Shades of darkness

Certain tragedies are silent. Unlike an attack that takes lives, they don’t strike with a bang. They occur in the information you digest through various mediums. The ideas that influence your subconscious; the boundaries that are carefully laid out for the conclusions you may or may not reach. The ‘eithers’ and ‘ors’ you have been forced to cram your sensibilities into, out of fear of being left out in the cold.

Analyses of complex issues are narrowed down and oversimplified to fit into general categories: black or white. You are either with us, or against us.

A majority of the information provided to us in the form of news, opinion and analyses in Pakistan, is pigeonholed into stereotypes. Thus, it fails to establish a genuine understanding of events. Blatant clichés aside, even many of the in-depth approaches in the mainstream media do not attempt to encourage thinking outside of the box. Rarely do we stumble upon a ‘different’ voice. Take the cliché of ‘feudalism’, for example. ‘Feudalism’ is a term that is thrown around generously, mostly by those with limited vocabularies and awareness, thanks to the superficial perspectives fed to them by the mainstream media. Yet those who may attempt to gain first-hand experience might stumble upon a very different reality. Most of the landowners I know and have interacted with are some of the most down to earth people I have ever met. Political cronies, on the other hand, who purchase land through the misuse of political influence and break all road laws whilst driving in the cities, are a different species. Don’t make the mistake of confusing the two.

Landowners, or zamindars – and by these I do not refer to the absentee landowners who spend most of their times in cities – have to be painstaking individuals if they want to survive. They need to be amicable so that their tenants feel comfortable enough to be able to talk to them. Such people exist, and in large numbers. They enjoy being close to nature, which in their line of work, works out quite well for them.

Feudalism is a mindset inherent in every walk of life, determined not by occupation but by personality traits. You will find more ‘feudalism’ in Wall Street or in the schools of thought of the alumni of Karachi Grammar School than in rural Sindh. The prejudice and frustration with which you pin down all things negative to the bogeyman of ‘feudalism’ only because you lack the patience or awareness to dissect the issue and get to its core, is in itself ‘feudal’.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2016.