NPR (National Public Radio)’s Morning Edition just started broadcasting a really fantastic series on the Grand Trunk Road, which stretches across the subcontinent from the Bay of Bengal to the Hindu Kush mountains. It is one of South Asia’s oldest and most historic highways, ultimately linking India and Pakistan together, and NPR correspondents are making the journey and delivering interesting news reports along the way. According to Morning Edition‘s Steve Inskeep, who joined the team in Pakistan for the second part of the series (the first part traveled GT Road in India), “a new generation is growing up along the ancient road” and the show aims to tell the stories of those young Indians and Pakistans, their opportunities and their problems.
On Monday, Phil Reeves and Inskeep met at Wagah Border [for my backgrounder on the Indo-Pak Border Ceremony, click here], which separates India and Pakistan, to discuss the Indian part of the journey and “hand off the show” as it begins its Pakistan portion. Reeves, who traveled 1200 miles and interviewed many young Indians, told Inskeep this morning,
They [youth] fall into three broad categories – there’s an enormous body of optimism… who are very well-positioned to inherit this new wealth [in India]…then there’s another lot who are still very much filled with hope that they can get something out of society…to lift themselves and their family out of that position. And then there’s a third grouping who have pretty much given up hope, particularly in rural areas…when you go through that great stretch in north India, which hasn’t changed much over the years, you do meet people there, at age 21 or 22, who have already abandoned any hope that they’re going to get out of their situation. But they are investing in their children.
Throughout the journey, the team has been posting some fascinating articles, essays, and photos on the interactive website, some insightful, others worthy of discussion. In an article entitled, “In Pakistan, A Deepening Religious – Secular Divide,” NPR’s Julie McCarthy noted that the line between religion and secularism among Pakistan’s youth is at least partly contingent on students who are part of the madrassa (religious school) system and those who can go to more “privileged” schools and sit “squarely on the Western side of the divide.” NPR interviewed Rana Noman Haq in Lahore, a young 31 year old who “splurges on European vacations and eats at McDonalds,” who argued that his “worldly lifestyle” is “not incompatible with Islam — and it is not diluting his Pakistani identity.” He said, “That’s what globalization is all about — globally, everybody is coming together. We’re still sticking to our values, but within that we are also comfortable with whatever [is] happening anywhere in the world.”
The religious-secular “divide” in Pakistan is certainly an interesting debate, but it is complex and can’t merely be parsed into black and white. First, what does it mean to be secular in the first place? Secularism ultimately means the division of church and state, an ideal certainly championed in the West, but that doesn’t necessarily mean an embrace of Western culture. Just because someone “splurges” on European vacations or eats Mickey D’s doesn’t ultimately make them secular. Moreover, the right-wing voice in Pakistan doesn’t necessarily pertain just to students of madrassas. Manan Ahmed over at Chapati Mystery wrote a really interesting piece a few months ago called, “Pakistan’s New Paranoia,” where he noted,
The consumers of this narrative represent the largest demographic slice of Pakistan – young, urban men and women under the age of 30. They came of age under a military dictatorship with a war on their borders, and, more recently, almost daily terrorist attacks in their major cities. The twin poles of their civic identity – Pakistan and Islam – are under immense stress. They love Pakistan; they want to take Islam back from the jihadists. But there is no national dialogue, and no vision for the state: no place, in other words, where the young can make sense of their own country. Pakistan is ideologically adrift and headed toward incoherence, unable to articulate its own meaning as either a state or a nation.
Zaid Hamid, who is seen as the televangelist voice of the right wing, has been instrumental in addressing this crisis and reframing this identity. Ahmed noted, “The genius of Zaid Hamid has been to deftly shift the role of Islam from Zia’s strictly performative one to a more flexible mould. His acolytes, who call themselves lal topis (red hats), see a pious man who is less interested in their actual religiosity – whether they pray or not, give alms or not, wear hijab or not – and more concerned with their devotion to the idea of a resurgent, “independent” Pakistan. He calls on Islam mostly to play the role of history.”
NPR quoted Moeed Yusuf, at the U.S. Institute of Peace, who noted, “Because ultimately secularism as a concept is abhorred by most Pakistanis. So if they have to pick a side, it’s going to end up being this right-wing sort of wave that we find in Pakistan today. So again, this may not be religious fanaticism, but this is a very deep-rooted sense of being culturally conservative.”
The debate therefore, is arguably less of a polarized and hard divide, and more of an existential crisis of identity – reflecting a question our leaders have failed to cohesively address and answer – What is Pakistan? This vacuum is dangerous because it leads to extremes on both side of the spectrum who refuse to engage with one another, which in turn exacerbates the issue.
In speaking to youth in both India and Pakistan, NPR is aiming to at least initiate this conversation, which is commendable. It also aims to show how issues on both sides of the border further emphasize our similarities, rather than our differences. Definitely a great series to check out, if nothing else.
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Why do we keep on talking about Zaid Hamid? I fail to understand. I think we need strong relations with our neighboring countries. Maybe for once we should just keep on a side the hatred and the fighting and just try to improve economically.
Why shouldn’t we keep talking about Zaid Hamid? The man is a fear mongerer who pushes conspiracy theories that pushes all of Pakistan’s problems on scapegoats – RAW, Mossad, Blackwater, etc. The problem in Pakistan is that we need to be accountable for our own problems and our own issues. Zaid Hamid is not the only person who does such things – Rehman Malik and many of our ministers are guilty of doing similar whenever a bombing occurs, (just yest they finally ADMITTED a Punjabi Taliban actually exists, shocker). This kind of scapegoating is unproductive and doesn’t resolve anything.
Stop talking about Zaid Hamid and his popularity decreases. The less people talk about him, the less important he is. It’s been one of the greatest joys of the year so far to see that his ideas and speeches are far less popular than they used to be a year ago. That March 23 rally failure for him was truly divine 😛
Ignore the conspiracy theorists…or more appropriately,ignore the negatives and promote the positives…
The images are very nice too. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t understand why secularism would be abhorred by Pakistanis. Perhaps the concept of Pakistan as a purely Islamic theocracy has gained currency recently…sigh. Pakistan ka matlab pata nahin kyun ‘la ilaha ilallah’ ban gaya…
I think it’s an interesting contention as well and I think it’s because of the constant equation of secularism to the West, something we certainly saw in the NPR. More importantly, as much as the idea of Pakistan is still up for debate, the country was at least founded as a refuge for Muslims – that has then been taken to mean that Pakistan is an Islamic state – given that secularism means the separation from religion and the state, the concept seems to be at odds there, no?
well,i see why the idea of the ‘Islamic Republic of Pakistan’ being secular is at odds, but I would like to think of Pakistan as a refuge for minorities in general, specifically Muslims. I’ve been accused of being secular (apparently it’s a sin to be both secular and Muslim) but for some reason tolerance and pluralism are linked with secularism.