The Liberal Radicals

Empathy. Being aware that we too may experience what the Other is facing today, knowing that Life being Organic will have its way with everyone, this should be our approach to anything in these complex times.

The internet provides us with such opportunities on a daily basis, to test our inner resolve. Be it a lecture on Youtube, a write-up on FaceBook, a comment on Twitter, tempers run high and the feedback from all and sundry verges on fanaticism. As though as time goes by we, as a people, are becoming more and more brittle in our hearts.

Reading all these antagonistic jingoistic missives reinforces the necessity that we must first and foremost look out for the good in others, see the Other as the better half or as God itself if need be (as Ryzard Kapuscinski proposes in his delightful ‘The Other’), without such an attitude, it is easy to fall prey to anger and bitterness, envy and schaudenfreude. We humans are partial, we are subjective, we go by what suits our interests, our needs, our perspectives. Very rarely do we have the ability to go beyond our calling and perceive issues as they broadly ought to be.

Verily, Truth itself being relative in the temporal world, various changeable parameters do not lend it to be as easily fathomable, especially for those with little interest in delving deep into the mental reserves it demands, it offers no glamorous returns. Looking within, self-criticism and introspection is the need of the hour. Even before we hear others and what they have to say about us, wouldn't it be a joyous journey to find out for ourselves what ails our Being, what causes discomfiture and why? With this knowledge safely by our side, the Other's comment, if true will be in accordance with our own inner narrative, while if proven false we can be self assured enough to brush it off as negativity on their part.

A lot is demanded, expected from those to whom a lot is given. Possessing great wealth, intelligence or prosperity brings with it great responsibility not just in terms of doling out aid and monetary help to the needy – of whom there are many - but to be humbled by this largesse, to be unassuming in behaviour, to brush away the trappings that accompany these tags - richest, biggest, largest. It is like having a beautiful partner whom everyone can very well see but even then, despite that, not indulging in any form of public display of affection because you very well know that behind closed doors this person is all yours, there is no need to make others feel left out, to over emphasize their lack and preen over one’s good fortune!

Especially among siblings, where this kind of competitive behaviour is a norm, it is the prerogative of the older to guide the younger although guiding is always done by example not by false posturing, after years of shared history when there is a painful break this is what happens, there are cracks! Healing needs time as well as good intentions, meanwhile if we continue to indulge in TuTu Main Main, mindless bickering to prove our one-upmanship, this process will take longer than forever.
There are a few of those people who practice a much more mature way of relating with the Other. This is the Liberal you have been hearing about.

Think of the Kundalini Chakras, our basest instincts, the lowest three - Mooladhara, Swadhistana, Manipuraka are about survival, intimacy and a desire of power and fame. In this, one is stuck identifying with one’s own people, one’s own tribe, one’s own kind, making our own special circles but all the while drawing boundaries and keeping the Others out. Thus as long as one is an out and out nationalist one cannot be a true liberal. How many can identify with Gandhi from the other side of the border while how many do even today identify with Tagore despite him being from the wrong side of the border? Ideology is a hurdle in Liberality. Ideals are not. Poets are not. Universalism is not. So if you cannot be true to your own self, which is and must be always over and above ANY set of identities, then pardon me you are but a radical.

We seem to have not gone beyond the basics and we cannot unless one reaches the Anahata Chakra, the heart chakra - and learns to love. To Love without Borders, that is what one seeks. This is the sign of a holy woman, a spiritual person, a sadhu, a dervish, a rishi, a poet, a philosopher, an artist, if they are true to their calling. Everyone else is conditioned by their thoughts, their boundaries, suffocating in their neat square box.

Every society needs its thinkers, spiritualists, scientists, intellectuals who be left free to think, act, do as they please, not tethered to do’s and don’ts, not sullied through money making and power plays. Only from them will stem ideas, new and varied thoughts, a different way of life. From such people is society made. They should not be tied down by any man-made customs, borders, civic and societal norms - all impediments to free thought. In India, in the previous age before decadence set in, we called them the Rishis. Those who do not seek profit or favour or fame but showcase the highest human ideals by living such a life. Those who lead by example. Those who asked deeply philosophical questions via the Vedas. Those who proclaimed “Vasudeva Kutumbakam” – the whole world is one family!

We need more such people and not self aggrandizing politicians and their illegitimate sons trying to reap some reward from the whole puny exercise of writing about the Other - the Other which one dislikes, because.

