Author: Deepak Loomba
Being a ‘khalis’ (pure) Punjabi, born & brought up in the northern Indian state of Punjab has its own benefits & drawbacks. Benefits - hosts are generous in offering alcohol & non-vegetarian food, knowing our predisposition to it, Punjabi pop music (which I neither listen nor appreciate much as I love folk songs) occupies the entire room. Drawbacks - they want one to start dancing in a fashion that pendulates both hands in sync, between one’s shoulders on one side & the sky on other. The more the line of to & fro movement of hands deviates from the perpendicular to the ground, the higher the tipsiness. Punjabis are perceived as happy-go-lucky people even within India by habitants of other states. And true it is. Being a frontier state and having borne the brunt of invasions, all of which came from the west, we value moments of life more than most others. Unscarred to lay our lives for the cause of the nation & its defense (we regularly do that), we make every moment count, till alive. Making us generally hard-working, risk-taking & merry-making.
And there is another characteristic that most other Indians rightly incriminate Punjabis in - our concern & on the state of affairs in Pakistan. They are right and there is a reason. When the British partitioned India, it was Bengal & Punjab that were torn into two, notwithstanding a shared culture, language, traditions etc.
Occasionally, watching Pakistani soap operas is fun, foremost, because they are qualitatively better than Indian, secondly because it confirms that on the other side of the border, live people, who think, speak & shout just like us.
Many times I feel sympathy for the people of Pakistan, who have been forced to divorse their mother tongue 'Punjabi' in favour of so-called elite Urdu. They have been sold a buncombe theory that all of them arrived on horseback from Arabia & were the rulers of India. Truth is - India had muslims much before Arab & Persian invasions. And the majority of Pakistani Muslims are natives - our blood brothers, who adopted Islam for various reasons, not the least, its promised equality among all men & equity, which lacked in Hinduism & unfortunately got borrowed into Indian islamic culture along with those, who joined Islam to shun this ill.
Mine is the last generation that was brought up being narrated stories of Lahore, which was the cultural capital of not just united Punjab in undivided India, but indeed was the most important & largest city in the entire upper half of India. My father did his FA in Lahore & used to often say that had Lahore been part of India, Delhi would have not been the most important city of Northern India. Lahore would have been as important or more important than Delhi, quite like Mumbai is today commercially and industrially more important than Delhi. We all felt a romantic magnetism towards Pakistan, especially Lahore. We loved a fight in cricket or hockey with Pakistan. And I am sure the love-hate relationship was reciprocated with equal fervour.
We fought four wars, Punjab being the front in three of them. I think that too was forgiven & forgotten by both sides. But then the Mumbai Massacre happened in 2008, which changed something in how we all Indians - even Punjabis feel about Pakistan. Something changed that day forever, even amongst Punjabis. Men have been going to war for various causes and not just few of them were ridiculous. Secondly, others' cause is always ridiculous, and one's own, genuine. Thus, to kill each other on the battlefield makes the dead of both sides martyrs. War & death therefore, can be forgiven and forgotten. But the Mumbai attack was cowardly, below the belt punch, which made us lose hope. Indians, Americans, Israelis were the main targets, accounting for 151 of 166 dead, though German, Australian, Canadian, French, Italian, British, Dutch and Japanese too lost people.
Pakistan through 51 years since its inception in 1947 had loathed every time Indians referred to them as 'lost blood brothers'. They felt that their separate Muslim identity - the basis of creation of Pakistan is compromised with our desire to unite into a large nation or at least a close comity. Notwithstanding the wars, most of us, especially Punjabis, fantasied an undivided India at best and a peaceful collaborative Indian subcontinent some day, assuming that the people of Pakistan (especially the ruling Punjabi elite) will one fine day realize that bonds of culture last longer & are stronger than repulsion of religious disparity. Pakistan disliked our expression of brotherliness and revolted to our claim of being a single civilization-nation as the Indian subcontinent, even if it came at the cost of being two nation states.
But in the 2008 watershed, when 100s of innocent commoners were butchered by Pakistan establishment trained mercenaries & the way Pakistan State and media behaved thereafter, I think we all gave up the idea of a united India or united Punjab. Pakistan succeeded in convincing us they are no more like us.
