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Pakistan is labelled as the only nation founded on the basis of Islam today, a Muslim power, whose roots were strengthen during the Mughal rule in the Indian subcontinent. In fact it would be fair to say that Pakistan was the result of, so to say, Muslims' extremism against the non-Muslim's opposition. Then why, if it should be only defined by its Islamic values today, the world sees Pakistan as a threat due to the very reason that helped its creation?
The answer to that lies in the two form of extremism that exist in the nation today. Whenever we skip to a news channel or read a newspaper, we cannot help but believe that religion is the main threat to our nation today. Whether we see it from the eyes of westernize Pakistani calming Islam to be backward or stand in the shoes of a mullah accusing the majority of population to be deprived of true reality. The reason is always the one that initially helped its creation: its religion.
Although the roots of Muslim 'extremism' in India goes far deeper to the late 9th century, our main arena of discussion is when whites — the representatives of western societies — came on the shores of India — a strong Muslim power at the time. Mughal empire that we discussed earlier, is believed to be one of the most successful rules in the history of the Indian subcontinent, shaping the way the land would work in the future. Though the local trade was thriving, when the white captains, who were experts in manipulating psychology, came offering manufactured goods, weapons and rum to the rulers, they had a little reason to hesitate and happily allowed them to start trade with the local Indians in an effort to prosper the Indian soil.
That camouflage trap was only the first step on the ladder of power for the whites in India, British specifically, who will later change its map, dividing them both mentally and geographically into two extremes.
Fast forward to the 18th century, the company (East India Company) which was once thought to prosper the Indian land through their trade with Europe, now hold much of the powers in India. They have their own army consisting of locals (sepoy) fighting against their own people, and maintained a superior image for the locals through their brutal ruling strategies and grandiose architecture they lived in.
The British, without any doubt, belonged to an educated, well mannered and a sophisticated land but possessed the heart of a mouse for the other nations. Their ruling strategies were unlike anything the local rulers of their colonies had ever imagined, leaving those powerless who opposed their rule.
The most significant aspect of their colonization was the introduction of a different form of identity to the locals by converting the nation's youth and local rulers into cheap imitations of the Englishmen through their 'superior' education and English manners.
As Imran Khan, in his autobiography, says:
“During their time in India, the British had embedded an inferiority complex amongst the natives with great care. Waiters and attendants were made to wear the clothes of Mughal army officers and the Mughal aristocracy, while the officers of the symbols of British power, the army, the police, and the civil service, wore the dress of the colonials.”
To achieve this, the Mission schools (also called missionary schools), the colonizers' primary means of smashing the local's identity, were developed by the British during colonial era for the education of their children and westernization of the local people in India.
These British prep schools helped the whites to create a class divide in the natives, people who were neither Indians, nor British but had a strong desire to become one. People who went to such institutions, most notable being the Maharajahs and the local elites of India, automatically became the part of the aristocracy of India and considered themselves superior to the local traditions and those who practiced them, but at the same time, inferior to the Englishmen.
They were, in other words, partners with the British helping them expand their colonial powers. The empire in India in fact later dependent most on them for the indirect rule even when it was transferred to monarchy, after the British Indian Army.
As Lord Macaulay, a British historian and politician himself states:
“We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.”
These elites still control much of the power they inherited from their ancestors, and have a very strong influence on how two dominant nations work in the Indian subcontinent. While the previous generation's bread and butter was Britain, their youth is more impressed by the Americans. Though the love for English and praise for white skin and blonde hair remained the same.
This act triggered the former rulers, the Muslims, who now started to rebel through staying in their mosques and excessively promoting their religion along with the local identity they had protected for centuries. It was considered as an answer for the colonizers that Muslims are keen on their grounds.
For the Hindus though, who had not ruled their land for more than ten centuries now, it was only a matter of change of master who felt no significant threat from the colonization. But for the Muslims, it was the matter of losing the power and control they have had for centuries on the Indian land.
Thus, the Muslims of India eventually became an obstacle for the white's colonization and opposed their rule in India. They eventually left modern education as they had associated it as a means for colonizers to expand their colonialism and turned to semi-barbaric anarchy. This attitude of Muslims upset one philosopher, Syed Ahmad Khan, who in an effort to educate Muslims of India formed Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College (later Aligarh Muslim University) in 1875. He was one of the first Indians to publicly propose the 'two nation theory', stating that Hindus and Muslims of India cannot live together but part or rule, as they are in fact two distinct nations.
The most humiliating aspect of this opposition was the separation of religion and modern education, as mentioned earlier. Mosques became the home for the religious education and never came out of it, while science got limited to British or modern institutions only, which Muslims had rejected. Western suits got associated with secularism while the shalwar kameez — the local dress — was seen as a sign of being religious. This mindset still continues to effect the way people interact with each other today.
The opposition continued for another 200 hundred years, and eventually demand for separate nation started to emerge when Muslims realized that the Hindus too, in some manners, supported the colonizers who had promised them to return their land to them along with its former glory — a perfect example of a divide and rule strategy implemented by the British here.
