Pervez Hoodbhoy Visits the San Francisco Bay Area
By Ras H. Siddiqui

The Bay Area community hosted Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy at two events last week. Hoodbhoy’s visit to northern California which heralded his new book titled “Pakistan: Origins, Identity and Future,” a voluminous 450 plus page work of non-fiction in which the good doctor has taken on a very complex and difficult topic in an unbiased manner albeit from a liberal and progressive viewpoint. This book is a South Asian focused work. Indian readers will find value in it as much as Pakistanis if they keep an open mind.  Hoodbhoy is proud of being a South Asian and rubbishes the notion that Pakistanis need to find their roots and identity outside the region. 

Dr Hoodbhoy received his early education at Karachi Grammar School (KGS) and completed his higher education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he received degrees in electrical engineering, mathematics, and solid-state physics, and capped his education there with a doctorate in nuclear physics. He brings a somewhat unique thought process to the Pakistani intellectual discourse as one from a rare breed of rationalists who continues to write and share logic while living inside a country where emotions and religious dogma dominate the national discourse. He is a secular warrior continually battling religious orthodoxy in Pakistan. 

Of the two Bay Area events, the first was held on Wednesday June 1, 2023, at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco where the focus topic was “Pakistan and India: Common Origins, Divergent Trajectories. Why?” At this venue Dr Hoodbhoy was interviewed by area tech and business luminary Faruq Ahmad. The second event was held at the West Valley College Event Center in Saratoga on Sunday June 4 th. This one was arranged by the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) Silicon Valley, in which Dr Hoodbhoy engaged in a fireside chat with Umair Khan (aka Mr Zareen), who himself usually prefers to stick to works of fiction instead of serious historical stuff.

This writer was able to physically attend the second event, which will remain the primary focus of this article. But one point needs a mention here from the Commonwealth Club gathering. Faruq Ahmad pointed out that in the book anger was described as one of the motivations for writing it. He asked Dr Hoodbhoy to explain what he was angry about. Pervez answered that he was angry that he was lied to about (Pakistani) history. He lamented the fact that a lot of untruths are told to people by nation states. Myths, and that he too at one time believed. Like in 1965 we were told that India had launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan. He later found out that it was not unprovoked. The people of Pakistan are being fed a flawed narrative, he said. It is time to set the record straight.

Over 200 people attended the West Valley Event Center event where Hoodbhoy engaged with Umair Khan and the audience on several issues. It was great to see some old familiar faces here from both India and Pakistan, those who have stuck to the progressive viewpoint over many decades. They have become a rare commodity these days. But now to a few discussion highlights.

Umair jumped right into the Two Nation Theory (TNT) and Dr Hoodbhoy explained. He said that it is the TNT that brought Pakistan into existence, and it is the main topic that he has tried to research and explain in the book. He elaborated on how Mr Jinnah explained the existence of two nations, one Hindu and the other Muslim in British India. They have different habits, do not intermarry, and cannot live together in peace. How far does one have to go back to explain this? Hoodbhoy said that there are myths on both sides of the India-Pakistan divide on this topic, particularly in this age of rising Hindu nationalism in India. Hindu was a geographical term before it became a religious one, said Hoodbhoy. And there was no unified Muslim identity either.

At one time Muslims worshipped at Hindu Temples and Hindus at Muslim shrines. The difference came with the arrival of the British. Even in the Mughal courts there was not a major Hindu-Muslim divide. Intermarriages with Rajputs were common. It did somewhat change under Aurangzeb. The British came into India slowly. They introduced their own educational institutions because their own numbers were small, and they needed locals to run India for them. The Hindus were much more amenable to that while the Muslims were not. The consequence was that the Hindus advanced much quicker and today, you see the difference that it led to.

Later, the Muslims had the rationalist Sir Syed Ahmad Khan who promoted education, Iqbal the poet philosopher and M.A. Jinnah. Dr Hoodbhoy said that Sir Syed is not described correctly in Pakistani history books and referred to his book as an attempt to correct that. He explained that Sir Syed was the only leading Muslim personality of the time who really understood the value of education and science. Sir Syed’s point was that Muslims need to stop crying and looking for conspiracy theories. They need to learn English and science. He was the “Lone Modernizer,” said Hoodbhoy. Unfortunately, Pakistan today has deviated from that. 

