77 Years of Independence – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #989

77 Years of Independence – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #989

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #989 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here.

Credit: M. Khawar Nazir

Credit: M. Khawar Nazir

Congratulations, Compliments, and Felicitations to All Pakistanis on Independence Day

Wherever We Are

Surely, it is time to celebrate. Independence is among the greatest blessings people can have. The people of United India got their independence from the British on 14th August 1947. Indians celebrate independence on 15th August, just to keep themselves distinguished.

If people of United India had come together, they could eliminate British rule much earlier, but as it happens, they saw their own destruction and did not take action. The fate favors the mighty and it did. A handful of British ruled millions of Indian people, they killed them, maimed them, degraded them every day, punished them heavily for the slightest fault, hanged them on frivolous pretexts, and turned the most prosperous country into a famished, emaciated, and crippled entity. The prosperity that was here before the British came, has not returned ever. 

Very few countries have progressed steadily after independence, even after taking some jolts. China is one, Singapore is another, Brazil may be a distant third. In a large number of cases, the colonizers kept disrupting the independence they had given reluctantly, and they did it successfully through their local proxies. 

Do we ever think why British, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese traveled to far off lands at their own peril? It was not for the love of exploration, rather, it was for the love of looting, which they did comprehensively. They looted everything, from forests to minerals to precious metals to people. Hundreds of thousands of men and women were caught and shipped to colonies for unpaid labor. Their women were molested, raped, and whole generations of mixed races were born everywhere. In our part of the world, Anglo-Indians were the children of ‘unions’ between Europeans and Indians. Anglo Indians consider Goa in India as their Mecca because it was colonized for 461 years by Portuguese and Dutch and was not liberated even in 1947; it was handed over to India. probably in 1961.

Anyway, the colonizers left physically, but left their subjugation intact through their systems, laws, culture, education, discrimination, and language. During my travels to many ex-colonies, I have seen the same picture. 

Stockholm Syndrome is a coping mechanism to a captive or abusive situation. People develop positive feelings toward their captors or abusers over time. This condition applies to situations including child abuse, coach-athlete abuse, relationship abuse, and sex trafficking. People in all ex-colonies are suffering from severe Stockholm Syndrome. They love everything about their abusers. They are desperate to go to their abusers’ country and reunite with them. I landed at Algiers airport (capital of Algeria) one late afternoon. I went to the money change kiosk which was closed but two girls were still standing there. I asked them if I could change some currency, they asked which currency I had. I told US dollars, they said sorry, if you had Euros we would change. I asked why it was so, they said because one day they would go to France and spend it there. Such is the passion of a lifetime. 

On this auspicious day, we also need to do a lot of soul searching, deeply. Who we are really? Do we love Pakistan? If yes, then why are we dying to leave the country legally or illegally? If we don’t see a future for Pakistan, how do we see our future? If Pakistan is no more, will our American, British, Canadian, European citizenship be a consolation for us? 

At best, we are confused. We don’t want to live in Pakistan, but wherever we live, we still want to wear Pakistani dress, eat Pakistani food, marry Pakistani girls and boys, speak Pakistani language, and buy lands and houses back in Pakistan where we or our children shall never live. We display great sympathy for Pakistan. We do charity here, donate to various causes, genuine or not, and take out demonstrations in favor of Pakistan in other countries. The more we live away, the more we show love for Pakistan, but it is never enough to return. Pakistan is now home to a large number of old, affluent parents, whose children are settled in far-off lands. They send money, but they don’t have time to call, they don’t have time to visit, and they will not be able to come for the funeral when they pass away. It is not really their willfulness or callousness; it is their compulsion. The system in which they live, does not entertain such acts of empathy.

There is no point in talking about governments and governance, they are the same in reality, though the names may vary. 

Faiz is even more relevant today and his prayer is timeless.

آئیے عرض گزاریں کہ نگارِ ہستی 

زہرِ امروز میں شیرینئیِ فردا بھر دے

وہ جنہیں تابِ گرانبارئِ ایام نہیں

اُن کی پلکوں پہ شب و روز کو ہلکا کر دے

جن کی آنکھوں کو رُخِ صبح کا یارا بھی نہیں 

اُن کی راتوں میں کوئی شمع منور کر دے

جن کے قدموں کو کسی رہ کا سہارا بھی نہیں 

اُن کی نظروں پہ کوئی راہ اُجاگر کر دے

جن کا دِیں پیرویِ کِذب و ریا ہے اُن کو

 ہمتِ کُفر ملے جراتِ تحقیق ملے

جن کے سر منتظرِ تیغِ جفا ہیں اُن کو

دستِ قاتل کو جھٹک دینے کی تو فیق ملے

Concluded.

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