Pakistan

Pakistan was once home to the Indus Valley Civilization—the first cities in the region grew up there, with urban planning and municipal government evident from what’s been pieced together. Impressive stuff. Following that, the influence of Vedic, Persian, Indo-Greek and Islamic cultures arrived—long before the British showed up. Pakistan was part of “British India” until 1947. Obviously it is when Pakistan showed Britain the door that year that we celebrate: Independence Day. Just under a decade later the country officially became an Islamic Republic.

Obviously the British arrived in the form of the British East India Company. I’m sure a lot of you have heard of the Sepoy Mutiny—this was 1857, the last big armed struggle against the British Raj. Following this, the more peaceful struggle for freedom began, though it was led by the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress. In the 1930s, the Islamic side of then-British India responded with the formation of the “All India Muslim League,” to make sure the Islamic faith was not under-represented. This began with the 1930 call for an autonomous region in northwestern India for Indian Muslims—obviously this paved the way for Pakistan. Initially there was an East Pakistan too—in 1971 this became the independent nation of Bangladesh.

Following the 1956 establishment of Pakistan as a republic, democratic, civilian rule was put on hold by a coup—General Ayub Khan ruled for the eleven years from 1958-69. There was a return to civilian rule in the 1970s, which ended in 1979 when General Zi-ul-Haq came to power. Following his death in 1988, Benazir Bhutto was elected as the first female Prime Minister of the country. After her assassination last year, the election process was postponed, and the instability of the political process in Pakistan was highlighted again.

Did you know that, in size, Pakistan is as big as France and the United Kingdom combined? I feel like that doesn’t come across in maps. (I think that the “Cartographers for Social Equality,” the fictional group portrayed on The West Wing, had a point... Check out the Hobo-Dyer projection map. It’s really interesting.)

There is plenty of desert in Pakistan. Makes up for a lack of pirates. Though speaking of pirates, Pakistan is something of a haven for pirates of another kind—you know, the kind of piracy that upsets the entertainment industry Plus the amazing Markhor goats are the national animal. Also, there are rare Indus River dolphins. I feel like, exotic big cats aside, we don’t find out a lot about the animals of this region: wild sheep, beautiful varieties of goat… It’s worth it. I promise.

While you’re still thinking about wild sheep and goats, I’ll give you a poem. Today’s is called “Non-Communication,” and it comes from the inimitable Language for a New Century. Pakistan has a long literary history—definitely worth checking out. The poem is by Kishwar Naheed.


Non-Communication

Like the body peeping through a muslin dress
now all the taut veins of my brain are evident.
Separation’s first day was easier than the second
for the first day’s first night
was spent telling stories like Sheherzade.
A night like one thousand one nights,
white like unwritten paper,
this creaseless brightness
is like the image formed in the mind
before a word comes to the lips.
In the crowded era of my days and nights
you
like a comb passing through hair
keep announcing your existence
but passion and love
like my unkempt hair
keep knitting a web inside me.
Like broken, diffused clouds in the sky
the termite-ridden page of life
will not even sell at the price of scrap.
Thundering like clouds you,
cascading like the rain I,
like two deaf singers
are singing each other a song.


—Kishwar Naheed
translated from the Urdu by Mawasg Shoaib
from Language for a New Century