Of assent and dissent

One is of people who try to justify any position taken by the state, other is of those who vehemently reject it

The history of any state is full of instances that primarily vocalise two opposing narratives. One is of the people that try to justify any position taken by the state and the other is of the people that vehemently reject it. It is not necessary, however, that either position is good or bad in terms of relation to each other. It is just that they are quintessentially opposing in their objectives and their understanding for a future of their country. This puts them and their proponents at odds with each other.

Pakistan has its lot. The assenters who try to mask their preferences and interests by clamouring for a monolithic structure of power and social control by state and its institutions. The dissenters who vocally lambast these structures by focusing on modern notions of political correctness and idealist ideas. In between these two, there exists the vast plurality that remains silent.

The reasons for such a marked difference and that huge plurality that is resistant to any swaying lie in our past and in our social makeup. Basically, Pakistan as a society has not developed significantly from our colonial days and that mentality is incompatible with the current streams of thought. This is the case for every place that has a colonial past. Every place on Earth which is grappling with the issues of conducive human rights and excessive state control has some sort of colonial legacy to it. African states have their dictators, India has its own vigilantism shrouded in Hindutva and the Eastern European states have still not come to terms with their ethnocentrism, xenophobia and racism.

Also, as a nation, Pakistan lacks the coherence and homogeneity due to its critical lack of commonality. Our history, social institutions, languages and ethnicities are not constructive of a common sentimentality for this state. They have always been divergent and divisive. In pursuing a commonality based on religion, one can only bind those that have a strong consideration of religion in their affairs and this becomes very parochial in this modern world.

In Pakistan, there exists a structural and institutional divide between elements that want to have power. This is manifest in every aspect notably in our society, economy and most specifically in our politics. The tension between these forces maintain the status quo in our country and any fractures in this precarious balance always result in social clashes and brutalities that hark back to our repressive history.

Along with this, our colonial legacy and baggage do not allow us to overhaul our political status quo with sweeping and overwhelming reforms. This languid nature of our progress is inefficient in this rapidly-changing world to allow for clearer ideas and lucid explanations. In this backdrop, it is an established fact that every policy that the state wants to pursue will have its assenters and dissenters. This cannot be changed.

It is not advisable, therefore, to still follow that colonial administrative idea of repression and torture because it is inevitable that society will change. We should stand with the right side of history instead of defacing it in a kind of rhetoric that will not carry its weight in the future. Maybe power and authority will be able to maintain the status quo for now or maybe sometime later but the march of history does not care for it and it clearly always favours the people that stand for truth, peace and human evolution based on morality. Granted that assent and dissent are the binaries of change, but it does not mean that our society must follow only on these lines. If anything, modernity has allowed us options including co-operation, co-option and collaboration which are far better than any singular idea. And this is the only way forward.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2019.

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