And so it was that once upon a time post-1947 there was no way one could interact with an Indian or a Pakistani across the border even if you were at Attari or Wagah but nowadays in these strange times one can, and how! Without ever leaving the confines of one’s study. The internet has become the world’s biggest leveler. Borders and bureaucracy have been rendered useless. In this world Indians can and will comment on Pakistan and Pakistanis will know more about India than Indians. In this world they all share their new found voices in one forty characters while simultaneously trying hard to be witty and serious.

Everyone who is someone follows someone who is followed by everyone. Welcome to the world of Twitter where it is highly entertaining to observe, especially if you are a no-one, on how these special ones parley with one another. How amusing to watch them announce their one billionth follower excitedly although couching it appropriately with a veneer of satire so as to sound irreverent. School kids really, in claiming one-upmanship and in re-plugging their articles shamelessly, pushing themselves forward for attention in their tartness and acerbic tones, reveling in the adulation and attention like puppies, lapping up the fawning follows. Marked above all for getting into juvenile jousts, they prove beyond doubt that their yet to be reached adulthood is some light years away.

Of talent there is no dearth, you’ll be surprised if you are an Indian at how articulate and coherent Pakistani articles are, in English, which you had assumed was your own private turf while if you are a Pakistani you might be surprised at how much an Indian is genuinely interested in Pakistan while you had thought they were busy making money and living a decadent life.

All these forces finally got together and exploded via an opinion piece by Aatish Taseer, who shares, unlike anyone among the current South Asian Twitterati, a common parentage. His father was the slain Pakistani Governor Salmaan Taseer (who never acknowledged him) and his mother the fiery Sikh, Indian journalist Tavleen Singh. That one article sparked off a series of replies, debates, discussions, arguments and soul-searchings et al not on the ground, no traditional warfare but across the skies sans any borders! It is thus that the international productivity by South Asians decreased worldwide as they were caught up in this brouhaha vicariously reveling in the virtual punches and counter-punches. If you did somehow miss the whole Sollywood Saga here it is:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304911104576445862242908294.html
Aatish Taseer

"Why does India make fools of themselves messing in space technology? Stick 2 bollywood my advice."

Here Aatish, has used one of the last tweets of his estranged now deceased father as symptomatic of the bitterness that is faced by Pakistan vis-à-vis India, he also portrays how this attitude is deep-seated even amongst the most liberal of thinkers, since his father, a liberal, had since succumbed to a religious assassination for vociferously supporting Christian Aasiya Bibi’s case against the infamous Blasphemy Law. He opines that the Arabization at the cost of rejecting local mores, the Militarization at the cost of public services and the Talibanization to the detriment of its own citizens via US funding, as the reasons for the once prosperous Pakistan – which still has better roads – to have not been able to play catch up with India. Most important of all the very reason for Pakistan’s existence as envisioned by its founding fathers was being put to test everyday by a prosperous pluralist India next door. He is careful to warn Indians from letting hubris set in since the pain he senses behind this bluster is not something to be laughed at.

All in all an honest evaluation of the ground situation as he sees it. His use of his father’s tweet and his name is only to put forth an example and weave a human angle to his main observations nothing more. In fact many people in India are not aware of his father despite the high profile killing so subsequent writers blaming him of ‘using’ his family/father’s name does not hold water. The fact is that he is privy to both worlds just by virtue of his ‘common’ birth.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/212319/aatishs-personal-fire/
Ejaz Haider

In his immediate rebuttal Ejaz Haider sums it up even more succinctly for Aatish:

Indian rocket test fails; father tweets to taunt at India’s misfortune; father’s attitude to India causes tension with Aatish (right!); Pakistan’s obsession with India; grounded in Partition; Pakistan’s search for identity; rejection of India’s culture; Islamisation; identity crisis; coups; Pakistani military is the villain; wants strategic depth in Afghanistan; plays a double game; imaginary threat from India; back to father’s tweet; veneer of bravado; arid pain and sadness; wounds of Partition to be healed.

Mr Haider impresses with his literary capacities and in-depth knowledge of India’s defence budgets, his premise being that it is India which provides a continuous threat to Pakistan with its looming military presence at the borders. To brush away this reality and to blame a much smaller country like Pakistan for continually strengthening its military complex as being pointless in-fact shows how little Aatish has done his homework.

Mr Haider would have made a lot of sense but for the fact that all the wars with India have originated from Pakistan. Be it through tribals ('47-'48) or through genocide ('71) while 1965 was an out and out aggression as also 1999 (the latter was of course denied up until General Musharraf finally admitted to having a hand in it). In the face of this knowledge as also the numerous attacks on the Indian soil by militants trained in Pakistan by the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, which enjoy state patronage via the ISI (which in turn is funded by the US of A) as proven through various sources not just David Headley, make his line of argument very weak. The fact remains that, in view of these recent historical incidents, that the acts of war as well as acts of terrorism have been initiated from Pakistan and not from India. Although major military deployments by India as well as past history of abetting the formation of Bangladesh are reasons enough for any smaller country to be fearful of the Big Brother in the neighbourhood. The fear and insecurity is justified not the aggression.

