Good to look into the past

It is always good to look into the past as it will reveal a lot. The Central Asia and Sub Continent (more specifically area that comprise current Pakistan) was so much interlinked with each other that when one goes through the travels of the seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang (in older writings spelled Hsuan-tsang, Yuan Chwang, Hiuen Tsiang, and other ways), who made a sixteen-year pilgrimage to the India, one hardly feels any cultural shock when he mentions any Central Asian society or the society in India. The people who now live in Pakistan are mostly descendants of the races from Central Asian region, who over the ages have come to settle in Indus valley.

This link was severed with the advent of Islam in early Islamic period, but was re-established without much damage with the inclusion of Punjab into Ghaznavid empire and then onward Islamic rule in the sub continent. But re-establishing the past ties after British colonial rule, when anything outside the empire was considered uncivilized and barbaric, has become difficult due to the following two factors:

A) Different mindset of people of both areas.

Unfortunately both look each other through the same lens that was used by their colonial masters. Further, as the author of the article has correctly pointed out, the identity of Central Asia has changed. But equally true is the fact that the identity of people living in Pakistan has also changed. The region where still the ancestry from Central Asia is considered as symbol of prestige, no new contact has been established with Central Asia on people to people basis. One of the reasons is perhaps the lack of common language. Remember that before arrival of British, Persian was the language of intelligentsia throughout Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

B) Afghanistan problem

The area that is called Afghanistan has never been the same after the Mongol attack. The razing of whole city of bamyaan by Changez Khan has a deep scar on the mentality of Afghan people, who afterwards never looked to central authority for security, and adopted the approach of nurturing tribal identities instead of national. Though there were some great empires established in Afghanistan afterwards, but they just conquered the people, contained them through force and never included them into nation building process. In such scenario, where the central authority is not present in Afghanistan to establish law and order, the creation of business ties between Pakistan and Central Asia, which is a great people to people avenue of interaction, is very difficult.

Pakistani government and Central Asian states should encourage their people to travel to each others\’ countries and establish cultural centers. One or two days ago I was reading somewhere that in US the number of students that have enrolled to learn Chinese has gone up because of the desire of people to learn the language of their future business partner. Pakistan should also try to establish centers in the country to teach Persian or Turkish. If the people to people contact is established, and there is peace in Afghanistan, then we can once again achieve the cultural homogeneity that was once hallmark of this area. Believe me, this time it will be more beneficial for both of us as not only goods will be passed to each other, but they will also be sold to the world through Gwadar Port.

Khalid

PakPositive: Very interesting. People to people contacts are the basis for any successful process. Thanks for sharing.