ON the eve of yet another Aug 14, a video clip from Akbar S Ahmed /Jamil Dehlavi’s movie Jinnah went viral.

It starts with Jinnah confronting an angry bearded young man, and potential assassin, restrained by the police. The young bigot is angry that Jinnah talks about a Muslim State but wants to grant equal rights to minorities and women. Jinnah responds, “I have fought for your mother, your sister, and your children’s children to live in dignity. Islam doesn’t need fanatics. Islam needs men of vision who will build this country. Now grow up!” The clip ends at a straggling column of refugees inspiring full-throated roars of Pakistan Zindabad.

Let us fast forward nearly three quarters of a century later. On Independence Day 2019 has Pakistan really grown up? For those not yet totally bigoted or stunted enough to be incapable of quietly informed thinking and some introspection --about all that is not yet proscribed or prohibitively unattainable in our independent nation-- that is the only relevant question.

Have we evolved from ignorance and bigotry and fanaticism to that promised nation where all can live, unmuzzled, in peace and dignity?

Seventy some years later Pakistan and India grovel in hatred and at the nuclear brink. We continue to rant and rave for a Kashmir that is essentially our only water source and still remains about the only basis of national existence! How much have we built the Pakistan that Jinnah envisioned and for which those hopeful, surviving, refugees left shattered pasts behind?

Dr Mervyn Hosein
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2019