(As for Balochistan and RAW’s involvement one can point to Kashmir and the involvement of the surplus post-Soviet Mujahedeen. Neither of these areas is governed well by their elected governments and both suffer from extensive human rights abuses. They will have to make for a very ‘separate’ kind of discussion)

Some Humour Thank God!
http://majorlyprofound.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/a-comprehensive-analysis-of-aatish-taseer-episode/

A Comprehensive Analysis of Aatish Taseer Episode, July 22, 2011

Note to everyone except Ejaz Haider:
Go and get a life. Don’t grab your AK and express OUTRAGE for every teeny column written by random semi-popular people from across the border.
Note to Ejaz Haider: Please try harder to impress us with your reading list.


http://criticalppp.com/archives/53628
Alamdar Mengal

In these few lines, Mr. Aatish Taseer is more lucid and clear than most of the media big wigs like Najam Sethi (1990s messiah fame), Omar Waraich (who recently tried to paint Messrs Hamid Mir, Najam Sethi and Ejaz Haider as anti-ISI) and Cyril Almeida (PPP-abandoned-Taseer fame) and all those who have recently anointed themselves as “liberals” (or as a Baloch friend recently called them ‘Darbari Liberals’)

Mr Mengal introduces us to yet another kind of a Liberal in Pakistan: the Darbari Liberal
Those with strong ties to the military or beneficiaries of its patronage, therefore those who will keep mum and overlook such obviously evident conclusions made by the people outside. These pointers are not just Aatish’s alone; this is what the think-tanks worldwide are also espousing.

Mr. Aatish Taseer should realize that the mentality of these Darbari Liberals who are trashing his article is no different from the intolerant mindset of his father’s murderer, Mumtaz Qadri. For example, most recently, these “Darbari Liberals” and their Fake Civil Society cheerleaders couldn’t even tolerate a twitter activist @laibaah whose impassioned, in-your-face approach to minority rights was too much to bear – a quality that saw her account being suspended for the third time in 2 weeks via the coordinated effort of this tweeple brigade of “Darbari Liberals”

We start to see with this kind of support to Aatish’s controversial views that despite the ever ready tendency on India’s part to over-simply the gamut of liberals in Pakistani society there are many who continue to criticize and stand up for a different train of thought even if they are putting themselves in the line of fire while doing so.


http://www.deccanchronicle.com/columnists/shashi-tharoor/delusional-liberals
Delusional liberals July 21, 2011 Shashi Tharoor

Is there any wonder that Mr Tharoor lost the UN Secretary General election or was asked to resign from his governmental post for tweeting undiplomatically about ‘cattle-class’? Those in Pakistan who looked upon him as a suave messiah they could identify with, enamoured by his good looks and English, are suddenly in for a shock! He too is an Indian National first and foremost, therefore his liberal views also extend only so far as the Radcliff Line. Instead of being reassuring and avuncular he takes the high-road in being dismissive, “Who wants Pakistan?” he says. “We gave them back all captured territory post 1965 – Haji Pir Pass” he adds. “We also gave them back 90,368 POWs from 1971 as goodwill without bargaining on Kashmir” is something he forgets to add but which everyone in India talks about when it comes to the topic of Pakistan or (J&K).

Though what he said might hold a grain of truth the manner he adopts is patronizing and smacks of arrogance. Given the current situation Pakistan is in it is unfortunate that he should hit it low when it is down. It is not a mark of a gentleman or a diplomat. There are many liberals, intellectuals and thinkers of all hues if one wishes to engage with them and to limit one’s knowledge to a social media network is foolhardy for someone of his stature. In support of Aatish against both Ejaz Haider’s and Marvi Sirmed’s tweets he comes across as a bully himself. Well, he may not want anything from Pakistan but lots of Indians do: a Mohenjo-daro, a Harappa, Hinglaj Mata, Katas Raj, Nanakaana, Takshashila (Taxila), Gilgit, Baltistan, Pakistan administered Kashmir and so on. Any nation with substantial arts, crafts, culture and history with vast human potential has always something on the offer. (a Coke Studio to start with!!)


