The Transformation of the Punjabi Man: Pashtunization or Militarization?

Khalid Ahmed’s probing and piercing analysis of the political issues deserves a unique standing in the Pakistani journalistic scene. Recently he took a leap to a distant but profoundly cognitive field of psycho-analysis. He laid the ´Punjabi man` on the Freudian couch and should’ve made sensational findings. His observations of the transformation process underway in the ´Punjabi man` and the influence that he believes the ´Pashtun man` has on this process are thoughtful and a nice reading. His leap from objective political analysis to psycho-analysis has however – probably unwillingly and unnoticed – brought him to the domain of fiction where facts are not told or explained but invented to convey a particular message – not necessarily a scientific one. Ahmed’s attempt to get a better understanding of the transformation that he sees is legitimate and in fact necessary but he overlooks in his quick search for answers that psycho-analysis is much more than just looking for associations. His oversimple presuppositions and premises leave almost no room for any scientific analysis but can only explain why his conclusions are way off the mark. Nevertheless, Ahmed has opened the door for a serious debate and his words on this subject are and must not be the last. A critical analysis of his ´analysis` is needed and presented here to give a broader picture of the problem – and to keep the ball rolling.

PASHTUN MAN’S HOBBESIAN WORLD

Physicists call the state of a system with maximum disorder as the state of equilibrium, which is by the laws of physics the most probable configuration of the system and if any system left to itself will be found in this state. Thomas Hobbes found a similar chaotic and disorderly state of human society bellum omnium contra omnes (war of all against all) that he called state of nature and reasoned that Life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". A look at the history of Afghanistan (a predominantly Pashtun country) with persistent war and destruction substantiates Hobbes’ view. The Pashtun man’s dilemma is his arrangement with this state of nature to get a sense of freedom. He wants and strives for freedom and gets chaos! In this state Homo homini lupus (man [is a] wolf to man) he considers everyone not belonging to his clan a wolf. He gets chaos because he overlooks the difference between freedom and lawlessness. Freedom without a sense for practical reason leads to disastrous ends like those of the wrecked ships in the famous poem Loreloy of Heinrich Heine because the seamen were so captivated by the beautiful woman on the rocks. They sank because they let their drives rule them and did not act according to the principle of practical reason which saved Odysses and his seamen from the fatal siren’s song! This lack of practical reason keeps the Pashtun man despite his craving for freedom incorporated as the pretty Loreloy alluring him from the high rock lets him sink into the sea of chaos – when left to his own devices as in Afghanistan. It keeps him from Leviathan that could end his ´war of one against all others` in which the only protection is that of the family and clan: one for all and all for one! But this state of nature of the Pashtun man remains invisible to the eyes of Ahmed. He seems to take Shakespear’s words in The Tempest for the Pashtun man, “O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!”

THE MISSING ENLIGHTENMENT

Kant defined enlightenment as man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own understanding! But the Pashtun man shows no sign of this individual thinking. He thinks in terms of being part of a collective. Not the person but the clan matters and with that the old traditions that remain unquestionable. The Hobbesian world of the Pashtun man leaves no room for what Kant called Selbstdenken, think yourself, instead looks like the sleeping man surrounded by monsters in the famous painting ´Caprichos` by Lucientes with the caption “the sleep of reason produces monsters”. The English poet Alexander Pope glorified Newton as, “Nature, and nature’s laws lay hidden in night / God said, let Newton be! And all was light”. Pakistan as a whole is living in a pre-Newton darkness and it doesn’t matter much if the tribal people are sunk in a more awful darkness – but that darkness must not remain in darkness.

THE ACCEPTED AND REJECTED MODERNITY

The great reformer theologian John Calvin put it this way, “ingeniousness is God’s greatest commandment”. Two outstanding examples of ingeniousness of the Punjabi man: Sialkot (exporting sports articles, textiles etc to whole world) and Gujrat (supplying almost every household in Pakistan – including Pashtun – with electrical appliances like refrigerators, fans, motors etc). These two small cities have old engineering traditions – though not as old and impressive as those of the Germans. This raises a scientific question, why that spirit of ingeniousness couldn’t be born in the Pashtun regions. Does that suggest his innate primitiveness? Or his war instincts leave no room for creativity – but ample for destruction? Relaxing in his armchair Ahmed could reflect upon the surprising and inspiring ingeniousness of these two small towns of Punjab which show what Max Weber defined as the spirit of capitalism with roots in protestant ethics. Not showing such spirit, wouldn’t Weber hold the Pashtun man – whose ingeniousness doesn’t generally reveal itself in the form of engineering art but in smuggling, drugs included – unfit for a capitalistic system and hence modernity?

