Kambojaric
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On topic, Kudos to @Indus Pakistan for raising this issue. It is an elephant in the room as practically all Pakistanis will have seen such a restaurant abroad at least once. I know a Mirpuri man here in Sweden who runs an "Indian" restaurant and has pictures of Lahore Qila and Minar e Pakistan inside haha! The Indian sign outside is to drag the average Swede into the restaurant, which from his commercial point of view makes perfect sense.
However this also contributes in perpetuating the same stereotypical view foreigners have of us, i.e. Pakistan = break away of India. Nobody will look at you differently if you yourself keep reinforcing the wrong image they have of us. So how do we fix this? Well it always boils down to education doesnt it? Pakistan lacks a strong "Pakistani" identity because the state never enforced such an identity on people from a young age. For those who keep harping on about Pakistani being an artificial identity, yes it is but then so is practically every other identity on the planet. Identity is what we choose to identify ourselves as. Nobody dropped out of heaven as an Englishman or a Brazilian or a Russian. Rather these identities in different historical periods were a culmination of efforts by political entities to unite and converge various population groups so as to achieve greater domestic cohesion and resist foreign invasions (in both a literal physical sense and/or culturally).
This leads one to the question then, why did the Pakistani state never enforce a strong Pakistani identity on its people via education? As per my observation there are several reasons behind this but they range from general incompetance and an inability to create policies that will benefit the nation in the long run, to a large portion of society and indeed the government not believing in a national identity, instead seeking solace in religious identity alone. For many Pakistan is and will remain a religious state for the Muslims of South Asia. This naturally prevents the growth of a strong domestic identity. A third reason is that in the immediate aftermath of independence the writ of the state was not fully established, with Pakistan inheriting the most disenfranchised and illiterate parts of British India, whilst also inheriting an aristocratic feudal elite which viewed their own personal interests above those of the state. The current generation running restaurants abroad are a product of this immediate post-colonial generation.
It's an interesting question and its great to see it popping up now because if Pakistan is to develop and establish itself a fully sovereign state rather than a shadow of India, these will need looking into.
However this also contributes in perpetuating the same stereotypical view foreigners have of us, i.e. Pakistan = break away of India. Nobody will look at you differently if you yourself keep reinforcing the wrong image they have of us. So how do we fix this? Well it always boils down to education doesnt it? Pakistan lacks a strong "Pakistani" identity because the state never enforced such an identity on people from a young age. For those who keep harping on about Pakistani being an artificial identity, yes it is but then so is practically every other identity on the planet. Identity is what we choose to identify ourselves as. Nobody dropped out of heaven as an Englishman or a Brazilian or a Russian. Rather these identities in different historical periods were a culmination of efforts by political entities to unite and converge various population groups so as to achieve greater domestic cohesion and resist foreign invasions (in both a literal physical sense and/or culturally).
This leads one to the question then, why did the Pakistani state never enforce a strong Pakistani identity on its people via education? As per my observation there are several reasons behind this but they range from general incompetance and an inability to create policies that will benefit the nation in the long run, to a large portion of society and indeed the government not believing in a national identity, instead seeking solace in religious identity alone. For many Pakistan is and will remain a religious state for the Muslims of South Asia. This naturally prevents the growth of a strong domestic identity. A third reason is that in the immediate aftermath of independence the writ of the state was not fully established, with Pakistan inheriting the most disenfranchised and illiterate parts of British India, whilst also inheriting an aristocratic feudal elite which viewed their own personal interests above those of the state. The current generation running restaurants abroad are a product of this immediate post-colonial generation.
It's an interesting question and its great to see it popping up now because if Pakistan is to develop and establish itself a fully sovereign state rather than a shadow of India, these will need looking into.
