I was hearing a few stories about the ivory towers of academia and some of the micro-aggressions on display was just shocking. Two that immediately come to mind are:
(1.) there was a particularly famous Desi academic who was holding court in one of the colleges. Many desis came to pay homage to him prompting one (white) academic to sniff to another, “it feels like a Delhi saloon bar here.” This was in full hearing of the coloured academics.
(2.) a particularly (in)famous colonial administrator had visited a college in the 50’s and noting the wild behaviour of the undergraduates, joked “I thought the natives came only in shades of brown.” The implication being that the undergraduates were acting like careless natives in the sun. This is an oft-repeated and humorous joke in certain rarefied circles.
I was livid when I heard this but it prompts me to reflect that regardless of the stress on equality and fairness; the elite churn only enough to preserve their power structure.
What makes micro-aggression so powerful of course is that it is the aggressed who feels trapped. How does one respond since the Model Minority Asian is far too busy assimilation/integrating/succeeding and doesn’t want to cause a fuss. It’s all well and good having a rant on Twitter or a blog but it’s not very likely that a #metoo movement is going to emerge vis a vis micro aggression.
Another interesting observation is that Asians are particularly vulnerable to micro-aggressions because we are a longer-term delayed gratification sort of population; we are looking at that promotion, salary raise to ever truly want to make a commotion.
The art of pushing back banterously without escalating the matter too much should be taught in all citizenship classes..
After the jump my own short thoughts on the staying power of elites.
Yes, caste seems invisible in Pakistan’s bigger cities (Lahore and Karachi) and one can say that caste doesn’t play a role in daily life BUT it matters during elections, during matrimonial activities and during dealings with the state bureaucracy. If you ever go to a government office (Police, Judiciary, Income Tax), try looking at the leaderboard of that office’s previous incumbents there and notice how most people on that list have their caste listed after their name. Also, go to the district courts in Lahore or any city and see how many lawyers have mentioned their caste after their names.
Abdul Majeed
As an aside I was googling John O’Brien and came up with a few interesting snippets about the Pak Christian community:
c) Great honour is given to the Bible and compared with many older and more developed Churches in other countries, there is real familiarity with its text and message. There is a richness here which cannot be overlooked. In fact it cries out to be contextualised and deepened. The singing of the Psalms in Punjabi is a very distinctive and enriching feature of church life here. Yet this esteem for Sacred Scripture could be undermining of a real sense of Church inasmuch as it is conceived in rather Islamic terms: there is an unspoken assumption (a false one) that the Bible functions in Church life and theology as the Quran sherif does in Islam. This leads to and is further exacerbated by the prevalence of a literalist and fundamentalist reading and preaching of the text. As a result, all sorts of self-appointed preachers abound, each offering a more exotic explanation and application of the text. Rivalries increase and with them, factionalism. There seems little sustained effort to promote a communitarian reading of Scripture, contextualised on the one hand, by the living tradition of the People of God and on the other, by the concrete struggle for justice and dignity which is the daily bread of our people.
A) Strengths:
The Church which under God’s grace, has come into being here in Pakistan has many fine qualities and strengths:
i. It continues to exist and grow in a non-Christian and non-supportive environment:
ii. It is very much a Church of the poor, God’s chosen ones:
iii. It is engaged in an on-going and far-reaching practical ecumenism:
iv. It is a Church with a profound religious sensibility:
v. There is a growth in local vocations to ministry:
vi. At all levels it is socially involved; both “religiously” and “developmentally”:
vii. It has a highly developed organisational infrastructure:
viii. Among the People of God there is a tangible love for “The Word”:
xi. The Church membership has retained a strong cultural identity: the Church in Pakistan is very much a Pakistani Church.
x. The communities have a very strong identity as “Christians”
xi. Among Pakistani Christians there is a very solid sense of family and kinship.
xii. There is a strong devotional life with many indigenous resources; songs, pilgrimages, Marian meals etc.
This is the light; if there is light there is also shadow!
B) Shortcomings:
i. At nearly all levels, the Christian community can be easily divided by the factionalism (partibazi) which characterises social relations and by the consequences of other internalised oppression:
ii. It is a Church massively reliant on foreign money:
iii. It is constantly under threat externally and internally from fundamentalism and sectarianism:
iv. The Liturgy has been translated but not inculturated:
v. There is an impoverished Eucharistic sense:
vi. A dependency mentality is still very stong:
vii. Politically, psychologically and even physically it tends to be ghettoised:
viii. The culture is consolidated but seldom critiqued by ecclesial praxis and therefore not sufficiently enriched by faith:
ix. In general terms, the leadership remains authoritarian or patenalistic, reinforcing the dominant socio-political pattern rather than offering an evangelical alternative to it:
x. The dignity and role of women are scarcely recognised:
xi. There is little or no missionary outreach:
xii. It mirrors the society in that personal freedom and responsibility are not really valued above conformity.