Another look at history

As preparations begin for us to celebrate what will be the 70th   anniversary of Pakistan’s creation and the independence of the Subcontinent, it is time to take a realistic and, possibly, not very palatable look at all that has happened.

Publishing articles and reports that document the memories of people who lived through that time provides a reminder of just how horrific the breaking up of united India was for millions of families. The largest genocide to have occurred in history is infrequently mentioned in our country and glossed over in history books. We know from anecdotal accounts that even Muhammad Ali Jinnah himself was shocked when he saw the aftermath of the sequence of events that led to the hasty division of a country.

A majority of people in their 70s and 80s who are now speaking out are attempting to leave behind some record of the true ugliness of what took place. Those who still live in Lahore describe the painful separation from friends belonging to the Hindu or Sikh community who vanished suddenly. Their belongings are still with families in Pakistan and are a reminder of how quickly they had to flee in order to avoid a massacre amid the madness that occurred.

Others who moved from what is now India describe the murder of family members and a sudden conversion of peaceful villages into killing fields. Jinnah and his peers are not around today to tell us how they had envisaged the divide would occur. It seems that they had astonishingly not predicted how much hatred, death and misery would be unleashed throughout the region – which, of course, stretches right into modern-day Bangladesh.

As we wave small green and white flags that are being sold everywhere or place larger ones on our rooftops, we should be thinking a little more about the reality of what happened. The purpose of Partition was, according to those who led the movement, to give Muslims a homeland of their own. As we look at the wave of intolerance seeping across India today under the government of Narendra Modi, we have reason to be glad for this. But is it not true that within the land that was created in 1947, a large number of Muslims have been killed at the hands of those who share the same religion?

The events of 1971 have been carefully obliterated from history books and are simply never spoken about in our country. Few can imagine the horrors that took place at Dhaka University and many other places or the racial intolerance that marked the attitudes of people living in what was then West Pakistan and, in a number of cases, working in the eastern wing of the country. The prejudice continues today. The basis of religion for the creation of a nation then falls into question.

Even since then, there have been many other needless acts of violence committed against Muslims and also against non-Muslims who should have been protected by a people who understood the damage that acts of discrimination by a majority population could inflict. Instead, as the decades have passed, we have become a country where sectarian violence is rife, certain groups are discriminated against and militancy has impacted tens of thousands of families across the country.

At a few forums, people are brave enough to ask why Pakistan was carved out in the first place. But, of course, it is easier to talk about this in hindsight now that they see what has happened. Interestingly, in Israel – the only other country founded on the basis of religion – similar forms of discrimination exist. It appears that those who are persecuted are no less willing to persecute others when they get the opportunity and power. The fate of the Palestinians in the Middle East and of many smaller groups in Pakistan serves as a testimony to this belief.

Of course, we must now think of the future and find a way to salvage the country that has been created. This has to be the primary goal. Merely staging expensive celebrations will not achieve this. We need also to look back at history and tell the truth. The truth is always subjective. But we can make an attempt to document the voices of different people who saw what happened to their cities and to their lives.

The project undertaken by the Citizens Archive to record and put together the history of people who lived through 1947 is an important one. Ideally, the media and other groups should follow on from here. But they will not do so. We have been told a false narrative for so long that we have come to believe it without questioning its authenticity. Very little thought accompanies this belief. There were some major parties that had demanded greater autonomy for all Muslim-majority regions that would have avoided a bloody slicing up of India and provinces, including Punjab and Bengal.

Of course, this is a matter for debate and discussion by experts. There are pros and cons to this debate. However, there is no harm in bringing these matters before the people and allowing a freer discussion. The blocking of thought processes and the deliberate moulding of mindsets to fit a particular pattern reflects a legacy of fascism and other similar systems. The greatest gift we could give our people on the 70th          anniversary of our independence is to offer them the power to reason, think and take an open look at history.

The willingness to examine history under different lenses is limited all over the world. The manner in which terrible events, such as the first and second world wars as well as more recent conflicts in Vietnam, Iraq and other places, could have been avoided is not discussed frequently enough. Yes, we now know that the Iraq War was largely a result of falsehood and the lies told by major leaders – who had, in some cases, been fooled by their own intelligence agencies. Inquiries into those events and some excellent documentaries by the independent media have exposed Bush, Blair and many others. These are acts of true courage. Future generations can learn and benefit throughthese efforts.

We need to develop a similar form of bravery within our own broken nation. In the first place, we must admit that it is broken. It is badly divided along the lines of wealth, gender, ethnicity and religion that have deepened with time. Patriotism should involve an attempt to improve the lives of people and be honest about what we say and what we believe in.

When history is as distorted as it is in our country, people simply do not have the room to understand what took place or to learn about the horrors that mark their past. Recognising these facets can motivate them to make a bigger effort to undo the wrongs that took place and build a brighter future for every Pakistani who now lives within the boundaries of the country. This mission should have been undertaken many decades ago. But, perhaps, it is better to begin now rather than abandon this initiative forever and fall into greater disarray.

 

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.