The Shahi Hammam is also known as the Wazir Khan Hammam. This is a Persian-Style bath, located in the heart of the Walled City of Lahore and close to Delhi Gate. It was built in 1634 and has recently be restored to expose the full glory and extent of the Hammam. It appears to be attracting many tourists and if you find yourself in the Walled City, this place is definitely worth a trip. The restoration work was done by Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Walled City of Lahore Authority between 2013 and 2015. Funding also came from the Government of Norway.
Tag Archives: Pakistan
History and Nostalgia: Pakistan’s “golden era”
In recent years there have been a number of articles which have explored the visual representation of a so-called “golden-era” of Pakistan. Nadeem F. Paracha[i] has been at the forefront with his attempts to show a Pakistan which many would struggle to recognise today. Just recently there was an article by Ally Adnan in The Friday Times which explored the history of Eid greeting cards via the writer’s own experiences;[ii] a more compelling and detailed account of vintage Eid greeting cards and their origin has been done by Yousuf Saeed.[iii] And then there was a short pictorial essay by Amna Khawar[iv] on vintage travel posters capturing the romantic side of Pakistani tourism. Many of these images relate to the 1950s and 1960s.
As a historian I have been thinking about these articles along with my own research, which has been exploring women’s representation in public spaces in the formative years of Pakistani history, especially the women who worked for PIA. I have been fascinated with the role of nostalgia and how this has been shaping the popular imagination in recent years. The pictures collectively evoke a period that is seen as being more liberal, tolerant of ‘others’, modern, sassy, energetic, optimistic and laced with a sprinkling of the colonial hangover. An early example of this is an ad by PIA from 1960, with the tag line “Move with the times.”[v] PIA was one of the leading brand ambassadors for Pakistan and combined with the emergence of the jet-age there was a growing tourism industry that is virtually non-existent now.
More broadly, and used a source, these images also depict the changes that have taken place in Pakistan and how these are reflected in society. While much has been written about the history of Pakistan, this has largely tended to focus on the political issues, ideological debates, economic concerns or the political leadership. Rarely do we get to glimpse history through the prism of the societal and cultural changes taking place. The ordinary lived experiences of people, especially women, rarely get coverage in the official histories, which are more concerned with the high politics. Yet, if we start to scratch around the pages of old newspapers, magazines, folklore, literature, and personal narratives, there are many untold stories waiting to be explored and unearthed.
So why this fascination now? There are a number of factors converging at the moment which are in many ways compelling commentators and writers to re-visit this history. The political changes and gradual encroachment of religious conservatism in Pakistan makes us want to explore alternative national histories. This is almost a reaction to the current political climate, which has rendered many helpless in their attempt to preserve a more secular and liberal vision of Pakistan, which was seen to be more prevalent in the early years of Pakistani history.
The distortion of history, both intentionally and now as a default position because the effect has been so pervasive, has helped to re-write how we understand and analyse the early history of Pakistan. This has been a gradual process but I would argue something that started especially after the break-up of Pakistan in 1971. The reaction, to the split was an attempt to force greater unity amongst the people and consequently more religiosity was prescribed to keep the nation from further fragmentation. This rather dogmatic approach meant a more exclusive understanding of Pakistani identity which frowned upon anything that deviated from the acceptable norms of the state-view.
The 1970s were also importantly a watershed for Pakistan because a number of factors converge together. The power of the petro-dollars and Saudi Arabia, the state-sponsored Islamisation during the Zia period, the rise of the pan-Islamic identity, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, American interests in Pakistan, coupled with the break-up of Pakistan at the start of the decade result in a nation that was seeking a new identity. The response was almost an attempt to finally break away from the shackles of imperialism and create a new post-colonial nation. The replacement however, has seen this being replaced by a different form of colonialism, one that relies heavily on Saudi Arabia and ironically a dichotomous relationship with America.
Pakistan has thus undergone vast amount of change during the past forty years. Within all this change, which has been confused and contradictory at times, there is sentimentality and nostalgia for a period that seems so distant. The era of the 1950s and 1960s when, women were optimistic of their role in the nation-building project, and were visible in public spaces; economic prosperity offered hope for the future; a young nation looking and embracing internationalism; and the buoyancy and optimism of independence still reverberating. The reality may have been different but memory is quite subjective and revisionist. But sixty-eight years on, the optimism and expectations have somewhat dampened and have been replaced by cynicism, lack of faith in the state apparatus to deliver the basic needs for its people and an religious-ideological schism which is pulling people apart.
So it is within this context that increasingly there is a re-evaluation of trying to understand that period. It is in a sense a desperate attempt to hang on to a past that will be familiar to many but more radically it offers a space in which a nation is still trying to define itself. These cultural and social spaces are powerful, just as the margins are; so within these confines there is an opportunity to construct and revise a history that has become so distorted. Indeed History is never static; it is continually changing and is shaped by the present. Similarly, memory is equally revisionist and it is the fragility of the present, which compels many to seek answers in the past and contextualise this history in the present. By exploring these alternative spaces and histories of our collective past, we can perhaps better understand and hope for a more compassionate future.
[i] Nadeem F. Paracha, ‘Also Pakistan’, Dawn 9 Feb 2012. http://www.dawn.com/news/694239/also-pakistan-2
[ii] Ally Adnan, ‘I Love Eid Cards’, The Friday Times, 25 July 2014. http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/i-love-eid-cards/
[iii] Yousuf Saeed, ‘Cross-cultural Image Exchange in Muslim South Asia’, Tasveer Ghar: A Digital Archive of South Asian Popular Visual Culture. http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/essay/117/
[iv] Amna Khawar, ‘Vintage Travel Poster Capture Pakistan’s Romantic Side’, Medium, 14 August 2014. https://medium.com/@amnak/vintage-travel-posters-capture-pakistans-romantic-side-95b5b8090909
[v] The advert appeared in the magazine, Pakistan Quarterly, Spring 1960.
A version of this article appeared in The News on Sunday [link: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/recovering-history-through-nostalgia/#.WJsT7BBpZE5%5D
The State of Statelessness
(c) copyright 2017 Pippa Virdee
(c) copyright 2017 Pippa Virdee
(c) copyright 2017 Pippa Virdee
(c) copyright 2017 Pippa Virdee
(c) copyright 2017 Pippa Virdee
(c) copyright 2017 Pippa Virdee
(c) copyright 2017 Pippa Virdee
All photos from Banksy’s temporary “bemusement” park installation in Weston-Super-Mare, 2015.
It appears that the new political landscape across the globe is colliding with old ideas of liberty, freedom and basic human rights. This is particularly palpable in the movement of people; what is heart wrenching is the curtailment of that freedom to flee from persecution, have the chance to live your life without fear and to seek sanctuary. Those who are forced to flee do not do this out of choice; they are forced to do so for a reason. Basic humanity means under the circumstance most of us would readily help those in need. But in a “globalised” world, it seems that goods and trade have more freedom to travel the world than humans. We want the benefits of living in an integrated global community but actually in reality we cannot cope with the consequences, which also bring cultures and people together. It brings about change and impacts local communities and threatens the very notions of what make a nation-state.
A few snippets that appeared in the last 12 hours to highlight the uncertainty of moving towards hard borders.
Banksy uses Steve Jobs to highlight the refugee crisis. Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant who came to America after the Second World War and Apple is number one brand that has connected people across borders with the revolutionary smart phones.
Precarious Trajectories: Understanding the human cost of the migrant crisis in the central Mediterranean. The film by Dr Simon Parker is set on location in Libya, Italy and Greece during 2015-2016, at the height of the Mediterranean migration crisis. It focuses on the perilous sea crossings that hundreds of thousands of refugees have undertaken in recent years in order to arrive at what they hope will be the safer shores of Europe through the eyes of Ruha from Syria and Ahmed from Somalia. See project website: https://precarioustrajectories.wordpress.com/
Equally compelling was the 3-part documentary by the BBC, Exodus. This is a compelling and powerful journey across the deadly Mediterranean Sea. Read a review of it in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/12/exodus-our-journey-europe-review-bbc-documentary-bbc
Link to the programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ky6ft
Pakistan’s Stepchildren – an in-depth and powerful analysis of the plight of millions of Afghans who sought sanctuary in Pakistan, but they remain “refugees” despite the vast majority who were born in Pakistan.
Citizenship for Afghan refugees and migrants, or their descendants has long been a contentious issue. According to the Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951, anyone born in Pakistan is a national by birth, except those whose parents are ‘aliens’ — someone “who is not citizen of Pakistan”.
