You must have heard people say that Pakistan was created as a ‘castle of Islam’. It is clearly a defensive concept and seeks to convey the meaning of protecting something by separating it from the outside world. It is not difficult to imagine a minority — Muslims in India were 20 per cent of the total population — being attracted to separatism on the basis of a religion it felt was being diluted or otherwise vitiated.
But a castle is not what Muslim history talks about. What we idealise are war-like hordes looming from the open desert and attacking enemy castles. Our poetry doesn’t idealise a closed-door community cowering at the thought of being attacked. Ideally, we don’t defend; we attack. We are not inside a castle; we are outside the castle walls trying to break in. Our word for victory is ‘fatah’ which means ‘opening the gates’, not shutting them against the outside world.
The world has given ‘castle’ a bad name. All the evils are ascribed to the people who live inside a castle, their minds impregnated with fear. The word for this is ‘siege mentality’. It is a narrowness dictated by an indoctrinated mind, deaf to words of reason and new thinking. It is paranoia mixed with fear, a recession from reality that rejects the breeze blowing in from the desert outside, pregnant with new ideas helpful in resolving old problems. The single word for this state of mind in today’s globalised word is: isolationism.
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), like Ibn Khaldun, is full of insights when it comes to describing state behaviour. He shocked the western world by talking about castles in a new way. He will shock the Castle of Pakistan even today. This is what he says in The Prince (Chapter 20, paragraph 6): “Fortresses, therefore, are useful or not according to circumstances; if they do you good in one way they injure you in another. And this question can be reasoned thus: the prince who has more to fear from the people than from foreigners ought to build fortresses, but he who has more to fear from foreigners than from the people ought to leave them alone”.
What Machiavelli is pointing to is the oppression of living inside a castle. The ruler cannot control the invader besieging his castle but he can control the people living inside the castle. If the people want to escape his authority, there is nothing they can do. In a state without castles, if you can’t stand the oppressive authority of the ruler, you exile yourself. If you live inside a castle, there is no place to run. In other words, a castle is a place where people can be easily oppressed and the ruler can be certain he will be obeyed.
The tool of isolationism is ideology because it indoctrinates and creates the uniformity of thinking that the castle demands. States that give the impression of being castles insist on the uniformity of mind. It is only by thinking the same way that you can live inside a castle without conflict. Hence, the importance of an agreed ideology protected by a Penal Code prescribing the measure of punishment that a breach of ideology, will entail.
Pakistan, as a castle, is trying to defeat efforts at creating difference of opinion and tolerance of opinion opposed to the indoctrination of the state. If English punctures the isolationist discourse, it must be either abolished or tamed through forcing ‘three streams’ of education — English, Urdu, madrassa — into becoming one dictated by the state. The castle of Pakistan is still being built.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2012.
COMMENTS (33)
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Helmand, people can keep ignoring Pakistan's magnificent achievements, but I will end with just one evidence, letting it speak for itself:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/345634/achakzais-idea-give-foreign-nationals-pakistan-residence/
In contrast, the US had to offer residence only to illegal Mexicans. And we are not even discussing the tsunami of global knowledge seekers who are acuiring valuable ilm and conducting important research in its many institutions of higher knowing and necessary learning. . See ya
@Kaalchakra
You have rationalized everything to yourself, which is good because you and your Madrassa mates are probably the only ones who believe in your deranged and demented doctrines.
@Kaalchakra Pakistan is the USA of the Islamic world’s educational prowess.
You are hilarious. I can't stop laughing....
All of you are giving in to (self-)flagellation, emotional breast-beating, which doesn't do justice to Pakistan's original and in many many ways continuing glorious self concept. This self-concept was never defeatist. It was that of a shaheen - flying high, mighty, proud, snatching whatever it wished or felt belonged to it. It was never that of Islamic isolationist, surviving in some odd corner of Islam's mighty empire. It was that of natural, born leader of Ummah, playing a most special role in Allah's designs for mankind.
Instead of looking at the negative side, see what amazing feats Pakistan HAS achieved, feats that no ordinary country could imagine. It has kept a neighboring nation of unbelievers eight times its own size bogged down. That is no mean achievement. From Kabul to Kashmir, men and women swear by its name, and many aspire to join it, willing to lay down their lives for the noble cause. Secularists and unbelievers may pooh-pooh the achievement, and countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia may have a couple of universities, but in breadth and international scope, Pakistan is the USA of the Islamic world's educational prowess - its centers of learning drawing both old and new Muslims. At the same time, Pakistani teachers of Islam are spread out in the world, busy taking the light of Islam to those who are yet to see the beauty of the light that Islam brings. Pakistanis all over the world, inside and outside of its hallowed boundaries, are busy defending, promoting, generally carrying the eternal torch for Islam, offering new interpretations, new theories, deep new insights into what the Great Book teaches us all, how we should all be living our lives. And yes, it is the only Islamic country with both a nuclear bomb.
No isolationist fort this.
Castle without windows & doors! What kind of Castle are we talking about about? No education, no health benefits, no employment opportunities, etc but over fed on religious extremism. Everybody in the castle is ready to blow himself to prove he is the best Jihadi to be found on the planet. We need to redefine the meaning of CASTLE!
Pakistan was created as a castle of Islam. Which means that Islam was without a castle for 1400 years or we can say that Islam survived withou a castle all this time Why Islam needed a new castle in 1947 and who became the castle key holder What about the other Muslim countries If all make the same claim then we have to decide which cstle is true Islamic. God help Saudi Arabia Perhapse one day we will hear that Khana Kaaba will be moved into this new castle.@Kaalchakra
It is the active source from which Islam’s divine power shall radiate out to conquer unbelievers and win leadership of the great men and women of Ummah.
