Form of words:
TeaThe Taliban victory in Afghanistan is a reminder that Pakistan is largely defined by its relationship with outside influences. And perhaps even more important than those parts of its identity shaped by its South Asian neighbours, is Pakistan’s confused and complicated relationship with the West. This dates back to 1947, because while Pakistan celebrates Jinnah’s successful campaign to establish the country, there is no escaping the fact that the country came into existence as a result of the decision of a British aristocrat.
The conflicting impulses driving Pakistan’s relations with the Western world date back to 1947. Eventually, people living in what is now Pakistan had to adjust to the arrival of British colonists, the first of whom arrived in 1612. He was a merchant who was expecting. To earn some money and even though it did not work out for him, the East India Company eventually followed him and the profits started moving from Sindh to London.
The British conquest of Sindh in 1843 brought with it new problems. The history of the Bhutto family reflects the difficulties presented by the British royal project to many prominent families of the subcontinent. Some of the Bhuttos of the 19th century, such as Doda Khan Bhutto, were successful in profiting from the British authorities by trading their control over the local population in exchange for cash and status provided by the colonial authorities. These arrangements were so important to the British that they began to drive out Sindhi landlords who had failed to keep their wealth in good financial condition. When he applied for British subsidies, Doda Khan Bhutto manipulated the system, exaggerating his debts, getting more money from the colonial authorities than he otherwise would.
His conduct upset British officials, whose complaints he regarded as his “persistent dishonest behaviour”, are preserved in British records. Reading the British complaints, it is shocking how they echo the former US complaints about Pakistan in the post 9/11 era. In both cases, 150 years later, Western governments are accusing Pakistanis and their ancestors of taking advantage of their ties with the West to make money.
Other Bhuttos clashed more openly with their colonial masters. For example, in the late 1800s, Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto had to flee to Kabul to escape British justice and the officer with whom he had a conflict, Colonel Hercules Mayhew, in his London club, denounced the Bhutto family as thieves. Furious spent his time writing letters. Assassins In other words, the two sides alternated between calculated interdependence and disdain.
Much of this was echoed in the 20th century, during which Pakistan was portrayed as America’s most staunch ally, an incredible one, since the victory of the Afghan Taliban. And so far as the cobs of the 20th century are concerned, they too reflected these contradictions. While Shahnawaz Bhutto stood firmly behind the “British connection” and was rewarded with a knighthood, his son, American- and British-educated Zulfiqar, rose to power on the basis of anti-Western rhetoric. But nonetheless, ZAB was delighted to host Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, for the 1959 duck shoot, in which the visiting royal achieved at least 143 ducks in five hours.
Many Pakistanis have compared Washington’s relationship with Islamabad to that of a bachelor and his vulnerable mistress, in an apparent metaphor filled with a sense of shame. Sometimes the latter is diligently tempted and adored, and at others – such as the stage we are in now – it is brutally rejected and neglected.
Prime Minister Imran Khan is the living embodiment of all these contradictions. In fact, every speech of his now contains some scathing critique of the West and its various hypocrisies. And it is likely that he will forever be identified with his declaration that the Afghan Taliban – whose personal values have been completely removed from their own – should be seen as liberation fighters who have broken the shackles of slavery. . And yet Imran Khan has been the most famous figure in Pakistan for most of his life because of his Oxford education, a playboy lifestyle and most of the game English, his stellar performance as a great player in cricket.
ZAB used to say that he has a western mind and an eastern soul. Imran Khan is a more striking example of that phenomenon – a man who rose to fame in the West by embracing many Western values, now finds solace and guidance from a Sufi spiritualist. And to that extent, he is a man who captures the many conflicting impulses of the nation he leads.
The author is the author of The Bhutto Dynasty: The Struggle for Power in Pakistan. Thoughts are personal.
Article first appeared on the Dawn website. It is republished with permission.
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