Pakistan Has an Association with Ideology - Serving as The Foundation of The Islamic State
By
Khaled Ahmed
September
12, 2020
Pratap
Bhanu Mehta recently (‘Simply Vishwas’, IE, August 26) wrote: “Politics of
belief (Vishwas) is different from one based on fact and interest. It has an
underlying cultural nihilism.” In Pakistan, it has an association with
“ideology” serving as the foundation of the Islamic State.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan
-----
The word
“ideologie” came into use during the French Revolution and postulated a sure
and encyclopaedic form of knowledge upon which social engineering could be
based. Ideology came on the scene as a champion of Enlightenment and rival of
religion, but it soon acquired the status of a dogma. The principal voice of
the ideologues and author of Elements d’Ideologie, Antoine Destutt de Tracy
(1754-1836), spoke frankly of “regulating society”.
Most
ideologues possess a kind of certitude, not just that utopia can be built but
that it is destined to be built. Nothing promotes aggression more than
certitude. Yet, a fatalistic trust in the tide of history and the ideological
frame of mind go together. However, history cannot be left alone to unfold —
the “passionate intensity” (W B Yeats) of ideology craves movement and deeds.
It has been said that “ideology is the transformation of ideas into social
levers”. During the month of fasting this year, “ideology” and its “certitude”
once again threaten Pakistan with violence. Mehta’s “Vishwas” may be
linked to “certitude” and consequent aggression”.
The founder
of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, did use the word ideology once or twice
during the Pakistan Movement, but it was in the Western liberal sense. The USSR
had an ideology which was fixed. If you opposed Soviet ideology you could go to
jail. In Iran, there is an ideology which no one can oppose. The only
difference is that in Iran it can be done in the detail but not in principle.
In the
USSR, the Communist Party looked after ideology. In Iran, the clergy appointed
by the constitution does the same job. In Pakistan, ideology gained respect
after 1947 and some of it, it must be confessed, came from the USSR and its
great economic achievement. India was democratic. Pakistan was ideological.
India was an ordinary concept as a state. Pakistan was something special. The
Left thought ideological meant socialism. The Right thought it meant Islam. The
utopia of the Right was “Falahi” (welfare) state, somewhat akin to the
communist utopia. Today, Imran Khan calls it the State of Madina.
All
politicians in Pakistan proudly claim to be “Nazriati” (ideological). It
can mean “principled”, but it also points to an Islamic utopia. Pakistan has
tried to define this utopia. But under General Ziaul Haq, a committee called
Ansari Commission said Islam “did not allow opposition”. So, the general had a
non-party election and there was no opposition in parliament. It was clear that
Pakistan did not equate ideology with democracy. There is a Federal Shariat
Court in Islamabad to make sure everything happens in Pakistan according to
Islam. That is very much like ideology.
The
clerical view is that the Pakistani utopia should be recreated in the light of
the “sharia”, which also includes the “Fiqh” (case law) of the medieval
jurists of Islam. Alas, in the eyes of the clergy, the state remains “incompletely
ideological” and, therefore, an unhappy state. It is a small island on which
the non-clerical Right and a minuscule Left are surviving in Pakistan. Needless
to say, the clerics are unhappy and denounce the state.
Muslims who
want to be “modern-Islamic” are unhappy because the state can’t move quickly
enough to assimilate the new universalism. Muslims who want the state to be
perfectly Islamic are unhappy with it for being tardy in rejecting modernity.
You have to be a good Pakistani. That means you have to love the idea of
Pakistan as a state that lives separated from India.
If you
imply that Pakistan is not separate from India or that it should re-join it,
you go in for rigorous imprisonment. This is a special shibboleth. An American
can say America should join China and still be free. But in Pakistan, you can
be hauled up for implying Pakistan’s “un-separateness”.
Ideology
interfaces with nationalism. Ideology remains Islam, but don’t ask to go into
details. Pakistan is unhappy because of the “inclusive” constitutional
principle of “nothing repugnant to Islam”. Pakistan is liveable today for some
because it is “insufficiently” ideological. For some, this incompleteness is a
source of unhappiness. Its constitution seems to promise two contradictory things
at the same time. No one is really reconciled to the state as it is. Those not
reconciled are all good Pakistanis or Muslims, but they may not consider each
other good Pakistanis or Muslims.
The acme of
nationalism is fascism, which then becomes ideology. Ideology, because of its
“utopian” control, also aspires to fascism. Stalin fought against fascism but
then created an ideological state, which was not much different from Hitler’s
Germany. Pakistan is like Caliban. It sees its face in the mirror and doesn’t
like what it sees.
-----
Khaled
Ahmed is consulting editor, Newsweek Pakistan.
Original
Headline: Pakistan sees its face in the mirror and doesn’t like what it sees
Source: The Indian Express
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/pakistan-association-with-ideology-serving/d/122844
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism