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Majoritarian Politics in India and Pakistan

Aristotle ascribed democracy to an “extreme” end in his duality bound spectrum of types of polity. Till 18th century, the categorical imperative “tyranny of majority” was a priori given the general ignorance of the people. However, enlightenment philosophers like John Stuart Mill, Rousseau and marquis de Condorcet established how minority group or an individual could also be capable of tyranny and that “common good” and general liberties could be more secured in a Majoritarian rule (Britannica). The rise of “illiberal democracy” (Zakarya) and politics of cultural nationalism by “strongmen” in Modi’s India (Bhat) seem to portray the opposite i.e. “tyranny of majority”.

Over the recent years, polarization and inclusion-exclusion structures have become more intact giving space to strongmen. Strongmen are revisionists who deconstruct long held historically rooted principles of “imagined communities”, redefine sense of belonging to state and transform social landscape. It has been evident in the resurgent xenophobic Hindutva politics in India through rewriting school textbooks, retelling tales of ancient glories, and revolving old wounds, and making false promises to make their countries great again (Bhat). Peripheral voices and subaltern common-publics are bearing the brunt of monopolization of interpretation and discursive plurality (Mitra) under violent cultural nationalism. Public order and national security have often triumphed over notions of privacy and human rights. The hindsight bias is providing a false vantage point to nationalists ignoring Rawlsian warning of not to judge giants of the past from today’s judgment standards (EconomicTimes). Hindu nationalists want to define India as a Hindu nation by rewriting history. It is unsurprising that intolerance is on the rise and people have extreme positions on every subject. There is a deliberate attempt to discount India’s Islamic tradition and history. Education and media have become key tools of manipulation. Important educational bodies of the government are headed by people who have received training from and are loyal to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the ideological patron of the BJP and all the fundamentalist Hindu groups in the country dilute India’s secular and plural nature (Kumar).  

The rise of authoritarian autocratic leaders through democratic channels raises a dilemma. What if the election was declared free and fair, and those elected are racists, fascists, separatists, who are publicly opposed to peace and reintegration? (Zakarya). Demonizing inter religious marriages by label of “love jihad, verbal duels like Ramzaade vs [ha]ramzaade distinction by Indian politician Jyoti (IndianExpress), forceful revival of “Akhand Bharat and VHP leader depicting Modi as first Hindu leader in 800 years (Shekhar) are tactical tools of maneuvering public consciousness. Voice of dissent and non-conformism is being termed as seditious. Pakistan knows the baneful impact of ultra-nationalism and jingoism; it stifles democracy and the citizens gradually lose their basic fundamental rights. India today faces the same challenge (Kumar) for such strategies are used to deepen the communal ethno-religious fault lines and are politicized for electoral gains for religious differences do not create a political identity but majoritarianism does (Thomson).

Furthermore, in both India and Pakistan, majoritarianism has been coupled with marginalization. Obviously India’s majoritarianism was much more subtle than the Pakistani variety, where religion is squarely in the middle of the constitution starting with the Objectives Resolution (Hamdani) to 1973 constitution. Jinnah’s secular citizenship speech was forgotten and Pakistan followed the natural trajectory of Pakistan Movement. Islam was the official religion of the state empowering religious orthodoxy a political space for asserting sectarian versions thus leading to incidents of violence. Similarly in India, cow protection was incorporated in Hindus by Gandhi (Hamdani) and since 2010, 28 people have been killed in ‘cow-related violence’ and 63 other cases of violence have been registered in total (IndiaSpend). While Nehru, like Jinnah, distanced himself from religious undercurrents, the Indian polity largely remained secular under Congress. The 1984 Sikh massacre and 1992 Babri Masjid demolition was the first blot on India’s secularism widening further since 2014.

Zia’s sect-dominated regime excluded not only shias but led to asymmetrical laws and practices, persecution of Ahmedis and other minorities. In Pakistan too, the past was romanticized and Pakistan was viewed as an instrument to the actualization of past glory and Islamic renaissance. It appealed to common man and yet it was a cloak of use and abuse of religion for political gains. In short, religious minorities have shrunk dramatically in one country while growing over time in the other (Dhumme). Marginalization felt by minorities is very real and that a general hardening of religious boundaries had taken place since the 1980s.  Mobs are rallied in Pakistan when they hear another b-word. The brutal murder of Mashal Khan and Asia Bibi’s case are recent examples. Ethnicity and religion are being used as a means of creating fear and distrust between communities as a means of gaining political mileage (Kirmani) raising alarm bells for the future of liberal democracy.

                                                             Citations

Abraham and Rao. “84% Dead In Cow-Related Violence Since 2010 Are Muslim; 97% Attacks After 2014”. IndiaSpend. June 28, 2017.

<http://archive.indiaspend.com/cover-story/86-dead-in-cow-related-violence-since-2010-are-muslim-   97-attacks-after-2014-2014>

 Mitra, Prof. Subrata K. “Cultural Citizenship and the Politics of Censorship in Post-Colonial India: Media, Power, and the Making of the Citizen”. Jan 1, 1970. heiDOK – The Heidelberg Document Repository – heiDOK.

<http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/16783/>

 Desai, Rajiv. “Majoritarian Politics can bring Doom to Democracy”. EconomicTimes. 2013.            <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/majoritarian-politics-can-   bring-doom-to-democracies/articleshow/21872551.cms>

 Bhat, Adil. “A Question of Order: The Age of Majoritarian Politics is Here to Stay”. TheWIRE. April 16, 2017.  <https://thewire.in/books/india-turkey-autoritarianism-modi-erdogan-politics>

Hamdani,Y.Lateef. “Majoritarianism in India and Pakistan”. DAILYTIMES.July 17, 2017.

<https://dailytimes.com.pk/1623/majoritarianism-in-india-and-pakistan/>

 Thomson, Mike. “Haiderabad 1948: India’s hidden massacre”. BBC.

<https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24159594>

 Kirmani, Nida. “Modi didn’t create Majoritarianism, he only Stoked the Simmering Embers”. DAWN. July 4, 2017. <https://www.dawn.com/news/1342963>

Dhume, Sadanand. “Comparing Indian and Pakistani Majoritarianism”. AEIdeas. July 31, 2017. <                <http://www.aei.org/publication/it-makes-no-sense-to-compare-religious-m ajoritarianism-in-india-and-pakistan/>

 Kumar, Sanjay. “India before and after elections. EXPRESSTRIBUNE. Feb 27, 2016. <            https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/32587/today-india-is-not-what-it-was-before-he-won-t  he-elections/>

Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/majoritarianism

 Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/union-minister-spells-out-choice-in-delhi-ramzada-vs-haramzada/

Shekhar, Kumar. “Don’t Believe the Truth: Modi is the first Hindu Ruler of India after 800 Years”

< https://www.dailyo.in/politics/intolerance-narendra-modi-hindu-ruler-mohd-salim-m          uslims-rajnath-singh-winter-session-of-parliament/story/1/7682.html>

[sagarvibes-blog]

Role of media in shaping narratives and identity labels

Transcription of discussion on Role of Media

Transcription 1

Video link- https://www.facebook.com/razaahmadrumi/videos/296716047717167/

Length-6:34

Speaker-Raza Ahmad Rumi, visiting faculty Cornell, NY

Raza: This definitional issue of, I mean ,who is liberal and what is right and what is left-that depends on the perspective ..from a very mainstream version perhaps the CNN, Nytimes, considered liberal. But then look at some of the positions they take and some of the ..You know my problem with these definitions is that what lesson you can definitely learn from all that media, despite challenges ..all that, you now-first of all there, all the greater range of opinions and coverage which is given ahh.. at least in Pakistan. We carry out a very diverse set of opinions on same page. It’s not just the liberal bias or the cons bias. If u take case of mass media here, it’s liberal in certain ways in certain issue and not so liberal in others. For example, universal health care considered a radical idea, Is itself outrageous in my opinion

                                                                                                                                                                                                  [1:23]

How can state tell its people you can’t have primary health care. It is (perceived as) a liberal plot against great capitalist order.  Fact that millions still out of insurance net, therefore nearly 40million people born in America, world richest country,  highest in defense spending more than eurporan advanced countries put together.  Is unacceptable and that fact that mainstream liberals not talk about this issue enough to inform public  opinion is also outrageous and therefore a problem in my view. And they were talking about this in 2016 elections  you know there is also this internal factor. that Bernie Sanders in the first six months of 2016 received seconds of coverage on mainstream tv, 37 seconds to be precise asopposed to hours and weeks of trump.                                                                                                         [2:40]

And now liberal vs Trump is doing that..well hello you used Trump for sensationalism and rating and normalizing bigotry and now pay for it, in my view (laughs)so thing here is that I feel this bias is in a certain range that liberal issues exist. I mean take issue of climate change, oil and gas exploration in north Dakota where hundreds and thousands of people were protesting against the pipeline that is going to alter and destroy the environment and disrupt local people-this did not get a mention until I think some top leader-in fact there is a good article I urge you to check on Fair.org which is media criticism website. They posted it in 2016 they looked at washingon post coverages. there were at least 30 stories negative stories  about Sanders in 40 article that he is unreasonable he is illogical, impractical  he has no plan, how he is going to fund this . so, already(did media portrayals), I mean..Sanders is hardly a radical compared to local standards... He is what you call  ethical democrat.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             [4:44]

(voice tone raised) And you know, compared to the real left, argues all he says is don’t make your students incur 1.3 trillion debt . Its bigger than the housing debt in America. Why should a student in 20s go out of college with 30,40thousands of dollar debt? i think, it’s shocking. And I think mainstream media fails to highlight this issue and change public opinion. And it was not the case I believe it’s a recent development of the last 3 or 4 decades. Public education, higher education used to be highly subsidized. And so it should be in civilized societies. You can’t let people die bcz they don’t have health insurance. You can’t let people be hopeless just because you don’t have anti poverty schemes or let them on streets bcz o mental health bcz u shut all the institutions. It’s the neoliberal order not only in America and I mean it’s everywhere. It’s happening in Europe and other countries due to privatizations and all that. I feel here the mainstream media fails and it needs to pull up and act together. Corporate lobbies of the status quo own the media so there is to a certain degree reporters and editors will go otherwise they will be fired.                                                                                                                                             [6:34]

…………………………………………….end of transcription………………………………………………….

  Transcription 2

Video clip: https://www.facebook.com/razaahmadrumi/videos/273536533307019/

Length: 6:17

Raza: Pakistan; experience is not all too different from Turkish experience. I think, ahh, Pakistan and turkey share a lot of similarities most important one being the role of military which is overarching an historically very strong and ahh definitely changed and made some progress in that direction in Pakistan, you cannot challenge or criticize the military very openly that becomes a big problem you are declared anti state, traitor or treasonous person-that’sone of the red lines historically in Pakistan. Pakistan is a country ruled for more than half its lifetime by the military, directly. Although things have changed in the last decade, the media has been deregulated, print media, channels’ expansion. but those red lines persist, another red line is that you cannot criticize the religion but also the religious extremists because they have so much political and social power and they have been hand in glove with the state as well so if you criticize them it means u invite trouble                                                                     [1:31]

I remember when I joined the magazine I mentioned I worked for my publisher told me ‘nothing on sex, nothing on religion, nothing n military’ and delete everything which is (laughs). So that was it. But now it’s a democracy in the country and I keep on checking, every evening, the first and last page to check content for anti state institutions is any article radical. That’s totally different than what I used to enjoy like language editing. Now its like check check check-all redlines are intact and maintained.so that’s the general historical context. There were improvements since 2008 when democracy returned in Pakistan. That’s the time when I started engaging more with media when Musharaf was ousted through a popular protest In Pakistan. Civilian spaces opened up and television was far more critical and had diversity and variety of views both on national and international views and one felt it was a great time to be a media person. That’s one of the reasons for why I became a media person and a journalist because I was very encouraged with the environment the idea of changing the world and public opinion etc that you muster and live with(gentle laugh)                                                                                                                                               [3:32]

But things have not been so effective because of the last 2 or 3 years. Media freedom has been curbed, attacked. You know media channels which have been critical of lets say military establishment or military’s involvement in politics were cut... But interesting thing is, it is not like the traditional censorship that used to take place in coup times. It’s almost a sophisticated manipulation through a variety of instruments like financial support to media houses, targeted government ads, selecting and targeting certain journalists saying this one is not good, this one should be out etc. since last year this has become really really difficult and then the parallel censorship has been occurring in the digital spaces. We live in a digital and age and we have more than 35% of our population online. Number of people on cellular interne ti s close to 70m people. It’s a big no so state actually passed a law to curtail certain digital freedoms.                                                                                                                                     [5:08]

Last year 4 bloggers were picked up and detained and went missing for weeks. Latter found out they were taken by law enforcement agencies because they were critical of the military and one by one they had to leave the country. People have been arrested for posting on facebook critical of the military. You know its not just Pakistan, its south Asia, like in India. If someone criticizes Indian PM, he is jailed. In Bangladesh there are many people still in jail who were critical of the PM. So it’s a crazy time, crazy moment we are in.                                                                                                                                                             [6:17]

…………………………………..end of transcription……………………………………………………………

Transcription-3

Video clip: https://www.facebook.com/razaahmadrumi/videos/2141377936116380/

Length- 4:10

Raza: See we live in a language of global terror. We don’t have definition of terror. There is no global understanding for such a common term that is used. And now we are living in fake media, fake journalist, fake liberal, fake this and these words matter because in our home country if u go through social media, our current ruling part PM sportsman turned gained power he is (depicted as) strong man with strongest of delivering goods to the people and he and his ministers have been using similar words fake media, fake journalism, fake press and its kind of globalization of language which is kind of anti press, anti media freedoms in essence.                                                                                                                  [ 1:14]

I think this is a worrying moment and is linked to toher things. US leadership in global affairs declined be it climate change or other important issues that face all of us and remember we are no longer living in the isolated world of 19th century or early 20th century everything is interconnected these days. Climate being the greatest of proofs but we hear its a hoax, fake news (laughs). So that’s the problem we face from the current situation of the US but as Maher optimistically says that things change but it may not be case for the future what we need to remember is the damage that will be done in next few years or the decade is going to be immense because as the world including the US the kind of advances they make kind of progressive restructuring of society that has been taking place-that has been rolled back bit by bit whether it be immigration issue, or even  normalization of racism you know which the US society fought so hard to undue for decades so that is being lost. The real impact on the global I mean its very (?) as well. I mean what you read about , the kind of language that is used in the media of unthinkingly and that (?) risk is caused.                                                                                                                     [3:12]                                                                    

. is it really healthy for US or world, I don’t think so . and I think that is where journalists and media have a perhaps far greater role today to highlight this expose this but also challenge it without thinking we cannot take sides and remain neutral. How can you remain neutral when you are reporting on racist neo-Nazi wanting t eliminate a certain group of people. you can’t be neutral in that stage, right, or for that matter any other debate, as a reporter, commentator you come across, you have to speak up.  [4:10]

……………………………….end of transcription………………………………………………………..

[sagarvibes-blog]

Media in Pakistan-Who owns and governs the business?

Overview of media businesses in Pakistan

Dunya News

CEO Dunya News, Mian Amer Mahmood was born in 1960 in Lahore. He is an educationist, a legislator and former mayor of Lahore from 2001 to 2009. He launched Roznama  Dunya news in September 2012 published in eight different cities in Pakistan. He started Punjab Group of Colleges in 1985 followed by university of Central Punjab, Allied School franchise and MA Jinnah University. His net worth exceeds roughly 2B rupees. He was awarded Hilaal I Imtiaz for his services to education. He was elected as Chairman Broadcasting Association in November 2016.

External Links: 

http://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/359074-Mian-Amer-Mahmood-elected-as-Chairman-PBA

https://www.thecasecentre.org/corporate/products/view?id=135224

GNN

Gourmet bakery in a move to diversify its commercial base bought the struggling Jaag Tv in 2016 with 1.5B rupees, launhed with the name, G News Network across Pakistan in 2018. The bakery has more than 100 outlets in multiple cities of Punjab along with many restaurants and 5000+ employees. It was started by Muhammad Nawaz Chatta in 1991. Gourmet also has a stake in pharmacies and planned to work on smartphones with a Chinese company which could not materialize. It acquired 12% stake in the Silk Bank in 2015 and has catered to avenues of magazine production as well as furniture.

External Links:

https://propakistani.pk/2018/05/08/gourmet-bakery-is-launching-its-own-tv-channel-in-pakistan/

https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/05/07/food-giant-gourmet-set-to-launch-tv-channel/

 Express Media Group

With worth of $800m, Sultan Ali Lakhani, CEO Express Media Group is also the joint owner of the Lakson Group which has different companies like Colgate-Palmolive (Pakistan), Cyber.Net, Clover and McDonald’s restaurants. The Lakhani tycoons have embarked on partnerships with international conglomerate of companies for producing products ranging from tobacco, detergents, packaging, surgical equipment, cotton, paper and other household items. NAB has alleged the Lakhanis of having created phony companies through worthless directors and raised massive loans from various banks. NAB had reportedly demanded Rs 7 billion from Lakhanis, but later agreed they pay only Rs.1.5 billion over a 10-year period.

External Links:

The Richy Rich ones of Poorly Poor Nation. <http://dailymailnews.com/dmsp0204/dm001.html>

 HUM Network

Being the first ever Stock Exchange Listed Company in electronic media in Pakistan, HNL went live with its first channel "HUM TV" in January 2005.HumTV network is set to launch online grocery store called HUM Mart. With ecommerce on the boom and its expectation of reaching $1B by 2020, online business is attracting entrepreneurs to tap the diverse broader customer base. In the first quarter of 2017/18, its net profits crossed rupees 536m. Hum partners with other media houses for hosting TV shows. HNL has to its umbrella three genre of monthly Magazines:

1. Glam – Showcasing latest trends and teaching its readers how to assume a distinctly chic and modern appearance.

2. Masala Tv Food Mag- about quality home cooking for the people who love to eat and cook.

3. Newsline Magazine – socio political magazine featuring aggressive journalism for its readers.

External Links:

http://humnetwork.tv/Company_Profile.html

https://www.researchsnipers.com/hum-network-online-grocery-shop-launching-soon/

 ARY Group

The ARY Group  founded by a prominent businessman, late Haji Abdul Razzak Yaqoob. His Net worth was $1B. He was the president of ARY Group ($1.5billion turnover) and World Memon Organization (WMO). Besides this, he has huge property holdings in Karachi, Islamabad and Dubai amounting to over $200m. He is major in the gold market also having around 20 outlets in Asia. He has also been involved in paying Asif Zardari $5m in 1990’s for allowing him to import/export gold denied by Zardari.  In 2014,  Yaqoob passed away. His nephew, Salman Iqbal basically a film producer now owns and runs the network. Salman Iqbal owns a PSL Team, Karachi Kings. ARY Group bought Karachi Kings as a result of auctions in 2015 for $26 million and 10 years of contract. CEO of ARY Films, Salman’s team produced three movies Lahore Se Aagey, 3 Bahadur, and Dobara Phir Se in 2016. Since 2000 when he started ARY Digital Media Group, his worth ten-folded and is increasing at a whopping $90 Million per year as of 2016-2017.

External Links:

https://www.pakpedia.pk/salman-iqbal

http://dailymailnews.com/dmsp0204/dm001.html

 Geo

GEO founded in May 2002 and Jang are owned by Dubai based businessman Mir Shakeel ur Rahman. Recently following Panama Leaks, he was suspected of owning offshore companies and money laundering along with Zardari. Under Mir’s supervision, GeoFilms launched its first movie “Khuda k Lye” in 2007 which was a blockbuster.  It has been partnering with professionals and film makers for  films since. He is believed to impact politics indirectly through the channel. His net worth is debatable because of diversification of investments in different companies. The case of $40m tax evasion is in proceeding against him.

External Links:

https://he.com.pk/featured-posts/mir-shakeel-ur-rehman-wealth-net-worth/

City42

Launched in 2008, City42 is a regional Lahore based news channel that caters news about current affairs and infotainment. City related issues including water, electricity load shedding, metro bus station, and other top stories of Punjab government are covered through anchors and talk shows. The channel has variety of programs in Urdu and English. City 42 is owned by Syed Mohsin naqvi, son in law of current speaker Punjab Assembly and former CM Punjab, Ch Pervez Ilahi.

External Links:

https://www.city42.tv/

 Capital TV

Islamabad based Urdu language TV channel established in April 2013. Seedhi Baat, Bay Laag, Hum Sub, Awaam, capital clinic and Dr toothpaste are some of its current programs. Dr Basi Sheikh founded  HB Media pvt parent of Capital TV. Basit, Cornell University phd alumnus, is current MD of Capital TV. Apart from serving as honory advisor to PM, he served to digitize media services i.e. Universal Service Fund and further in Telecom, broadband and telemedicine area.

External Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_TV_(Pakistan)

Samaa TV

Mr. Zafar Siddiqi co-founded Africa Business News (Pty) Limited in 2008 and serves as its Chairman. Mr. Siddiqi is Co-Founder of CNBC Africa and serves as its Chairman. Mr. Siddiqi is Founder of CNBC Arabia and serves as its Chairman. He is Founder of CNBC Pakistan and serves as its President. He provides strategic oversight to the three networks that encompass 71 countries with a staff contingent of 900. Chairman of SAMAA TV and Chairman of Murdoch University International Study Centre in Dubai, he is a director on the board of the Academy of Science and Arts of New York. A former KPMG Partner, he ventured into media in 1995 when he established Telebiz in Karachi, Pakistan. Latter, he established a general new channel, Samaa TV, in Pakistan in 2007 and serves as its Chairman. Mr. Siddiqi is also the co-founder and Chairman of Murdoch University, Dubai. He is on the Board of the International Emmy's and also serves on the advisory council of the President of Nigeria.

External Links: 

https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=115372862&privcapId=38541719

Roze News

Roze News (also known as Roze TV) is an Urdu language Pakistan television news channel based in Islamabad, launched in year 2015. Rewarded tamghe Imtiaz, Sardar Khan Niazi  is president and CEO of the SK Group, which is comprised of several companies in the areas of information technology, CNG (compressed natural gas) fuelling stations, media, construction and real estate. Founded by SK in 2001, SRN media operates some of the country’s biggest newspapers including Daily Pakistan, The Patriot, and Pak Watan. The group has also launched its first TV channel. According to its founder, Sk Niazi, the Roze TV channel is now one of one of the top four in the country after Geo, Dunya and Express. Mr Khan Niazi is himself an anchorman on one of the popular news shows on Roze TV.

External Links:

http://www.theworldfolio.com/news/sardar-khan-niazi-sk-group-president-and-ceo-pakistan-n2950/2950/

Aurora magazine, Dawn

Founded in 1998, AURORA is Pakistan's leading advertising, marketing and media magazine. Published by The Dawn Media Group, AURORA is widely recognised as the voice of the advertising industry. Cars, smartphones, drinks and juices and versatile items from different brands are published, promotes and commented on the website of the magazine. Ads of companies are displayed with commentaries and videos thus enhancing the reach of the brands to the general population through interactive slogans and logos. Hello Pakistan, mein Perfect hoon, yaadoun s juda khasta maza, Kenwood inverter AC, and zarra zarra khalis are some of the recently promoted campaigns. The media has made business of ads marketing part of necessary entertainment encouraging brands and companies to make interactive funny message driven ads and video clips.

[sagarvibes-blog]

India-Pakistan Relations- A brief History- Part-1

Since the partition of 1947 and creation of two nation states, there is a perennial theme that has defined the post colonial trajectory of the two nations: the construction of nationalisms. The newly created states lacked a coherent self definition when the British left India in a shameful hurry after lording over a holocaust and perhaps, the greatest migration of the 2oth century. The Indian National Congress had a fairly well worded mythology about India’s past and its role in the future but, as recent events have shown, the very idea of India is under intense scrutiny by the right wing which insists that the imagination of Indian nation ought to be revisited.

While the founding fathers of India strived and struggled to make sense of the post colonial bharat, their erstwhile compatriots in Pakistan had a more onerous task at hand. That of creating a nation comprising the ardent Pakistan believers, the reluctant communities and the outright naysayers. This was made worse by the fact that the new state immediately found itself petitioning for its legitimate assets from the British India and constructing an entire state machinery where only patches of it existed on ground. The early demise of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, thirteen months after creation of the “nation,” made the entire exercise intractable and state building has been a continuous, lapsed project to date.

The conventional wisdom of Indian leaders suggested that Pakistan will auto destruct itself and that it was not a viable state given that its two wings were separated by 1000 miles; and that it was an aberration from the Nehruvian idea of One India. All of this was to contribute in planting the seeds of insecurity from the very inception of the country. Sardar Patel, for example, contributed to the discourse of insecurity saying that Pakistan would not last (qtd in Dawn, 2018)

As the leading historian of Pakistan, Ayesha Jalal (1990), traced in her seminal work “The State of Martial Rule,” by 1958, Pakistan had turned into a national security state where the territorial integrity and the larger eastern neighbor were the ultimate priorities of the state. There is no denying that the over developed institutions of the state, to quote Hamza Alvi’s thesis, were at work. The political institutions including the Muslim League that led the movement for Pakistan was a weak political force with shallow roots in the diverse communities of united Pakistan. The stranglehold of civil military bureaucracy overpower, policy and discourse led to a nationalism that viewed Pakistan’s identity in negative terms, i.e. everything not India or Indian was Pakistan.

Perhaps, the greatest impetus to this construction was the issue of Jammu and Kashmir which stymied the prospects of turning the region that could be at peace with itself and work towards attaining the US/Canada model as neighborly relations.  As Jinnah pointed out in his conversation with the then US ambassador Paul Alling, latter quoted in memos of South Asian expert, Dennis Kux*, that “nothing, in words of Jinnah, “was closer to [his] heart”(qtd. KhaleejTimes, 2017).  Since 1947, the countries have gone to war four times. The wars have remained inconclusive except that in 1971 the war with India led to the breakup of Pakistan. Pakistani state has not forgotten this wound and the initial sense of insecurity has only accentuated over time. In the 1971 debacle, Indian nationalism has found a new metaphor to assert itself; from Indira Gandhi to Narender Modi, 1971 has been repeated consistently as a victory and a lesson to Pakistan. In this polarized jingoist war of nationalist narratives, it is almost impossible to detect and consolidate the efforts for peace building.

The prospects for peace remain endangered and remote given the unresolved Jammu and Kashmir issue. While different options have been tried and deliberated, it is a truism that without the addressing the J&K issue, India-Pakistan will remain on a war path. Pakistan holds that Kashmiris’ right of self determination is the fundamental rupture in any long term solution. India, since 1990s, maintains that Kashmir will be all well if Pakistan based Mujahedeen were not to forment trouble. Overtime the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) dispute has become more than a territorial issue. It is now a marker of Indian and Pakistani nationalisms. India calls it the atoot ang (integral part) and Pakistani nationalistic discourse terms it as the Sheh Rag (jugular vein).

In addition, Kashmir holds a central significance for its geostrategic location, potentiality for conflict and wars. The dispute has been a defining flashpoint in foreign policies of rival neighbors a cross cutting one across other narratives and notions. The issue has increasingly found resonance with communal discourses – from the expulsion of the Pundits from the region to the rise of a religious brand of Kashmiri identity. India and Pakistan have wronged the Kashmiris and themselves. The irony is that the Kashmiris in whose name battles have been fought, militaries have been mobilized and stationed to ‘guard’ feature nowhere in the picture.

[sagarvibes-blog]

Geoeconomics and Geopolitics- An Overview of Theory and Praxis

To understand how international politics works, how ‘deal’ or ‘no-deal’ plays out in corridors of power and how states respond to internal and external affairs, the concepts of geopolitics and geoeconomics need to be understood

Geoeconomics

Study of the global move of capital, market and labor interacts with the geographic and demographic aspects of states and consequently influences their own policy with regard to international trade and commerce-how the distribution of economic power, their relative positioning in world order informs their politics, etc.

·         States predominantly regulate economic activity to maximize outcomes within their own borders, rather than for a disinterested transnational purpose. Outcome is suboptimal for other states

·         States design their infrastructure projects to optimize domestic utility, as opposed to the transnational utility.

·         States or blocs of states promote technological innovation to maximize benefits within their own boundaries.

Geoeconomics is Interrelations of economics, geography and politics in the "infinite cone" rising from the center of the earth to outer space (including the economic analysis of planetary resources). This branch of geopolitics is often attributed to Edward Luttwak, an American economist and consultant, and Pascal Lorot, a French economist and political scientist

Nicolas J. Firzli has argued that “the laws of geo-economic gravity” including financial self-sufficiency and the existence of advanced, diversified transportation infrastructure are essential to ensure the effective sovereignty of a state. From that perspective, investment attractiveness and the capacity to project soft power across considerable distance as China has done through its Belt and Road Initiative are also viewed as a key determinants of geo-economic strength.

The weapons of geo-economics: "Just as in war the artillery conquers territory by fire, which the infantry can then occupy, the aim here is to conquer industries of the future by achieving technological superiority. Yet another geo-economic weapon is predatory finance (states offer loans at below-market interest rates, loan guarantees to finance exports)

Economic warfare- trade wars, currency wars, relative vs absolute gains.

Balance b/w laissez fair and intervention-state as central actor (as in realism) vs complex interdependence and liberalism.

China as alternate source vs IMF stringent conditions-current situation of Pakistan wrapped between two. US denyig loans on pretext that it will be paid to pay off China.

Reliance on regional powerhouse, like China, limits strategic options. Thus pooling of resources for weak states is imperative-an opportunity for global powers like US (Unconventional alliances with outside powers than neighbor hegemon)

Rising focus from Bretton woods institutions to sub-global regional players of integration for global action.

Infrastructure of global economy used for political goals-byproducts are Atomization, protectionism, populism, nationalism. Like conventions, agreements for war, norms of behavior needed for economic warfare. Multipolar world, Regionalism and economic warfare-Coordination needed.

Global zero sum game? -Absolute vs comparative gains from economic relations/trade.

Geopolitics

Geopolitics (though distinct but overlaps with geoeconomics owing to importance of economic resources)

Geopolitics, discipline of IP, traditionally indicates the links and causal relationships between political power and geographic space; strategic prescriptions based on the relative positioning of states and regions, endowment of natural resources, land power and sea power in world history. Concepts of central-peripheral state relations, regional hegemony, oil economies, “buffer peripheral zones” (countries between two rival states preventing direct conflict) and strategic dept (distance between front battle lines and core heartland/central areas) have key relevance in the discipline having underpinnings of ‘hard power’ as opposed to soft power (ideas/culture/ideology as guide in IR). References can be made to naval superiority of Athens against Persian invasion, Germany’s expansionist strategy to occupy Austro-Hungary, Belgium and other European countries before WW2 as buffer states, the “great game in Central Asia” due to oil and gas resources, China’s Belt and Road initiative as transnational network and thus expression of geopolitical power.

Four major perspectives: (i) geopolitical representations in politics, media, and science; (ii) the geopolitical discourse itself as a formation of space power; (iii) the “doing geopolitics” of political actors who draw on hegemonic geopolitical imaginations in order to legitimize their political reasoning and practices; and (iv) the academic deconstruction of geopolitical discourses and practices from a critical geopolitical perspective, or rather a poststructuralist political geography.

Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellén coined the term "geopolitics" at the beginning of the twentieth century.  His influential book, “Der Staat als Lebensform (The State as a Living Form)” theorized state as a geographical organism or phenomenon in space.”

Friedrich Ratzel (August 30, 1844 – August 9, 1904), teacher of Kjellen, was a German geographer and ethnographer, notable for coining the term Lebensraum—"living space."

According to Kjellén, autarky, or a self-sufficient economy that limits trade with the outside world, was the solution to political problems. According to Kjellen, occupying territories rich in resources was an enhanced expression of independence.

Haushofer (1869-1946), General in Germany Army, whose ideas inspired the Nazi-regime, added political processes to the definition of Geopolitics. To him war was a biological necessity to expand given state as an organism. “Geopolitics is the new national science of the state, a doctrine on the spatial determinism of all political processes”

Geopolitics gained prominence through the theories of Halford Mackinder of England with his "Heartland Theory."

Peter Taylor

In 1993, Taylor wrote that the revival of Geopolitics had taken shape in three ways

global rivalries in world politics

the second form…is an academic one, a new more critical geopolitics. Critical historio-graphical studies of past geopolitics have been a necessary component of this ‘geographer’s geopolitics’.”

third form…is associated with the neo-conservative, pro-military lobby which have added geopolitical arguments to their ‘Cold War rhetoric’. Such studies talk of ‘geopolitical imperatives’ and treat geography as ‘the permanent factor’ that all strategic thinking must revolve around.”

Saul Bernard Cohen

Cohen used this definition in his 2003 book as:

“Geopolitics is the analysis of the interaction between, on the one hand, geographical settings and perspectives and, on the other hand, political processes. each influences and is influenced by the other.” 

Flint (2006) extensively discussed the historical development of the concept of Geopolitics. Initially, the definitions of geopolitics included only the state as powerful entity. Current definitions also appreciate the power of other entities “geopolitical agents”).

[sagarvibes-blog]

Students and Civic Responsibility-How to become responsible citizens of State?

We owe to society, the discussion on nuances of civic responsibility and compelling wide-ranging aims of education. “Many graduating students do not believe that college significantly influenced their capacity to contribute to the larger community.” A gap exists between aspiration and actuality of the goal for responsibility to larger community.

Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory (PSRI), an institutional climate measure was developed as part of the Core Commitment Initiative (developed by American Association for Colleges and Universities) - a yardstick measuring performance. It had three types of items in survey research across universities in US: Attitudinal items, Behavioral and open-ended items. Fifty-eight percent of students strongly agreed that contributing to a larger community should be a major focus of their institution, while the campus professionals indicated even stronger support, with 74 percent choosing the “strongly agree” response (AAC&U Report) Demographic differences-women (60.7%; two-fifth of women) tend to be more supporting than male students about whether their campuses should be focused on contributing to larger community.

Most fertile ground for advancing civic learning and responsibility will be departmental programs and requirements. According to American Association for Colleges and Universities, an environment that fosters a ‘care climate’ has following five dimensions:

1.       Striving for excellence: developing a strong work ethic and consciously doing one’s very best in all aspects of college.

2.       Cultivating personal and academic integrity: recognizing and acting on a sense of honor, ranging from honesty in relationships to principled engagement with a formal academic honor code.

3.       Contributing to a larger community: recognizing and acting on one’s responsibility to the educational community and the wider society, locally, nationally, and globally.  

4.       Taking seriously the perspectives of others: recognizing and acting on the obligation to inform one’s own judgment; engaging diverse and competing perspectives as a resource for learning, citizenship, and work.

5.       Developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning and action: developing ethical and moral reasoning in ways that incorporate the other four responsibilities; using such reasoning in learning and in life

Measuring the processes and outcome of education from beyond private or economic benefit, “higher education can and must play in helping students to recognize and act on their responsibility to their educational community and to wider society.” Both educational opportunities and stated goals need to be aligned in endorsing the attitude-students as responsible global citizens- and public purpose ought to be infused among students.

Perceptions of public advocacy for students’ active and involved citizenship need to be shaped, enforces. Institutional characteristics can make a difference in attitudes and perceptions about the institution’s focus on contributing to community. Gap between ‘should be’ and ‘is’ strikingly high given the perceptions of institutional commitment by type of institution. Providing opportunities does not necessitate they will be seized, students’ skills and commitments need to be increased as well.

Students need to be aware of the importance of contributing to the greater good and who are poised and ready to do so. According to qualitative interviews with students and professionals, certain activities can enhance students’ awareness about the importance of contributing to community

·         Community Service

·         Praying/meditating,

·         Campus life activities

·         Faculty interactions- Faculty Influence students a great deal  

·         Courses and Programs Motivate Students to continue contributing.

·         Courses with community-based Projects

·         Help Students make connections.

·         Larger External Issues prompt students to Contribute to the Greater Good.

·         Co curricular activities

External Reference: https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/core_commitments/civicresponsibilityreport.pdf

[sagarvibes-blog]

CJ Iftikhar’s suspension & troubling story from Army House; what went on March 9, 2007?

