by ZIYA US SALAM
Pakistan at the Crossroads, edited by Christophe Jaffrelot, Publisher: Random House India, Pages: 358, Price: Rs.699
over 20 years ago, a dilettante of Shahjahanabad in Delhi decided to air his thoughts about Mohammad Ali Jinnah at an informal gathering. Demolishing all notions of the founding father of Pakistan being a devout Muslim, he called Jinnah a nominal Muslim and went on to expand on his alleged fascination for pork, his scant knowledge of Islamic prayers, and so on. It all seemed a shade too much to take as he also talked about Jinnah’s residence on Aurangazeb Road in New Delhi in the days preceding Partition.
Although many people walked out pretty agitated, the old man had certainly sown the seeds of doubts in many a mind. However, as time went by and tempers cooled, one realised that Jinnah was indeed a suave man who was happier in specially crafted business suits and silk ties than salwar-kameez. It was only when the demand for a separate state of Pakistan was made that he took a leaf out of Mahatma Gandhi’s book and started dressing like the common man—in sherwanis and pyjamas. It was a shrewd makeover from a man who knew the pulse of the people. His sartorial, and possibly, religious journey was symbolic of the journey the state he founded was to undertake.
Dubbed a “theocratic state” by some, a “garrison state” by others, as Christophe Jaffrelot alludes to in his introduction to Pakistan at the Crossroads, and a “terror state” by many in the media, Pakistan has been at the crossroads long enough to make infinity intelligible. The state seems worn down by the unending identity crisis it is faced with.
Pakistan has never been short of challenges. A state formed by the partition of the subcontinent, Pakistan has faced more adversities than a lone tree in a desert. In the east, it is confronted with a perpetual challenge from India and in the north-west, the increasing disturbance in Afghanistan. Within, Pakistan has to reckon with the Baluchistan crisis as also the rise of radical Islamist movements. There is then, of course, its military, which never hesitates to play a key role in national politics. So, what does Pakistan do?
A sovereign country, strategically located in close proximity to China and Russia and providing the doorway to West Asia, Pakistan has been reduced to a “client state” through a combination of twist of fate and failed domestic politics. This blow is occasionally softened with the description of Pakistan as a “pivotal state”. Not all the problems of the country are of its own making.
Fear of encirclement
Pakistan’s relations with India suffered from a trust deficit from the very beginning. No wonder Jinnah chafed at Akhand Bharat, an idea that was voiced in the run-up to and following Partition, and believed that the Indian National Congress had not quite accepted the idea of Pakistan.
He wrote: “The Congress has accepted the present Settlements with mental reservations. They now proclaim their determination to restore the unity of India as soon as possible. With that determination they will naturally be regarded as avowed Enemies of Pakistan-State working for its overthrow.” General Ayub Khan warned: “India’s attitude continued to be one of unmitigated hostility. Her aim was to cripple us at birth.”
On its west, Afghanistan refused to recognise the Durand Line as the international border. Incidentally, Afghanistan, whose name many take in the same breath as Pakistan, was the only country to oppose Pakistan’s entry into the United Nations. And thus, the “fear of encirclement” was complete, Jaffrelot says.
The collection of essays draws from two conferences organised at Columbia University, United States. It seeks to present Pakistan from every conceivable point of view. It offers width of vision but not always the profundity to go with it.
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