Look guys we are like a tree being eaten up from one side by Indians and the other side by Afghans. And a country of 200 million people sat on one of the world great river basins - Indus ends up with zero heritage. It's like we are 200 million orphans.
The reason is Indians and Afghans have chose to
crack our country in half. The western half has been claimed by Afghans and the easern half by Indians. Anything remotely of heritage or cultural value in the west is branded as Afghan and anything in the east as Indian. It's like having a house but both your neighbours effectively own everuthing inside it leaving you looking on as a amused stranger.
You know many years ago when exposed to the continous bite by the termites [from both sides] I used to feel insecure and not quite sure of who I was. I was not very religious so I could not exactly salve this insecuity in breing 'Muslim'. Even that was a problem. There are nearly 40 Muslim countries straddled from Africa, Europe to Asia. That hardly tied me down a identity. It merely made me a member of a global conglomerate. At heaet of this was the widely peddled notion of Pakistan's artificiality which of course is peddled mostly by our neighbours but also western [read English] writers who can't come to terms that their "Raj" was divided and Jinnah is seen as the villain.
But then slowly I began to see the deciet and lies of those who peddled the idea of a cracked/artificial Pakistan. First take Afghanistan. Who is Afghan? If Afghan is Pashtun then that leaves out the Turkic Uzbeks, Turkmen, the Faris Tajiks and I would not even know where to place the Mongol Shia Hazara. Meaning Afghanistan is also '
cracked' along ethnic lines. And Afghanistan is also a recent creation. Below is 'cracked' Afghanistan along major ethnic groups. You have Turkic, Mongol and Persian peoples divided by mountains and a conflicted, bloody history.
And then we move to India. Can anyone seriously tell me that there would have been a Indian Republic today with capital at New Delhi if a greedy English business called East India Company had not arrived in South Asia. Please tell me what can be more artificial then Englishmen making your country driven by greed and before leaving even building you a new capital by naming it "New Delhi"?
Then a quick glance at India shows she is a composite of varied people. You find almost every major human racial group within India. From Indo-Aryan, to Dravidian, to Aborginals, to Tibeto-Burmans. India has cracks, indeed even bigger cracks then Pakistan has. Some time ago I had @Pademchen who I believe is Parsee reminding me of the Iranic/Indo crack in Pakistan. The irony was sweet. He is Indian of Iranic stock and he is reminding me of our crack. Think about how craz this is. Pot calling the kettle black. Afghans will also remind us of our cracks but ignore their own as if they are one homogenous peoples with a unified history going back thousand of years ago.
So wher do we stand? Well the problem is with us Pakistani's. We are ourselves unsure and our language displas weakness. We are shy or ashamed of using Pakistan and will makes excuses like 'Asian, Desi, Apna" etc. Is it no wonder then that our neighbours come and plunder our heritage? What we need to do is despite our own internal politics but at external level show vicious adherence to brand Pakistan.
Please no more desi food, desi clothes, Asian culture, Apna music, Indian food. Everything begins with Pakistan and ends with Pakistan. You do that and soon enough you will have a strong identity. Don't do that you will still be a artificial desi in 1,000 years time. I am glad to see threads on Ancient Pakistan/Pakistan.
And a a general rule of the thumb try to stick
within borders of
Pakistan. If you begin to go beyond that by using some justification then you are inviting Indians and Afghans to do the same. That is a slippery slope. So I prefer to keep it clear and sharp. Trust me we have more then our share of heritage to be proud of.
@Kambojaric
@UnitedPak
@Taimur Khurram
etc