Pakistani intellectual and cultural scene is dominated by the Punjabi man and the Karachi man. The Pashtun man has an ´intellectual` world which is as rugged and colorless as his landscape. How to explain the fact that poets, writers, sportsmen, and even thrilling pop and rock bands like Junoon, EP, Mizraab, Vital Signs do not generally come from the land of the Pashtun man? An indication of his intellectual and literary primitiveness? A sign of his inability to be part of evolution and modernity or deep seated fear of ideas? The only Pakistani who’s ever won a (physics) noble prize was a ‘Punjabi man’. A coincidence, fluke, or a logical outcome of the literary and intellectual leanings of the Punjabi man?


THE SPREAD OF THE DEOBANDI THOUGHT AND THE ANTI-MODERN
MILITARIZATION OF PAKISTAN

It seems Ahmed’s history of Pakistan begins with Afghan war. Only such a parochial historical perspective can explain his findings regarding the spread of Deobandi school of thought in Pakistan and particularly in Punjab. His concise history makes no observation of the earliest work done by Maududi who – though not a graduate of Deoband – was nearer to Deobandi religion than to any other and came to Punjab in the 1930s on the invitation of Allama Iqbal to continue his intellectual work and relive Islamic dream there. His message was too intellectual for the common man but nonetheless it held roots in the Pakistani society. Jihad was also part of his thought but not of politics and certainly not at the cost of anarchy in the state as determined by the scholars of the earliest time in Islamic history. The rest was done by the die-hard Tableeghi Jamaat which with its much simpler physiognomy-based message of salvation achievable by some overt rituals and observable changes in the physical appearance of the believer with protestant-styled promises of God’s bounty for not only hereafter but also and foremost for the earthly pursuit of happiness of the believer could speak more directly and effectively to the common man. In contrast with Jamaat Islami’s too intellectual teachings with a focus on man’s responsibility before God, elitist ethical standards and outright glorification of Jihad with an aversion toward mysticism – to the dismay of the common man – Tableeghi Jamaat despite its aversion toward Jihad could fascinate the common man – generally more interested in having a loving God taking care of his daily bread and not so in confronting the evil (in the name of the same God!) as Jamaat Islami preached – more with its folksy and mystical teachings. Then came the Afghan war which gave many an opportunity to relive the ultimate Islamic dream of Jihad following the footsteps of their Prophet against an infidel enemy. Realpolitik made Deobandi religion and all its offshoots the state religion. On the other hand the saintly, and inward-looking Brelvi religion with its Christianized image of the Prophet the savior lacking a messianic call and bellicosity had no place in the framework of policy making. Besides the fact that the Brelvi school with its all-encompassing and all-deciding love of the Prophet as the redemptor – which unfolded itself in such mystical and mythical beliefs like the presence of the Prophet during a Melaad ceremony as an Islamic equivalent of the Christian transubstantiation during the Eucharist (in different ways according to different theological schools) – could fascinate the uneducated masses with old mystical traditions and memories of the saints who could even walk on the water (in the footsteps of Jesus!) but couldn’t construct a theological message based on sound jurisprudence and scholastic work, let alone reason and consequently could never produce the scholarly giants which its arch-rival Deoband school – though not less captivated by mysticism and redemption ideology which manifested itself in such an exaggerated glorification of each and every step taken not only by the Prophet himself but also by his companions that it created the impression of a collective prophethood and that regardless of its truth value and to the benefit of Deobandi school struck a note with the common man – could quite frequently do. The Deobandi school with its more systematic and impressive scholastic traditions and teachings outshined the Brelvi counterparts in intellectual discourse and therefore were able to influence the mind of the expanding educated class which found Deobandi spirituality due to its more soberly rituals (in particular at the graves of the ´spiritually advanced ones`) more appealing than the dancing and singing Brelvi spirituality which it found to be less dignified. The Deobandi promise of the transformation of the ´advanced` believer into an Übermensch – even an angel – through a spiritual journey culminating in communion with God (Ser il Allah) whereas the laity could hope for salvation by the spiritual master (Fana fil Murshid) despite all his/her sins.

