A Letter Home

mr.gowy:

``I can bet you that many *nice * pakistanis interacting on Chowk dont believe in their heart that Hindus are equal human beings. In time of crunch, these Pakistanis will drop their Hindu friends and go back to bigotry taught to them since birth. ``

may i assure you that i believe youre my equal (maybe, just maybe even nicer) and in times of crunches (my gramer is atrocious) i wouldnt drop any of my hindi friends (real life ones) and also i havent been taught bigotry..i have been taught that achae insaan ka takaaza yae hae kae har insaan kee izzat karrae aur kabhi kisee ka dil nahin dukhai...thats what being a good human and a good musalman is about, in my home and that of a lot of people over here

tear me apart now

Stuka # 186

….good one…

Reply Binifer # 203``

``n0ooooooo000000ooooooooozafarbhaaaaaaai``

But Bwoss, main ne tho kuchh nahin kaha...

:-(

Re: scout

``That`s so mean dude.``

Oh please...she`s called me far worse (and for no good reason).

Suxena #197,

``Re: binifer

``i just collected my shadi ka jora which is a bright red backless, sleeveless sharaara.``

does it come with 2 horns and a tail?``

That`s so mean dude.

Binifer,

Question: I may be wrong but isn`t a sharaara the skirt part of the outfit? And if that`s backless, you`re definitely going to hell, gandi bachi :)

Pakistan’s Peaceniks: A Tiny Antiwar Movement Takes on Nukes, Military Spending, and Dictatorship

By Michael Kamber Village Voice Writer

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN—``This is not the dawn we had dreamed of, this blood-stained dawn,`` wrote the Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz of his nation`s violent birth. In 1947, when British India was divided into Muslim Pakistan and the largely Hindu India, the trains arrived silently at their destinations—their cargo a bumper crop of death; thousands of Muslims shot and stabbed by maddened crowds as they fled west. Half a million people would die on both sides before the carnage ended.

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Pakistan was born in strife; in strife it remains, engaged in a nuclear standoff with India, deeply enmeshed in military actions in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and the disputed province of Kashmir (news - web sites), and spending $2.9 billion a year on guns and soldiers. Today the populace takes comfort in the machine-gun toting soldiers that loiter in public places and street corners across the country.

The country`s minuscule peace movement has its work cut out for it. ``I don`t know if I would even call it a peace movement. It is something—maybe an initiative?`` says Saba Gul Khattak of the Citizens` Peace Committee, a group of 100 or so activists in Islamabad. The CPC is part of a large coalition, the Pakistan Peace Committee, an umbrella organization of about 1000 peace activists in this nation of 140 million.

The political views of this small group are wildly divergent from those of the average Pakistani, who could be described as pro-military, pro-nuclear, deeply hostile towards India, and content with Pakistan`s military dictatorship. The peace activists conduct community workshops and hold small demonstrations and press conferences in the face of skepticism from the populace and harassment from the authorities. Their goal, they say, is to raise awareness about what they see as the dangers of Pakistan`s massive militarization, its lack of democratic government, and the effects of economic globalization.



If there was a catalyzing event for Pakistan`s antiwar movement, it was the country`s first nuclear tests, which took place in 1998. Arch-rival India had provocatively detonated five nuclear devices. A wave of near hysteria swept Pakistan; the press and public demanded a response to the saber rattling. Faced with U.S. sanctions that would cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars, Pakistan nevertheless went ahead with its own series of trials; six bombs were exploded, doing India one better. Citizens celebrated in the streets and the government made May 28, the day of the first successful trial, a national holiday. (Simultaneously, it declared that May 2, the worldwide labor holiday, would no longer be celebrated.) Echoing the sentiment of many, an Islamabad resident explained recently, ``We never felt secure until we had our own bomb.``

A small group of academics and NGO (nongovernmental organization) employees—policy planners, aid workers, and union organizers—was stunned by these sentiments and banded together to form the CPC. ``We don`t need nuclear bombs in our country,`` said Roshan, a CPC member who asked that her real name not be used. ``If we stop making bombs, all that money can be spent on schools, hospitals, and development.``

