The session titled “Living with internal differences: The South Asian dilemma” on the concluding day of the Lahore Literary Festival on Sunday focused on colonial ‘hangover’, lack of vibrant civil society mechanism and historiographical distortions.

Khaled Ahmed, political analyst and columnist, introduced panelists Romila Thapar, Ayesha Jalal and Asma Jehangir as three extraordinary women of the subcontinent.

Mr Ahmed invited Romila Thapar, a distinguished Indian historian, to comment on the internal differences.

Ms Thapar said the nation-state concept in the subcontinental context transformed internal differences into conflicts. She said the concept had given a major setback to pluralism in the region. “Democracy and secularism are the solutions to the imbalance.”

To a question about problems being faced by historians in India, Thapar said history books were compiled by state institutions and religious organisations. The historian said a chapter on vedic culture in which she after a thorough research had written that Aryans ate beef, was expunged from school textbooks.

“I questioned whether the changes are an attempt to replace mainstream history with a Hindutva version of it.”

Ayesha Jalal, a celebrated historian, said Pakistan didn’t create vibrant civil society organisations as a result of which internal differences extensively weakened society.

Human rights activist Asma Jahangir agreed with Thapar that pluralism strengthened society.

To a question, Ms Jahangir said ‘biased’ legislation aggravated the state of affairs. “I think some colonial-era laws were better. It’s worrisome what the Council of Islamic Ideology is doing. We don’t want politicised legacies.”

She was also critical of new legal paradigm for tackling the spectre of terrorism.

She pointed out that the Constitution of Pakistan negated the concept of equality, citing pre-requisite for head of state.

Digressing for a moment, Khaled Ahmed sought Asma’s comment on Hudood ordinances, to which she said the situation had considerably improved as the number of women languishing in jail reduced.

Ahmed ended the session, citing Romila Thapar: “People want definitive answer from a historian but it is difficult as tomorrow I can say I have more evidence and can change my version.”

Published in Dawn February 23rd , 2015

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