Despite a more vibrant scholastic, the Deobandi school remained and still remains a backward-looking and past-glorifying institution which with its stick-in-the-mud mind – an outcome of spirituality and confusing timeless Islamic message with the 7th century Arabic culture and in the name of Sunnah salvation-through-Arabization ideology – could never differentiate between the historical and universal Islam. Its uncompromising belief of the infallibility of the companions of the Prophet even in the slightest matters and the exaggerated respect of the religious scholars of older times with supposedly unquestionable Islamic understanding and more importantly the formidable self-glorifying instinct based on and groomed by the mythical legend surrounding its establishment, according to which not only the place and architecture but even the students were chosen by Providence and conveyed to the founding Maulanas in dreams (Mukashifa) – a reminder of the construction of Noah’s Arch under the guidance of God, ensured for itself the status of a ´holy school` part of God’s plan doing Opus Dei and hence indispensable for Islamic renaissance – excluded rationality and reason from its theology and hence couldn’t grow more than a listen-and-follow religion. This unenlightened, non-Kantist ultra-conservative mindset with deep-seated hatred of modernity and fear of ideas contributed immensely to the later Afghan war inspired erosion of confessional tolerance and militancy in the society,

Deobandi school’s backward looking spirituality is to be seen and understood in the tradition of Asian world weary ascetic religions and philosophies which consider the earthly life as an unnatural separation between man and God that must be overcome through spiritual elevation leaving the worldly affairs to the ungodly ones which must be frowned upon along with their work: modernity. The worthless, fleeting and foremost God-distant earthly life was not to be wasted working for a better such life which could only be done with an understanding of God’s work represented by nature and hence an involvement with this earthly life. This retreat from nature contributed immensely to resistance and aversion of empiricism and rationality in the thought of Deoband – though not an exception in the Islamic world in this regard. Not the enquirer of nature with his focus of the system of thought on life and an urge to unravel the mysteries of the rationally and empirically explainable nature to get a better understanding of God’s work and plan in an equally rational and empirical way believing that the order in nature is a reflection of God’s rationality, but the world weary saint with a death-centered system of thought (death a step toward communion with the Creator), an unquestionable blind faith in the existence and transcendence of God which remains beyond the grasp of reason became the hero whose saintly progress was to be seen in corporal suffering piety, poverty in the tradition of prophets and Jesus-styled wonders thus mistakenly glorifying the premodern lifestyle and thus brought the focus of thought away from life to death. An important element of this past-glorifying system of thought was the urge to survive in the infidel British rule. The European ideas of enlightenment were treated as satanic and lacking an Islamic answer to that seemingly godless European rationality, Muslims in general and Deoband in particular were left with merely Arabic and Islamic history and its nostalgic revival dreams pushed the Deobandi thought even deeper in the past and premodern times. The romanticism surrounding the theological concept of the central community (Ummat-e-Wasat) restored the self-esteem of Muslims but also made them self-satisfied and self-rightoeus thus nipping in the bud any possibility of modernity.

In contrast with the philosophy of Jamat Islami holding man totally responsible for his deeds because of free will which resulted in a sense of spiritual loneliness and disorientation in the believer, the Deobandi thought had a more pessimistic – or pragmatic – picture of man who could never or at the most hardly alone rise to the spiritual level where he could justify himself before his Creator as Satan was believed to be running in blood casting doubt and inciting waywardness and therefore needed to be led by Murshid – a noticeable and unintentional Kantist element in the Deobandi thought, which considered human being as the only living being that needs to be educated. This focus on hereafter was and is an essential element of Islamic theology – not an exclusive Deobandi phenomenon –, which has significantly contributed to the failed acceptance of modernity. That stringent world weary Deobandi thought was however watered down by the Tableeghi Jamat – an offshoot of Deoband – which compromised spiritual elevation with worldly joy and in this way ´corrected` a little the Deobandi picture of a distant God accessible only through a Murshid. It rehabilitated God’s image as a loving God taking care of the daily bread of the believer and this fascinated the masses which ultimately and indirectly contributed to the spread and acceptance of the Deobandi thought sidelining Jamat Islami with its more rationality, lack of spirituality reflected in the disparaging behavior and appearance of its followers before the common man, the overly focus on the kingdom of God on earth which made its teachings a bare political Islam void of any program for the spiritual elevation of the believer and the ´disrespectful` criticism of the theological opinion not only of the men of older times (including the big shots of Deoband) but also that of the companions of the Prophet which was considered chutzpah and even heresy by the religious establishment with an overrepresentation of Deobandi school thus casting away Jamat Islami from the mainstream Islam. This shattered image was however, rehabilitated to some extent due to Jamat’s active role in the Afghan war.