Most in Pakistan fail to recognize the chasm that the Mumbai 2008 attack created in the minds & hearts of Indians. None of us, anymore desire to ever see Pakistan as a part of undivided India. Even the Punjabis are convinced that Pakistan is a failed state, people bigoted - cumulatively a lost cause, for themselves. With advent of social media, we got exposed to occurrence of forced conversions & forced marriages of minority girls against graveyard-like silence of Pakistani majority. Utter lack of human rights for ethnic minorities added to the disenchantment with the country & the people it represents, who we felt no more represented the rich, large-hearted & upfront Punjabi culture.
Minorities are being squeezed all over the world and India is no exception. But there has never been even a single case of oppression against minorities in Punjab. In another article of mine I claim that India is genetically plural and I strongly stand by it, notwithstanding, which Government is in power. Having said the aforementioned, a stab in the back (Mumbai Terror Attack) is not what Punjabiyat stands for. I firmly believe that the major reason for abject failure of Khalistan movement (Separatist movement in Punjab, fuelled by Pakistan in 80s as a part of the ‘bleed India with a thousand cuts’ strategy) too was that the Punjabi psyche can justify an open armed revolt, but not the treachery of terrorism.
I believe we harbour sympathy for the people of Pakistan, therefore all Punjabi Prime Ministers of India, whether Dr. Manmohan Singh or Mr. I. K. Gujral tried their best to settle disputes & improve relations. But no more is Govt of India, in concurrence to the general wishes of the people of India (Punjabis incl.), have the desire to ‘understand’ the problems of Pakistan. We had a tendency to ‘understand’ that Pakistan is ruled by Army & that the Army is rogue and keeps toppling civilian rule and that terrorism is not state sponsored…. etc. Consequently, our ‘understanding’ the Pakistan situation led to elimination of any need by its regimes & people to change. Like all ‘understanding intellectuals’, we got into the causation dendrogram, thus realizing that there is a cause behind every cause for Pakistan to do that which its establishment & politicians have been doing for three decades (first fueling terrorism & separatism in Punjab (in 80s) & now in Jammu & Kashmir and the dastardly Mumbai, Pathankot & Uri attacks) and no one to affix the blame on. Thus, status-quo continued. Why should an alcoholic change his ways, if his spouse is very understanding?
What the current Modi Govt. did, I believe is a great favour to the people of Pakistan. After the Pathankot attack, he learnt the hard way that the mould of Pakistani thought is cast. By downgrading diplomatic ties, snapping trade & cultural relations, exposing the corrupt puppet regime internationally, propped by the Army that covertly sponsors terror, kills its own citizens (in Balochistan & FATA, parts of Pakistan) & lastly by ensuring a tit-for-tat to Pakistani Army (by expanding the possibility of armed conflict under Nuclear Umbrella), he left no space for the Pakistani ‘establishment’ to maneuver or claim any victory or bravado in front of its people. Concurrently, I think the message went straight & knocking to the people of Pakistan - India is no more interested in Pakistan per se, and surely it is no more interested in being the perpetually understanding spouse of an alcoholic. If the Pakistani Army is to be reigned in, it is not the Indian Army’s job at the cost of its lives, it is the job of the People of Pakistan. India exited the ‘understand the causality dendrogram’ mentality and has stated with clarity that nothing other than deliverables bother it. Else, India means to have no truck with the State of Pakistan.
Half a week ago, Nawaz Sharif, erstwhile, thrice elected, thrice ejected, Pakistani Prime Minister, currently exiled in U.K., but politically still relevant and strong; vocally & publicly, accused the Pakistani Army Chief & ISI Chief (internal spy & political sabotage agency) of ruining the nation through the puppet Government of cricketer Imran Khan. This was historical & hence almost every online and television channel & newspaper worth its salt showcased a full programme or episode on this event. Rightly so, never preceding this moment in the 73 year history of Islamic Republic of Pakistan was the Army given a bloody nose by its own people - all the more from a leader of Punjab origin to which the entire ruling elite belongs.
