By: Qammer Abbass Anka
“The cultural invasion is like a leafy tree which prevents us from seeing our own sun, sky and stars. Therefore in order to be able to see the sky above our heads, our task is to cut this tree off at the roots.”
Few days back I had to attend a Quran Khawani along with my family at my friend’s residence. After the culmination of the activity, my eight years old daughter asked her mother, ‘Are we going to get the Parshad now?’ The sudden question asked by my daughter put me in great agony and despair. Her choice of Hindi vocabulary that too at a highly sacred religious occasion was a vivid manifestation of subtle Indian culture permeating in our society.
Our religio-cultural identity in the shape of Two Nation theory was the foundation on which our Quaid built the great edifice of Pakistan. It was this rock which stood un-stumbled against wicked alliance of British and Hindus who were jointly resisting creation of Pakistan. Since the creation of Pakistan, our proverbial and arch enemy India is trying hard to prove the partition an absurd idea through different tactics. Hardliner Hindus through their sinister designs are incessantly spreading despondency and negativity against the two nation theory and are spreading the propaganda that there are no differences between Pakistanis and the Indians. Just to refresh memories of our young generation, two nation theory is a dividing line between narrow minded Hindus and the enlightened Muslims. According to our founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinah, ‘It is extremely difficult to appreciate why our Hindu friends fail to understand the real nature of Islam and Hinduism. They are not religious in the strict sense of the word, but are, in fact, different and distinct social orders; and it is only a dream that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality. This misconception of one Indian Nation has troubles and will lead India to destruction if we fail to revise our notions in time. The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and
literatures. They neither inter-marry nor inter-dine together and, indeed, they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their aspect on life is different. It is quite clear that Hindus and Mussalmans derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes, and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other and, likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built for the government of such a state.’
India’s main focus is to target the very basic foundation of this country, the Two Nation theory, through her cultural invasion. According to an Indian Physicist, Deepak Chopra, “It would be a real mistake for us to think that India will ever dominate the World through its outsourcing or software technology. If India is going to dominate the World, it will be through a cultural invasion, a cultural colonization”.
Indian propagandists brazenly propagate that people living on both the sides of border have no differences. While doing so, they totally overlook and even hide the spine chilling atrocities unleashed on Indian Muslims by Hindu fanatics. Muslim massacre in Gujrat and Ayodhya are merely tip of the ice burg. How can a country which is unable to safeguard the lives, property and honour of its own Muslim populace give a judgment on veracity of Two Nation theory?
Hindu leadership, think tanks and journalists mostly belonging to RSS have long term strategies to pollute the minds and hearts of Pakistanis and stir suspicions about their basic ideology. The poisonous Indian culture creeping in our society through media is part of this effort aimed at proving Two Nation Theory as wrong and misconceived. Main source of our cultural assassination is Indian media. This silent invasion is taking place mainly through cheap Bollywood movies, the rising trend in airing of Indian TV’s entertainment programmes by our cable operators, the free availability of pirated DVDs and videos of Indian films on the local market, and, most lethal of all, the home screening of Hindi dubbed children’s programmes, especially the cartoons.
Some segments of our society while taking leverage of globalization fiercely argue in favour of Indian culture. Probably, these pseudo intellectuals are ignorant of the unmatched sacrifices given by our ancestors for making Pakistan. Going a little back in history, in 1972, establishment of Door Darshan TV channel at Amratsar paved a highway for delivering Indian culture in our homes. The second nail in the coffin of our culture was pierced in 2008 by allowing airing of Indian movies in our cinemas. Subsequently, advancements in internet and social media further eased out ingress of Indian culture in our society. Indian culture is landing in our homes uninterrupted through Indian movies, dramas and talk shows. Besides Indian channels, these films/programs are invariably provided space in our domestic TV channels. While following a two pronged strategy, India is proliferating her movies in our cinemas which attract a large number of viewers, giving unnecessary boost to Indian economy.
Presently with every passing day, we are losing our national identity. Unfortunately, underlying reasons for identity crisis are not economical or political, but the changing life patterns and thoughts of our populace. Our society is undergoing a massive cultural change causing severe identity crisis for Pakistanis. The deep-rooted and embedded socio-cultural values in our society are becoming hollow and gradually fading away. Among various catalysts causing this scenario, Indian cultural invasion via its powerful media ranks at the top.
Indian cultural blitz is eating our cultural, ethical and social values like termite. The TV dramas wickedly transform our heroes into villains and our masses subtly absorb the latent messages embedded in these dramas. Interestingly, the high profile elite society and the life style portrayed in Indian dramas and movies is spreading inferiority complex among our youth. Our society is slowly abandoning Islamic values while assimilating Indian values. The Indian cultural onslaught is stirring suspicion about our ideology, culture, values, religion, priorities and even friends and foes. Customarily, language becomes the first causality of any foreign cultural invasion. Indian culture is appallingly
contaminating our national language. Our youth do not hesitate in frequently using Hindi words in routine conversation.
Termite of Indian culture has not spared even our dress culture. Indian style catwalk shows are promoting Indian traditional dresses like Sarhi, Patiala Shalwar, Choridar Pajama and short sleeveless shirts. Indian culture has also permeated in our social events like marriages and fun fares etc. Today, every third mobile phone in Pakistan has ring tone of some Indian song. Many of our advertisements, television programmes, films, cable TV channels and even websites have adopted Indian styles and themes. Due to the viral effects of Indian dramas, our children today do not feel shy in watching cheap and weird Indian programs in front of their parents. Another victim of Indian cultural incursion is our poor film industry. Mega budget Indian movies aired in our cinemas have brought our film industry to the verge of almost extinction. Similarly, wide publicity of Indian products is forcing Pakistani viewers to simply reject the domestic brands considering them inferior to Indian products.
Indian culture is a menace to our ideology and traditional values. There is a dire need to thwart this threat with rock hard commitment. It is not only the duty of our Government to undertake the termite treatment of this viral epidemic, rather every individual in our society has a moral and national obligation in defending our nation from this disease. The first step in this direction is complete boycott of Indian movies, dramas, products and TV shows, after all every penny earned by India through these products is spent against Pakistan. Let us join hands in this sacred cause so that our future generations may live with honour and dignity.