Indian-American Academic from Harvard University Dr Homi K Bhabha said that lasting peace in the South Asian region could be achieved by promoting the culture of conversations and dialogue at the people-to-people level, terming it a ‘way forward’.
He said this during the distinguished lecture series entitled ‘Changing Global Society: Post-Colonial World Order’ organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), a news release read on Thursday.
Speaking on the prospects of India-Pakistan peace dialogue, Dr Bhabha was of the view that there is no cultural problem between India and Pakistan.
“We need to have people-to-people dialogue on a regular basis, and need to listen to the problems people want politicians to address,” he added.
He argued that post-colonialism was not the end of colonialism and the strategy of dependence sustained the problems faced today such as ultra-nationalism. “The notion of security in culture has been disastrous because now people look at other cultures and question whether other cultures are ‘dangerous’ to them,” he added.
On Kashmir, Dr Bhabha noted that political warfare was being witnessed in Kashmir, adding the rights of Kashmiris must be emphasised on and their alterity must be appreciated.
Journalist Zarrar Khuhro articulated that the “otherisation” and the “us versus them” discourse were perpetuated to gain political goals, particularly in South Asia.
Senior Lecturer at School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, Dr Meera Sabaratnam said that the technology behind social media was dangerous as well as manipulative. “On social media, we are fed with data to confirm our bias,” she added.
Dr Ahmar Mahboob, Associate Professor at University of Sydney, stressed that knowledge was at times biased, perpetuating a colonial-knowledge structure.
“The world is morphing into ‘Colonisation 3.0’ where Covid-19 has been weaponised to allow a whole different shift in how the relationship between people and communities exists,” he noted.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2021.
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