Iftikhar’s image transformed from ‘a judge turned national cause’, as noted in NYTimes on July 28, 2007, to the politician ‘pursuing personal agenda’

On March 9, 2007, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was suspended by the Musharraf government in a ham-fisted manner resulting in a full-blown judicial crisis and Lawyers Movement. It laid the foundational brick for judicial activism which resurged with a vengeance after Iftikhar’s restoration only reaching new heights under former CJP Mian Saqib Nisar. The events of March 9 were the small tremor that later grew into a massive wave of protests. Not only the legal fraternity, but the masses also took to streets. As mentioned in Harvard law Review study “The Pakistani Lawyers’ Movement and the popular currency of Judicial Power” in May 2010, a thought ‘typical of Pakistanis at the time’ was what a farmer said in an interview: “I support the lawyers, because if Musharraf can do whatever he wants to this man, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, then none of us is safe.” This disposition reflected a symbolic articulation and understanding of struggle for independent judiciary. “Indeed, the Chief Justice was the closest to a personal embodiment of the law that one could find in Pakistan.”

However, the trail of events that occurred in Army House on March 9 is marred with conflicting reports from two parties: CJ himself and five military and agency chiefs. CJ had spilled the beans on what took place in Army House when he delineated that in addition to Musharraf, chiefs of MI and ISI had asked him to quit. He was harassed by the military leadership as according to CJP’s affidavit, he was confined for over five hours in a room, constantly told that he was ‘restrained to act as chief justice’ while his car was stripped of the flag.Furthermore, he was held in communicado at his residence, with all the communications with outside world cut off. In an interview to Tallat Hussain on Aaj TV (May 18), Musharraf termed this a matter of “tactical handling” by agencies.

On June 7, heads of two intelligence agencies and the president’s chief of staff filed affidavitsin the Supreme Courtagainst Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who had accused them of pressurizing him to resign.

in the affidavit by Chief of Staff, inter alia, he denied allegations by the chief justice about restraining him against his will, or cordoning off his house while pointing out that the meeting had been arranged after Iftikhar’s request. Further, responding to allegation of keeping his family members in communicado, the affidavit pointed out that “from 5 p.m. on 9 March 2007 till 13 March more than three hundred and fifty calls were made/received from/on the mobile phone of his son.” However, this contrasted with what Musharraf responded on the question of detention, in an interview to Kamran Khan of Geo TV: “Yes, I would like to tell that where he was living, we had a concern that there should be no media trail out of this and there is not politicization of this…”

In their affidavits, the heads of agencies, MI and IB, further claimed that the CJ kept regular contact with them and even suggested that parliament should be dissolved and fresh elections be held under him.

DG MI Major General Nadeem Ijaz highlighted in his six-page affidavit that "[h]e (Iftikhar Ch) was of the view that the President should dissolve the assemblies as they were becoming a nuisance and hold elections under the CJP." Curiously enough, the head of ISI, Pakistan’s premier counterintelligence and spy agency, did not submit a similar affidavit, raising suspicions that the judicial crisis involved hidden actors and vested interests. “…No one made any threat. The CJP having clearly informed the President and the Prime Minister that he would face the reference, the question of anyone of us making any demands of any kind on the CJP simply did not arise," the Intelligence Bureau head said. The Affidavit submitted by chief of Military Intelligence (MI) alleged that “the CJ used to remain in touch with the officer in-charge of the Military Intelligence, Lahore, and used to task him on a regular basis to provide information about judges in Punjab to build a database for his own reference.”

The above conflicting developments over shadowed mal intentions of CJ Iftikhar Ch, the pivotal point for Lawyers Movement, who was latter asked, on an occasion by Benazir Bhutto as well, ‘to make a political party of his own’. His unwarranted political interference and tainted public perception of character disgruntled other parties who had flocked to streets to fight for his restoration. Thereby, Iftikhar’s image transformed from ‘a judge turned national cause’, as noted in NYTimes on July 28, 2007, to the politician in black court misusing office “to fulfill personal agenda,” as pointed out by his lawyer Aetzaz Ahsan on July 5, 2016.  

[sagarvibes-blog]

International Women Day: Lest we forget the Pakistani Women poets

International Women Day: Lest we forget the Pakistani Women poets

… Look carefully at this impression  Above the long thighs  Above the protruding breasts  Above the raveled womb  Aqleema has a head too  (Fehmida Riaz)

The struggle for women empowerment has gone through several trials and tribulations, recently gaining an impetus due to rise of social media and thus reverberating across common conversations. In Pakistan, such a struggle dates back to the very early years led by women poets who wrote and vocally expressed their views on several occasions and platforms. Many times, their voices attracted skeptic response from male dominated literary circles and religious orthodoxy. However, that did not deter them purse their noble cause. It owes to their persistent struggle, often inviting threats due to being radical and anti-conventional in form portraying pornography- that the women oppression and empowerment transformed into a reality from a myth.

Fehmida Riaz: “A compulsive political animal who unapologetically lived her ideology” was born in what is now the Indian city of Meerut, on 26 July 1946. She was raised in the Pakistani city of Hyderabad where her father was posted around the time of the partition of India in 1947. But her literature would later cross the divide between the two countries.

In 1967, her first collection was published. Paththar Ki Zaban (Tongue of Stone) displayed early traces of a feminist consciousness. Over her second collection, Badan Dareeda (Torn Flesh), conservative literary critics accused her of writing pornography.

The intellectual trajectory of Riaz was informed by the critical, anti-colonial legacy of the Progressive Writers Movement .Her political consciousness began with a students' movement that opposed a ban on student unions imposed by the first military regime of Ayub Khan in the 1960s. she married a Sindhi Marxist who had been associated with the NAP movement and  started a political magazine called Awaz, which lasted until the PPP government was toppled. The couple were charged with sedition and treason and lived in self-imposed exile in Delhi for almost seven years until democracy returned to Pakistan.

The mastery of English, Hindi, Sindhi, Persian and some Arabic enabled her to also translate both classical Sufi and Eastern European literature into Urdu. Riaz herself was diagnosed with auto-immune syndrome last year, and since then had been living with her daughter, a doctor, in Lahore.

She received the President’s Pride of Performance award and was also recently honored by the Pakistan Academy of Letters. Her poems such as Tum bilkul ham jesay niklay and Aman ki asha would be revered forever. The book, titled Qila e Faramoshi, published in 2017, is her last work of prose. Between 2009 and 2012, she served as the chief editor of the Urdu Dictionary Board. Her last book of poetry is Tum Kabir.

This corpse belongs to a being  Who said whatever she wanted  Was never repentant, lifelong.

Do not let the authorities own my corpse.

Aqleema  Who is the sister of Cain and Abel  Their sister  But different

Different between the middle of her thighs  And in the swell of her breasts…

… Look carefully at this impression  Above the long thighs  Above the protruding breasts  Above the raveled womb  Aqleema has a head too  Sometimes Allah too should speak with Aqleema  And ask something!

Madiha Gohar: Actor, playwright, creative director Madiha Gohar was born in 1956 in Karachi and passed away on 25 April 2018 in Lahore. She was a rights activist, advocate of women empowerment and an ambassador of peace for Pakistan and India. Her vocal articulation attracted fame and admiration from across the borders.