In this backdrop, I saw Jyoti Malhotra’s programme #GlobalPrint on the youtube channel ‘ThePrint’ (promoted by veteran journalist Shekhar Gupta). Jyoti in her programme narrated about the momentous events unfolding in Pakistan, where the entire democratic opposition has come together titling themselves as Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and seem to be bidding their supremacy over the Pak Army. I got interested to investigate whether the indifference I experience towards events in Pakistan reflects my personal disenchantment with it or is a similar view shared by others. I decided to analyse Jyoti’s programme to confirm or negate my apprehension of lack of real interest in India about Pakistan. Her programme was ideal, because she made a positive, balanced plea to her viewers that we should be concerned with what is happening in Pakistan, in contrast to the disinterest that the Govt. of India is showing. I thought, analyzing the comments on her talk and the viewer statistics could provide interesting insights, because her plea stood out in the programme as a background note.
Her programme titled “By naming Pak Army Chief Bajwa & ISI head Faiz Hameed, Pak Opp hopes to confront demons within” is available here.
I first analyzed a dozen of her program-episodes on international issues (across last year) by viewership and the number of people, who take the trouble to comment. This is a critical measure of a programme's success. Commenting takes a lot of energy and effort of the viewer, therefore, higher comments (trolls excluded) mean high engagement. She has a viewership of an average of 37000. Three programmes, which saw a dip in viewership were all on issues relating to Pakistan. If these outliers are excluded her average viewership on programmes of International Geopolitics jumps to ~45000. This clearly shows that Pakistan is no more a priority issue for Indians amongst other international ones. In terms of percentage of people commenting on the viewed programme from among the aforementioned dozen (I studied 226 comments which were expressed within the first two days of programme, because these are regular loyal viewers of hers while trolls were completely absent).
Average commenting percentages (people who decide to comment on her programmes) lie between 0.5% to 1.5%. The investigated Pak programme garnered comments from 1.3% of viewers. Making it an averagely viewed programme with 36402 views, while comments were on the higher side, vis-a-vis previous two, Pakistan-featuring programmes both of which had 0,64% and 1.05% of viewers commenting. Again, the people commenting on the Pak programmes are much lesser than other programmes on Russia, US, China or other major powers. A detailed table (sheet 2) is available here. Trolls are almost absent on her show (making her programme good for analysis).
I further investigated and analyzed the comments on the aforementioned specific programme featured today. Following is the quintessence of the report which is generated from a total to 113 comments made and close to 223 likes expressed on the comments:
CONCLUSIONS:
~76% of the commenters have a negative view about the programme on Pak.
46% (86 of 113) of the commenters were either indifferent or felt that Pakistan is a waste of time as a topic & felt it mattered not to them.
54% (61 out of 113) of the commenters were those to whom Events in Pakistan or Pakistan itself seemed to matter but of these only 27 (23%) were those who viewed that doing an episode makes sense. Therefore, the overwhelming majority has a negative view of showcasing a programme framed on Pakistan.
Of the 323 likes, overwhelming 268 (83%) liked negative views on doing an episode on Pakistan or Pakistan itself and only 55 (17%) were supportive of the programme.
What stands apart are following two -
86 (76%) of the 113 comments either feel
indifferent to Pak news (23 nos = 20%), or
feel Pak a wastage of time (29 nos = 26%), or
feel Pak matters negatively (nuisance) (34 nos = 30%).
While a detailed tabulated analysis is available here (sheet 1), there is one straight and immediate take-away:
“I am not the only one, most people in India are disenchanted and no more interested in what happened in/to Pakistan & it does not feature anymore in interesting topics in India. Alas! the subcontinent stands divided. Pakistan has succeeded in chiseling itself as a nuisance state, to be maintained pole apart, in the Indian as well as the Punjabi psyche. Pakistan’s marriage to religiosity & division that started with partition of India in 1947 seems now consummated. My beloved, Lahore (its people), seem lost for this life.” With 70 years of perseverance, Pakistan has alienated its blood brother India (& Punjab). What a tragedy, that a people, who were our own shall be at the mercy of the Chinese Army along the CPEC, Indian Army along LOC & their own army inside Pakistan.
Conclusive result of aforementioned is that Indian public, at large, will no more stand in the way of Govt. of India, which neither intends to engage Pakistan, nor shall it let Pakistan redo a Mumbai attack, as India will not shy from taking coercive military action against Pakistan for a moment and Pakistan knows that very well. Thus, neutralizing the nuisance generation capability of Pakistan, which will finish Pakistan Army's moral capacity in public opinion. On this account the Govt. of India has to be appreciated. Best indicator is Pakistani media & establishment hate them.
No comments:
Post a Comment