A sociological view of violence in Pakistan
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It is a big question to ponder for the government, opposition parties and the state institution, how a fringe religious party— Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), now officially outlawed— disrupted inter-city travel and urban traffic flows by attacking everyone who dared to challenge its control of the roads and streets?
Its workers have beaten two policemen to death, injured hundreds in different cities of Pakistan and damaged private and public property. It is not for the first time that this party and many others have challenged the writ of the state, often with impunity. There are deeper causes of marginality, powerlessness, demographic changes, class issues and skewed urbanization that have created a fertile atmosphere for the rise of religious demagogues that incite gullible followers to violence.
For many of the problems Pakistan faces, the state and its ruling elites can be found adrift by not addressing population growth and social development. While facing urban unrest, appeasement is the convenient path to take so violent groups lift the pressure off the government-- but by capitulating to unreasonable demands, they are only encouraging more of the same.
From a rational point of view, the issues the TLP has raised are trivial, and easily can be dismissed as irrelevant, like its contesting of the replacement of word “oath” by “declaration” in the form that Muslim members of the parliament have to file.
But then this is Pakistan, where religious emotions and sentiments can get easily exploited. The late cleric and founder of TLP, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, argued that the changing of one word was an attack on the ‘identity’ of the country. He led a protest march on November 8, 2017 and camped over the Faizabad Interchange-- a strategic point connecting twin cities Islamabad and Rawalpindi-- for 20 days. It forced citizens to make their way through back streets and lanes. He got his wish on November 28, 2017; even the law minister who dared to change the word in the declaration was shown the door out of the cabinet.
For many of the problems Pakistan faces, the state and its ruling elites can be found adrift by not addressing population growth and social development. While facing urban unrest, appeasement is the convenient path to take so violent groups lift the pressure off the government-- but by capitulating to unreasonable demands, they are only encouraging more of the same.
Rasul Bakhsh Rais
Last year in November, he came back to the same point-- to demand that all trade with France must cease and that the French ambassador be expelled from the country as a protest against blasphemous cartoons published in a French magazine.
The government of Imran Khan did the same thing as its predecessors, succumbing to the pressure and signing an agreement with the TLP to take the matter to parliament for building national consensus.
It was a sign of weakness. Nowhere in the world does a government allow any party or group dictating foreign policy choices or relations with other countries.
As the government was obviously unable to fulfil its promise, the religious party threatened to march on Islamabad on April 20 for the third time. Fearing another violent sit-in, Hafiz Saad Rizvi was arrested, provoking a sharp reaction from his followers pouring into the streets in various towns and major cities.
The sit-ins and violence against the police and fellow citizens by emerging ethnic and religious groups requires a much deeper look into not only the decline of the state capacity to govern but more into the changes in Pakistani society that have occurred during the past several decades.
The population explosion has created a massive youth bulge, about 60 percent of the population being between the ages of 18 and 30. Huge numbers of youth have been left out of the formal educational system, even among those enrolled, the drop-out rate is higher than the regional average. Social and economic mobility remains a distant dream for this section of society, which finds expression of empowerment in mob rule, religious processions and in violent acts.
Pakistan has registered rapid urban growth due to migration from rural areas both by the rising middle class and the landless peasantry. The transition from farmers to urban workers brings with it the issues of identity crisis, loss of supportive rural community in a new setting. In contrast to rough social equality of village life, the disparities of city life in housing, lifestyle, educational standards and income levels are glaring.
They find job opportunities as construction workers, domestic servants and industrial laborers, and settle either on public lands on the fringes or rent in low-income housing schemes, often devoid of running water and electricity. Unhinged from rural community life of close association, the new migrants confront the challenges of social alienation. They find the nearby religious network rather welcoming and warm and associational life empowering in feelings of camaraderie and fellowship.
The youth from marginalized communities facing troublesome identity crisis and social vacuum seem to be increasingly embracing militancy to vent their frustrations of having been left out. The state of Pakistan, instead of tapping this youthful energy by imparting skills and engaging in technical professions, has left them out to become willing foot soldiers of demagogues and violent groups.
- Rasul Bakhsh Rais is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS, Lahore. His latest book is “Islam, Ethnicity and Power Politics: Constructing Pakistan’s National Identity” (Oxford University Press, 2017).
Twitter: @RasulRais
