The writer is an educationist. He is currently the principal of Sir Adamjee Institute in Karachi
I belong to the generation that was born in the first decade after independence. I was the first-born to immigrant parents, who soon after independence, came to Sindh and settled in Larkana. Even today, this is the only place which has enthralled me completely and is inseparable from my soul. My description of Larkana is narrated like a fairy tale, utopia or a wonderland to my grown-up children. The recent bomb blasts in different parts of Sindh have baffled me completely as I was the one who always believed that the evil hands of radicalism would never touch this great land of peace and amity.
How can I forget the cosmopolitanism of Larkana, where in my childhood, I have waited upon and enjoyed the merriment of the festival of Holi, due to the presence of a large number of Hindus. I fondly recall my various errands to dharamshalas to meet my classmates, who resided there, and many a time, shared lunch with them. There was no restriction on our entrance into the neighbourhood temple. Muharram was the most awaited month for all youngsters. Notwithstanding the religious sensitivities, it was considered the most sociable and cultural event. There was no restriction on attending the majlis, either from our parents or from the organisers. On the eighth day of Muharram, the entire city would wait for the golden tazia.
During Rabiul Awwal, a few families used to organise milads only for ladies, so as children, our interest was only limited to the sweets given out at the end of the milad. In hindsight, I think that as our generation was taught religious rituals by the elderly, we have probably adopted the soft image of religion, in contrast to the present generation, where children have been handed over to a semi-literate or completely illiterate maulvi, who is neither socially nor culturally refined.
The overall ambience in Larkana was tranquil and religious harmony was at its best; this was probably due to the Sufi traditions embedded in Sindh. People were least concerned with the sectarian affiliation of individuals. It was the best amalgamation of the many creeds living together in peace and amity, which seems like a far-fetched dream today.
The recent attacks on shrines in Sindh is a chilling reminder of the level of intolerance which, at least a person of my generation, would have never expected. The ghastly act in Jacobabad has brought back lots of memories of the city where I spent a very memorable time as principal of Bahria Foundation College. A remarkable and unmatched place, having all signs of religious and sectarian pluralism, which is illustrative in the reverence and awe with which General John Jacob is remembered by ordinary folks. They referred to him as pir and respectfully addressed him as Jacob Sahib. He now has people, irrespective of their cast, creed, sect and religion, paying homage to him.
The current decadence and degeneration has brought our society to a state of total breakdown and if we wish to achieve a semblance of sanity, our intelligentsia and civil society has to show resilience to keep us out of harm’s way.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2013.
COMMENTS (19)
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@keeprowing - Even if the Aryans theory is correct, the supposed migration of Aryans occurred around 3500-4000 years ago. At the time, the world population was not even 1/100th of what it is today. There was a substantial population in the Central Asia, Africa, Europe and Middle-east. Aryans can't be called invaders as the population of locals would have been very low for a land size as big as that of subcontinent. People used to frequently migrate from one region to another in the early years of human civilization. By your theory, every human migration all through the history of human species would be considered an invasion. But then it is futile to tell this to someone who justifies the action of invaders and belittles his own ancestors.
@@Fake AIT: A future version of you, after 2000 years, will deny the Arab Invasion Theory, Mughal Invasion Theory, British Invasion etc, and will try to Indianize these invaders as you are trying to Indianize the Aryans. Don't be shy that Hinduism is the religion of Aryan Invaders. That's authentic history, swallow it.
The naive attitude is not uncommon and a reason for the lack of vigilance. On Swat, people said 'Impossible, it could never be taken over by extremists'. Residents of previous peaceful parts of Punjab claimed 'the extremist problem is in the north, not here', etc. Even dismissing the crisis as 'a few extremists' is a mistake. It only takes a few to wreck a society and turn into 'many extremists'.
With the rise of global and local Wahhabi/Salafii/Deoband/Sunni extremism, it was just a matter of time violent intolerance crept in. Even Timbuktu in Mali wasn't spared. Sindh is part of Pak, not an isolated island. Has same template problems as elsewhere but had a unique Sufi cultural tradition buffer which can only delay the inevitable. Persistent evil ideology can penetrate from outside ideologues and brainwash some local residents and needs to be pro-actively challenged.
