نحمده
ونصلى ونسلم على رسوله الكريم
والعاقبة
للمتقين
The Two Nation Theory and it’s central concept
of ‘Muslim nationalism’ has gradually morphed into what I call ‘Pakistani
nationalism’. The Pakistani State, dominated by the military and the
feudalists, very quickly realized a peril of ‘Muslim nationalism’ namely the
religious element. That is because fundamentally Islam is a religion which very
much espouses the principles of social justice and is strongly opposed to
accumulation of capital motivated by greed. This is perhaps best illustrated in
the activities and preaching of the Prophet’s illustrious companion and
disciple, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (Allah be pleased with him), who put forward a
very strong emphasis on the Verse:
وَالَّذِينَ
يَكْنِزُونَ الذَّهَبَ وَالْفِضَّةَ وَلَا يُنفِقُونَهَا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّـهِ فَبَشِّرْهُم
بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ
And there are those who amass gold
and silver and do not spend it in the Way of Allah. Announce to them the
tidings of a painful chastisement
(Sura 9: 34)
Furthermore, the Holy Qur’an is a scathing assault on
Pharaonic authoritarianism, and this is definitely something that Pakistan’s
military establishment was on some level conscious of and very anxious about. At
the same time, the immediate threats to the sustainability of Pakistan,
especially in its early years, were the various movements of ethnic nationalism
and separatism, especially from the Pakhtuns (Pathans), the Baloch and even the
Sindhis. The only ideological tool to strengthen the idea of Pakistan, a state
created on the basis of religion, was to further emphasize the universality and
dynamism of Islam. Hence the establishment have till this day always been mired
in this dilemma of injecting a dosage of Islam into the public discourse from
time to time in order to keep the ethnic separatists and leftists at bay, while
trying to ensure that the dosage isn’t excessive in order to keep a check on
the threat of Islamic “fundamentalism”. For the longest time, the “Deep State”
was able to control and co-opt the hardline Islamic movements and sentiments to
its benefit, especially in the context of the Kashmir and Afghanistan
conflicts. However, beginning with in the Musharraf era, the State began
preparing a new narrative and conspired to diminish the influence of even those
Islamic movements and groups which it had co-opted and even nurtured. More
puritanical Islamic movements, like the Taliban, emerged in Afghanistan and
particularly the Pashtun belt which had a flavor of anti-Statism. This was the
real threat to the Pakistani State, which was unable to combat such sentiments
on an intellectual level given the State’s own corruption and deviation from
Islam. It was only when such zealous movements made a fatal blunder and adapted
tactics of terrorism under the influence of al-Qa’ida and the radical Takfiri
ideology from the Arab world that this resulted in them becoming totally
discredited to the benefit of the State. But rather than reforming itself to be
more in line with Islamic ideals and principles, the State began promoting a
brand of Pakistani nationalism based on origin in the land of what is now
Pakistan and pride in the Pakistani State, particularly its “glorious” armed forces
and being a nuclear-armed power, i.e., civic nationalism. The State in fact
became more obsessed with security and as a result much more authoritarian than
ever before. The new narrative has astonishingly resulted in the very abrupt
decline of various religious movements and their marginalization. Coupled with
increased emphasis on Western-style liberal education, the forces of religion
are facing an uphill battle to stay relevant at least among the masses. That
Muslims have always had a tendency to be in awe of power and the iron fist of
the State is very well understood by the elitist ruling class. Being the most
powerful institution by far, the State exerts an undue influence on the Muslim
mind.
Now nationalism is inherently an idea that stands in
opposition to the universalism and piety-based structure of monotheistic religion.
Nationalism is intimately married with materialism and is overall harmful to
spirituality. In the age of identity politics, nationalist sentiments quickly
yield a relegation of religion to oblivion. Based on this, I predict that the
Islamic movement, in the vaguest sense possible, has no future in Pakistan. All
the dreams and hopes of various Islamic intellectuals, from a generation that
is quickly dying off, have been dashed. If their forebears played an active
role in the creation of Pakistan for the purpose of fulfilling the Islamic
vision of a polity, all of their sacrifices have been rendered vain.
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