Furthermore, Pakistan is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, nor to its 1967 additional protocol. As such, according to the Pakistani government, it is not obligated to “facilitate the assimilation and naturalisation of refugees.”
Read the full article: http://www.dawn.com/in-depth/afghan-refugees/
Prisoner of war
‘The Chinese man trapped in India for half a century’ is the tragic story of Wang Qi who was a Chinese army surveyor in 1963 following the Sino-Indian war; but he ended up on the wrong side of the border by accident. The story highlights the plight of Wang Qi, who is now settled in India and has a family but he does not have any legal rights in India. He is caught up in the quagmire of legalities surrounding his rights and citizenship. [Read full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38715056%5D The story is reminiscent of the many people who have been trapped for months and years on the wrong side of the border between the futile politics of India and Pakistan. Though more worrying is the current trend, in not just Trump’s America but in Modi’s India. India is also making discrimination against Muslims a key ingredient of its refugee and immigration policy. The following is a small extract from the article, ‘Indians Angry at Trump’s Ban on Muslim Refugees should look at what Modi is doing,’ highlights the current mood of India’s current government:
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill proposes a redefinition of “illegal immigrant”:
“Provided that persons belonging to minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who have been exempted by the Central Government by or under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 or from the application of the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 or any order made there under, shall not be treated as illegal migrants for the purposes of this Act.”
This effectively means that persons from minority religious communities from our neighbouring Muslim majority countries shall not be considered as illegal migrants and subjected to prosecution.
Trump’s executive order cleverly does not use the word ‘Muslim’ in the ban it imposes on those seeking to enter the US. India’s Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, on the other hand, by identifying explicitly and arbitrarily the intended beneficiaries of its refugee policy, directly excludes Muslim communities which may or do face persecution in India’s Muslim-majority neighbours (eg. Ahmadis, Hazaras, Shias) as well as Muslims who are in a minority elsewhere, like Myanmar or China.
Read the full article:https://thewire.in/104236/indians-angry-trumps-new-travel-ban-muslims-look-modi/
PIA, the jet-age and working women
The coming of the jet-age: women, advertising and tourism in Pakistan
Appearing on 23 September, 1956, The Pakistan Times article, ‘About women travellers’ is a commentary by their woman correspondent on travelling in the jet-age and ends optimistically with, ‘Times are changing rapidly. Gone are the days when women could not move unchaperoned, for now they travel the globe, and although there are no undiscovered continents, they still travel paths yet untrodden by women.’ This article appeared at a time when Orient Airways was merging with Pakistan International Airlines Corporation to form what is now more popularly known as PIA.
Shortly after PIA’s establishment, in 1959 the new managing director, Air Commodore Nur Khan, took over; he was considered to be a dynamic and forward-thinking visionary and well placed to take advantage of the coming jet-age that would revolutionise air travel. By its own admission, PIA considered his tenure as the ‘golden years of PIA’. Enver Jamall, former chairman and chief executive of PIA, highlights the competition PIA had with Air-India, which had already placed orders for Boeing 707s to be delivered in 1960. There was much determination within PIA to be the first airline in the East to operate jets and so an agreement was reached with Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) for the lease of one of its Boeing 707s. This would operate on the London-Karachi-Dacca route with an extension to New York once a week. The flights began in March 1960, giving PIA the coveted prize and the route was a financial and operational success.[1]
Writing on the tenth anniversary since independence the General Manager of PIA, Zafarul Ashan, notes how the bold concept of air transport helped Pakistan maintain national unity. He goes further and adds that ‘In air transportation, more than in anything else, the Pakistanis discovered their true genius, striving as a modern nation to achieve a happy blend of the values of their rich cultural past with values and concepts of this age.’ Ultimately, PIA’s impact extended beyond merely connecting the two wings. Apart from the trade between the two wings, the ‘low cost air transport within Pakistan started a revolution in the travel habits’ of people and ‘it opened up new venues of business and recreation.’[2] With the jet age, there was simultaneously an emerging middle class with more disposable income both globally and within in Pakistan. So while the majority of the early travellers were wealthy businessmen, the affluent middle class was the way ahead for expansion. Nur Khan recognised this opportunity for growth and expansion.
