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Are Punjabis Chauvinists?
Raza Habib Raja
At the onset I would like to make one thing clear that this article is not a negation of my earlier article titled as the “The Punjabi Pakistan” . This clarification is essential because there is bound to be confusion when I am critical of a state structure favoring Punjab and at the same time try to defend ordinary Punjabis. People will object as supposedly there are overlaps as a particular state structure in a democratic state is at least theoretically supposed to be a representative of people’s will.
Democracy as they all say is after all the game of numbers and if Punjab is the most populous province then definitely ordinary Punjabis have some say in this. A common narrative is that Punjabis are chauvinistic and are always conspiring against the smaller provinces.
One of the reasons as to why I am offering my two cents is that I think in an increasingly ethnically charged state, we need to resolve the issues without undue hatred towards each other. Continuous allegations against Punjabis breed hatred and at times may manifest in violence.
Yes Punjab is dominant but ordinary Punjabis may not have conscious scheming role as is often projected by some of the people. Whereas I am against this current set up as it causes grievances to smaller provinces, at the same time I would like to make one thing clear: It is not correct to blame the Punjabi masses.
Yes it has become sort of a trend particularly among some of the liberal journalists to blame all the Punjabis. I can understand the rationale because that is a well-accepted narrative. Moreover, since the smaller provinces have complains therefore it becomes difficult to say anything in defense of the Punjabis for the fear of being called “pseudo liberal” or worst still a closet chauvinist. Some of the journalists just throw the word Punjabi chauvinism without even trying to justify their stance. And some very esteemed journalists are also guilty of it. The title “liberal” is perhaps more important than credibility and they just don’t want to be accused of being ethnically biased no matter even if they are projecting an unsubstantiated opinion.
Punjab’s dominance is not springing from the fact that ordinary Punjabi is a chauvinist but rather due to the fact that it is most populous province and our systems of revenue allocation is based on population. Secondly, the quota system is also based on population and demographics favour Punjab. It is this quota system which has given rise to higher representation of Punjabis in the state institutions.
So quota favours Punjab, but do we really want to see the end of quota system? We all know that in reality quota works for the advantage of smaller provinces. If you don’t trust me then try repealing it and the strongest protest will come not from Punjab but from other provinces barring Mohajir community. In fact quota system hurts them (Urdu speaking community) the most.
Yes it is a combination of quota system and historical legacy of colonial times that a large chunk of armed forces are drawn from Punjab. We keep on hearing the word “Punjabi army” and through an over simplistic analysis also conclude that this “Punjabi army” is always trying to ensure province Punjab’s interests.
Unfortunately, the reality is often not that simple. First of all army’s primary interest is not preservation of Punjab’s interests but rather its own institutional interests. It has behaved the same no matter what was the ethnicity of its Commander in Chief. Whether it was a Sindhi Benazir or a Punjabi Nawaz Sharif, it has intervened whenever it assumed that its interest were being undermined by the “bloody civilians”.
Army acts as an institution rather than as an agent for a particular province. Yes Punjab benefits but not due to conscious and planned efforts of Punjabis or for that matter army itself but simply due to the fact that a large number of army officers are from Punjab.
Even within Punjab, most of the army recruitment has been from merely three districts of Attock, Jhelum and Rawalpindi. The high recruitment from these areas is a legacy of colonial times. Yes there is a spillover effect to other areas as well but primarily the economic benefits within Punjab are restricted to these areas.
Secondly it is true that while Punjab gets more benefits due to its higher representation but army’s interest may or may not be completely synonymous with Punjab’s interests each time. Yes these may even overlap at times but we need stronger evidence to conclude that army is a non elected political institution SOLELY geared to just ensure Punjab’s hegemony and that too at the behest of Punjabi populace.
Then is the issue of voting pattern. Here too it has often been alleged that Punjabi masses are chauvinistic and vote to ensure Punjab’s hegemony. This is also a pervasive point of view often repeated by some of the journalists. Some of them even went to the extent of interpreting lawyer’s movement as a Punjabi population’s conspiracy to establish its “lost” electoral advantage.
I have several objections to this voting pattern paradigm of analysis.
First of all, it is idiotic to assume that all Punjabi or for that matter even majority of the Punjabis think and then vote like a monolithic entity. Vote is a one-time exercise and is often influenced by multitude of factors. To simply assume without any evidence that their sole criterion is ethnicity is stretching it too much and in fact borders on intellectual dishonesty.