CPC member Saba Gul Khattak is the daughter and granddaughter of army officers. She is now researching Pakistan`s history of militarization, as well the peace movements of its early years. She vividly remembers the 1965 and 1971 wars with India, the bombs exploding, the roar of airplanes and tracers filling the night sky. She argues that there has always been a peace movement in Pakistan, but that much of it occurred in literature and poetry, which was banned by the government, allowing no consciousness to take root. ``In a state-sanctioned discourse these thoughts were wiped out, and so there is no collective memory,`` she explains. ``If the state bans your voice, then your words become just a solitary event that takes place, and with time, it fades from memory.``

Today, state-sanctioned obstacles to peace organizing continue. Aasim Sajjad, a CPC mainstay and union organizer, can`t remember how many times he has been jailed here. ``Maybe a dozen,`` he says. His crime? Publicly criticizing—and demonstrating against—the military dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf. ``All the power in Pakistan is in one man,`` says Izmat Shahjehan, a fiery, outspoken CPC member. ``He`s the president, the chief of the army, the prime minister. Parliament has been dissolved. He has no constituency—he`s never been elected—and now he alone sits down with Bush and makes all decisions in the name of the people of Pakistan. We know this military government is going to stay—the U.S. supports it—but democracy has never been more important for us.``

Yet most Pakistanis much prefer General Musharraf to the man from whom he seized control, the elected but unpopular Nawaz Sharif. ``For most Pakistanis, the concept of peace and democracy is meaningless,`` says Sajjad. ``It does not really mean anything unless linked to people putting food on the table. There was a military coup almost exactly two years ago [in which Musharraf took power]. Nobody said a word. Democracy in and of itself is irrelevant to these people.``

Sajjad sees the current debate over the war in Afghanistan as a window of opportunity, one he is trying to exploit. He believes unionizing workers is an important step in getting them involved in the democratic process, and he is trying to organize brick-workers, shoemakers, and taxi drivers. ``We need to link them to other groups and explain how the democratization of the state will benefit them,`` he says.

But unionizing here is a difficult process. Only 4 percent of the workforce is unionized, and unions are forbidden in the country`s large industrial export zones. Students are forbidden from organizing as well, depriving Pakistan`s antiwar movement of a natural source of activists.

A further obstacle is the class divide between the activists and Pakistan`s proletariat. Most Pakistanis are agrarian, illiterate, and desperately poor. Per capita income is $480 a year. The CPC is made up of the upper-middle-class city dwellers. There are several Ph.D.`s among its members and many have studied abroad, usually in the United States or England.

The class divide was clearly on display at a mid-October press conference held at the Marriott hotel. The group held the briefing in English, in hopes of attracting the foreign press. But the English-language media was otherwise occupied, and only the local Urdu-language press attended, most of whose members know only rudimentary English. ``Our speaker was speaking in the most complex academic jargon,`` recalls Roshan. ``Intents are good, but the local journalists couldn`t even follow what he was saying. I kept saying, `Let`s switch to Urdu,` but he just kept going.`` The CPC presentation was followed by a barrage of hostile, accusatory questions from the local press.

Roshan goes on to tell an anecdote about a friend who announced she was planning to take her servant to a CPC demonstration. Was the friend trying to increase consciousness among her employees? asked Roshan. ``No,`` came the reply. ``It`s hot out, and if I get tired of holding this placard, she can carry it around for me.``

Sajjad listened to Roshan talk on a recent evening. ``What we`re saying is unintelligible to others,`` he agreed. ``Unless we change that, ordinary Pakistanis will never hear our message.`` Still, the CPC press conferences and demonstrations do occasionally get airtime. Often they are ridiculed, portrayed as unpatriotic, or even subject to veiled threats, yet even the brief television appearances are a valuable outlet for the group`s message.

And there have been other successes as well. Shandana Khan, like most members, an employee of one of the dozens of NGOs scattered throughout Islamabad, recently sent out an e-mail to 18 friends and colleagues asking for funds and materials to aid the incoming Afghan refugees. Despite her objections, the e-mail was passed on, eventually arriving in places as far-flung as Singapore and the U.S. She has been deluged with donations and supplies. To date, five truckloads of food and blankets have been sent to Afghan refugees.

