Thread: THE HISTORY MAN: Who are the Paks?

THE HISTORY MAN: Who are the Paks? —Ihsan Aslam

How is it that the people of Pakistan are called Pakistanis, while the people of Afghanistan or Uzbekistan are not Afghanistanis or Uzbekistanis but just Afghans or Uzbeks? Another point: if we are to be called Paks, do we use terms such as “Pakman” just as we say “Englishman”? Isn’t Pacman a computer game, by the way?

The year 1933 is a significant one for it is when the word “Pakistan” was published by Choudhary Rahmat Ali from his student flat in Cambridge. On a personal level, the year is important for me because my mother was born in that year. So, too, was another 1933 lady, my “adopted mother” Aunty Zarina, Prof KK Aziz’s dedicated wife of fifty years (it’s their golden jubilee this month). KK Aziz, of course, is the renowned historian whose magnum opus is Rahmat Ali: A Biography.

Rahmat Ali died on February 3, and, here’s another personal connection, so did my father. Rahmat Ali studied, lived, and died in Cambridge. Having studied and lived in this city for nearly 25 years, I feel a connection not only with Rahmat Ali, but also with former Cambridge students such as Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Allama Iqbal, and Allama Mashriqi. If at times I seem a bit (well, perhaps, a wee bit more than just a “bit”) obsessed with the likes of Rahmat Ali or Abdullah Yusuf Ali, it is because I am trying to reconcile the personal narrative with the public one. In other words, I can’t help it!

“For all nations, old or new,” writes KK Aziz in Rahmat Ali, “the lives of their great men are a fount of instruction, pride and pleasure. Biography is in its essence a cardinal dimension of history”. Yes, biography is the flesh and blood of history. But how is it that Pakistanis generally tend to shy away from this genre, and if they do indulge in it, it is either to raise the subject of study to the status of an angel or a devil? Don’t ask me, mate, I’m just a doodler!

One thing is certain, though, that it is time to assess and acknowledge the role of Rahmat Ali in the Pakistan Movement more publicly than has been the case so far. True, poor Rahmat Ali has his share of screaming detractors, who have no hesitation in murdering a dead man, but the brave chap is a fighter and will not be buried (or reburied) so easily.

I can hear his gentle voice as he says defiantly — and this is from his last statement before he died in 1951 — “They can suppress me if they like; but they cannot silence me while I am alive. They can finish my life, which has been dedicated to the cause [of Pakistan] since 1932, but they cannot finish my Mission. For this Mission is inspired by the eternal Islamic truths; and it will, therefore, even after my death, call the Paks to the cause of the Faith, the Fatherland, and the Fraternity”.

Note how he uses the word “Paks”. Recall, also, that his 1947 book was entitled Pakistan: The Fatherland of the Pak Nation. Besides being an acronym, the word Pakistan meant the “land of the Paks” in the way Afghanistan is the land of the Afghans, or England is land of the Engles or Angles. In Rahmat Ali’s original usage, it is therefore “Paks” and not Pakistanis or even the derogatory “Pa ki”.

How is it that the people of Pakistan are called Pakistanis, while the people of Afghanistan or Uzbekistan are not Afghanistanis or Uzbekistanis but just Afghans or Uzbeks? Don’t ask me, pal, I’m just a doodler! One thing is sure, though, had the inhabitants of Pakistan been correctly called Paks, then we British Paks wouldn’t be insulted specifically with “Oi! Pa ki” but with a general racist “Oi! Wog/ Nig ger”.

Which brings me to another point: if we are to be called Paks, do we use terms such as “Pakman” just as we say “Englishman”? Isn’t Pacman a computer game, by the way? Don’t ask me, sir, I’m just a doodler! However, in Persian and Urdu “pak” does mean “spiritually pure and clean”. Are you a Pakwoman or Pakperson? Don’t ask me, madam, I’m just a doodler!

Rahmat Ali died aged 54 on February 3, 1951, and is buried in Cambridge, where he was exiled in life, and continues to be exiled in death, too.

Ihsan Aslam is exploring public history at Ruskin College, Oxford. He can be contacted at: timeshistoryman@yahoo.co.uk or visited at: http://www.pakistanhistory.com

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...4-2-2005_pg3_3

Interesting.

Food for thought.

Pak, Pa ki, Pakistani, Pacman or whatever. This guy surely ahs given some thought.