A deeper analysis would reveal how flawed this assertion is. The rural Punjab has more seats than any other area in Pakistan and in rural Punjab all politics is local and completely revolves around local issues. A candidate is not voted on ideology but on his/her ability to wield influence at the local level. This is such an evident fact and yet simply overlooked. Anatol Lieven in his brilliant book “Pakistan: A Hard Country” has wonderfully articulated as to what politics is all about in Pakistan and particularly rural Punjab. In his words “Since the kinship group is the most important force in society, the power of kinship is inevitably reflected in the political system”.
The fact is that rural Punjab does not vote on ideological or for that matter even ethnic grounds but along tribal and kinship lines and gives importance to local issues. And no matter which party the individual voter by and large would cast his vote based on the candidate’s ability to wield local influence. Hence it is no surprise that PML Q could not get a single seat in the cities and yet was able to win more than 40 seats from rural Punjab. PML Q’s voter was not voting on PML Q’s ideology (was there any?) or its pro Punjabi stance (again was there any?) but was actually voting for the strong individual candidates the party had fielded.
The other two parties had also fielded powerful candidates with several who had in the past switched sides. No where were these candidates selected on so called ethnic grounds or for waging conspiracies against other provinces.
The ordinary rural Punjabi is as miserable as the rest of the country and is only trying to make his end meet. He votes for a candidate who he thinks can give him access to state resources and resolve his daily issues. Rural Punjab has remained frozen in time and the voting pattern may have witnessed changes in choice of political parties but essentially the rationale for vote has changed little.
Even Urban Punjab has seldom voted on ethnic grounds. However, it may be correct to assert that perhaps a substantial chunk of Punjabi urban MIDDLECLASS voter has been successfully tutored in state cultivated nationalism. To that extent, “complains” are justified. However, to assume that this automatically equates chauvinism against other ethnicities is stretching it too much.
In my opinion, we need to analyze the entire issue in a more dispassionate way and rather than whipping up sentiments which further breed hate, come up with solutions through mutual consensus.
If population advantage is an issue then I am all for breaking up Punjab to reduce it. In fact my support for Saraiki province is chiefly for the same reason.
Punjab’s hegemony has to be eliminated if we want to continue as an integrated state. But at the same time we need to look at the real reasons rather than whipping up mistrust.
Filed under: Uncategorized · Tags: Punjab, Punjabi, Punjabis, Raza Habib Raja
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@ sherjat
Why do you expect me to tow your line??? In fact Your arguments are totally baseless and obnoxious like some others like you here who first resort to abusive language and then scream like calves when stick goes up theirs.
AKB,
I have never used abusive langauge. I do not expect anyone to tow my line. The problem is that you have never been able to produce a coherent argument that stands up to scrutiny. At the same time you are not mature enough to accept another arguments are superior to yours.
sherjat,
AKB is an old man of around 55 years of age. Obviously he is also a very frustrated man, so he keeps on telling others to send him women and expounding the virility of “Muslas” as if that would help him in his search of a woman before he dies of old age.
Don’t get too mad with him. He is what is known as “sannki tharhki buddah”.
@ sherjat
But you deliberately did overlook abusive language by a few others…why??
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This forum is for all..an open forum…you should learn to accept views or difference of opinion from all ranks of people. But what makes you think you are something out of this world?? Who are you to judge unless you want to be judged yerself??
@ RajTOO
sherbat….what do you say about this chip of a jaali rajmoot??
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If i am a tharki buddha you are a shauqeen chikna!!
/
people who have unknown fathers usually write Raj before their names!! you can guess who they are!!
AKB,
thanks for confirming that you are indeed a tharki buddah! It is nice to hear it from your own mouth!
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If you keep your virginity a few years more, who knows you may well be turned into a more chikna buddah in jannat as a present to Baitullah Mehsud.
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Don’t forget to shave your legs, buddheh! It’s considered polite!
@RajTOO
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you seem to be obsessed by the mere thought of baitullah mehsud…well, he was fond of rajmoots and could have pleased them to their heart’s delight if you had met him during his life time. Anyhow, as he was older than me, I believe he will be too happy to have your arthy used as a fertilizer for his farm in jannat. Or, alternatively, as you believe in reincarnation mehsud will surely think about incinerating you in your narkh before spreading your dust over his orchard in the coziest niche of paradise. Too bad your religion doesn’t have anything in fold for you after death! On the contrary it frightens you of bad rebirth ……but what worse birth than can a rajmoot have other than being born of unknown father??
killing Punjabi’s in India…shame shame shame!!