PIA also made some interesting strategic moves. In 1955, the first flight ‘to the glittering, glitzy capital city of London, via Cairo and Rome’ started. There was some criticism of this from the public who regarded other projects as more urgent for a developing country like Pakistan but this was rebuked with the substantial foreign exchange earned through the international service. Indeed the foreign tourist market was crucial to the business model in the early days of PIA, it is only by the 1970s that the shift towards catering for the diaspora market takes place. Travelling abroad was an aspirational luxury for an elite group of Pakistanis but PIA in its early years was also tapping into the lucrative international tourist market. This is certainly evident in the early marketing and advertising by PIA, they were appealing to the foreign market and indeed the airline was successfully establishing a reputation for excellent services and was increasingly capturing the international market.[3] It was consistently considered as one of the best airlines in the East and was increasingly competing with likes of Pan Am and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) for foreign tourists coming to Pakistan.
What is often over-looked in this story is the role of the women in promoting the PIA brand. PIA often used traditional notions of womanhood in their ads to attract more girls into the profession. We can see this from the text below taken from a 1966 tagline:
‘Pakistani girls make good daughter – no wonder they make such good Hostesses’
The advert depicts a young, elegant lady playing with a child on board a flight and continues, ‘Affection for the young, respect for elders and the desire to be helpful, hospitable and gracious…make-up of every daughter of Pakistan.’ These attributes can easily be applied to any “good” daughter (and potential daughter-in-law). But instead of representing the home, PIA airhostesses were ‘Pakistan’s Ambassador in many countries abroad’ and often she would be the first point of contact that a foreign visitor would make with Pakistan.[4] While playing on some of the traditional roles of women, the advert is also breaking new ground by legitimising the role of the airhostess. It sends out a message that this is a “respectable” profession and thereby quelling any fears parents may have about their daughters wanting to join the profession. On the other hand, the use of glamorous young females in exotic locations, also promotes an image of Pakistan which modern, progressive, internationalist and welcoming. There is then a dual role in the marketing and branding of the advertising.
There is also a sense that this was an age of new discovery and opportunity, democratisation in the travel and adventure industry, no longer the preserve of wealthy elites. An ever-increasing number of people now had the opportunity to explore and venture into new areas and the newly created nation of Pakistan had many attractions. The Government of Pakistan was also keenly promoting tourism, as is evident in the promotional literature of the 1960s. Foreign travelogues and magazines like the National Geographic were similarly featuring Pakistan as a tourist destination. While Karachi was the hub of activity, it was the old Silk Route, Peshawar, Swat, Chitral, Gilgit and the Karakorum Highway that attracted the adventure tourists. Mack Millar was a flight instructor assisting PIA during its early days and notes. ‘Although PIA is a national airline and the Pakistani government was founded to give the Muslim people their won country, the airline, like the nation itself, shows a wonderful tolerance for people of other persuasion. Many of the pilots are of mixed lineage-Anglo-Indian and Portuguese-Goanese, for example-and many are Christians.’[5] The feeling is that this was a more tolerant age; it was more open to foreigners and ideas. Internally it presented opportunities for Pakistanis to be part of an international community. The social and political changes that have taken place in Pakistan in the past 40 years have polarised this landscape.
The advances made in air travel were crucial to the existence of having a nation state divided by 1100 miles of hostile land mass. Zafarul Ashan was only too aware of this, ‘Nothing could have been worse than isolation for the cultural development and the expansion of the economy of the two wings. Political equality demanded that East and West Pakistan should be brought very close to each other in terms of time.’[6] The timing for Pakistan’s existence as a nation-state is therefore crucial in that the airline industry was just beginning to take off during the 1940s and not long after, the jet-age would revolutionise air travel. But along with this, a number of other opportunities also opened up. Foreign travel increasingly filtered down to the classes and was no longer just an elite activity. Out of this emerged a tourist industry attracting people to visit Pakistan and a domestic market, based not just on travel between the wings of Pakistan but looking to travel and experience the world beyond Asia. It also fundamentally opened opportunities for women to work and explore the globe. In an age where women were restricted to largely working in “respectable” jobs like teaching or medicine, here PIA was making the idea of working in the airline industry and as an airline hostesses a respectable profession. This was ground-breaking for the age.
[1] ‘Birth of a Nation; Birth of an Airline: The History of PIA,’ Enver Jamall in The Putnam Aeronautical Review 1990.
[2] The Pakistan Times, ‘P.I.A. Plans for Increased Capacity’ by Zafarul Ashan, 14 Aug 1957.
[3] The Pakistan Times, Independence Supplement, ‘PIA is flying high’ 14 Aug 1960.
