Voice of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Friday, March 29, 2024

Societal Trends of Sub-Nationalism Versus National Cohesion

When Pakistan got its independence in 1947, it was faced with, among many others, one particular challenge that not only caused us the greatest national tragedy in 1971 but hitherto remains a bone of contention as far as national integration and security are concerned. That challenge was the rise of sub-nationalist tendencies in different factions of society.

Pakistan was created in the name of Islam, which was supposed to become the dominant identity of the people of Pakistan. Had this happened, sub-nationalism had died its natural death as Islam opposes any other division based on language and ethnicity.

After Quaid e Azam, such tendencies came to the fore in national politics. The year 1954 was an important juncture of our history in this particular context of sub-nationalism. Former East Pakistan adopted Bengali as their national/official language. Bengali identity began to take over Muslim or Pakistani identity and this led to the 1971 debacle. In the same decade, ethnic and linguistic uprisings were observed in Baluchistan and former NWFP provinces.

Foreign aid was certain there with the rebel groups but the main causes were domestic and political in nature. Many Pakistanis suffered due to these insurgencies/uprisings. Free Baluchistan and Pashtunistan slogans were raised to save the Baluch and Pushtun identities.  Though kinetic parts of both insurgencies were crushed by the state idea and narrative behind them hitherto remain alive and continue to pose challenges to national integration.

There have been many historic reasons for these uprisings butthe issues such as leadership dilemmas, bad governance, socio-economic disparity, ethno-culturalpolarisation, sub-nationalist politics, and fragile national unity under federalism, extremism, national identity crisis, and modernity confusion are the main challenges to Pakistan’s efforts of national integration.

The idea behind the devolution of power through the 18th amendment was to curtail these ethnic and linguistic-based sub-national tendencies from flourishing but it seems that the above-mentioned challenges in Pakistan’s polity are major contributors to exacerbating these centrifugal tendencies in the national discourse.

In the post-9/11 world, the changing geopolitical landscape of the region became another catalyst for sub-nationalism in Pakistan. This time, sub-national elements raised the slogan of insecurity and the state’s ignorance towards it. To make the matters worse, terrorist insurgent groups like BLA/BLF/BRA in Baluchistan and TTP in KPK aligned their operations with an anti-Pakistan narrative.

Pakistani leadership and intelligentsia must approach this problem of sub-nationalism from a humane perspective. There is ample evidence in the existing scholarship about sociology that the ultimate desire of every human being is to improve his/her quality of life which has certain key requirements like the safety of life, the safety of livelihood, the safety of honor (respect), and availability of equal rights and opportunities to progress. Pakistan, unfortunately, has failed on many of these key requirements and the result is that the average Pakistani living in an underdeveloped part of the country or remote area of the country feels annihilated and the socio-economic disparity has been growing. So, what has gone wrong and how to fix it? Well, first of all, it must be understood that humans will always look for a better and better quality of life with all securities mentioned above. In this context, it must also be understood that the quality of life that a person leads depends critically on where it is led.

With a chaotic world order, every country is faced with the challenge of variations in the well-being of its citizen due to clear differences in economic development, the chances of an individual surviving through infancy, living a healthy life, etc. These variations are everywhere; between the states and within the states. The question of solidarity and the resultant sense of security can only be answered after addressing these variations in society (mainly caused by social injustice). Kinetic operations against terrorist groups and social media campaigns are great contributors to national solidarity but they are not the main recipe for it. Both go side-by-side. The state must not show any weakness towards rebels, insurgents, or terrorists but at the same time, it is responsible to create an environment where fresh recruitments can be denied by the people.

National solidarity emerges from a sense of shared identity and this identity can only thrive when every citizen of the state feels “equally” empowered socially, politically, and financially. Adopting this thinking will be a departure from the traditional emphasis on the role of class and electoral politics, as well as from the dominant view of the negative implications of identity for welfare.

There is a need that appropriate political and economic measures tobe taken to bring young minds to the national fold, which are the target of almost all sub-nationalist groups.It has been seen in Pakistan that these groups particularly target the youth mainly in educational institutions.

This youth must be engaged in dialog within the premises of their educational institutes. Many of these young minds fell prey to hostile propaganda and fake news. The such debate must help in freeing these young minds from propaganda and fake news which sub-nationalists paddle through social and print media. Educational institutions must be the focus of Pakistan’s security managers as these can easily become breeding grounds for young sub-nationalist activists and leaders. In 1971, India used Bengali students to raise Mukti Bahini. Our enemies are once again looking for a similar opportunity and are employing all their soft power for their nefarious designs. It’s up to national leadership to chart a long-term strategy to minimize the impact of sub-nationalists’ propaganda. The primary aim for such a strategy must be to create a visible and lasting difference in the socio-economic landscape of areas affected most by sub-nationalist propaganda. Pakistan must deny these groups to cast a shadow of doubt over the intentions of the state towards the people of these areas. This is going to be a long, tedious, and challenging task and would require continuity of policies. InshaAllah Pakistan will overcome this challenge of sub-nationalism on both physical and intellectual fronts.

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