The Saudi-Wahabi puritanical ideologues, do-gooders and ´holy` warriors with an even greater messianic call and outward looking religiousness, hate of modernity and immense petro-dollars found Afghan war a perfect occasion for living out their Jihadi ideals and thus shifted the religious standing of Pakistan farther to the right. The Pashtun man with his innate primitive tribal culture and unshakable shackles of traditions provided merely a stage and cause for that shift – not intentionally but by Providence. He was providing the stage for the grand plan of the big geopolitical players and his backward looking thought was just the right ground for the acceptance of the seeds of equally pre-modern and modernity-hating Deobandi thought. He was not steering the course of history nor shaping the religious thought but merely reflecting what was incident.

The legitimacy and glorification of militarization of the society couldn’t remain without any effect on the civil life. The war made the jihadist a hero, who with his simple attritions and Islamic look appears Pashtun to Ahmed. The region, however, knows other examples of militarization: Makti Bahni and Timel Tigers. Will Ahmed call it Pashtunization? Ahmed overlooks the fact whether Islam was for everyone the reason for the creation of Pakistan or not but undeniably remains the most important and powerful binding force to keep different ethnicities together. Islam makes them a nation and gives this nation a heritage and a destiny. Pakistan could’ve fought Afghan war without accepting millions of Afghan refugees with a brotherly love and respect – which had far reaching detrimental consequences in the Pakistani society: drugs, smuggling and the spread of incivility – but Islamic spirit led them to make that fatal mistake – a consequence of ignoring the principle of practical reason! The ´upright` Pashtun man in Afghanistan often expresses his ´thankfulness` for this brotherly assistance by attacking Pakistani diplomatic mission in Kabul. His anger toward Pakistan is seemingly fueled by his helpless discovery that coming from Pakistan civilization ends at the Khyber Pass!

Ahmed observes a change in his Punjabi society but chooses easy explanations: Pashtunization to describe militarization of the society – a consequence of Afghan war when American intellectual warriors used the Islamic spirit of jihad to win infantrymen against the agents of the ´evil empire` (Reagan). Afghan war was foremost a Pakistani war and of course an American proxy war. That militarization of Islamic thought was necessary and its necessity was also felt and supported by the usually intellectually oriented and democratic Islamic movement of Maudodi. History proved the decision to be pragmatic. Aggression might be a ´virtue` of the Pashtun man but many nations have been more aggressive and warmonger besides their intellectual achievements. Ahmed misses the point that the Muslim jihadists in Afghanistan got their spiritual orientation and strengtrh from Koran and Sunnnah and not from Pashtun anecdotes! If the militarization of thought and action of someone is to be regarded as Pashtunization, then wasn’t Prophet Muhammed himself a Pashtun?

Ahmed thinks that during Afghan (civil) war – a time when he was probably working for the Frontier Post – the Afghan policy of Pakistan was run by two Pashtuns Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Gulbadeen Hikmatyar. Qazi was elected by the Shura of Jamat Islami not because he was the smartest intellectual (an intellectual heir of Maulana Maudodi?) of that time but only because he was a Pashtun and could communicate better with the rugged, culturally isolated, and nationalistic Afghan warriors, who kept dying until the American warriors gave them Stingers. That was a pragmatic solution since not even the scholarly Maulana Maudodi could’ve done that communication, let alone a second Mian Tufail. When Qazi visited my country I met him. The one thing that is undeniably his hallmark is his lack of charisma, and intellect. A simple, rugged, and a bit piously looking man. The other allegedly Pakistani foreign policy maker Hikmatyar was inspired by the ideas of Jamat Islami. Being a Jamat-friendly warlord he was a natural ally of Jamat and hence of Pakistani military. On the Pakistani side Nawaz Sharif was no foreign policy guru so the policy was still run by the military in continuity of the lines drawn by the ‘Punjabi’ masrtermind of that policy: Zia ul Haq. The lack of foreign policy experience of Sharif however couldn’t hinder the Afghan warlords to come up with an Islamabad Accord! During the same decade and after Zia ul Haq, the Punjabi-Pashtun military struck back and had the grandiose idea of building an organized Taliban militia, which proved to be not only fanatic but also more rugged and better warriors than the other Afghans, to bring stability to the backyard of Pakistan where Afghans following their instincts had created a terrible Hobbesian world. But all that seems invisible to Ahmed – or doesn’t fit in his world view. Qazi said in his speech that I attended that Afghans went with the Pakistani officials to the Great Mosque of Mecca and took oath on Koran to abide by the agreement only to break it a little later. Will the psychoanalyst Ahmed see that as a proof for the incredulousness of the Pashtun man?

