The structural reason underlying everything in Pakistan is the
catastrophic failure of the idea of Islam as a identity. It might have sounded great back in British Raj to curry support amongst the masses but for such a facile idea to be then imprinted into the DNA of the newly indpendent Pakistan in 1950 as Objectives Resolution was nothing short of a crime to the peoples of the Indus Valley. For the Turks Anatolia is analogous to Turkey as Indus Valley is to Pakistan. Both geographies are the foundation on which these states are anchored.
That this idea was flawed and was
exploded in war of 1971 when the Banglas left. They were Muslim. Why were they leaving other Muslims? That demonstrated the flawed idea of Muslim identity. I mean there are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world and over 40 nation states. If Muslim identity carried any pull worth building countries on surely there should only be one Muslim superstate or MUSLIMSTAN. But we know that is not the case as the idea is preposterous as one united Christiandom.
However within Pakistan itself a slow motion explosion is taking place with similiar underlying dynamic as the Bangla fiasco. To explain let me give the historical background. The British Raj was a vast array of peoples bundled in provinces, states etc. It included places as disparate as Burma, Trucial States [modern UAE], Aden [modern Yemen], Straits settlements [modern Singapore]. The only common denominator in this huge galaxy was they all had been conquered by the British at some time or other and banded into their "Raj" or rule. To begin with there is a assumption that what became known as India across the world existed as a entity. It did not anymore then Europe, Asia or Africa did. A map of South Asia at the dawn of British conquests exposes this fact. The region on north west [on the map the strip on the left covered by then what was the Durrani Empire], Nawab of Sindh and various khanates on the west of Sindh today is
Pakistan. In fact you can see the outline of Pakistan there. The various states and kingdoms in the middle portion are India today with portion of Nawab of Bengal being modern Bangladesh
In 1843 the British attacked Sindh and conquered it making it part of British India. By 1849 the British conquered Punjab which had in the past been part of the Durrani Emipre [Afghan]. Thus by 1849 what is now Pakistan was enslaved by the British and banded into 'India'. Point to note here is India was made by British firepower. Sindh and Punjab were conquerd and forced into British India in late 1840s. By 1860 this is what British India looked like with it's hotch potch of provinces and peoples which includes todays [from east] Myanmar [Burma], Bangladesh, India and Pakistan first ran from Calcutta [today Kolkata] but power was moved to new city built by British called
NEW Delhi in 1920s.
By 1930s it was obvious that British would leave the sub-continent. The Muslim population in the British Raj was not evenly spread. Majority of the Pakhtuns, Punjabis, Sindhi's, Baloch, Kashmiri [these ethnic groups would to to form the acronym PAKSTAN] of the north west strip were Muslim and make the solid green on the left of the map below. The green blob with Muslim majority on the right today is Bangladesh.
However in the vast region in the middle with population greater than all of Europe [which today is India] was dominated by Hindu religion. But within this region which itself was made of differant ethnic groups there was significant Muslim minority which today numbers 150 million out of the 1.4 billion population of India. This minority was made of ethnic group intrinsic to India. That is majority were native Indian ethnic groups who had converted to Islam.
So far example majority of ethnic Bihari's from Bihar were Hindu but there was Bihari Muslim minority also. They were same ethnic group, spoke same languages, same culture but differantiated by religion. Ditto for other parts of India like Madras, Mysore etc. These elites in these minority Muslim provinces of India were alarmed at prospect of British leaving as that would leave them at mercy of majority Hindu state. It is bizzare that it was this minority that voted strongly for Muslim League whereas the ethnic groups that form Pakistan today [the strong green strip on left] kept a very relaxed attitude until just before the Britrish left.
The question was how to protect the minority Muslims in what is now India is what drove ML. They could not have a country as they were spread thinly across the vast scape of India. The solution ML went for was have constitutional protection in what would be loose confederation of three regions. This was being disacussed as late as 1946. The British supported this idea. Jinnah agreed to what was called the Cabinet Mission Plan. However Congress under Nehru refused.
This left the only option which was to let the majority Muslim provinces set up their own federation called Pakistan. All this happened in the run to 1947 within a very short time frame. However this would leave vast number of Muslims within India. As 14th August approached millions of refugees began to move, This had not been part of any plan and the authorities were caught off guard. There was lot of killing which created waves of refugees.
This brings us back to events of 104 years earlier when Sindh had been conquered and it's ruling Mirs [royalEmirs] wiped out by British. It then had been annexed into British India as Province of Sindh with Karachi as it's capital. By 1940 Sindh elected assembly had voted to federate into Pakistan. Please see Sindh [red on map] within British India.
In 1947 Karachi became capital of Pakistan. However unexpectedly millions of refugees [migrants or
Mohajirs] arrived from India. Most were Indian ethnic groups such as Biharis, Utter Pradeshi's, Gujrati's, Bangalis etc etc. They made home in a province that was Sindhi. The Sindhi's spoke Sindhi language and have a history going back 1,000s of years. Within a year capital of Sindh went from a Sindhi city to being Indian Muslim migrant [Mohajir majority].
This would be like Turkey recieving so many Arabs migrants [albeit Muslim] that Istanbul becomes Arab majority and Turks become a tiny minority. Map of Sindh with Karachi. Majority of rural Sindh remained Sindhi dominant however the largest citiy Karachi became Indian Muslim migrant [Mohajir] dominant.
In theory all of Sindh was Muslim [or nearly 97%] so if Muslim identity really was potent then everything should have worked out nicely. But no that was not the case. The Mohajirs from India did NOT fuse with the native Sindhi's to form a amalgam. As decades passed in fact both groups gravitated toward distinct ethnic poles. One Mohajir mostly living in urban Karachi city and other native Sindhi living in rural districts. The Indian Mohajirs dominated Karachi but in Sindh as a whole the native Sindhi's still were dominant. This would be like Arabs migrants dominating Istanbul and Izmir but rest of Turkey is still Turk dominant.
Over time these two distinct groups [native Sindhi Muslim as opposed to Indian Muslim migrants] would cluster around two differant political parties. The Mohajirs formed their own Mohajir Quami Movement [Migrant Nation Movement] whereas native Sindhi's formed around the Pakistan Peoples Party [PPP] of the Bhutto dynasty who are ethnic Sindhi's.
The rivalry and at times near civil war between these two groups in Sindh [MQM versus PPP] has destroyed Sindh and turned Karachi into a city with global notoriety. As a sideline Karachi recieved millions of illegal refugees from Afghanistan, Myanmar [Rohingya] and almost every troubled country with 2,000 miles.
The city turned into ethnic ghettos with civil war conditions. With each ghetto voting according to ethnic affiliation. This has laid threadbare the notion of Muslim identity. And is cause of most of the problems of Karachi and Sindh. There simply is no solution that the Pakistani state can implement given the
realities and
resources it has available. It be noted that Karach is like the front door to the world for all of Pakistan. It is the natural geographic outlet of the entire Indus Basin. The chaos in Karachi cripples all of Pakistan. Imagine what effect Istabul's demise would have on Turkey?
In part 2, I will develop on this. This is abstract of a thread I will write when I get time. This allows me space to refine and develop ideas.
www.aa.com.tr
www.pakistantoday.com.pk
www.yenisafak.com
www.voanews.com