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C07%5C25%5Cstory_25-7-2011_pg3_4
We, the “delusional” liberals! July 25, 2011 Marvi Sirmed

Aatish’s basic premise being right he has gotten two issues wrong says Marvi:
1) Salmaan Taseer did not hate India
2) Pakistan - the idea of – was not conceived by Mohammed Iqbal as is generally rumoured and often wrongly reported

On her part Marvi’s main fault lies in calling Mr Tharoor a ‘refined and brilliant politician’! How refined he is we have seen for ourselves, as for brilliance not more than Marvi who is quite a writer and firebrand herself, but politician? He has hardly been in the political arena for long to merit that label.

Her fault is also in assuming that somehow Arundhati Roy represents India. Ms Roy is in fact at the fringes, intellect and ideology wise, therefore to use this argument that she was invited by Mr Taseer for the inauguration of his paper Daily Times thus proving his love for India is convoluted. His tweets followed by many Indians also do not give out such an impression - of him caring much for India. He was a politician through and through albeit a bold one and after his death has managed to garner both respect and respectability to the extent that might not have been his lot while alive. Hence any allusion to his real intentions raises the red flag amongst his supporters, who having a dearth of heroic figures cling on to the ones they can. Especially from the loyalists of PPP to which he belonged, of which Marvi is one. To her credit she educates us on the history of the ‘idea of Pakistan’ but the argument gets too meandering and loses its purpose, so who was it again whose idea it was if not Iqbal’s, who merely propounded a Muslim province within the Indian Federation in 1930?

It was Chaudhary Rahmat Ali’s ‘Now or Never’ of 1933 with a wholly utopian idea of what constituted this idea of Pakistan as separate from the British or Indian Federation that provided fodder for latter day Pakistan proponents. This isn't from her long drawn article but from the God of Gods : Google.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/217721/its-not-just-mr-tharoor/
It’s not just Mr Tharoor! July 26, 2011 Ejaz Haider

We now volley back to Mr Haider who now instead of introspecting and examining the allegations made by Aatish delves into the crimes of civilians who have been responsible more than the army-establishment, for the Pakistani misadventures into India and Afghanistan. He also lays the blame on Tharoor and Nitin Pai (of the New Delhi think-tank Takshashila) for perception-formation, a Goebbels like behavior, wherein repeated writings of the same viewpoints becomes the truth ultimately. Finally he calls in on Indian pundits for buckling under pressure during the Emergency and preaching to Pakistan on what constitutes Liberalism.


http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\07\31\story_31-7-2011_pg3_5
Pakistan’s liberals , July 31, 2011, Sonali Ranade

To co-operate with the miniscule population of liberals who keep the torch burning in Pakistan, is what Ms Ranade proposes along with trade/commerce, to normalize relations between the countries, optimistic about pre-empting the Chinese efforts to ‘ring India in’ through this strategy, she sees it as churlish not to extend a hand of friendship across the border. This of course can happen only if they give up their 4G war against India she adds! So we see that what she says is nothing different from the official line, except she is more of a diplomat and worldly wise than most.


http://criticalppp.com/archives/53901
Abdul Nishapuri

I feel insulted because Mr. Tharoor has lumped all Pakistani liberals into one category. It seems that he and his counterparts in Pakistan are conflating “social liberal life style” (English speaking, whisky drinking, human rights supporting, fashionable liberals) with political liberals (i.e., those who are currently being massacred by the military state and its various proxies because of their commitment to democracy, human rights, equality and liberty).

He goes on to commend Aatish and Mr Tharoor for their views as well as condemns his own brethren for neglecting the massacres of Balochs, Pashtuns, Shias, in their own backyard, for keeping silent to please their masters in uniform. So here we have another dissident, another naysayer, another critic of the Army-ISI nexus. Not just that, he almost labels the Liberals as Radicals!!

The game gets murkier and dirtier. This is how it will be if we do not let go of pre-conceived notions and pre-set solutions.

From Patrick French’s INDIA, a portrait: The idea of India is beautiful. If not the reality, the concept of wanting various people to co-exist despite the adjustments and the lack of historical love between the Hindus and Muslims, did not prevent a great thinker like Nehru to conceive of such a preposterous idea – of Secularism. Yet many in India have bought it and abide by it.
Hopefully, India will carry forth this spirit into the future. If not on Twitter.

Meanwhile from Pakistan some bold and beautiful liberal women who carry more than just Birkins on their person, while we wait for them to reclaim the vision of their beloved country from radicals:

http://www.dawn.com/2011/08/01/the-ideology-of-thought-control.html
Ideology of Thought Control in Pakistan by Maheen Usmani

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C08%5C01%5Cstory_1-8-2011_pg3_4
Shelve the old music please! by Marvi Sirmed