Pakistan’s Cultural Dilemma and India’s Challenge

Pakistan’s dilemma with respect to its cultural identity has always been contentious within its own borders. The deeply rooted radicalism often faces a wave of defiance from a small community of liberals who seek to restore the country's erstwhile cultural landscape. Though their efforts are laudable indeed, they have generally faltered in the past against the masses; recent developments suggest that the government of Pakistan is pursuing a very calculated and sinister strategy.

One ability that Pakistan vouches for is its skill to craft and set definite narratives in global geopolitics, a dexterity and inherent strength that India has underestimated for far too long. Despite being miles ahead of its counterpart and having clear advantages in every sphere, cultural, economic, tech or overall development, the global opinion of India, once called the cradle of civilizational heritage, has been twisted efficiently and reduced to irrevocable hatred towards Indians, which is apparently fueled by the hardliners of Pakistan and its highly sophisticated information warfare. Nevertheless,  India can no longer afford to ignore such discerning tactics, citing them as mere irrational manoeuvres.

Currently, at the helm of finding a centre stage in geopolitics,  whether by aligning itself with the USA  or China, Pakistan has slowly begun encroaching on the very cultural identity of India. It all began with the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty and keeping it in abeyance by the  Indian government after the infamous Pahalgam massacre, which left another deep blot in the history of Kashmir. To re-establish its rights over the river, Pakistan has resorted to selectively embracing the pre-Islamic heritage that it casually brushed off in the past in the guise of religion. From naming bazaars and streets of Lahore and reverting to pre-partition names like Lakshmi Chowk and Krishna Nagar to strongly acknowledging and sensationalising the existence of IVC, a civilisation that pre-dates the state’s existence.  

This grandstanding seemed good at first, for it could be casually dismissed as an attempt to be culturally inclusive, until they started claiming these legacies as exclusively a Pakistani heritage.

The internet warriors have begun a nefarious fad to redefine everything that has been culturally Indian as Pakistani. Lately, the campaign has intruded upon the intellectual heritage of India with online propagandists claiming  Panini, the progenitor of Sanskrit grammar and a great scholar, was Pakistani and that Sanskrit itself belongs to Pakistan. What is laughable here is that a state that came into existence in 1947 solely on religious lines and whose populace has vehemently loathed its minority wants to encash and steal the very essence of Indian heritage and call it entirely their own.  This might seem absurd to many right now, but history is a testimony to the fact that narratives like this, once sown, can alter global perception extensively.  Yoga, for instance, has already been appropriated by the West, and the same egregious tactics are being adopted by Pakistan to rip India off its collective legacy and erode its long-standing cultural identity. Moreover, building a narrative to quench its domestic endeavours is still fine. The danger lies when these get legitimized by international institutions like UNESCO, a greater risk of being appropriated by Pakistan if Indian scholars don’t actively contest it. Further, the Pakistani diaspora networks are as effective as the state media in amplifying these claims to get ratified by Western academia. What India needs right now is not simply to counter Pakistan’s ostentatious claims but a strong, calibrated approach to reframe its own culture as a global civilizational asset. Robust cultural diplomacy and international collaborations might be a good start; in fact, it is the need of the hour to ensure that India’s traditions are recognised as part of a shared heritage and that nobody can have hegemony over it.

 Critics argue that these efforts are merely to bolster its alleged rights over the Indus waters. The broader danger lies in the reframing of South Asian heritage and the assertion of exclusive rights over it. If left unchallenged, in the long run, the world might see these distortions through a different lens and might gradually accept them as fact.  The very essence of India lies in its ingrained history and culture. To lose face against a neighbour who neither values nor respects it would be a profound setback.