Since the Cold War Qazi is steering Jamat Islami. With the end of the Cold War He has certainly outlived his purpose. The Soviets have left Afghanistan. The civil war has raged and ultimately come to an end with the Machtergreifung by Taliban. Even they’ve faded away by the bombs of the American warriors – not to forget the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the DDR, the transformation of the Warsaw Pact block into a NATO domain but Qazi stays put and all this has not been noticed by the Jamat. They still have this relic of the Cold War at the top. The reason is certainly not that Qazi outshines every other big shot in the Jamat intellectually but the misinterpreted Islamic teaching that condemns the leadership willingness. That was probably more appropriate in a religious caliphate – which according to the existing belief would once again come before the apocalypse. In this age of rapid modernity leadership qualities get more significance particularly to further the flow of ideas. Jamat should now choose a new leader. Qazi is outdated!

THE PERCEPTION OF THE PASHTUN MAN

Ahmed doesn’t tell us why the Punjabi man has not adopted the language of his allegedly ´hero` the Pashtun man. Instead he has adopted Urdu (merely because of linguistic similarity?). And with this his thesis falls. That the Punjabi man makes his choice for Urdu indicates his intellectual and literary leanings. Though Urdu has yet to become a mature language nevertheless, it has probably already become the most developed language of the Indian subcontinent – with significant contribution of Punjabi poets and writers like Iqbal, Faiz, Hafeez Jullundari, Baidi, Manto, Ashfaq Ahmed to name a few. The Pashtun man has yet to appear on the literary radar.

Can or should the eating-orgies of politicians be used for a scientific study of a whole ethnic group? Does a common Punjabi family eat in this way? Ahmed also comes from Punjab so what about him? Does the Pashtun man like to have his dinner on table with forks and all sorts of cutlery? And what about Naswar? Can someone imagine Kant, Hegel, Mozart, Goethe, Schiller or Rembrandt eating Naswar?

What about the Karachi man? Long perceived as pacifist and faint-hearted turned by the racial indoctrination of MQM into a ´Pashtun`, who even killed the Pashtun man in the streets of Karachi at least as brutally. The Karachi man could never consider the bellicose Pashtun man civilzed enough to be a harmonious part of his city image and life. MQM’s hate-based ideology and the persistent uncivilized behavior of the Pashtun man – to be accurate, that of the illiterate villagers working as bus drivers and conductors or doing ´business` in mafia-styled ´trade centers` – ignited the fire and the xenophobic criminal energy resulted in pogroms and counter-pogroms. Will Ahmed see this as Pashtunization of the Karachi man? But then that would mean the only thing that the Pashtun man stands for is anarchy and the transformation of the civil society into the state of nature as found in the Hobbesian world!

He tells us a myth that Pakistani army officers were impressed by the mystic Afghan warrior. Hard to believe that the Pakistani army officers couldn’t see the difference between timeless mysticism and a pre-modern lifestyle, godly simplicity and primitive culture, a self-imposed pious world-weariness and ignorant needlessness, asceticism and destitution, meditating pensiveness and drugged drowsiness – not a big deal in a narco-state. These tribal people tell us how people lived in the old times. A psycho-analytical study of this problem can’t be done without knowing what Iqbal wrote some 100 years ago about the Pashtun man in the context of Afghanistan in the foreword of his famous poem Piyam-e-Mashriq. The ´upright` Pashtun man as perceived by Ahmed despite his prayers and Islamic (or primitive) outlook has in general no moral compunctions taking interest – a grave sin according to Islamic teachings!

Things couldn’t be more misleading than the discovery of the Punjabi man’s fascination for Ayub Khan. The fact is the only non-Punjabi politician that fascinated Punjab was Zulfiqar Bhutto. What Pashtun leaders can fascinate someone? Are the doubly Pashtun Khan Ghaffar Khan or the born-to-be-wild type Achakzai leaders or cheerleaders? Ahmed wants us to believe that Pakistani society is being helplessly transformed by the Pashtun man. He doesn’t tell us what if any transformation the premodern Pashtun man has gone through because of his encounter with more advanced and civil societies. Or is he indocile?