Other members see the antiwar efforts as intrinsically tied to an antiglobalization campaign. Pakistan`s economy is in tatters; unemployment is rampant among young men, whom the activists see as providing cannon fodder for militant fundamentalist groups that indoctrinate and send teenagers to fight in Kashmir and Afghanistan. ``My own cousins say, `What can I do, our kids are out in the street, getting into trouble, they have nothing to do,` `` says Shahjehan. ``They say, `We`ll send them to a madrassa (a religious school where many Pakistani youth are taught by fundamentalist teachers), they`ll learn the Qur`an. It will pacify them.` Now my brother`s three sons have met these recruiters, and they want to go to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban. They say, `We get three thousand rupees as a bonus (about $50), we get to see another country, and if we`re killed, we get a one-way ticket to heaven.` ``

In various forms, Pakistan has always had a small progressive movement. Yet for many Pakistani peace activists, it was time spent as students in England and America that helped to politicize them—that reinforced their belief in democracy and protest.

And yet today they are fighting against what they regard as the pernicious influences and policies of the West. Anti-American sentiment runs deep among many activists, so deep that it has created schisms within the group. ``Who`s the real terrorist? America!`` was the favored chant at the CPC`s last rally, a lackluster affair held last week and attended by perhaps 20 activists, 40 journalists, and 80 police officers. Towards the end of the rally, Pervez Hoodbhoy, a committee member, could take it no more. ``I lost my temper,`` he recalls. ``I started yelling, `If you`re going to talk about terrorists, let`s shout about Osama first, then America.` ``

Hoodbhoy talked about his differences with the majority of CPC members last week as he sat in his modest home on the grounds of Quaid-i-Azam University, where he has spent 28 years as a professor of nuclear physics. ``How hard it is that I came back to Pakistan because of the crimes of Vietnam and that I should be here today stopping people from shouting death to America,`` he says. Hoodbhoy became radicalized during his time at MIT, where he arrived in 1968. He attended SDS rallies, participated in building takeovers, and later spurned job offers in the U.S. ``Here in Pakistan, I can make more of a difference,`` he says. But he is increasingly disturbed by the attitudes of many of his fellow citizens.

``September 11 was mass murder,`` he says, ``And it should be condemned. People who talk about peace have no business saying the U.S. brought it upon itself. It`s one thing to try to understand the roots, but first you should condemn this mass murder. I`m not finding the condemnation.``

Hoodbhoy had a seminar planned for September 12. He changed the topic to a discussion about the attack, seeking to use the event as a catalyst for change. Among many of the students there was a celebratory mood, he recalls. ``They said, `Worse things have happened in the world, many of them perpetrated by the U.S.—why are you making a big deal out of this?` I said, `Before our eyes, we saw the deaths of thousands of people. This is a defining moment in history.` `` Through the seminar, Hoodbhoy believes, he was able to remind a few students about the concept of a shared humanity.

One of only half a dozen nuclear physicists in Pakistan, Hoodbhoy understands better than most the dangers he says are inherent in his country`s nuclear program. ``In this century we may very well see the use of nuclear weapons,`` he says. ``There are many scenarios. There could be fighting along the line of control (in Kashmir), during which India pursues Jihadis (guerrillas fighting against India) into Pakistan, and there is a conventional war. Pakistan is losing—before the major cities are lost, we use our nuclear weapons. And it would not be just one bomb, it will be many. They will respond. We`re talking about tens of millions of people dying.``

Hoodbhoy differs from his fellow peace activists in another way as well. Although he is against war on principle, Hoodbhoy is so alarmed by the extremist form of Islam that has swept through Pakistan and Afghanistan that he sees this war as ``an opportunity for Pakistan to rid itself of something dangerous. If [the] U.S. does not succeed in driving out the Taliban, we`re sunk. [The fundamentalists] have changed the character of Pakistan—they`ve taken us back and back and back,`` he says. ``In Malakand [a city in western Pakistan], they have established Islamic penal codes. They cut off hands, stone people to death, smash televisions. They`re the barbarians of our times. They`re against culture, emancipation of women.``

Ten years ago, Hoodbhoy says, a woman in a burkah, a full body covering, stood out on the university campus. Today he has three such students in a class with 13 women; seven others wear hijab, which covers their faces, leaving only a slit for their eyes. Only three go about with just a scarf over their heads.

