Book Review: Ethnicity and Politics in Pakistan by Feroz Ahmed

The author believes that theory is generalization and systematic and meaningful ordering of empirically verified facts. Ahmed suggests that concepts by themselves are not the motive forces of history. It is the material realities behind these concepts which call for change.

Before the formation of Pakistan there was a center which delegated powers to the provinces for the sake of administrative convenience. Pakistan retained its unitary character, after formation. Before the partition of Indian sub-continent the emerging capitalist class of India was almost totally non-Muslim, and the commercial life of the regions which later became Pakistan was dominated by Hindu and other non-Muslim, and the commercial life of the regions which later became Pakistan was dominated by Hindu and other non-Muslim businessmen. While landlords and peasants in West Pakistan were Muslims, rural life in East Pakistan was stratified along religious lines, with almost all landlords being Hindus and almost all rural beings Muslim.

Migration of Hindus landlords created a power vacuum in East Bengal. The land left behind was redistributed among peasants. In the urban areas the elite in Bengal consisted of the decaying Muslim aristocracy, represented by the regional Muslim League. The urban bourgeois was absent. Instead the small traders, shopkeepers, professional people, teachers, and clerks, became potentially the most important class. West Pakistan also did not have a bourgeois class. Absentee landlords became the most powerful class. The landlords were not politically well organized in this part of Pakistan. The bureaucracy formed strong relations with the landlord class. It rise as a social force and filled the vacuum created by the British departure. The bureaucracy was drawn mostly from Punjab and Urdu speakers of Sind.

West Pakistan received traders belonging to the Memon, Bohra and Khoja communities. These immigrants had come from Gujarat and Bombay.  In East Pakistan due to the absence of capitalists, feudal landlords, bureaucracy, and the military the power structure of West Pakistan became the national power structure.  At independence the GDP of East Pakistan was more than that of West Pakistan. Education was also more extensive. The economic infrastructure of West Pakistan was certainly an advantage. The industrialization of West Pakistan created disparities in the socio-economic development of both the regions. West Pakistan based capital penetrated into East Pakistan. Distrusting the Bengalis the West Pakistani capitalists brought their own managers from West Pakistan.

Pakistan received economic aid from USA in early 1950s. Later it also signed SEATO. The US expanded its share in Pakistan’s imports from six percent in 1952 to forty percent in 1960s. As a result of the capitalist model followed by Pakistan, twenty families came to control 80 percent of the banking, 70 percent of the insurance and 66 percent of the industrial assets of Pakistan. When the decade of development ended in 1968, the GDP of West Pakistan exceeded that of West by 34 percent.

In 1958 there was a coup in Pakistan. Later Ayub Khan revealed that he had consulted officials in Washington, including CIA Chief Allen Dulles, before declaring martial law in Pakistan. During Ayub’s rule Tagore’s songs were banned on Radio Pakistan. As Tagore was a Hindu and considered as a bad influence. Anti-Bengali and anti-Hindu bigotry was rampant in West Pakistan. The remarks made by Major Kamal were highly disturbing. He said once that once the West Pakistanis had conquered East Bengal each of his soldiers would have a Bengali mistress. He compared the Bengalis with dogs.

A devastating cyclone and tidal wave hit coastal areas of East Pakistan. The military government was inefficient in providing relief to the affected people of East Pakistan. Yahya Khan refused to convene the Assembly in Zulfiqar Ai Bhutto’s support. Further in the book the author narrates about the language riots in 1972. He stresses on the basics of language and the makeup of language communities in Pakistan. The author believes that Pakistan is a multinational state with four major nations. Earlier on in the book the author mentions that China, Switzerland and Afghanistan as countries which have various nationalities within its borders.

In West Pakistan very small ethnic groups who could not assist themselves culturally on a nation-wide basis and who had to conform to the prevailing ethos of the ruling oligarchy. Thus, among the non-Urdu speaking communities, Urdu essentially became the language the language of the elite, of the privileged. The author believes that as the feudal system vanishes and is replaced by capitalism or socialism, enlargement of the resource base, consolidation of the productive forces and integration and expansion of the market, will be inevitable. The language which serves as the medium of this commercial intercourse will naturally grow, flourish and become increasingly acceptable to people who speak other mother tongues.

Moreover Ahmed writes about the Arab conquest of Sind. The rule of Soomro and Samo after came after the lapse of the Arab rule. This Rule of Soomro and Samo lasted for about 500 years. Later Arghuns and Tarkhans arrived from Central Asia. In 1592 the Mughal Ruler Akbar omposed direct rule over Sind. There were at least 40 clans who were in rebellion against the Mughals. The Sameja Unar, Chandio and Nomri were particulary were noted for their resistance to alien rule. Kalhoro, a native ruler of Sind emerged after the crumbling of Mughal rule. Before the British conquered Sind in 1843, the latter had established itself as a fully sovereign state, ruled by the Talpur Mirs. Commander Hosho, who became a hero, raised the slogan of Murresoon Sindh na desoon( we will die but not give up Sindh).

The author views the resistance in Sindh as something significant. He believes that it was the most sophisticated tactics of indigenous guerilla war. The British had imposed martial law in Sind in 1942 and did not lift it until a few months before the independence of 1947. Concentration camps and barbed wrires were common sights in Sind. Derailment of trains, breaching embankments and ambushing police parties were common too. Police was brought in to assist in the counter insurgency operations. Ahmed stresses that the idea behind the Hur movement was independence of Sind. In Sind the Talpurs who are Baloch, came from outside. The major portion of immigrants in Sind were from UP, Dehli, Hyderabad and Bihar. The remaining are from Kathiawar.

One million Hindu Sindis left for India. On the other hand more than one million Urdu-speaking persons came from India and settled in Sind.The land brought under cultivation by the construction of Kotri and Guddu barrages was also awarded to non- Sindi military and civil officers or ‘purchased’ by prosperous Punjabi farmers in give-away auctions. The author narrates an incident from Dadu district. A factory was located in Sind. This was a rural area with no non-Sindi population. But when the factory was located there, all the managerial staff and most workers were recruited from Punjab and N.W.F.P. Even the Imam of the mosque was brought from Punjab.

In addition to that Ahmed also mentions about the Mujahir identity in Pakistan. In March 1984 a new force in the form of Mujahir Qaumi Movement emerged on Pakistan’s political stage. This movement took the urban centers of Sind by storm.  In Karachi, of all the immigrants (including 19.3 percent from Bombay and Gujarat), the largest proportion came from the UP and the ‘North-West Zone’ (Dehli, Ajmer, Rajputana and Punjab). When General Yahya Khan refused to honor the results of 1970 elections, the Mujahirs overwhelmingly joined the Punjabis in supporting the action and went into a frenzy of ethnic bigotry against the Bengalis. The author opines that General Zia found broad support among the Mohajirs for his decision to hang Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Zia’s active involvement in the Afghan insurgency facilitated a dramtic rise in Pashtoon power in Karcahi. Drugs, guns and black market for various goods expanded due to the Afghan war.In 1985 Bushra Zaidi, a Mohajir College girl was run over by a driver identified as a Pashtoon in Nazimabad, Karachi. This incident created more conflict. Mohajirs were disenchanted with Zia regime. Islami Jamiat-i-Tulaba IJT leadership in Karachi had passed into the hands of Punjabi students. Muhajirs felt they were being used to serve Punjabi interests.

The author strongly believes that no struggle will have legitimacy if the common masses do not see it as their own struggle.

Note: Read in July 2013, the review for this book was written earlier today. This review is extracted from the notes (written in 2013) of the reviewer.