@keeprowing: WRONG. . Central asia HAD Aryan gods, lke Indra, Roodra, Agni because of Aryan Migration Theory (AMT) - i.e. Hinduism spread from Hindustan to Central asia and even upto europe. Hindus are the original natives. Read your theories. As said earlier AIT is fake, AMT is correct.Converts (like u) lapped the AIT for the sake of feeling superior or denigrading Hindus.
@Fake AIT: Even Hinduism is outsiders' religion, Aryan religion. Read history. Indra, Roora, Agni etc were Aryan gods, cenrtal asian gods. Hinduism is also religion of the invaders.
@keeprowing: Aryan Invasion theory (AIT) is FAKE and proven fake, propogated to show western supremacy over native subcontinental residents / hindus / Aryans and thus inculate inferiority complex in them. This theory is lapped whole heartedly by the converts. Invaders, as we all know, are the arabs/mongols/english.
What AD was referring to was to revert back to your original religion, i.e. the native hindu, resident of sapta sindhu area.
Majority Hindus fought tooth and nails to retain their originality, even after so many invasions, be it arab, mongol or english. The weak hindus got converted. So even during the height of rule by the invadors, the land retained it uniqueness and did not gave up the culture, tradition. rather assimiliated it to make it more rich. The author was experiencing that unique assimilated common culture.
what pakistan is experiencing today is the completion of the arab invasion, because in pure pakistan, there are no hindus left to tone down the cultural imperialism of invadors. Its much more for you friend, you wont realise it due to deeply ingrained inferiority complex in you, as in all converts, who to hide their inferiory complex, resort to showing superiority of their adopted avatar, even if it is flawed.
@ Author.... sir you are absolutely right.... very true analysis. .
Very well written. I wish we could have such fairy tales to tell our children but unfortunately we were born in a security state with omnipresent fear.
@anonymus: I agree with your comment my friend. .its all about change of narrative based on true sense of history that's gonna help us in short as well as long run!
Zulfiqar Bhutto created Afghan fighters. Read history
Discard the the faith of Invaders.
I feel let down by youngs of pakistan and more of India! Not a single statement or meeting on Shahbag that is rocking Dhaka - A great affirmation of secular credo of whole of South Asia. At least LUMs should take the lead led by faculty.
Unfortunate thing to note is that our beautiful country Pakistan has been destroyed by all - its leaders, its army and its people.
This is a sad thing to note that the devils have also landed in Sindh - the land of peace loving people and the land of the Sufi Saints.
Now as the things are - and remain - very soon similar stories will be emanating from all quarters - all parts of the country. People will start telling stories regretting that their cities and towns are no more what they used to be.
Therefore, the responsibility rests on each one of us to do our mite to arrest this decline. Lest we regret and are only left to shed tears in found memories of our places that we so much love.
Good Op-Ed by Najeeb Anjum Sahab!!!
@BruteForce: Well said sir!!!
Well, you grew up in India, which is slowly turning into Pakistan.
Shias are safe in India, so is Holi celebrated with the same josh and excitement. India is still India.
Its only natural that you create an entity to oppose something and that entity takes on the form which is the exact opposite of the opposing thing.
How can Pakistan expect to live in peace when it promotes violence all around its neighborhood?
Honeymoon is over my friend....the terrorism u created is back to haunt u...
Dear Sir, I grew up in area right across the river in area(opposite Larkana) where shia talpurs were rulers before I opened my eyes. But story was exactly similar as you described. what happened then? is this something that was bound to happen when a new country was bult on the basis of religious intolerance! People still don't believe that Jinnah was Ismaili who converted to isna ishri Shia and whose daughter lives India and I don't know what religion she practices. how that person could be fanatic? Unless we change the narrative nothing is going to happen. this country was obtained to safeguard economic interests of Muslims.