History has shown that after every pandemic there has been a change in the world order; at least it does augment reformation and new affiliations. China is reaching for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to strengthen its regional defense and cooperation, so as not to remain solely dependent on Pakistan, and yet Hong Kong is at its peril. Saudi Crown Prince has sent reconciliatory notes to its arch rival, President of Iran. The traditional alliances are under reshuffling. Unpredictability inside or at borders have global ramifications. Nature has a message to give. Let us listen to it.
The second surge of COVID-19 has exposed our health care system. Before it, the Chinese aggression at Galwan made us aware about our security concerns, that how vulnerable we are. Health, security and education have once again come for revisiting, to compel us to rethink our national priorities. What we have seen is undermining of social institutions and state welfare, under the compulsions of capitalistic and international order. The free market rationale, rise of corporate dominance and weakening of state welfare have shown in the COVID-first wave how migrant workers suffered beyond expression and in the second surge, it has been the middle upper classes, mainly the urban and town population that is suffocating for lack of oxygen in the hospitals. Despite being one of the world’s biggest vaccine producing country, India has been incapable of administering the COVID vaccine to all its population. The same is true of Pakistan that mainly is dependent on China for its free and subsidized vaccine resource. The Indo-Pakistan war mentality has undermined our developmental priorities. We need to normalize our relations with our neighbours, including Pakistan. These gestures are increasing in the public discourse, more with us and selectively emerging in Pakistan as well. Other day, Ayaz Amir in his Think Tank talk show was lucid in his comments that until 1965, despite partition animosity, the relationships between India and Pakistan were near normal. It was Pakistan’s experimentation in 1965 that generated hate history between the two countries. In the subsequent years, after the decentering of Indian state in 1977, Pakistan had exhausted its war options, indirect, direct, proxy and participatory to dismantle Indian pluralism. India prevailed over it, but with a cost that set in motion the fissures in pluralism and augmented communal divide in public realms. It generated a climate for cult politics and mass seduction about past victimization and judgment on the immediate bad past. Pakistan has not gained anything out of it. In fact, its national esteem lost its sheen and it became more dependent on external aid and on inside became religiously radicalized. To the disbelief of many, the poverty ridden East Pakistan has turned a prosperous Bangladesh. Invoking primordial glory and justifying cult leadership is no alternative to the institutional strength. The crumble of health care system, inadequate security and falter of personal choices have made the noisy debates of euphoric nationalism on TV talk shows or at public spaces appear meaningless in private conversations and in public perceptions. It might be a little exaggeration but it appears in print media that ‘India’s infected are dying in hospitals, outside hospitals, on ambulances, on footpaths. It is running out of crematoria and wood with which to burn its infected bodies. The fact is that our foundational institutions and pliant pluralism have once again come to rescue us from this unimaginable calamity. Indian common people are proud of their country, patriots without exhibition. They do not like those branded elite who for the sake of criticism are ready at any world forum to demean leadership and their country. And at the same time, they do not appreciate to create hype for selective nationalism, which does not go well with our plural space and day to day peaceful coexistence. The elite leadership and drawing room intellectuals need to know the world view of the common masses, rather than taking them for granted to give their intentional judgments. Indian masses in general abhor being either ultra-left or extreme right in their social world view perceptions. Humanity is universal, beyond boundaries. The world is not what it used to be before the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. It can be functional world only if states cooperate with one another and appreciate each other’s contribution. It cannot be a dominant individual, who undermines institutional strength or a hegemonic country that hinders wellbeing of comity of nations. Providing a beneficial discourse for life chances is more important. Power politics has to shift its orientation from divisive politics, especially during election process that we have seen on rise over the years. Economics is a drive to ensure security and survival of a globalized one world. Manufacturing the other in political realm in the name of religion, race and cult has come to its full inundation. It no longer has purchase, for public sphere is exposed to the relative truth. Who could have imagined that players leaving their national commitment would prefer to honor their IPL contracts? A case of British and South African players is eye opening to understand the fate of construed nationalism, including religious or otherwise. Had our players of the subcontinent acted like that, our nationalism would fall apart. Our leaders have created euphoric discourse about nationalism, which is not true nationalism. Nationalism is an ideology given by modern project. It has its prerequisites, which are: an educated middle class, skillful human resource and consensus through institutional strength. The national pride has meaning and acceptance only if it is complemented intrinsically by foolproof health care system, quality education network, vibrant institutions and social justice with freedom and security. India still has to go a long way, despite early leadership had firmly established these national institutions, which have capacity to take care of our pluralism and organic evolution with progress and development. India has undergone crisis after crisis, yet it has survived. Our institutions need strengthening from our political elite and citizenry. Our social institutions have already gone weak. Neighborhoods, joint families have already transcended to private spheres and personal personages. Undoubtedly the anchorage systems, notional or real, have expiry point. There is an innocent question, spoken or unspoken, that remains neither answered by science nor by religion. The countries do not need massive arsenals or human macho to finish itself; it can be done away in one room by an errant person with cybernetics and biological warfare, alike invisible and soundless until it brings doom. In Pakistan, political landscape is not stable. Opposition is discredited and the ruling party does not deliver on its promises. Neither it could bring its older glory of ‘Riyaste Medina’ nor could it opt for the Chinese model of efficiency based on one party and one person rule. In a makeshift policy arrangement, Prime Minister Imran could woo Turkey’s Erdoğan at the irk of Arab world. The big brother, the army establishment is disillusioned with political experimentation with Imran Khan. It has intervened to set its priorities in view of emerging challenges. America is set to leave Afghanistan and Taliban has refused to go to Istanbul. The regional affiliations exhibit its faultiness. Russia is critical of Chinese policies. In Pakistan military and political elite are divided on its assessment to put all its eggs in Chinese basket. US hold its influence among substantial chunk of its policy makers. Recent mishandling of TLP has engendered new apprehensions. Taliban is getting closer to it; a force that can destabilize the region. COVID-19 is no sight to disappear. Hence peace at borders is an imperative and foreign policy can shift from geo-security to geo-economics, at least, in its face saving. India and Pakistan can put off their disputes, until their people could have some respite from poverty, violence and pandemic diseases. At the advent of the century, with the boom in our soft wear industry the country and vibrancy of pluralism and democratic institutions, we had edge over Pakistan in the world perception. Now with noisy rhetoric in public realms, abating power of social institutions and COVID-19 catastrophe, we are proving nowhere different than our neighbors. Therefore, peace inside and on the borders is a must, not only for these two neighboring countries, but essentially for the entire regional development and international stability. Let us hope that General Bajwa’ s doctrine of peace talked in selective media presence in his country recently makes paradigm shift to our bitter legacy of seventy years.
The author is an Emeritus Professor in Sociology at Banaras Hindu university