Forever in fervour

ONE of my favourite lessons in the classroom is on the use of descriptors and adjectives, and to demonstrate, I teach how national holidays like Aug 14 are reported. Since I began work as a journalist in 1995, I have read iterations of ‘Pakistanis celebrated such-and-such day with fervour’. The exercise on reporting on national holidays without using patriotism in the copy is a great lesson and also allows reflection on how we’ve been conditioned to think.
If we’re singing the anthem every day at school or the cinema, or waving flags at a ce­­­remony, it does not necessarily mean we are patriotic. Habit does not equate fervour.
The opposite is also not true, ie, a person not waving flags etc is unpatriotic. Over the years, the weaponisation of ghaddar coupled with a highly inflammable society prone to violence has resulted in a deadly combination.
Patriotism has long been used to exclude communities — cementing stereotypes, creating divisions and keeping power in the hands of the elite.
I did not think a recommendation of Susan Brownmiller’s 1975 Against Our Will, about how men use rape to keep women in a state of fear, and its use in war by soldiers, would earn me a label of ‘anti-state’ by one student. It is almost a knee-jerk reaction when presented with something that goes against everything you’ve been taught. I don’t blame the student as much as I do the system that produced a factory of workers handing out certificates of patriotism.
I’ve been thinking this while watching the discussion around the Afghan diplomats not standing for Pakistan’s national anthem in KP. There is a lot of hysteria on YouTube and mainstream TV across the political divide. The diplomats’ explanation was pretty simple: they did not stand because the anthem contains music which they consider unIslamic; they meant no disrespect.
Because we are so conditioned into equa­ting respect with standing for the national anthem, the rage we felt is understandable but cannot be condoned. Our guests’ bel­iefs deserve as much respect as ours, especially when they have clarified their position. But we live in a strange time where my belief (read: facts) trumps everyone else’s.
A lot of folk on traditional and social media went out of their way to prove their loyalty to the state or the KP government which hosted the Afghan delegates. Chief Minister Ali Gandapur defended the Afghan diplomats, saying he accepted their explanation while the KP governor, Faisal Kundi described Gandapur as the chief minister of Afghanistan.
In this toxic battlefield that has created deep divisions which show no sign of healing, the media also chose sides.
One headline read: Gandapur “defends Afghan diplomat’s disrespect for national anthem” as if the act was intentional. Of course, readers would seethe.
I watched one news anchor use his YouTube channel to tell his audience to confront those who refuse to stand for the anthem. I’m pretty sure his anger was directed at PTI supporters for what he says is not distinguishing between state (ie anthem) and government.
It is problematic to police people’s choices. Perhaps a Pakistani chooses not to stand as a way to protest the state’s failure to protect its citizens’ rights.
Every country has its version of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ patriots. When American footballers were taking the knee — following the murder of George Floyd by the police in 2020 — as a way to protest racism, then US president Donald Trump said “maybe they shouldn’t be in the country”.
Narendra Modi has ignited hatred for Muslims in India. The British tabloid media is full of racist lang­uage about Mus­li­­ms. One survey done earlier this year fou­nd an “almost statistical correlation bet-ween GB News view-ers and hate crime”.
I think it is unpatriotic to be ill-infor-med.
After all, the act of calling someone unpatriotic is rooted in propaganda and/or misinformation. Belie­ving your leader is more patriotic than their opponents and running campaigns on this serves no purpose. It may win you more seats at the next (s)election but it does not prevent children from dying of pneumonia, the leading cause of death among children under five, according to Unicef. These deaths can be prevented through immunisation and one glance at the papers tells you how those drives are going.
This government’s not-so-slow-anymore erosion of our civil liberties has left us with few avenues of protest — we can’t tweet, we can’t even organise demonstrations without fear of reprisal. And a lot of the media is enabling this with their partisan positions, probably because their survival depends on it.
Patriotism is anti-poor and racist. In its current form, it is totalitarian, too. Patrio­tism works when democracy does because it allows all of us to peacefully coexist with our differences, with or without fervour.
The writer is a journalism instructor.
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Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2024