The Pakistani President, Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister, have all expressed their deepest condolences to Great Britain. Many Pakistanis share their grief on the passing of a beloved world figure who served with dignity, dedication and warmth. For some it hit hard, as just as in the case of Betty White, the news caught them by surprise even if both women were well in their 90s. It is also a reminder of how little time we have in this world and how everything comes to an end, shattering our notions of stability and permanence. Nothing lasts forever!
However, there are some folks on social media who have expressed strong sentiments on the Queen’s passing, associating her office with colonialism and the oppression of Iraq and Afghanistan. These folks include some in academia who study decolonisation. Certainly, it is one perspective, but in upholding strong narratives sometimes they lose touch of common sense and basic humanity. Such strong positions, as those of firebrand environmentalists, who block bridges and roads to draw attention to their cause, end up causing more nuisance to others who have medical appointments to keep and schools to attend than galvanize people against climate change.
Both the imperialists and the original victims of British colonisation are long dead. And it is not usually those who experience atrocities firsthand who wield such narratives but others who seek meaning in their vacuous lives by speaking on behalf of others. Indeed, many of the refugees who have escaped the horrors of war and genocide are either overwhelmed with PTSD or become mellow with age to spend the rest of their lives finding inner peace. Take a look at the former Guantanamo Bay detainees, who were eventually released. If you listen to Omar Khadr in Canada, you find a soft-spoken man who is trying to move on with his life rather than reliving an egregiously hurtful past.
In contrast, the social justice activists continue to poke at the tragedies of the past. One is reminded of the “wannabe jihadi” extremists that try to instigate youth into action based on a narrative of the oppression of Muslims in Myanmar, Kashmir, and Palestine. They perpetuate the cycle of violence and grief than assuage it.
Yet, the early generation of Muslim elders did not take a blanket anti-British stance. The 19th-century Muslim scholars and elders like Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (d. 1831), Nazir Husain (d. 1902) and Muhammad Husain Batalvi (d. 1920) rejected the 1857 rebellion, as they were generally of the view that they were allowed to freely practice their faith under the British, which was of paramount importance to them in the age before the consciousness of Muslim nationalism and Muslim states.
In the age of empires, people conquered or got conquered. Whoever was strong prevailed over the weak. And this included people of all religions and tribes. They didn’t have the privilege of railing against past imperialists. Genghis Khan raised minarets of human skulls, Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongol hordes, and to date we do not find people railing against the Mongols as they do against the British.
Returning to the mainstream Pakistani position, the founders of modern Muslim consciousness and statehood did not see the British as masters but eventually as friends. Many of them were knighted like Sir Syed, Sir Iqbal, and Sir Aga Khan. The founding father, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had more in common with English institutions and classical liberalism than with the archaic Caliphate and reactionary faith. Similarly, the madar-e-millat (mother of the nation) was depicted in the movie Jinnah (1998) as reminding youth that we wish to remain friends with the British.
This friendship with Great Britain has been cherished by Pakistan through the Queen’s visit during the Ayub Khan era, through the love shown to the late Princess Diana when she arrived to support the Shaukat Khanum Hospital, and most recently through the legendary hospitality showered on Prince William and Princess Kate when they toured Pakistan in 2019. Additionally, many Pakistanis visit Britain or live there as first-, second- and third-generation British Pakistanis. For them, Britain is home and the late Queen their monarch.
In essence, our values of hospitality and humanity far transcend dead-end narratives that lead nowhere except to the polishing of academic resumes through abstruse jargon and theorising on a past that even the original victims would not recognise.
The Queen has passed away. In a world rife with polarising and pungent narratives, the British people mourn her passing. Pakistanis join them in their grief. They stand with them in this hour with their prayers and condolences.
However, there are some folks on social media who have expressed strong sentiments on the Queen’s passing, associating her office with colonialism and the oppression of Iraq and Afghanistan. These folks include some in academia who study decolonisation. Certainly, it is one perspective, but in upholding strong narratives sometimes they lose touch of common sense and basic humanity. Such strong positions, as those of firebrand environmentalists, who block bridges and roads to draw attention to their cause, end up causing more nuisance to others who have medical appointments to keep and schools to attend than galvanize people against climate change.
Both the imperialists and the original victims of British colonisation are long dead. And it is not usually those who experience atrocities firsthand who wield such narratives but others who seek meaning in their vacuous lives by speaking on behalf of others. Indeed, many of the refugees who have escaped the horrors of war and genocide are either overwhelmed with PTSD or become mellow with age to spend the rest of their lives finding inner peace. Take a look at the former Guantanamo Bay detainees, who were eventually released. If you listen to Omar Khadr in Canada, you find a soft-spoken man who is trying to move on with his life rather than reliving an egregiously hurtful past.
In contrast, the social justice activists continue to poke at the tragedies of the past. One is reminded of the “wannabe jihadi” extremists that try to instigate youth into action based on a narrative of the oppression of Muslims in Myanmar, Kashmir, and Palestine. They perpetuate the cycle of violence and grief than assuage it.
Yet, the early generation of Muslim elders did not take a blanket anti-British stance. The 19th-century Muslim scholars and elders like Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (d. 1831), Nazir Husain (d. 1902) and Muhammad Husain Batalvi (d. 1920) rejected the 1857 rebellion, as they were generally of the view that they were allowed to freely practice their faith under the British, which was of paramount importance to them in the age before the consciousness of Muslim nationalism and Muslim states.
In the age of empires, people conquered or got conquered. Whoever was strong prevailed over the weak. And this included people of all religions and tribes. They didn’t have the privilege of railing against past imperialists. Genghis Khan raised minarets of human skulls, Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongol hordes, and to date we do not find people railing against the Mongols as they do against the British.
Returning to the mainstream Pakistani position, the founders of modern Muslim consciousness and statehood did not see the British as masters but eventually as friends. Many of them were knighted like Sir Syed, Sir Iqbal, and Sir Aga Khan. The founding father, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had more in common with English institutions and classical liberalism than with the archaic Caliphate and reactionary faith. Similarly, the madar-e-millat (mother of the nation) was depicted in the movie Jinnah (1998) as reminding youth that we wish to remain friends with the British.
This friendship with Great Britain has been cherished by Pakistan through the Queen’s visit during the Ayub Khan era, through the love shown to the late Princess Diana when she arrived to support the Shaukat Khanum Hospital, and most recently through the legendary hospitality showered on Prince William and Princess Kate when they toured Pakistan in 2019. Additionally, many Pakistanis visit Britain or live there as first-, second- and third-generation British Pakistanis. For them, Britain is home and the late Queen their monarch.
In essence, our values of hospitality and humanity far transcend dead-end narratives that lead nowhere except to the polishing of academic resumes through abstruse jargon and theorising on a past that even the original victims would not recognise.
The Queen has passed away. In a world rife with polarising and pungent narratives, the British people mourn her passing. Pakistanis join them in their grief. They stand with them in this hour with their prayers and condolences.