She did masters from University of London and on return founded Ajoka Theatre in 1984. Ajoka theatre featured plays based on social themes, harmony, women rights, family, justice and humanitarianism. Due to her vision, the Theatre dared to feature subjects, skeptical in form and critical in content. The trajectory of the oral tradition of Ajoka goes beyond the conventionality i.e. highlighting  issues through plays that others would rather avoid talking about. In addition, Madiha has been part of over three dozen plays nationally and internationally in US, UK, India, Egypt and Iran. She was awarded Tamgh-e-Imtiaz in 2003 and latter, Fatima Jinnah Award in 2014. She had the honor to be the first Pakistani to receive Prince Clause Award by Netherlands in 2006 as an acknowledgment for her commitment to women rights, social cause and for withstanding pressure from political and religious establishment. She has also received significant recognition and respects from across South Asia and US for her collective efforts to empower women and “changing firmly entrenched mindsets.”

One of her most famous plays, Burqavaganza, gained significant critical limelight for satirical use of burqa as a symbol for “social and political cover-ups.”  This raised eye brows with many and was subsequently banned by the government in 2010. However, it continued to be shown internationally after English translation.

After battling cancer for 3 years, she died at age 62. She was honored by Pakistan National Council of Arts about a week later in which other renowned artists and poets participated including Kishwar Naheed, husband Shahid Nadeem and PNCA director, Jamal Shah. Jamal recalled  Madeha having worked “intensely” for human rights’ cause and using theatre for social change while her husband Nadeem current executive director of Ajoka,  paid her tribute saying his writing themes were deeply influenced by his late wife’s works: “Madiha Gohar not just swim against the tide, she turned the tide.” As director Kamlesh Kumar said: “Madeeha Ji's name will be etched in golden letters…[her] two seminal productions Dara Shikoh and Bulla will never be forgotten.” Huma Qureshi, chairperson National Commission on the Status of Women, said “Every theater play by Ajoka touched the issues of gender discrimination and violence against women and played a major role in changing the social mindsets.”

References

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1694900/4-ajoka-theatre-founder-madeeha-gohar-passes-away/

https://www.dawn.com/news/1405426/madeeha-gohar-did-not-just-swim-against-the-tide-she-turned-the-tide)

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/309011-renowned-actress-madeeha-gohar-passes-away

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/pakistani-theatre-activist-and-peace-campaigner-madeeha-gauhar-dies-aged-61/story-5IG5YD1NHSyKp0BOpCyZsI.html

http://ajoka.org.pk/news.aspx

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46362729

https://www.dawn.com/news/1449401

[sagarvibes-blog]

Feminism and conundrum of admiration: A poetic perspective

Feminism and conundrum of admiration: A poetic perspective

BY Mehmood Ashraf-Poet, & Blogger, Researcher

She was built like a dream (Catch 22)

Coral is far more red than her lips' red; As any she belied with false compare (Sonnet 130)

Wherever she was, there was Eden (Mark Twain, Eve's Diary) 

History of mankind is the history of ideas, said German Idealist Hegel. Being a poet, one says that history of mankind is a historically lyrical narration of personal relatedness with the external world, sometimes passed over as expressions. For not all can be put into the realm of language; it falls so short of words. Some things are on the horizon of spirits and deep emotions, needing expressions as in a painting or a lyrical expression; an artistic, aesthetic mode. Woman, by far, has a central position in this realm of literature after nature. One needs only look at the innumerable expressions of such, as outlined above and further below. Being a poet, one cannot help but admire what is admirable and beautiful. At the same time, one feels perturbed and dissonant given the blurring of lines between admiration and harassment owing to radical onslaught of MeToo banner holders who are bent on turning around centuries rooted traditions.

 Granted, ‘will to power’ (a term by Nietzsche) is a fundamental drive in human nature. Feminism is an accumulated will of women, a will to assert their choices, escape the repression and advance liberalization.  In short, feminism is an idea of woman freedom and emancipation. Lest they forget, essence of freedom is responsibility i.e. not an unbridled unguided but a ‘regulated’ freedom is a normative imperative. A distinction made between negative and positive freedom- after all, every vehicle is free to move on roads but for all vehicles to be free, they have to follow rules and lights. As Kant said, acting under some kind of a categorical imperative, a value or universal moral law is a fundamental principle of human freedom. More freedom makes increased responsibility imperative and inevitable.

In contrast, the highest freedom feminism has bestowed upon women is skepticism, defiance, Topless parades and deconstruction of centuries rooted customs, norms and tradition. Regarding tradition, even the admiration has been blurred with ‘language games’ of sexism, misogyny and harassment.

Some romantics would say, cosmetics are an extension of the will, will to look beautiful, will to be admired. On that, feminists would shave off their heads, essentially dewomanising appearance as a rebellious response to status quo. Or even worse, feminists would do topless parades, a desperate expression of woman’s freedom. One needs look at Go Toplessda as a blessing of feminism inflicted unto us, burying the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils and blurring the line between admiration and harassment making ‘stare’, the sin. Better yet, they say it is an expression of her will, her freedom-to go topless-. They say beauty is a construct of ‘patriarchy’, another language game.  Therefore, it was destined to be attacked and need1ed dismantling. But beauty is the least of the concerns of feminists. If women need any liberation, it is the liberation from clutches of feminism itself which are leading women and traditions into an abysmal abyss which gives dizziness of freedom.

As notable poet, known as Iqbal Lahori said: Wajud I zann s hai tasveer I kaenaat m rang (woman is the color in the picture of universe) i.e. the existence of woman adds contours, colors to life; she makes life, otherwise full of futility and shallowness, worth living for; giving meaning to lives of men, coloring an otherwise doom and gloom world of men.  Feminists worry freeing woman in roles, yet more worrying is their dewomanization implicitly ingrained in the paradigm..

Man would always aspire more than science could bestow upon him. While science explained, art expressed using imagination as tool; where knowledge and language felt restrictive, art opened vast doors of expression of relatedness, belonging and admiration of nature. To wonder is one of the foremost humanist predispositions. To wonder, is human. It is a sin, to kill a mockingbird. Greater is the sin, to stop a man from wondering the wandered-wilderness of imagination and nature. It is far from a sinister conspiracy of men as perceived by banner holders of me-too.

What possible trouble MeToo-ers could have with expressions of admirations and beauty. Feminism is harming the artistic traditions via realigning rules and long respected aspirations projected aesthetically. Feminism is harshly worrisome for art and aesthetics alike. The structurally exclusive narrative of feminism and particularly of MeToo is blurring line between admiration and harassment, a concern shared by a few leading women themselves (also recently expressed by TV presenter Melanie Sykes).

Wonders a poet, it is become criminally offensive complimenting, honoring and romanticizing. The transcendental love, relatedness and wonders of nature kept poets busy brushing and painting the world as imagination, as idea; the poetic affair with imagined beauty, ‘an endless fountain of immortal drink, pouring unto us from the heaven's brink’ evolved into the personification of nature. Woman’s beauty got an esteemed status in the realm of literature and particularly poetry. The abstract beauty of nature began to be identified with woman. Poets have been narrating beauty and love for nature and now woman had come to take the throne, as a queen, a princess, a beloved, a naturalistic entity in the broader spectrum of nature itself not externalized but an existential part of it.

The ideologically totalitarian feminism is grown suspicious over this line of admiration. It is sinful to admire the ‘clicking of her heels, heart cannot go wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, or go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter’ (Love in the Time of cholera). How about admiring from a distance, are feminists cool with it?-She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful: something to be admired from a distance, not up close (Gaiman & Pratchet). Woman equaled nature, a perfectionist ending to artist’s journey of the beauty in wonders of nature. It is becoming offensively sinful to admire her, praise her. Staring is not polite, they say. What is to relation of man with nature if not of stare and wonder!

