Pakistan Zindabad, a slogan that gained notable impetus at the national level during early 1940s as a battle cry for creation of Pakistan, has now become one of the most celebrated expressions of patriotism in Pakistan.
One of the biggest ideological challenges to the existence of Pakistan has been its failure to identify itself without putting India as a frame of reference – as a neighbor, as an enemy, as a competitor or as a parent geography, due to which Pakistan Zindabad, which should ideally mean victory of Pakistan, stretches to victory of Pakistan due to downfall of India.
This phrase was alsojubilantly raised after creation of Pakistan by the locals to welcome the refugees coming to Pakistan.
Over years, it become one of the most identifiable catchphrases in Indo-Pak wars, India-Pakistan social media bashing, separatists’ movement in Kashmir and anti-national movements in several parts of India.
Society can be crudely pegged around ternary systems. People are atheist, believer or agnostic; social, antisocial or asocial; liberals, conservatives and fence-sitters. The spectrum of Indian socio-cultural collage consists of nationalists, anti-nationals or fence-sitters. Anti-national philosophies become more complex when Pakistan is involved, and the anti-India feelings spring to anti-India-pro-Pakistani feelings.
OpIndia.com team has tried to capture some of the recent anti-India-pro-Pakistani events from different parts of India:
- On 2 Feb 2015, while Main Stream Media was discussing around GharWapsi and Falsification of the news, people in Buland Shahar (Uttar Pradesh) shouted “Islam zindabad, Pakistan zindabad, Hindustan murdabad” and terrorized people.
- Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a separatist leader of Jammu and Kashmir, has fabricated his support based on the demands for Free Kashmir. In the video tagged below, he shouts Pakistan Zindabad slogans and convinces people that religion is above nationalism and secularism. Sadly, the crowd, which cries woes of victimhood and exploitation, chants to his tunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxyZS-OoCvk
- On 30 June 2014, Samajwadi Party leader Mehmood Alam was booked in Uttar Pradesh on the Meerut-Karnal highway when he was extorting money from the passers-by. When he was objected, he started raising pro-Pakistan slogans.
- During floods in Jammu & Kashmir, a group of tourists from Karnataka was forced to shout pro-Pakistan slogans and they were robbed at gun-point in Srinagar.
- On 6 January 2015, six Muslim men and a Hindu man were arrested in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly putting up a hoarding with the Pakistani flag printed on it. It was also alleged that these people shouted Pakistan Zindabad slogans.
- On 5 March 2014, 67 Kashmiri students were arrested in Meerut for ‘cheering’ Pakistan in an India-Pakistan match.
- There are many reported and unreported incedences where Pakistan Zindabad Slogans were cheered in specific areas of Patna, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jamshedpur, etc.
Even if we leave aside extreme cases where a few Indian Muslims from Hyderabad, Bangalore, Varanasi, Mumbai, Kolkata, etc. have joined ISIS or other terrorist organizations, but we can’t neglect or understate serious issues like public shouting Pakistan Zindabad. Terrorist setups don’t question religious and cultural background of a society beyond a limit, but these organized events, which involve huge social gatherings and public speaking, impact public opinions for a long time and raise some very serious questions.
