Earlier this year, one of the departments of Karachi University arranged a conference on Iqbal. Having done my Masters thesis in the same area, we (me and my friends) were asked to write papers for that conference. Though the pressure of the second masters and time restrictions, we were able to write those papers but we did write abstracts and submitted those for it. Our professor played a crucial role in developing those ideas and giving us the directions as to how we should go about it. Anyway, I am thinking of resuming work on the abstract but I haven’t started it yet.
As the conference was directed towards the creation of Pakistan, all of us tried to work in some area or the other. And I based my research on structuralist perspective I tired to connect the idea of Pakistan with the concepts of Millat, Ummah, Qaum and Watan as Iqbal has used them in his poetry e.g.
Apni millat par qayas aqwame Maghrib ko na kar
Khas hai tarkeeb mein qaum-e- Rasule Hashmi
Where he talks about nation he takes it back to the foundations of Islam and if thinking globall, his poetry points towards brotherhood and the idea of nationhood beyond borders. All Muslims being united under one banner of Islam. e.g.
Eik hoon Muslim haram ki pasbani k liye
Neel ke saahil se le ker tabakhaak-e-kaashghar
Anyway, now that everyone is trying to talk about Islam and brotherhood in a totally new sense and having a new semantic field around it, everyone interprets and gives their own meaning to it. The post-modern World giving liberty to everyone to interpret and say whatever they want to say about Islam, religion, the idea of nationhood and the idea Pakistan. Oh! PLEASE! Wake up!!!!
Anyway, the other day all channels were playing all those patriotic song and I, who’s not in touch with the latest music scene, was being informed by my mamoon about a certain song which is supposed to be for Pakistan but actually the last line of the song says,” Pepsi se hai zamana”, I mean have we fallen to this level that even the national songs are hijacked by the stupid giants! I mean have a life! Forget the songs… Are singing these songs is the only way of showing that we love Pakistan and that we’ve done a great deal for Pakistan. Think beyond that…
It’s high time to not take 14th august for granted to get to the streets and getting killed while driving like a nerd or firing or with fireworks. Dozens get killed or are injured because of those stray bullets you fire justifying it by saying that we want to celebrate and enjoy. ?Millions spent on those fireworks which explode like anything, without caring that people in the beighbourhood might be sick or old and frail. Why can’t we donate that much money that we spent on fireworks to the Swat victims. Why still haven’t we learnt to chanelize our resources in a better way. Why not go and help those in need on the day when we were liberated and we formed a new Muslim state. Show care for those in need, for our neighbours and the whole Muslim Ummah. Unite under the flag of Pakistan and not divide ourselves for the development of Pakistan. Let’s revisit the idea of Pakistan in it’s true sense and make it an example for others to follow.
Reflections... 