradiction in terms. Thus, to dilate this ambivalence a brief reference to evolution of ‘patriotism’ as a concept in history seems warranted here.
Patriotism is a Eurocentric concept, the etymological root of which goes back to the Latin word patriota, which means "countryman". Patriotism as an abstract noun appears only in the early 18th century. For the enlightenment thinkers of 18th century Europe, loyalty to the state was proposed in contrast to loyalty to the Church.
It is not out of place to mention the Cambridge historian of early Chinese science, Joseph Needham, who while drawing comparison between China and the continent of Europe pointed to a series of peninsulas and archipelagos like Iberia, Italy and Greece which made the inhabitants of the area more nationalistic, because there were many natural boundaries. That nationalistic impulse acquired extraordinary strength to such an extent that it jeopardised the peace of the entire world.
As history changed its course, we saw extreme patriotism manifesting itself, particularly in certain states in the 20th century. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy exemplify that trend. Unfortunately, patriotism or nationalism has not been studied separately in the context of the Muslim world. One may argue that the scope of patriotism is markedly circumscribed, simply because the notion of Umma hardly leaves any space for nationalism or patriotism.
It would, of course, be very interesting to examine how patriotism can be predicated within an abstract (religious) ideology. Polities created in the name of Marxist ideology (Stalinist Russia and Maoist China) eventually had to foster patriotism embedded in geographical realities. Thus the very notion has a secular ring to it. In Pakistan the ultra-right has appropriated it without giving any profound thought to its history, which attests to its shifting focus from religion to a geographical (material) entity, such as a state.
While tracing the genealogy of patriotism in India or Hindustan, one is lead to believe that it is a modern notion which was introduced by the British. While talking strictly with reference to the Punjab, the concept of hub ul watani (the love of the land) was first unravelled in 1874 during the mushairas (poetry symposiums) held under the auspices of Anjuman-i-Punjab, an organisation set up by Colonel Holroyd, Dr. Lietner and famous Urdu laureate Muhammad Hussain Azad. In these mushairas, the participating poets were given various topics on which to compose poems and the poet who composed the best poem used to get a prize. Thus hub ul watani was one of the topics.
Interestingly, in the years that followed, various poets including Iqbal and Altaf Hussain Hali composed their poetry around that theme. Iqbal’s Tirana-i-Hindi is the best illustration of the patriotic streak that he had imbibed during the initial phase of his poetic career. Hub ul watani however could not strike any deeper roots among the Muslim elite because, synchronically, Muslim separatism and Pan-Islamism had sprouted towards the end of the 19th century. Both of these movements stood in complete contrast to the notion of hub ul watani.
The debate between Iqbal and Hussain Ahmed Madni in the 1930s could not help us either because it failed to yield any concrete outcome. That pattern continued up to the partition of India in 1947. Even the massacres and pogroms of the partition could not instill the passion of hub ul watani among the Pakistanis. It was only September 6, 1965 war which did it. While one may dispute the factual details about the war, what Akbar Zaidi said the other day is indeed irrefutable -- that event evoked patriotism in Pakistanis, and that is what makes it important.
I believe loving something material and concrete makes far more sense than loving an abstract ideology which can eventually produce suicide bombers.