Due to long continued fight against 'westernism', the practicing Muslims had now forgotten modern education and started to take it as a threat by the west to their religion and ideology. Science became fake and Jewish conspiracy near the Muslims, and their students were only taught and instructed about religious education and how to protect it, even if they have to pay their lives for it. Its influence was specifically strong in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent bordering Afghanistan, where any form of invasion has resulted unsuccessful for centuries — a tradition that still continues.
Eventually the venom spread all over the globe in different Muslim territories foreign nations tried to occupy and Muslims aggressively changed their views towards the western culture, while west started to consider Islam to be backward and barbaric for their fair response.
Then, once Pakistan emerged, their powers strengthened and instead of developing the newly founded nation, these conservative minds, who actually controlled the roots of the country, continued their religious fight against westernization and now became more brutal from their own base.
On the other hand, the former British institutions such as the army and the local elites, who inherited all the ruling powers, quickly acquired whatever the British left in the divided India. Without any knowledge of politics and what-so-ever, these privileged families, landlords and institutions, protected through their kinship, still command enormous sway and are still found in the top ranks today ruling the nation directly.
The roots of how Pakistan really works, then, are to be found in the hierarchy of classes and powers it produces today.
First, the westernized elite supporting today's view of the world. The only problem with them is that they are completely deprived of their true identity — the very reason that cleared the path for the colonizers to invade Indians, both mentally and geographically.
In the battlefield, for instance, both armies have the same platform, often same arms and same strategies, but what makes their fight worth fighting is which flag they are bearing. People die there protecting ideas, beliefs, and identities, as in any other matter they are no different than their opponent. The only thing that defines us today as an Indian or a Pakistani is a sense of being one, without which, no matter how much these gentlemen educate, bear no value unless they are attached to their traditional values.
Second, the religious extremists who inherited their fight against westernization from their oppressed ancestors. These mosque confined Mullahs — shaped by the centuries of foreign occupation who tried to smash their identity — now reinvent Islam by advising its followers to protect their religion by remaining incurious and ignorant, two things entirely opposite to the reason behind the emergence of Islam.
They are, in other words, opposite to the local elites, being excessively attached to their identity, which has blinded them to realize the gravity of the situation.
Today, the west blame these religious extremists for promoting backward ideas in the east and threatening its development, but the reality says something else, it makes one realize that they are now only protecting the idea which was once threaten and still is by the west near them — an idea which in fact is not much different from the west's if truly understood.
In fact, the word 'terrorism', or 'Muslim Terrorism' in today's context was unknown as late as 1960 [source: Wikipedia] — the time Muslims initiated their brutal war on westernization — and before that, 'colonialism' had the very same spot in the world — the reason Muslims initiated their war against westernization. Their fight then, in some manners, is as fair as west's fight towards their modern ideology today.
Now, as mentioned earlier, two of these groups found here are on the extremes, the mosque confined Mullah who control the nation indirectly, and often forcefully through extremism, and the westernized, so called, Desi American supporting the western ideology who control it directly today, both fighting with each other for their believed rights to strengthen their grounds and outperform the idea of one another. As there can be no light without darkness, the extremism too then lies in not one but two forms today, unlike ever portrayed on media before.
In the middle — the third type — lies the only power that can not only balance and abolish those extremes but also help to form successful self-government in the nation. But since they are influenced by the other two powers, they are, technically, still in a state of realizing the powers they hold since the independence. As been never exposed to self-rule for centuries, the locals still live in the shadows of those above them - even if no such superiors exist - as being used to of such system.
According to Francis Fukuyama (an American political scientist, political economist, and author), the colonial powers left three institutions in former colonies as a legacy after the decolonization: the bureaucracy, military, and democracy.
The bureaucracy and military — initially part of British Indian Army — were strengthened by the colonial governments in order to maintain strong control over the domestic environment.
Democracy, however, did not flourish as the locals were not used to of the self-government. After decolonization, the nascent states had strong institutions of bureaucracy and military as it was much easier to maintain than to create something out of scratch.
While the democracy, which these newly independent civilians had to form, was relatively a weaker institution and got influenced by the other two powerful authorities.
This lead to a strong grip of the former two institutions on the state of affairs in the decolonized states such as India and Pakistan, who stood above the law and interfered in the democratic process while protected through their kinship. Whereas the democratic institutions itself were not as developed as in the case of the western societies.
The religious extremism, on the other hand, is an exception to this theory, as unlike ever in the history of the world, the nation of Pakistan was founded on the religious extremism, so to say, against the non-Muslims' opposition. The very people who are considered a threat to the nation today had, in fact, a strong influence on its creation. They are have just turned into wolves and remained a power only for the indirect rule — a power still strong enough to serve its initial purpose and shape the image of the country around the world.
A voice is only heard when it becomes a crowd, the power working/middle class holds is far greater than any other, but so is their fear and lack of knowledge to use and realize this power.
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Alyan Khan is a student of humanities, writer, author and sociopolitical activist from Pakistan.
© Censored version of this article was published on Dunya News.