Pakistan Is an Enigma: When Religion Becomes the Weltanschauung of a Nation, Freedom of Intellectuals Are Bound To Be Compromised
By
Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam
29 May 2023
A
Person of Pakistani Origins
Author:
Ziauddin Sardar
Publisher:
Hurst & Company, London
Year
of Publication: 2018
Pages:
229
ISBN:
9781849049870
------
Pakistan is
an enigma. The partition of the Indian continent and birth of Pakistan, created
innumerable problems and challenges for migrants and those who found themselves
in Pakistan. Every new nation, has to explain its origins, so a grand narrative
is prepared to situate a nation in a certain context. Then, a history needs to
be invented to justify the grand narrative. All these tragedies have happened
with Pakistan. It still continues to baffle with numerous challenges, some of
which even threaten its very existence. The role of an intellectual and
historian is very central in such a new nation, but when religion becomes the
Weltanschauung of any nation, then freedom of intellectuals and facts of
history are bound to be compromised.
Ziauddin
Sardar, is a person of Pakistani origin settled in United Kingdom. He is a
prolific writer and polymath, as this work informs the reader. But he is in
dilemma, about his original pure land, “Here is my dilemma. When I want nothing
to do with Pakistan, it clings on to me. When I want to get close to Pakistan,
it repels me; just as often, I am repelled by it. So there is a perpetual tug
of war constantly pulling in opposite directions. I have been trying to resolve
this quandary for decades, with little success.” (P-8) He was treated badly in
Pakistan and many times he pledged never to return, but then there is a
magnetic attraction that draws Sardar time and again towards it. Pakistanis are
demonized in the West, the image that is reinforced through blasphemy laws. On
the one hand, Pakistani masses hate West, particularly Uncle Sam, but then the
ruling clique and masses expect it to save them from crisis. This crisis mostly
is economic in nature, so expectation of Aid from U.S is always welcomed. This
Love/Hate relationship between US and Pakistan can explain some roots of the
contemporary crisis faced by this young nation. To add insult to injury the
spread of puritanical Islam in Pakistan has its background, context and
repercussions too. Add to it corruption, nepotism, red tapism, lack of
institutionalization and little hope of improvement in the course of things,
and we are glaring at a deadly mix religion and politics. This lethal
combination has resulted in the religious fanaticism, terrorism and violence
that Pakistan finds itself mired with today.
Then we
find Sardar as youth growing up in Pakistan, with the craze for detective
novels written by Ibn e Safi. A whole generation of youth devoured his novels,
whose popularity can be understood from the fact that many writers faked,
plagiarized and copied his style, plot and characters of his novels. Then he
mentions a study of religious books written by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi, one
of the founding ideologues of Deobandi school of thought and novels written by
Deputy Nazir Ahmad. But he wrongly attributes Bahishti Zewar (Ornaments of
Heaven) to Hafiz Muhammad Ali Sahibi (P-72), although it is a famous work of
Thanwi. These essays have an autobiographical streak too, coupled with academic
tinge and engaging social commentary on life around him. There is a mention of
a certain auntie who created havoc as Sardar brought a lady friend home, his
mother was aghast and the auntie thought he has committed Zina (adultery).
Thus, the contrast of life between Pakistan and London is manifested in
variegated aspects of Sardar’s life. However, the Muslim South Asian families
carried the cultural baggage with them. So, they always existed in a different
world of their own making that they safeguarded vigilantly against the Firangis
(English). The reader also gets to understand the dual lives and lies of South
Asians in Britain.
The environment
at his home, is quite lovely, lively and happy with poetry and he had his share
of movie outings. Then he is too much influenced by the character of Dilip
Kumar (Yousuf Khan) and his movies. He reviews his movies and they certainly
played a role in shaping the South Asian Diaspora in Britain. Dilip Kumar was a
man of principles, socially engaged and involved with community issues and
always had an ear to the ground. Cinema, radio and movies influenced people and
how they depicted the issues reflected and represented what was going on in the
society. Sardar implores the same in these words, “I grew up not just immersed
in the metaphors of these texts, but thinking with them; they were part of my
vocabulary, they were embedded in my imagination. My love of tradition, of
poetry and language; my distaste for social inequalities and concern for social
justice; my devotion to unconditional, selfless love; my quest to rescue
traditional idealism from ossified traditional societies; my determination to
act against the helplessness and impotence generated by westernized
modernity-can all be traced back to the impact that Dilip Kumar and Guru Dutt
had on my imagination.” (P-122-123)
Then we are
made aware about Ehsan Danish, his poetry, Ghazal and its nuances, as well as
about the deaths of legendary poets like Mahir ul Qadri and Hafeez Jalandhari.
The death of these poets ended a great era of Urdu poetry and now the state of
vernacular Urdu language in India is dismal. With each passing day Urdu is
dying a slow death in India. An exciting essay is dedicated to his maternal
uncle, Waheed Maamu, his exploits as a mystic and social worker. Quite late
Sardar, discovers how his Maamu is a reverend Sufi mystic who enjoys an
elevated status in the eyes of his disciples and now a mausoleum constructed on
his grave speaks volumes about his spiritual majesty.
This book
although a collection of essays is an engrossing read, and offers insights
about what it meant to be growing up in altogether different worlds. Sardar
navigates quite nicely in both these worlds and helps the reader understand
different influences that went into making an intellectual and writer out of
Sardar. This book offers a deep complex kaleidoscopic view that contributed to
the making of Ziauddin Sardar as a prominent Muslim intellectual.
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M.H.A.
Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir.
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/pakistan-enigma-religion-weltanschauung-freedom-/d/129873
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