[sagarvibes-blog]

Condemned to be Free: The Betrayal of Belief-2

Why do we create meaning for ourselves in a world inherently devoid of any meaning? More absurd is the thought that world is an abyss of possibilities, uncertainties, incomprehensibly unique in infinite manifestation. World, as we know it, we know through us i.e. our relationship to it and the language we give to describe it. It is an active process; we give and receive-that is one way to formulate constructs and consequently, deconstruct reality.

What about relationships wherein the lot identifies meaning and worth? Why the loved ones, as called by world, offer no motivation at all to some. I hear people saying: “if not for you, live for others; living for others is what gives life meaning.” Sounds beautiful and ideal yet doesn’t work. Why does it have to anyway? Perhaps, that is one dark side of the will to power, to dominate upon others. All the time, we do it in so many ways.

They say you create your meaning from a myriad of infinite objects, and yes people do. I tried, I couldn’t. Does that mean I am emotionally dead, incapacitated by love itself? There is something wrong with me. What is it and why? Perhaps, there is no answer to such deep dark psycho aspects of human nature. What is the point of understanding something when there is nothing to it that’s worth understanding? The ultimate incomprehensibility of life is an abyss of damnation and alas! freedom is the road most traveled therein.

How about one believing in misery as happiness: I do believe from ashes of chaos, the intensity of meaning and beauty emerges. But I have not ‘known’ so for myself. I don’t know what to believe in anymore. Betrayal has become the reality of life.

[sagarvibes-blog]

Condemned to be Free: The Betrayal of Belief-1

Is it too late to mend, how to escape from romanticizing something that has associated with your sub conscious, something that regresses you? Or worse, locks you in chain of endless recurrence. How to design and achieve goals? They say it’s the purpose that drives us. Patience is hard, harder is to live a life of lifelessness. They say purpose of life, if not any grandiose one, simply put is to live it-keep on going, getting on going. How can one love life when the nuances and beauties and all the temptations life has to offer don’t attract a person. Is such a person sane, or prospective mystic; far from either.

The easiest thing to do is living a normal mundane life. But it’s a privilege. I am locked in emptiness, purposelessness. The very basic fundamental a priori requisites of human existence, of ‘normal texture’ are lacking from me. I have a set of broken dreams and broken hearts, disoriented mind, and an alien soul.

I have always believed, lived by it, stood by it- Belief in the unknown beauty of uncertain manifest. But I hoped for a certainty, resembling linearity- Disillusioned self with a false promise that what is mine, would be mine. That it would be delivered to me; Bad faith or bad conscience-miserable indeed. what if all that was meant for me is what it already is and it will not get better. That the silver lining in the uncertain has possessed me, consumed me. That no matter how much I believe in infinite power of the free will, aspire to achieve high, all the inspirational and motivational ‘helps’; they don’t do anything for me. Psychotherapy has failed me.

I wish I would die. There is nothing better desirable that death for me. I have lived enough. What is life if it is not worth living? I think I have stopped existing because existing is to exert yourself, to progress, to have positive attitude of life, and to struggle- a perpetual process of becoming. So why I am alive, why I have life, trees and even weeds are better than me for they have at least some purpose to the universe. I am worst than insects on the ground.

When there are bugs, programs don’t run. I think people like me are an anomaly, bugs in the World, the Idea, the Will of it; thrown in, condemned to be free. If only, I wasn’t free!

What experience has taught me is randomness and uncertainty reign supreme. My accumulated experiences over time have revealed this to me again and again. Thus all knowledge, language itself is fake, false, misplaced misled adventures to create a false sense of understanding and changing. That might be one response to it. Another might be how productive conducive life affirming, creative force, pushing to limits, uncertainty might be. It hasn’t for me.

I don’t even know where I am and where I want to go. However, what I do know for certain is wherever I am right now, I want to get out. I want to relive ‘in time’ again. Eternity can take a toll on you and you lose the grasp of hardcore realities of space and time. What can be more exhausting and killing than being alien to your existence? We exist as being and we become over time, actualizing our potentialities. What I am to be? Am I what I am? I know for certain, if anything, it is this: I am not what I think, believe, or know I am. Because knowing and believing are incoherent and seeing is not believing. The presupposed value, believing, has betrayed me.

[sagarvibes-blog]

With love, from Pakistan

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Beauties of Walled city Lahore

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Lahore heritage sites under encroachment threat from Orange Line Metro train Project

https://medium.com/@sochvideos/lies-deceit-and-loss-the-tragedy-of-lahores-orange-line-28d9d3ca49c0

[sagarvibes-blog]

Change and Societal Elites-The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

We, as a nation, have failed to develop and move forward. If we took one step ahead, it was followed by two steps backwards. Such regression- progression has been in full swing. Under military dictatorships, country performed well, mostly on economic growth but least was done to strengthen the institutions especially civilian ones. Pakistan inherited asymmetrically developed institutions with military being over developed followed by bureaucracy. It was no surprise that a handful elite group including politicians hampered development of other civilian institutions essential for democratic stability which had severe repercussions and public costs. What does this ‘group’ constitute of? Who are such people?-The good, the bad or the ugly ones?

The group can be categorized under three sub-types.  First are the good kinds who are reluctant to exert themselves upon the system to extract like behavior. They are driven by values and stay loyal to the public trust. They are usually lesser prominent. Second are the pure evil, the ‘bad’ doer who actually live off the system and suck on it. They have their tentacles deeply widespread and tightened around the system which cannot work without them. They are so hopelessly and helplessly dependent on the system that they will fight for it and do all that is in their powers to protect it. System is a means to reflect their existence, their will and relevance. They themselves do not change for their repute precedes their doing. The tag of being who they are is a critical lifeline. That does not mean they do not give back. That is the interesting fact about them that they appear to be giving the most. They will become philanthropists if they have to. They follow Machiavellian way. For them, system must go on and it ought to make sense to them and for them. What disturbs or fears them is their lack of complete grip over it not because they cannot control the dissenters but because of the inherent contradictions within themselves as well as within ‘their’ system leading to infusion of dissenting voices and resistance, pulling masses on to streets. The bad have a social contract among themselves.

But the bad are not that bad actually. Behold the third category of the bloody kinds.  They are the worst and even dangerous. They will act well when times and circumstances demand of it when there is enough pressure to stay good. As pressure lightens up or times change, they change too. They are only good as the world allows them to be. They might turn even worse to make up for the loss happened when they had to act as ‘good guys’. They will become reckless and might get caught and be dragged into the courts or jails sometimes. There is no social contract of any nature among this class which actually makes them dangerous because they are unpredictable and capricious. They change their colors so often and so quick as they are the best in it. They will do anything to stay ‘mattered’. They have relatively more resilience to change as compared to their ‘bad cousins’  as long as it does not endanger their core interests. A radical transformation is generally discouraged by this class because of their conservative nature.

In my opinion, the second category of the bad people is lesser worse than this. The bad are actually everywhere, in every society and will remain so. The progression of the society or a state is contingent on how it limits and discourages ‘the ugly’.

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“Listen: this world is the lunatic's sphere, Don't always agree it's real, Even with my feet upon it And the postman knowing my door My address is somewhere else.”

[sagarvibes-blog]

Even After All this time The Sun never says to the Earth, "You owe me." Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the whole sky. Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions. Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you. The place you are right now God circled on a map for you.

Hafiz of Shiraz (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/hafiz)