Who are the Pakistanis?

I was once having a discussion with a Mexican friend of mine here in America. I asked him what his authentic national language was, to which he replied that it was Spanish. I asked him again, this time reminding him that his people were colonised and ruled over by the Spaniards, and so what the national language was before the Spaniards came. He did not have a clue. The language of the occupier became their language. Pakistan and India were also colonised by the British but we have kept our language alive despite trying very hard to speak English.

I have watched different people from various countries around the world come to America and they always experience some kind of cultural shock. The only cultural shock that Pakistanis and Indians experience is the absence of any lota or Muslim shower inside the American bathrooms. Everything else is quite familiar to them.

Elon Musk and a bunch of other self-righteous types always make this claim against immigration that every country has its own distinct people and culture and immigrants bringing their own culture isn't a good idea. So, if too many Pakistanis or Indians immigrate to Japan, for example, eventually Japanese would be replaced by them and the idea of how Japanese look and live might cease to exist.

I couldn't help but imagine a scenario where people from other countries were going to immigrate to Pakistan. What Pakistani culture would they be destroying? Pakistani people wear jeans and T shirts, eat burgers and pizzas, watch Hollywood movies, listen to BTS and Justin Bieber, we even have local music bands that make music like Metallica, we take pride in guitar instead of rabab or sitar, we take pride in wearing western suit with a pant and tie to official and wedding ceremonies, we beam intelligence across other people if we talk in English instead of Urdu, we quickly take up new words from American movies and shows and make them part of our daily conversations and become so comfortable with them that sometimes I feel like maybe our ancient ancestors had been speaking them too.

If westerners end up in Pakistan, the only cultural shock they are going to have is to see us dying to become like them. They would feel as if they had entered a planet where the alien creatures have been studying their planet for decades. We even like to show American vehicles in our TV dramas now. I know Pakistan doesn't make its own cars but you get the idea.

I grew up watching Pashto dramas on PTV, which would be written by writers with PhD. There would be marvelous stories of Pashtun culture depicting the cultural issues backed up by a strong script. Today, sleazy looking men in jeans dance with girls who don't even speak Pashto. If my mother wouldn't cook food I'd like to eat, we would order kabab and naan. Today, kids buy KFC deals. The word deal is quite interesting. Tech savvy kids and grown-up men with bellies who don't want to be left out of the social circle like to utter this word to prove their credentials of modernity and style. I honestly don't spit at them because they are not close enough otherwise I sure wouldn't hesitate.

Walk into any grocery or any type of store in any major city of Pakistan and you will see some mother or father talking to their children in English. Don't even start me on the accent. If a Mark or a Brad walked into this Pakistan, I wonder what they would be replacing by bringing their western style and culture. Who would be preventing their children from joining the bad company of those foreigners who came with their jeans, burgers, soda, pizza and hard rock music?

If Brad or Mark asked me the same question I had asked that Mexican friend of mine, I would have to take them to the most rural areas of Pakistan to show them who the most authentic Pakistanis actually are.