A former dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq planted the seeds of Islamic fundamentalism in the 1970s. His goal was to create a more conservative Islamic state, one that would be stalwart in the fight against India. By all accounts, that vision has come to pass. Over the last 20 years, the public schools have been ``Islamicized,`` the madrassas staffed with fundamentalist mullahs, and the country`s mood has shifted far to the right.

Faiza Mirza, a 36-year-old housewife, is part of this wave of fundamentalism. She lives with her husband and four children in a well-appointed concrete house in the city of Rawalpindi, not far from the raucous downtown area where tens of thousands of merchants and shoppers jam the narrow streets.

She does all the things housewives do the world over. She shops, meets with her children`s teachers, drives a car. But she is different from most Western women in that Islam is the guiding force in her life, and she believes that after puberty, women should not be seen uncovered by males outside the family. Accordingly, both she and her 15-year-old daughter, Fariha, wear the hijab.

Sitting in the living room recently, with the other children occasionally coming to listen in, Faiza and her oldest daughter spoke about their beliefs. ``If a woman is good-looking,`` explained the outspoken Fariha, ``men will treat her like she is important. They act like what is inside does not matter.`` Now that she has taken the hijab, she said, men treat her with far more respect. ``They have to pay attention to what is inside, not just appearances.``

Faiza is a supporter of Afghanistan`s Taliban government—after all, she says, ``under the Taliban, there are no guns [among the population], no drugs, no corruption; they are true believers.`` A college graduate, she thinks that the Taliban`s poor treatment of women has been exaggerated; in any case, their beliefs dovetail to a large degree with her own.

As for her own country, she says, ``The founders of Pakistan said, `What is the meaning of Pakistan? There is but one God: Allah.` There is no point in having Pakistan except to have an Islamic state.`` (In fact, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the ``father of Pakistan,`` specifically conceived of the country as a secular state.) Like many here, Faiza is fearful of India and in favor of Pakistan`s nuclear weapons: ``If you have a strong neighbor, and he tries to take part of your house, you have to fight back,`` she explains.

Yet she agrees with the peace activists on one point. General Musharraf speaks without a mandate. If there were a democracy, she and other fundamentalists could elect a more conservative politician, one who shares her and her family`s views. If Pakistan`s leader were elected, she says, he or she never would have sided with the U.S. against the Taliban. And Faiza`s democracy has one caveat. ``Only those of sufficient moral standing should be allowed to vote,`` she says.

Both mother and daughter are well-educated and intelligent—they come across as reasonable people. ``People are the same the world over, we all want the same thing,`` she says. Then she reminds a visitor that Islam literally means peace.

It is Pakistanis like Faiza that the peace activists would like to reach. Yet the gaps between the two groups are immense. Part of the problem, some peace activists say, is that they have not found a way to explain their movement in a way that emphasizes Islam, an issue that is so central to the lives of many Pakistanis. As Roshan said recently, ``There is no movement per se. We have not been able to link our cause to that of the ordinary Pakistani.``

n0ooooooo000000ooooooooozafarbhaaaaaaai

no sleeves, no back

i like it like this

waisae bhi dozakh mae tau jaana hee hae, might as well look good here and then go, no?

(I hope that it was your own decision than otherwise.)

sawaal daikhain- aap ko kaheen sae bhi lagta hae ke merae saath koee zabardastee kar sakae ga?

my last post

replace `biased` with `unbiased`. Sorry!

Reply #: 187

Zafar Al-Talib

Reply Satyavadi # 165

“Now did this BM guy really know Sarwari? Has he really gone to SJ to really ask her hand in marriage? What will YLH do now, since he has been openly courting and maska-maroing Sarwari on Chowk for a long time? Where does Saxena fit in?”

