The last few days have really been dominated by a cacophony of ….tu, tu, mai, mai in the BP comment threads with competitive “patriotism” flying thick and fast. Amidst all the noise generated by …certain hostility focused agendas, its easy to lose sight of the fact that for all the problems and challenges faced by the 2 nation-states, the people that inhabit the subcontinent, still continue to have a bunch of things in common.
So allow me this …palette cleanser of a post. The ICC T20 Cricket World Cup is in progress, and the teams of both India and Pakistan have managed to qualify for the “Super 8” stage. Usman Tariq, is a rising star who has recently joined the Pakistani team, as a bowler who serves up ‘mystery spin’ from a unique bowling action, enabled slightly in part due to an anatomically exceptional elbow which has elicited some allegations of chucking (throwing). He has undergone test and has been cleared of this allegations already.
What I found notable about Usman, apart from his repertoire of unique googlies and arm angles, is him sharing the fact that watching an Indian movie inspired him to pursue his dream – a career in cricket. M.S. Dhoni a former India captain, had a biopic made about him a few years ago, which was a massive hit in India and beyond. Usman, as we know, is hardly an exception when it comes to Pakistanis consuming Indian content including movies. Pakistanis, in some ways, are arguably even more ardent consumers and fans of ‘Bollywood’ than Indians. As an Indian listener to Pakistani podcasts, you can’t help but notice how movie and song quotes from Indian films and pop culture, are seamlessly used by Pakistanis as metaphors to describe situations. Even more so than is common for Indians to do so.
On the flip side, Indians are enthusiastic consumers of Pakistani music – the popularity and opinions on the ‘quality’ of Pakistani Coke Studio abound, so does a sizeable number of fans for Pakistani soap operas.
The point is, as much as the interactions of India and Pakistan is dominated by the disproportionate shadow cast by the history of conflict between the two states, and especially the untenable history of PakMil sponsored multi-decade history of terrorism and “non-state actor” violence, we still see a common culture interwoven through the day-to-day existence of the …awaam
great post – thank you.
My Urdu teacher (in Bahawalpur) loved Dhurundhar but loves Pakistan too..
it’s ideologically differences twinned with intense cultural unity
Its unfortunate that the …’mainstream’ position in both countries currently is firmly..hostile.
I strongly believe that a majority of folks are sheep, 60-70% of folks would go along with whatever the conventional wisdom proposes on the question of Ind-Pak relations – whether that’s peace, or confrontation.
The challenge is there isn’t really a viable path to shifting the mainstream position on either side of the Radcliffe line. The years and years of repeated Pakistani terror attacks – 1900s, 2000s, 2010s, and now with Pahalgam even the 2020s, have left the Indians burnt a lot more times than twice when it comes to ‘peace’ with Pakistan. In order to achieve a reset, there has to be a tangible, permanent, visible shift in Pakistani policy on terrorism and India.
Problem is that the incentives for those that control Pakistani policy are not aligned with what’s optimally in Pakistan’s interests. This single factor, ends up impacting Pakistan’s fate in so many dimensions – from its economy to HDI, to even sports like cricket. Its elites benefit from short-sighted choices that hurt Pakistan but enrich them.
true; soft invisible borders are best for Pakistan and her people..
yes if Pakistanis crossed the borders and saw the “Hindu rate of growth”, which is frankly astonishing (India is basically doubling it’s economy every decade). there would be a lot more unrest.
great point I hadn’t thought of it that way
Borders are relevant, but only up to a certain point. Access to the global economy is a multiplier for nations and individuals. Pakistan is and has been lagging behind for quite some time. Its best bet for changing this is to hitch itself to the subcontinental growth engine. The Chinese or the Arabs or the US aren’t going to be able to do this for them. ‘CPEC’ – as Christine Fair called it – colonizing Pakistan for enriching China, was an economic mirage.
Again, it boils down to choices made by elites that mortgage Pakistan’s present and future, enriching the elites by selling the “anti-india” chooran, at least for the time being.
And as time goes by, any ‘deal’ with India will get even less in return for an ‘honorable’ peace.
Sadly, the only way out for Pakistan that I can see, is a genuine democratic revolution, one that succeeds in finally uprooting the kleptocratic chokehold of its Military. Will it take the martyrdom of its greatest star to get this done? Will even that be sufficient?
Thing is considering the media, Pakistanis don’t have to cross borders to see it.
They might not admit it publicly, but Pakistanis do know what is happening.
There was much lamentation around the time of Chandrayaan.
In the next 4 years, we will have Gaganyaan, the bullet train.
In the future, Olympics, global companies out of India, global pop culture out of India etc.
it’s ironic since all of you have banned each other from your threads; the only threads you can interact in are mine.
which is a bit silly since all of your posts (BB, RNJ & Kabir) are genuinely excellent but a corollary to a good post is the comment thread
nobody is ‘banned’ from my threads. But yes, I know that our resident PakMil fanboi is ..boycotting my threads. That’s his prerogative.
I think there is a difference in the degree of influence each country’s pop culture has in the other country.
Pakistan drama/music are enjoyed by a niche of people in North India but are basically what say Korean media is in the USA – a niche amongst certain people but not really mainstream. The most popular pop culture in India is still Indian, not Pakistani.
This is not true the other way around. Indian pop culture forms the mainstream in Pakistan, even eclipsing their own local industries.
I have seen the most right winger of Pakistanis fight with Indian memes and make edits with Indian music.
In a way, Indian pop culture in Pakistan is like what American pop culture is around most of the world.
You are not wrong, but there is no need to resort to triumphalist rubbing it their noses. A bit of grace goes a long way, and what’s more, winners can afford it.