Some months back I was asked to open a photographic exhibition at the Shakir Ali Museum in Lahore. In my brief address I referred to the rich Southasian culture of which Pakistan is a part. A gentleman from the audience took exception to my remarks and later wrote to me to the effect that I had disclaimed the two-nation theory, and that the Pakistani Islamic culture was distinct from the Indian Hindu culture. For many months I have pondered the question. So important is the issue, a public answer might just be in order.
Let me at the outset declare that no one can question my Pakistani credentials, nor those of my family, which included stalwarts of the Pakistan Movement. On the issue of Pakistan's culture being purely Islamic, I cannot hazard a definition of what constitutes 'culture'. The overwhelming view now is that ethnicity and culture are what nations and societies use to define themselves. As an individual I am extremely proud of being a Pakistani and a Muslim.
Talk to a Sindhi, Baloch or a Pakhtoon and one will get an idea of our situation. Unlike the Punjabi, none is prepared to sacrifice his mother tongue or his subculture and history. Only the Punjabi middle-class and intelligentsia arc too ashamed to talk to their children in Punjabi, which is perhaps among the oldest Southasian languages, rich in poetry and literature. Only in Punjab is Urdu is seen as a replacement of Bulleh Shah's Punjabi. The 'ideology of Pakistan' is too insecure to tolerate a language other than Urdu. This is not to say Urdu is not ours. It is and will remain the national language. There is no threat to Urdu from any regional language. Why is then Punjabi seen as a threat to Urdu?
My other problem is, how can religion alone explain our nationhood? If this were so, what of the 160 million Muslims of India? According to the two-nation theory, Indian Muslims would really be overseas Pakistanis stranded in India. Then there is the issue of Bangladesh. Previously, as a majority they rejected Urdu as their national language, but did not ask that Bengali, the language of the majority of the then Pakistan, be made the official lingua franca. If Urdu is the only symbol of the two-nation theory and a symbol of 'Pakistaniat', then by definition the architects of Pakistan negated the democratic basis of its genesis, i.e. a minority will dictate to the majority. Also, how do we explain the culture of Muslim Bengal in terms of the ideology of Pakistan, if the latter is to be defined in terms of the Urdu language and Islam only?