Pervez said that the TNT eventually ended up winning on both sides. People in India say that the TNT came with Iqbal, Jinnah, and Sir Syed. They do not bring up Veer Savarkar who popularized the term Hindutva (Hinduness) and M. S. Golwalkar of the RSS who introduced the TNT on the Hindu side. However, it is interesting to note that these ideas did not gain real traction amongst Hindus during the lifetimes of this duo, and it is only more recently that they have come to occupy center stage in India. So there really were two TNTs.

On to the other TNT, in 1937, the Muslim League lost badly in elections in areas which today are Pakistan, said Hoodbhoy. It was a terrible defeat as they got about 5% of the Muslim vote. Thereafter the secular Mr Jinnah (who was portrayed as a very pious Muslim in the days of General Zia-Ul-Haq) concluded that we are doomed unless we unite religion and politics together. The rest we know is history. Pakistan then became a slam-dunk, said Hoodbhoy. 

What happened to Pakistan? What went wrong? There was confusion even during Jinnah Sahib’s time. What kind of state it would be was left undecided until statehood was achieved. Mr Jinnah did not say whether Pakistan would be a secular state or an Islamic state, said Hoodbhoy. On top of that many leaders of the Muslim League were feudal landlords and local chiefs who wanted to further enrich themselves at the expense of fleeing Hindus during and after partition. There was massive loss of life and mass migration. Mr Jinnah inherited quite a mess plus he was a real sick man who died just over a year after Pakistan’s birth. Once he dies, within two years the Muslim League disappears. Between 1948 when Mr Jinnah died and 1956, Pakistan had seven prime ministers.

In 1958, enter the Praetorian State and the Army’s role in Pakistani politics which continues till today. It is clear as day that the Army runs Pakistan, said Hoodbhoy. They are the ones who have ownership of the country. The political leaders aren’t worth anything. Today’s mess is not new. It comes back to the beginning days of Pakistan. In fact, the first Martial Law was declared in 1953 in Lahore when there were riots against the Ahmadis who were then a Muslim sect who later became non-Muslims in 1974 under Pakistani Law.

On the concept of an Islamic State, Hoodbhoy opined that there has never been one in history. The word “State” is not used in the Qur’an, he said. And there is no mechanism specifying who will be the head of Muslims. There are countless questions which remain unanswered, e.g., is Pakistan an Islamic State notwithstanding the fact that its head has been a woman (Benazir Bhutto)? Our economy runs on bank interest, which is forbidden in the Qur’an. There are no clear answers. 

On the diverging trajectories of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, Hoodbhoy attributed India’s progress to their early emphasis on education irrespective of social stratification in society. Pakistanis from elite schools do well internationally too but curriculum control needs to be resisted in mass education in the country and free thinking should be encouraged. Hoodbhoy has been deeply involved in that pursuit with his initial “Mashal Books” effort whose offshoot “The Black Hole” is currently seeking support from overseas Pakistanis who want to make a real difference in their country of origin.

Many issues came up during the lengthy Question & Answer session following the fireside chat, but due to space constraints we cannot visit them all here. Members from the Ahmadi community were at this event and highlighted their plight in Pakistan. There was pin drop silence in the hall while they spoke, a reflection of embarrassment, concern, and solidarity perhaps. Hoodbhoy shared his own 1994 experience when his Ahmadi neighbor was shot in Pakistan and died while he himself took him to the hospital.

I must admit to being completely blindsided by Dr Hoodbhoy at this event. When I got up to ask my question, I first identified myself and before I could ask it, he said that he had read my work for a long time, a comment which left me speechless. Few readers would admit that they read anything that I write even privately, let alone publicly on stage! So, this is a public “Thank You” in writing to Pervez Hoodbhoy, someone who has inspired people like me for decades. It meant a lot coming from you Sir.  And this is from one Grammarian (Alumni KGS) to another too! 

To conclude here, since we in the Pakistani diaspora are very troubled these days, the question that I asked was “Is there anything encouraging going on in Pakistan today?” The emphasis here was on the word “anything” which showed my desperation. Hoodbhoy replied that yes, he believed so. If you look at how aware some young people are, the wonderful videos that they make and how unafraid they are of the Establishment, that’s really a ray of hope.

Kudos to OPEN Silicon Valley for hosting this event.