‘Patriotism,’ ‘patriotic duty,’ ‘unpatriotic act’ are amongst the most commonly used terms in the chaotic slogan-mongering that goes for political discourse in Pakistan these days. In a country where most political and communitarian institutions, from democracy to political parties and academic centres, etc., are ‘do number’ versions of the real things, it is natural to treat harangues on ‘patriotism’ with a substantial pinch of salt.

The Oxford Dictionary defines a patriot as a person who belongs to a country. In that sense, all Pakistanis are patriots regardless of how they behave. The idiomatic usage of the word, however, defines patriotism in terms of a citizen’s commitment to defend/serve the interest of the country. The question whether the people of Pakistan qualify as patriots in this sense cannot be easily answered. The reason is that the concept of a territory-based patriotism, or nationalism, is somewhat alien to the Pakistani mindset.

Still attached to the idea of his membership of a transnational community of Islam’s followers, the ummah, a Pakistani Muslim subscribes to the boast.

(Each country belongs to me as all of God’s lands are mine). Many excitedly affirm with Iqbal

(Keep moving like running water in any direction you wish, for all these rivers and deserts belong to us.)

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Extra-territorial loyalty is part of the Pakistani Muslims’ inheritance from the Indian Muslims through their modest efforts to gain freedom from the alien rulers. The Indian Muslims launched a struggle for the Turkish caliphate with a fervour they did not display for any other cause. A cursory look through the resolutions of the All-India Muslim League, at its annual conventions, will reveal that a call for justice for Palestine sometimes preceded any reference to the sub-continental Muslims’ concerns. Even today, the kind of reliance Pakistan places on faith-based links with foreign entities, often in disregard for the imperatives of geography, defies reason.

Mohammad Ali Jinnah tried to bind the Muslims of Pakistan together on the platform of territorial nationalism. His two-nation theory was based on the premise that the Muslims of India living in areas where they were in a majority constituted a distinct nation that was entitled to establish their own state. (And he made it clear that the Muslims living in other parts of India did not belong to this nation, their status was that of sub-national groups.)

While saying good-bye to the two-nation theory three days before the birth of Pakistan he called for the creation of a new Pakistani nation of which all citizens of the state, regardless of their belief or creed, were equal members. The switch didn’t work. Winds of faith blew away the political identity Jinnah had tried to manufacture. Today, an average Muslim Pakistani is Muslim first and Pakistani later and he wants the non-Muslim Pakistani to forget his dream of being a full citizen of the state. This mindset has little space for a genuine attachment to the land, for patriotism proper.

What, one may ask, is patriotism? Putting all definitions aside, patriotism means a citizen’s devotion to her/his state, a territorial entity, and a commitment to bear sacrifices for its sake. This attachment and this commitment are born out of the realisation that the state’s objectives/functions are in harmony with the citizen’s own interests and aspirations. The bonds of patriotism become tenuous if a citizen finds the state drifting away from her/his interest. This marks the beginning of replacement of patriotism with feelings of alienation from the state. Unfortunately, successive regimes in Pakistan have tended to ignore this most essential lesson of the country’s history.

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When Pakistan came into being one did see sparks of patriotism. The new state and its citizens were united by their shared aspirations. The community wanted to build a new state and the citizens wanted to build new lives. The two circles of interest were co-centric, they did not cut each other.

The situation changed rather quickly. The state showed signs of disrespect for the people’s regional identities. The Bengalis (language issue) were not the only ones to protest against the denial of their rights as a regional community. The Sindhis (the Karachi issue) acquired a grievance as early as the Bengalis did, if not earlier. Balochistan (the Baloch and the Pakhtuns were together then) and the Pakhtuns of KP followed suit. And in Punjab, too, the desire for autonomy annoyed the Quaid-i-Azam and harried the Quaid-i-Millat Liaquat Ali till an assassin’s bullet found its way into his heart.

From 1948 to 1970 Pakistan’s politics revolved around the tussle between the federation and the federating units. The attempt to rub off provincial identities in the western wing failed and the failure to accommodate Bengalis’ aspirations resulted in the state’s disintegration a mere 24 years after it was created. Throughout this period patriotism meant giving regional interest priority over the national cause.

Unfortunately, the process did not stop in 1971. All provincial entities have suffered splits over the past four decades. The Baloch and the Pashtuns have parted ways in Balochistan, Sindh has been ravaged by an urban-rural or Sindhi-‘Mohajir’ divide, the Hazaras in KP do not share the Pashtuns’ dreams, and the Seraikis in Punjab have not stopped crying. All this because the state’s objectives/functions are not perceived by the sub-national entities to be in harmony with their regional/communitarian interests.

Ethnic divisions have deepened as never before. Everybody is for himself and the devil may take the hindmost. Patriotism in the sense of acknowledging the state as the dominant deity in the citizens’ political pantheon has suffered near fatal blows.

As the space for legitimate patriotism shrank, its place has been taken by spurious patriotism. At the same time, everybody seems to have become overly patriotic. The foundation of the mint that produces this coin was laid when governments started assuming the sanctity only the state could claim for itself and patriotism began to imply unquestioning loyalty to the rulers, or strengthening the hands of the absolute ruler, as Ayub Khan liked to put it. Criticism of government policies or men responsible for them became heresy and dissent an unpatriotic act.

Now patriotism simply consists of one’s ability to stay on the bandwagon of the elite and wait for its signals. The establishment does not like the Baloch nationalists and a dutiful horde considers denunciation of the entire Baloch community as traitors or worse as its patriotic duty. When Geo TV landed itself on the wrong side of the custodians of power, a large number of individuals and organisations were fired by their sense of patriotism to file cases against the proprietor.

No sooner than Mahmood Khan Achakzai concludes his statement on the rights of the Afghan people, and this inside the parliament, the patriotic cheerleaders are out to bury him under a shower of calumny. Asma Jahangir is guilty of unpatriotic acts if she goes to Gilgit on a fact-finding mission or to Quetta to mourn the loss of a galaxy of fellow lawyers. Knives have been bared for her once and nobody can say they won’t be unsheathed again.

Altaf Husain was a patriot when Gen. Zia needed him for destroying the Bhutto party (a supremely patriotic mission indeed), but now that he has brought the house down upon himself everybody is keen to join the patriotic hunt for his loyal followers, if anybody is left.

Today it is the patriotic duty of citizens to keep quiet about declining employment or growing violence against women, reject the different provinces’ reservations about CPEC, sing praises of the Orange Line Train and condemn the defenders of heritage as enemies of the people, and generally pronounce anathema on the civil society organisations.

One feature of this spurious patriotism is that external scapegoats are traced for everything that goes wrong. No Pakistani, and certainly no Muslim, can blow himself up at a school or a hospital; such acts can only he committed by foreign agents. Thus, all patriotic Pakistanis must continue their tirades against external enemies, including those that cannot be identified.

In such situations, people of clear minds and sound hearts learn the art of self- censoring not only their speech but their thoughts, too. They also try to avoid being noticed by the patriotic brigade. This creates openings for professional fault-finders, such as the patriots who institute cases against Ahmadis or convert non-Muslim girls to their faith and provide them with husbands. They will go round unmasking all the unpatriotic elements and louder will become the calls for bans, trials, and punishments. They will be of course rewarded by a grateful authority. They will have their day in the shadow of infantile patriotism.