ONE day over lunch I was discussing the issue of national and regional identity with my brother. “You know, the problem with us Pakistanis is that we define ourselves as what we’re not, rather than what we are,” he observed; very astutely for a young man not yet a quarter of a century old.

“You’re right,” I replied. “But that’s just one phase of development. Look at it this way. When you’re a teenager, you’re rebelling against your parents and saying you don’t want to be anything like them — what you are not, as you said. In your twenties, you start getting an idea of what you want to be. In your thirties and then beyond, you work on becoming that person. By the time you’re ready to die, you’ve got it all figured out!”

My brother agreed and I was secretly elated: it’s not easy to get through to a member of the younger generation who’s intelligent, energetic, has seen the world and is wise beyond his years. But what we discussed resonated with me when I considered the intense debate created by my last column (‘Who is a Sindhi?’ Aug 13, 2008) in this esteemed newspaper. We Sindhis are stuck somewhere between our teenaged years and our adulthood in terms of psychological development; we’re in a twilight zone where we’re trying to reconcile our 1,000-year old identity vis-à-vis the young nation in which we count ourselves a vital part of its four-province federation.

With the help of my readers, who over the last few weeks have been enthusiastically writing and talking about what it means to be a Sindhi, I think we’ve managed to figure out some points we can all agree on.

— A Sindhi is one who is proud to call himself a Sindhi

— A Sindhi loves the land of Sindh and pledges to protect its integrity and heritage

— A Sindhi selflessly serves the entire province of Sindh and shuns violence

— A Sindhi appreciates and respects the Sindhi language, and recognises its due importance as the mother tongue of Sindh

— A Sindhi appreciates Sindhi music, literature, culture

— A Sindhi appreciates the cultures of those who make Sindh their home and are proud to call themselves Sindhi

— A Sindhi encourages and respects other Sindhis, and does not discriminate against them

— A Sindhi respects the territorial integrity of Sindh

Many thanks to Khalid Hashmani of McLean, Virginia, who helped me formulate the first six points; I added the last two myself to make what I feel is a list of the most vital characteristics of those who want to call themselves Sindhi. If we strive to make them part of our collective ethos, we will raise Sindhi self-esteem to heights it has never achieved before. In fact, I’d like all Sindhis to adapt this list as their personal manifesto: a roadmap to help us and our future generations decide who we want to be in the future, not just who we are today. It contains the spirit of assimilation, rather than exclusivity, while maintaining pride in a culture and heritage that predates the emergence of any nation-state on this earth.

The last point is one of some contention. There has been talk for as long as I have been alive about putting down boundaries of some sort in Sindh, whether to draw lines between Sindh and the rest of the nation, or to create territories and holdings within Sindh according to ethnic lines. But fragmenting Sindh into tiny splinters of lands based on ethnicity, or separating Sindh from the rest of the federation will never solve our immediate problems of education, healthcare, crime, peace, and justice. The solution to problems like these is to come together, not to fall apart.

All in Sindh are tired of suffering. We are tired of division. We are tired of violence. We want to return to the golden days, when we held arms out to welcome people who wanted to join us, and such people that came to our land added to its strength, its culture, and its economic prosperity. This is the dream of all people who live in Sindh, no ‘ifs’, ‘ands’ or ‘buts’. Can we work towards this state of grace in the hope that one day we might achieve it? In the words of a man whose ambitions far surpassed everyone’s expectations of him, “Yes, we can.”

Let me say something here about the nature of Sindh: boundary lines cannot define it, nor contain its essence to one side of an imaginary line that we humans think setting down on a piece of paper will solve all our problems (it didn’t work so well for Kashmir, did it?). The essence of Sindh is something ethereal, untouchable, running as free as the Indus River, as wild as the chinkara that graces our deserts. It is not something that can be defined by boundaries or flags. The land of Sindh is a geographical location: the spirit of Sindh is an idea that transcends both space and time and resides not on the earth, but in the soul.

The real beauty of Sindh is not in its forests, fields, rivers and oceans, but in the tolerance, peace and harmony that was spread by the Sindhi Sufis, the world’s original hippies. Their message was love and their beloved was God, and this is what marks Sindh as special no matter what ethnic groups struggle over their position in it. Sindh has been alive for over 1,000 years; it has been home to people from East and West, North and South. Sindh will go on long after all of us are in our graves, finally meeting with our Beloved. If there’s one thing we should teach our children before we go, it’s this: Sindh is not just a state, it’s a state of mind. And we can make it a state of grace, if we so choose.

The writer is a Pakistani novelist.

binashah@yahoo.com

AN autumn offensive by Gordon Brown to revive his premiership with a package of economic measures risks being overshadowed by the leak of a Home Office document which spells out how the downturn will lead to an increase in crime and greater support for extremist political parties.

Days after the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, warned in a Guardian interview on Saturday that the economic conditions are “arguably the worst” in 60 years, the Home Office paper gives an insight into the government’s detailed preparations for the downturn.

The document, a draft of a letter from Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, to Downing Street, warns that a downturn may lead to:

— An increase in support for “far right extremism and racism”;

— a possible increase in the support for radical Islamist groups from people who experience racism and possible unemployment;

— an “upward pressure on acquisitive crime”, property crime, which increases during a downturn;

— an increase in public hostility to migrants as the job market tightens;

— a fall in the use of cocaine and less drunken disorder in town centres unless drinks companies respond to the downturn by aggressive price cutting.

The leak of the document, which shows the government acknowledges there will be serious social consequences from a downturn, will irritate Downing Street after a difficult weekend.

Darling was forced to record an unscheduled television interview on Saturday to calm the atmosphere after his Guardian interview prompted speculation of a rift between the two most senior members of the cabinet. His frank remarks about the state of the economy, contrasting with the prime minister’s mild language, prompted Tory claims that the government was “dysfunctional”.

Downing Street and the UK Treasury insisted there was no tension between Brown and Darling, claiming they were focused on measures to help people struggling with the downturn.

The first initiative will be announced tomorrow when the government unveils plans to help millions of less well-off people gain — or at least not lose — a place on the housing ladder. This is likely to include a “shared equity” plan in which local authorities and housing associations help borrowers in return for a stake in their homes. Next week ministers will unveil plans to help people with rising fuel bills when the first cabinet of the new season will be held in Birmingham. This is expected to include measures to improve energy efficiency.

The Tories are likely to maintain the pressure on the government after the leak of the Home Office document which shows there could be a twin threat from the far right and radical Islamists. It says: “There is a risk of a downturn increasing the appeal of far right extremism and racism which presents a threat as there is evidence that grievance based on experiencing racism is one of the factors that can lead to people becoming terrorists ... The relationship to radicalisation is complex.”

— The Guardian, London