Cineblitz has an opening for you!

Zafar,

Your Shubh Chintak



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Shammi:

let me make a wild guess -- you are a Punjabi with roots in what is today Pakistan, and have met older relatives who passed on tales to you about life in undivided India.

Yes, full marks for guessing the obvious ;) The stories the older relatives passed on about life in Undivided India were always positive. Partition was looked upon as an aberration, not destiny. And here Shammi, is the greatest Schism that exists between Indian and Pakistani memories of Partition. What for older generation Indians is a ``mistake``, is a fulfillment of destiny for them. And it is liberal Indians like you, who try to brush Indian-Pak differences under the carpet, with a ``Maan na Maan, Mai Tera Mehman`` attitude of ``Hum sab ek hain``, are the biggest creators of Pakistani insecurity and Paranoia. Why can`t we acknowledge our differences, and then try and resolve them instead of saying there are no differences? (Rhetorical question, not aimed at you)

The refugees who still remember Pakistan, as ``hamara ghar``, are not doing either country a favor. If you meant to insinuate that the stories of Partion that I heard are responsible for my position against the Pakistani state, you are dead wrong. The bitterness of Hindu/Sikh refugees is not towards Jinnah, the Muslim League or even the Muslims who instead are looked upon as fellow sufferers of their own idiotic leadership, it is against Congress leaders, specifically Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

``For Indians who do not fit the above category (greater than 70%, and increasing by day as the previous generations die), the `consider the Pakistani state our enemy country` either does not hold true, or will dilute over time.``

Well, the 30% that I belong to, by your estimate at least, have some curiosity and and hunger for Pakistani culture, literature, music, because we see a bit of ourselves in it. That is why I made a distinction between the Pakistani state, and the Pakistani people. I look forward to the posts of SameerJB, not for his politics, but for his commentary on culture and society to which my people are a part. My hatred for the policies of the Pakistani state, which are inmical to my country, are tempered by a knowledge that there is a Pakistan beyond press conferences, diplomatic manouvres, war mongering and calls for Jihad.

Now, consider people who are not of the 30% but the 70% (again your estimate)who have no such connection with Pakistan. I think the biggest Paki Hater on Chowk is Jay, a person from Kerala, or so he says, and exactly how did his views get affected by stories of Partition. People like Jay, and they are the ones of future generation, have no cultural affinity with Pakistan, view it as a foreign country, ad do not distinguish between the state and the people. Where exactly are they supposed to lose their hatred? What exactly is motivating them to NOT hate? It`s not the history boks, but present circumstances and differing view points fuelled by violence and righteousness, that cause a rift. Look at Samuel Hersh`s article which is posted below. Do you think the hatred he talks about is because of stories told by older generation Indians to young and pristine minds?

Look, this post, inspite of its appearence, is not pessimistic. I just say, lose the bhai bhai approach, take a pragmatic look at issues, try and solve them as best as you can, in peace or in war, and leave us 30% alone to romanticize our past and our divided culture.

[``the same Pakistani case officers who built up the Taliban are doing the translating for the C.I.A. It`s like using the Gottis to translate a conversation with the Lucheses.`` Another intelligence officer depicted the language situation in Afghanistan as ``madness.`` He added, ``Our biggest mistake is allowing the I.S.I. to be our eyes and ears.``

It was a lack of operational security that, apparently, led to the death, late last week, of one of the most prominent operatives in the Taliban war. According to press reports, Abdul Haq, an Afghan guerrilla leader who was a hero in the war against the Soviets, had been ambushed and executed after a two-day standoff in eastern Afghanistan. Haq was said by the Taliban to have been on a mission for the United States, and to have been carrying large amounts of money—presumably to be used to induce Taliban commanders to defect. An Afghan press report subsequently quoted a Taliban spokesman who said that fifty of Haq`s supporters, possibly including ``foreigners,`` had also been surrounded. Haq`s death was a major setback to the American anti-Taliban effort]

So true.