[4] The Pakistan Times, 11 Sep 1966.
[5] Ed Mack Miller, ‘Pakistan International Airlines Great People to Fly With’ Flying, March 1963
[6] The Pakistan Times, ‘P.I.A. Plans for Increased Capacity’ by Zafarul Ashan, 14 Aug 1957.
A version of this appeared in The News on Sunday [link: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/the-coming-of-the-jet-age/#.WI_D3JJOuHk%5D
Gurdwara Panja Sahib
Gurdwara Panja Sahib, Hasan Abdul, Pakistan, 2004. The gurdwara is revered because it has the presence of a rock believed to have the hand print of Guru Nanak.
Dividing Punjab, 1947
Map of Punjab. Scale 1:16 Miles.
Muslim majority Tehsils and contiguous majority areas of Muslims.
Available in the National Documentation Wing, Islamabad.
By the summer of 1947, it was obvious that a one-state solution for British departure from India was not a possibility and so serious discussions were necessary regarding the division of British India. Above is one of the maps used by the Punjab Muslims League, Boundary Commission Office to make its case about how to divide the Punjab.
The 3 June Plan, or as it was more popularly known as the Mountbatten Plan, was accepted by the main leaders, Nehru, Jinnah and the Sikh leader Sardar Baldev Singh. According to the Plan, the areas of Bengal and the Punjab would be divided between Muslim and non-Muslim districts. The Commission consisted of four judges, Justice Din Muhammad and Justice Muhammad Munir (both Muslim) and Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan (Hindu) and Justice Teja Singh (Sikh). The Commission chairman was the British barrister, Sir Cyril Radcliffe. During the public sittings, all the parties were allowed to present their cases to the Commission.
The Muslim case largely rested on the basis that their population majority in contested areas should be considered a major consideration in demarcation of the boundary line. Amongst the numerous documents used by the Commission, the map above highlights the Muslim majority tehsils and contiguous majority areas of Muslims. The yellow area in the middle is around Amritsar in central Punjab. Punjab generally and more specifically this area was incredibly complex and mixed in terms of communal composition and so immediately it is obvious that the dividing up people and land would be no easy task. How would they undo hundreds of years of people living together, co-existing and now being forced into accepting a new nation state? In addition to looking at the distribution of different communities, the Boundary Commission also examined the existing boundary lines of the tehsils, the location of the railway lines, the Grand Trunk Road (which is the main artery of the Punjab and indeed North India, connecting Kabul right through to Calcutta), the rivers and canals, the irrigation system, natural boundaries etc and some of these are marked on the map. Of course each community further made a case before the judges to make recommendations about where the line should be. This is particularly pertinent in areas where we see the concentration or pockets of the “other” community. Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan in his report makes an interesting point about the city of Lahore, which historically and at the time of partition was claimed by all communities. The city has a rich history and was once the seat of power under Ranjit Singh. The Justice says:
“The town of Lahore in my view stands on a special footing. It has been metropolis of the Punjab for several hundred years. Both east and west have contributed to its prosperity. Its economic life has mainly been developed by the enterprise of the non-Muslims. In truth both the Muslims and non-Muslims can legitimately claim Lahore as their own town thought on different grounds…. If I could, I would have suggested that this town should be left in the joint management of both the communities as a free city, it freedom being guaranteed by the two Dominions with a suitable constitution in which one community may not dominate over the other.” (Kirpal Singh (ed), Select Documents on Partition of Punjab 1947 India and Pakistan (Delhi: National Book Shop, 1991, p333-4).