PASHTUN MAN AND THE PUNJABI LITERATURE

Ahmed’s sharp eyes can even see the ´Punjabi man’s` subjugation to the Pashtun man in the great literary and mystical works like Sohni-Mahiwal and Mirza-Sahiban. Wouldn’t Ahmed argue that while writing “Main Jana Jogi Day Nal” Baba Bulley Shah didn’t use the mytical symbol of jogi for Prophet Muhammed as the lighthouse for his spiritual journey but instead had the Pashtun man on his mind who was leading his disciple the Punjabi man in his transformation to a bellicose Pashtun man? But what about Ahmed’s own fascination and psychological mystification of the Pashtun man? Any childhood experience with a Pashtun man the way it happened in Dickens’ Great Expectations between Pip and the grisly convict or even worse that still lingers on his mind and influences the process of thought? Some soul searching is required here.

Ahmed follows a zigzag path in interpreting the mystical poems Mirza-Sahiban, Sohni-Mahiwal, and Heer-Ranjha. His nebulous psycho-analytical skills won’t allow him to solve the paradox of associations. Are the male characters represented by the ´Punjabi man` or it’s the female characters with their predominantly active role that driven by uniquely strong passions confront the norms and won’t shirk from paying the ultimate price for their liberation from their shackles. Every man has a feminine part and every female has a manly part of the unconscious. This riddle is not that easy as Ahmed depicts. In Mahiwal he sees a wavering Punjabi man. In Ranjha a fainthearted Punjabi man but he leaves the bravely acting Mirza and Sahiba and her brothers unmentioned. He discovers correctly the rebellious nature of these female characters which he unequivocally and inexplicably attributes to the Punjabi woman. In fact in their self-assertion they go far beyond the feminist female characters Hedda Gabler and Nora of Henrik Ibsen who question the norms but with Nordic passions and not like the stalwart Sohni.

Though Punjabi society is much more liberal than the pre-modern Pashtun clan culture, Ahmed’s observations of the eroding liberalism is far from reality. Honour killings – no matter how condemnable they are – have always been there and not since the ´historic judgments` of the Pashtun-inspired judges. A perfect example is the story of Mirza-Sahiba so meticulously analyzed by Ahmed! This strength of passion is an inspiration for the uncommon tasks. Faiz might have been influenced by those bold characters when he wrote “Teray honton kay phoolon ki chahat main hum / Daar ki khushk tehni pay waray gay”.

A STEP FORWARD

During the last couple of years Ahmed has written some nice articles or ´analysis`, but this time his momentary lapse of reason has brought him nearer to the level of a hate preacher. This is bad for Pakistan which needs inquisitive but fact-based journalism and certainly no hate preachers and half-baked psycho-analysts. Will Ahmed also do similar ´studies` of other ethnic groups of Pakistan? An honest enquirer would do that but the question remains what purpose that tome would serve. Would that be able to make the sum of ethnicities one indivisible nation under God based on the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity? On the contrary, the unenlightened state of mind in that part of the world would make an unwanted and unpleasant outcome more probably: a disintegrating nation living in fear of one another!

Ahmed should probably take off some time and relax a bit. More importantly Friedrich Engels’ description of the British conquest and administration of the ´warrior Afghanistan` with a handful of officers, the treacherous ambush of the Pashtun tribes on the receding British soldiers – as a result of the strategic think over of the administration of that vast arid land mainly led by the financial burden of that overexpansion of the British Raj – and the eventual British revenge would be helpful and enlightening. More importantly he could analyze the conquest and occupation of the Pashtun Afghanistan by the Punjabi Sikhs! Militarism is not the invention of the Pashtun man. No one has probably been more militaristic in the history of the mankind than Spartans but while they were obsessed with their all energies and utmost focus with the Lykurgan system of living solely for the purpose of war, even doing eugenics to raise fitter humans, other nations were making progress in other fields and what that mean was proved by Athens, Macedonia, and of course the Romans. The Spartan militarism despite its effectiveness crippled the state and ultimately failed as it was stuck in the time.

As a developing country Pakistan needs to be forward looking and that means less glorification of the collective living tribal people with an unenlightened thought and culture of past centuries and more intensive search for new progressive ways. That requires the self-asserting understanding of man’s responsibility regarding his earthly life as foreseen by Providence – which certainly sees a dynamics in history and a clear flow of history in the forward direction and not toward the past. This progressive mindset questions the traditions and explodes the timely and cultural borders of the system of thought to look beyond in the endless vast of the universe.