Stuka

You are wrong. I did not grow up thinking about Pakistan as enemy or muslims as enemy or dirty. I began to hate Pakistan after seeing their evil behavior in Kashmir and Afghanistan and after learning what they teach for history. After seeing people like Hobbyty who are spreading their hatred in the guise of religion all over the world made that hatred stronger.

You may have gone to Hindu fundamentalist RSS schools in Punjab. I dont know about their books. My government school books did not teach hatred against Pakistanis. Most Indian schools are government schools. My government school text books had chapters on Paigambar Mohammad, Sikh Gurus, Sufi poets, Hindu poets, Christian poets. Medieval problems between Hindu subjects and Muslim rulers was balanced by asking us always to respect other religions.

People can sort political difference. Hatred and misinformation taught to children will stay with most people always. Only exceptional people will be able to leave hatred. Tahmed who criticises me can do that overcoming, I appreciate him, though he dosnt appreciate me. All people are not like him. I can bet you that many *nice * pakistanis interacting on Chowk dont believe in their heart that Hindus are equal human beings. In time of crunch, these Pakistanis will drop their Hindu friends and go back to bigotry taught to them since birth.

Bigots are everywhere. I hate Pakistan because it works to turn its children into bigots as a matter of national policy. Most of these children will die as bigots, what India does will make no difference to them. They only see the world as good, innocent muslim world and bad kafir world. That is what some people as Eklviya who want to be friends with Pakistanis dont understand. When Pakistani children are taught this hatred, what is the chance of meeting a good Pakistani?

Faisal sahb -Your piece was a lot more interesting than the Times piece. This is what you need to be putting on the net.I reread my last note and it looked like I tossed off the massacre pretty lightly but hardly so. The real tragedy is that Pakistan so desperately needs its minorities. They were so critical in America`s own development. Minorities have a way of moderating our poltical, religious and social excesses demonstrated during slavery and Native American `cleansing`... more remarkable, under the separation of church and state. A sobering account in ``Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee`` brings images of those carrying the frozen stiff bodies of women and children into the local church for identification. It was winter obviously - Christmas time. Above the altar was a large banner which read, ``Peace and Goodwill To All Men`` Amin .. and beneath, the bodies thawed in the warmth. I`ve always had a sense that at some point in history we`d be repaid for that karmic deficit.

It`s impossible not to consider the psychology of these matters, which ultimately falls to the laws of quantum physics. When we talk about a Creator we`re talking about The Absolute and Absolute Truth. That is impossible for human`s to know. The creator cannot be limited to terms like Jew, Christian, Muslim or Jain. That empirical Uncertainty is carved in stone and could not be dislodged by Einstein himself nor anyone else in this age of computers and technological brilliance. When we invoke the words ``God`` or ``Allah taala``, we`re only talking about a god IMAGE only. The only law which can possibly apply is a personal and subjective one. Yet, I`m disturbed by what I see, on the net and the tube, especially, and it`s at the core of religious war raging around the world. ``When I say ``God`` I`m talkin` THE ONLY God.`` The personal subjective has impossibly melted into the collective objective. 2+2=3.

Remember the wonderful relationships that existed between Muslim and Hindu before, even after Partition? My personal doctor, Dr Kashyap`s best friend is his office mate, Dr Abassi. Hindu and Muslim. These two brilliant men worship that tiny Uncertainty, that tiny (and Holy) seed of ..doubt... if you will. It`s the Heisenbergh Uncertainty Principle at its best. It`s what Pervez Hoodbuoy knows for sure: Uncertainty must remain sacred if the world is to survive.

More later

Re: binifer

``i just collected my shadi ka jora which is a bright red backless, sleeveless sharaara.``

does it come with 2 horns and a tail?

Stuka #186

``...Inspite of the relatively less virulent nature of our text books, do we still not consider the Pakistani state our enemy country? I know I still do...``

let me make a wild guess -- you are a Punjabi with roots in what is today Pakistan, and have met older relatives who passed on tales to you about life in undivided India. For Indians who do not fit the above category (greater than 70%, and increasing by day as the previous generations die), the `consider the Pakistani state our enemy country` either does not hold true, or will dilute over time. That is why, not institutionalizing biased histories in textbooks is so important. They allow wounds to heal with time.