See some of the documents related to Indian independence at British Library: http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indianindependence/indiapakistan/index.html
Read commentary and analysis by Lucy Chester, ‘The 1947 Partition: Drawing the Indo-Pakistani Boundary’. http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2002_01-03/chester_partition/chester_partition.html
The Afghani Burger
Since last year Pakistan has requested that an estimated two million Afghan refugees (no one really knows the true figure) in Pakistan should leave and return back “home”. This has caused enormous amount of chaos along the Pakistan-Afghan border, not to mention the huge amount of distress and uncertainty for the people themselves. In these times when Europe is mostly focused on the refugees crisis in its own borders, there is a tendency to overlook the fact the majority of the world’s refugees are in fact located largely in neighbouring countries from which they flee. According to the UNHCR figures the top five hosting countries are:
Turkey 2.5m
Pakistan 1.6m
Lebanon 1.1m
Iran 979,400
Ethiopia 736,100
Visit the UNCHR website for a quick overview of figures, they are quite illuminating: http://www.unhcr.org/uk/figures-at-a-glance.html
The Afghani refugees initially arrived in Pakistan following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. They poured into Pakistan to seek sanctuary and most of them made new, but admittedly temporary, lives along the two provinces bordering Afghanistan. In the late 80s this figure was approximately 3.3 million, all located in refugee camps along Afghan-Pakistan border. A second wave of refugees poured into Pakistan following the US-led war in Afghanistan after 2001. By the end of 2001 the numbers rose up to approximately 5 million. By the end of 2012 there were however, almost 2 million Afghan nationals living in Pakistan largely in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan province but others were scattered across the country. Some of these people have been there for such a long time that this is the only home they have known. While they have legal refugee status in Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan still considers them citizens of Afghanistan, even though many have subsequently been born in Pakistan. Large numbers of refugees have already been repatriated back to Afghanistan with the assistance of the UNHCR; their future is yet again uncertain.
Despite this many of them have made their lives in the “foreign” land that has become “home”. They carve out a living whichever way they can and the Afghani burger place is a just a small way in which they hang onto their identity. I first came across this when a colleague insisted that when one is in Islamabad an Afghani Burger is a must. Intrigued to find out more we visited a shabby looking place, the modern day dhaba. The place is quite small, unassuming and ordinarily I would have walked past it. The burger itself is not a burger; it is more of a wrap to be precise. The food is made on site and in front of your eyes to entice you. The contents of the wrap include a mix of different influences, chips (limp and apparently Afghani style), frankfurters (made with chicken or beef), salads, and an assortment of different sauces/chutneys – eastern influenced mint ones, the ubiquitous tomato sauce (with added spices) and some eastern spices thrown in too.
Read more about the Afghani burger phenomenon in Dawn: http://www.dawn.com/news/1130547
Motivating the Afghanis in Pakistan is essentially the instinctive need for survival and whilst the State (and Pakistani citizens) does not consider them citizens, it does not stop the success and popularity of the Afghani burger from spreading. Food is of course the easiest and most sublime ways in which people both retain their identity and also share it with those around; it starts to infuse the landscape until it is absorbed into the existing culture. The result is that the Afghani burger has given life and thrived in a stale, bureaucratic city to give it some character. The politics remain but no one questions the joy that food can bring to the people and places far away from “home”.
The One-Unit, 1955
Like the previous post, to commemorate the inauguration of the One-Unit in Pakistan, three postage stamps were issued:
- 1½-anna, bottle green.
- 2-anna, dark brown.
- 12-anna, deep red.
The picture above is a first day cover issued on 7 December 1955, with a 1 ½ anna stamp which I just happened to came across during my stroll at the book fair on The Mall, Lahore which is held on Sundays.
One of the biggest challenges facing Pakistan after independence was maintaining the links between the two wings. This led to wider constitutional issues and so even after eight years of existence Pakistan did not have a constitution; it was still operating on colonial laws. Moreover, the two wings were divided by more a thousand (hostile Indian) miles. This of course would present challenges to the most stable of regimes and this is just a nascent nation trying to carve out a post colonial identity.
To bridge the multiple gaps between the two wings, the Government of Pakistan under Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra, decided that all four of the provinces in West Pakistan should be merged to constitute one-unit against East Pakistan. This would in effect mean that Bengalis, Punjabis, Sindhis, Pathans, Balochis would cease to have their regional identity and adhere to a yet another artificial political construct designed to posit the two wings against each other.
While geographically these two vast areas are split into two units, ethnic, religious and linguistic differences remained despite the political rationalization that was being put forward. Furthermore, while Urdu and Bengali were both accepted as state languages, English, the language of the colonial power and spoken a small minority of people, remained the official language of Pakistan. There was of course inevitably resistance from the four provinces who were being asked to relinquish their regional identity in a direct counter-measure against increased Bengali nationalism.
The uneasy relationship between the linguistic and ethnic differences encapsulated in the two wings of Pakistan created a divide which was difficult to resolve by the time the first general election was held at the end of 1970. In reality the longer-term impact of the one-unit was to create further division rather than bringing coherence and rationalization to the administrative landscape in Pakistan.
BAGICHA 