Well, Yes. Christians in Shanti Nagar and Gojra, Shias in Kurram and Kohistan, Ahmadias in Garhi Sahu in Lahore and in Rawalpindi,and Hindus everywhere specially in Sind and Balochistan. I do find 'unbelievers' being 'conquered' all over the place, but within the Citadel of Islam.
And that is what Khaled Ahmad was warning about.
Beautiful article as usual from Khalid! Residents of "The Castle" are living in total isolation from the rest of the world & have no desire to interact with them. They are living in a Lalaland with Disney world characters.
Indeed an excellent article and the respected write has made an effort to elaborate the abstract of Pakistan being fortress of Islam and its implications. But, it is now time that we as a nation liberate our minds and souls from those concepts which limits our mental faculties and also narrows down state craft options. We are living in the world, which does respect religious sentiments and individual culture but the emphasis is on the universal values. The extreme use of religion in our policies, which actually meant to support the governing class has damaged the country. Whereas the proponents of fortress are enjoying the benefits of the modern education and ideas but it is taking the average Pakistani further backwards.
We need to restructure our education curriculum and encourage free thought and investigation and this is the only way to get out of siege mentality. Such an approach is not only essential for progress of the country but it is the only way forward for us to be an nation.
@GAM very ture!
Talking of castles and siege mentality, let me share another interesting piece of history about a 'fairy-tale' castle and the siege mentality of it's patron/builder, the so-called 'mad king ludwig'. Read here
more tha castles, Islam is getting ghettoised. Ugly strategies like targeting Hindu women into forced conversions (in sindh) makes the religion look cheap.
Khaled Ahmed
In all these years, for the first time, you have got it wrong.
Pakistan's 'castle of Islam' idea represents a proud fort at the 'wild-east' frontiers of Islam, confronting the teeming masses of undefeated unbelievers; a base for keeping Islam's glorious flag flying high, displaying its mighty power and force. Its not a defensive position. It is the active source from which Islam's divine power shall radiate out to conquer unbelievers and win leadership of the great men and women of Ummah.
After islam's retreat from Spain, extinction of the Mughal empire in India, division of Muslims into 3 entities in the Indian sub continent, and the mess in Pakistan and all the mid east countries, it is evident that Allah in his infinite mercy has said enough is enough. It is obvious that islam as it is today will cease to exist. It's fortress is therefore the last refuge of the scoundrels.
@Chotta Panda: Not just in Pakistan but in all Islamic countries. Examples of Sunni Hadiths that sanction the death penalty for apostasy include passages in the Sahih al-Bukhari include Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:83:17, Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:260, Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:84:57, Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:84:58 and Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:89:271.
That's a smart way of looking at the state of affairs in Pakistan Khaled saheb! You have tried to convince the extremists there to allow for more freedom and open-mindedness in a language they will understand. By arguing that Pakistan, being forced within a 'castle', is quite unlike Islam.
A caveat though - the hint of being 'outward looking' in an aggressive way isn't the right direction we need to show to the extremists to vent their religious energy. That's dangerous! Liberals, feeling asphyxiated within, cannot think of unleashing the aggression of extremists on the outside world as the correct way!
Regards Aman Sharma Twitter id : @amancool5
A castle with walls of paper
@Khaled Ahmed For all my adult life looked at a castle only as a building, a mammoth, even imposing structure.That's all. Today you gave me an inside out view of it.
Thanks and regards.
Thanks for the revisionist stance on the subject countering the heavily indoctrinated stuff being drummed into students through doctored text books.
English Urdu Madrassa wonderfull Mr Khalid put great sir.
It is more like a prison than a castle. That is why apostasy is punishable by death in Pakistan?
imaginery threat from enemy-->distortion of hisotry-->creating ideology-->moral policing-->state's regulation of media-->blocking websites-->blashphemy allegations-->persecution of minorities-->target killings-->taliban-->Deep State-->Establishment-->Feudals and Industrialists. This is our castle these are walls within.
A great piece of writing,a profound deep thinking at the state of affair now prevailing in Pakistan,I had to read twice one quickly ,second time slowly and reflectively.I will have something to say later as i;m going out.see you later.
Beautiful. Beautiful. Khaled Ahmed, you are truly an asset to the people. I wish you would also write in Urdu and I wish the Urdu press would give more space to intellectuals like you. We need you to reach a wider audience. Bravo.
Perhaps the one consoling hope is that all the castles in history were breached either from outside by invaders or from inside. Since the castle is still being built, planners can add an escape tunnel.
Niccolo Machiavelli like Ibn Khaldun??? I don't see any logic putting the two together. Khaldun was neither isolationist ideologue nor Islamist. Philosophically Machiavelli and Khaldun fall on the opposite ends. If you are talking of his Asbiyia (solidarity), it is a historical/sociological study and no advise to anyone, otherwise your essay is well taken.
very well written i must say but the castle of pakistan was never meant to be...pakistan sadly is not a state built upon nationalism... rather its ideology gives it nationalism... meaning to say that we are the protagonist in a play of our own making and in which we always need a non-muslim antagonist... because without it our ideology vanishes into thin air taking with it our nationalism...and with it our reason for existence as a separate entity. like without good there is no good as there is no light without darkness.
but i think now its far too late for pakistan to jump ship
This article is simply excellent, the way you used the example of a castle and quoted "The Prince" makes the point better than anything else could have.
This castle will implode if the discourse isn't changed.
I think we no one says "castle" but "Fort" actually! and yes Pakistan, was supposed to be a fort of Islam when Quaid talked about "Islamic Socialism and no other ism"
Good insight.
kamal ha bhai....what a wisdom. simply great.
An excellent, subtle, and thought-provoking article.
Thanks Khalid Sahb for this new insight. And thanks for coming up with new subjects each week.