Ansh Chowdhari
It was out of sheer coincidence that I stumbled upon a YouTube channel named Aik Musafir Ki Duniya (The world of a traveller). This channel, though inconspicuous, had a certain charm that I completed all its videos in one go. It was probably the narrator’s oration that kept me hitched throughout. These stories are narrated by the famed Pakistani travel writer Salman Rashid who happens to have mastered the art of story telling in his peculiar humourous tone. Rashid has brought out excellent stories regarding some of the long forgotten heritages- tangible as well as intangible, in an extremely lucid format, while ensuring that he doesn’t succumb to the narratives that have hitherto animated the mass consciousness of the nation state. Gallivanting through these stories evoked a strong nostalgia and melancholy, of sorts, that makes one wonder if the unnecessary encumbrances that we have created are real. It tells a sordid saga of the past which has sowed distrust and hate of an exponential proportion. The partition is just another figment in this process which, apart from causing the political fragmentation, devastated the shared cultural heritage with impunity. The bonds of centuries shattered to give way to animosity towards each other. The religion, which ought to have guided our moral aspirations, turned devious and strangulated the human sublimity. Musafirs who traversed these lands for thousands of years carried their cultures to distant lands, which invariably got intermixed into the indigenous strand. This created a mosaic; a melting pot of cultural identities that served as an intangible evidence of our diversified milieu that was squarely advanced and tolerant. Rashid too, has in this process worked like a virtual traveller, who through his personal anecdotes has been able to pierce through those borders that hinder any movement whatsoever. For instance, when Rashid elaborates on the Wah Fort, he explains not only the architectural elements of the fort, but the timeless movement of those actors that I, sitting in Jammu, found that relevant.
Notwithstanding the general concerns of citizenry that has been overwhelmingly surrounded by a hostile? distraught and divided cultural ecosystem? people ike Rashid have tried to plug that gap with his nuanced approach. Apparently I found that digital media has lately turned into a simulated space where the human urge to connect with other individuals, deemed so called ‘enemies’, gets a logical expression. The comment section under the Pakistani Coke Studio songs is another arena where I’ve noticed this trend. A comment under the Pasoori song read “this is so soulful, love from India”. It can be argued these are frivolous antics to secure some likes on the Social Media but even then, it espouses a general sense of belonging to a common cultural space of this Bar e Sagheer that now stands mutilated. The cultural cauldron that we once inhabited now lies in tatters. The concretisation of old heritage, dismantling of old structures, decrepit state of historical buildings, etc foretold the story of disconnected masses who feel unconcerned about these developments.
It’s not just being indulging in romantic notions of the past but to create an expansive understanding of our environment, which in times like these, has been narrowed down and constricted. It’s an approach of reconciliation with our natural surroundings which beckons us to understand the plurality of thoughts and beliefs. Drawing from this argument, it can be said that the syntax of a cultural continuum which once was an explicit representation of a growing civilization has now witnessed a break. The overtures of religion, language and caste have demonstrated the ominous shades of power which have alienated individuals from their collective heritage and knowledge systems. For instance, during the Padmavat controversy, a certain caste group was in uproar regarding the wrongful interpretation of the lead character of the film. Notwithstanding the general nature of this controversy, it appeared, as if the historical figure has now been relegated to a particular community. This general sense of indifferce has now percolated deep down our conscience. We now pick and choose our heroes depending upon their affiliations.
This charade of unity that is generally maintained under a certain political umbrage dissipates once the primordial aspects that generally govern our systems overpower- through their axial associations, our newfound association with the nation state. It creates a fundamental brake that accentuates those divisions which make an individual sway his affiliations under changing circumstances. For instance, the two nation theory of Pakistani imagination has maintained and unchallenged hegemony over the Pakistani psyche. This is substantiated when we look at some empirical results demonstrating that despite the geographical hindrances people of a particular association feel for their brethren in other parts of the world despite the latter having to brave no real consequence of any action that may affect the former.
This idea of a community primarily stems from a primordial feeling of safety and nourishment that one gets within his own kinsmen. But this, on the other hand, aggravates parochialism and narrow mindedness; destabilises the social equilibrium and generates a god complex. All these situations can be simulated in real time to understand their grim denouements. The rise in nationalism, which once indicated a stable and secured country has now been turned into an aggressive posturing measure where the individual liberty and human dignity has taken a hit at the altar of national interest. Surprisingly, this resonates with what Charles Tilly has stated in his seminal work “War making and state making as organized crime”: governments are in the business of selling protection???whether people want it or not.
The larger issue of multiculturalism which once dominated the global discourse for an effective assimilation has now been overstepped by a predilection to borrow from the accoutrements that a particular religion/race/caste offers them with. One can dismiss this position as being overly judgemental but the unctuous fashion in which this phenomenon has emerged-especially in the western world-has shown that the religious conservatism and community consciousness has risen among the 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants.
Be that as it may, the change in any society comes from within. The resilience and strength required for acquiring progressive measures is an inherent force that tries to reckon the constituent units of a society as autonomous beings having a conscientious approach towards their rights and values. This can be achieved only when the identity markers create a facile interplay for itself. When the idea of being a Kashmiri, or being a Dogra doesn’t collide with one being an upper caste or a Dalit; or one being fair doesn’t collide with one being more attractive. This superposition of a civic identity is something that must be promoted and cherished as a value laden directive in any modern secular democracy. We must remember the eponymous speech of Pericles titled ‘Pericles Funeral Oration’ that he delivered at the end of the first year of the Pelponnessian War, in which he extolled the virtues of justice and civic republicanism. The ideas of valour, justice, secularism and merit were celebrated and the bonds of ‘being Athenian’-of belonging to a systematic civilisational state, were ballyhooed.
These values can make us those virtual Musafirs, who can, out of their own volition, create meaningful communities based on universal human principles that can accomplish the ideas of tolerance and mutual well being while remaining antithetical toward those feudal narratives which but usher a skewed basis of human essence and stymie the process of world peace. The need is to provide space to other Salman Rashids who can fearlessly expound these values without succumbing to any political conservatism.
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