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Right To life: India Must Acknowledge That Even Killers Have It
By N. Jayaram
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http://www.countercurrents.org/jayaram110612.htm
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If those who feel satisfied over Brahmeshwar Singh’s killing had channelled more energy towards ensuring he was convicted and stayed in jail, it would have better served society’s purpose: apparently his militia had dwindled while he was away, whereas his killing unleashed a frenzy of rioting. A consistent attitude towards all extrajudicial killings, by state and non-state actors, by upper caste or lower caste militia and Maoists or Naxalites, is needed for the menace to end and the rule of law to prosper
DEATH ROW OVER INDIA!!
Indian farmers are killing themselves in thousands!
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The growing suicide rate in India – the reasons
May 14, 2007
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A few days ago I wrote about the suicide rates of the world. India may not have the world’s highest suicide rate, but like in the rest of the world, suicides in India are growing. Here’s a graph from Maithri:
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Globalisation, industrialisation and affluence…all of this has seemingly pushed our suicide rate up. While there are pockets which have higher suicide rates than the rest of the country, if one looks at the problem state-wise, one can see that it is mostly the developed states which have a higher rate of suicide.
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But why? Why should so many Indians, specially those who have more access to jobs and education that ever before, want to die? Aren’t we supposed to be a spiritual people, content with our lot, with strong religious beliefs and a fatalistic attitude to life? Well, this philosophy, so rooted in our genes, has not protected even our simple village folks. Indian farmers are killing themselves in thousands!
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Although the rewards are great if one does succeed, the stakes are higher and the struggle harder. Plus, society is becoming more individualistic. At one time, one brother often supported another, or the father supported a lazy son. Today its something to be ashamed of, depending financially on anyone but oneself. Here in India we still have a tendency to depend on one’s parents but this is slowly changing and if we go the way of the west, this tendency will disappear altogether. This increases pressures on individuals – and not everyone can make it. And then, the typical Indian joint family which often acted as a buffer in times of stress is breaking up.
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Today, getting into IIM or IIT, scraping up a loan to pay for the education, desperately trying to get into a government medical college or in fact any reputed institute causes immense stress, even if one succeeds in the end. While many aim to get that high paying job in a multi-national, or perhaps go abroad, some start their own business, staking everything they have. If that fails…the disaster can drive people to suicide. As the graph below shows, self employed people (24 per cent) are the most vulnerable to suicide:
http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2007/05/14/why-indians-commit-suicide/
Raj too! 55 is old? Are you aware at how many toes you are stepping on? 55 is mature in outlook! Perhaps you have never heard the phrase; as you get older your parents get smarter!
Lady Guinevere
Lady G,
I though I was stepping only on AKB’s rheumatic toes, but if you wish to push your toes in there as well, what can I do!
RajToo……You are the exception to the rule; your parents will never get smarter for obvious reasons!
Lady Guinevere
Half truths are dangerous tool ..
you talked about the quota system ..? well the FACT of the matter is it was first implemented by Mr Liaqat Ali Khan , as early as Sep 48 ,and it gave undue advantage to the new incoming MIGRANTS … 15% plus 2% for Karachi separately . that was later Adjusted and the term Mir grants was replaced by ” Merit ” and skewed to 20% in Nov 49 again plus 2$ separately for Karachi , the city they chose as their abode .
Pakistan has seen , three versions of Quota System.
1st one was introduced in Sep 1948 , it used a Regional/Provincial model for recruitment in Govt Jobs…and accordingly
Bengal 42%
Punjab 23%
All Other provinces and Princely States had a 17% [ Sindh,Balochistan and NWFP ]
it used the term “Potential Immigrants from India” for incoming Mohajirs and gave them 15%
and Karachi had a 2% seperate Quota
This was then revised in Nov 49
and now instead of using the term Potential immigrant …. merit was used.
and new quota was
Merit 20%
Bengal 40%
Punjab including Bhawalpur 23%
Karachi 2%
All other 15% [ Sindh , Balocistan and NWFP ]
and under the 1956 constitution its scope was uptil March 71. that is for 15 years.
1962 ‘s constitution reduced the term for 10 years , that is till 72…so actually extended the term by a couple of months…that is up to Dec 72
71 and subsequent break up of Pakistan changed not only the demographics , but also the weight-age in terms of population shift.
Sindh started showing a heavy Urban/Rural ….divide as Ethinic divide …between Sindhis nearly all rural and Mohajirs nearly all Urban.
the new percentages according to the changed realities was then
Merit 10%
Punjab 50%
NWFP 11.5 %
Balochistan 3.5%
FATA 4%
Azad Kashmir 2%
and Sindh 19% ..sub divided using a 60/40 formula of Urban/rural division into 11.4 Rural and 7.6 Urban .
Source : Mohammed Wasim “Affirmative action Policies in Pakistan”
The Mohajir Population before 71 was 3% , and after 71 7.5% .