Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the poet and philosopher is considered as dreamer of Pakistan. At the time, India was a colony of British empire and Iqbal had a a strong instinct that the Muslims of subcontinent will not only be freed but will also lead Muslims of Asia, so he spent a lot of his times in thinking ways to inspire Muslims of subcontinent and prepare them for the coming future. Read his following lines for example,
"The blood of life runs in the veins of the dead East:
Avicenna and Farabi cannot understand this secret."
You are the guardian of the nations of the land of Asia."
But perhaps he made one big mistake and that is taking inspirations from history rather than thinking totally anew. Look at these lines for example, where he takes inspirations from Middle Ages Central Asian Turk empires:
"Once more the spark of love has arisen from the heart of Asia:
The earth is the coursing‐ground for the stain-cloaked Tartars."
"The Shrine was disgraced by the lack of foresight of the old keeper of the shrine:
But how our Tartar heroes emerged as young men of vision."
"The stability of life in the world comes from the strength of faith:
For the Turanians have emerged firmer than even the Germans."
For the Turanians have emerged firmer than even the Germans."
"The true believers are once more to receive from the court of God
The glory of the Turkamans, the intellect of the Indians and the eloquence of the Arabs"
Yes, Muslims of subcontinent got a separate homeland but this nation has not been able to become stable and "lead Asia" and one of the reasons might be their entrapment in the history. For me, the take home message is, "It is easy to get freedom from empires or liberate your homeland but if a nation is mentally trapped in the history, it is like struggling in a swamp".
The reason for this introduction is my reaction for the results of the current general election in Pakistan. From enthusiasm on traditional and social media about "The Change" and "The New Pakistan" in the form of Imran Khan's Pakistan's Tehreek-i-Insaaf, there were a general hope that Pakistan's politics is finally ready to get out of traditional parties' swamp. This was not making sense to me as I wasn't able to see any shift in traditional cultural, lingual and religious fault-lines and now the results have just proved that. Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League is back to power and it is the repetition of the same old game between the two big national parties: PPP -> PML (N) -> PPP -> PML (N)....
The only change that happened is that ANP has given its place to Pakistan's Tehreek-i-insaf, as it has mostly won from Pakhtoon majority populations. So all these fuss for the supposed "New Pakistan" was just a change in the name of a party. It reminds me of the story of honoring the Ecuadorian poet. The story goes like this,
The City of Guayaquil wanted to honor the renowned Ecuadorian poet, "Jose Joaquin de Olmedo" by making a sculpture of his statue, but she lacked the budget to hire a good sculptor, so she solves the problem by buying a statue of English poet, Lord Byron from a London Junk dealer and changes the plague which reads, "Jose Olmedo"....
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