The Feudals, good or bad….Lets discuss them!
Feudals played very significant role in the creation of Pakistan since the early days of Muslim League. Bengali and Uttar Pardeshi feudals were prominent in ML since its inception and resisted the pressure from urban Muslims like Shibli Nomani to make ML an Islamic party instead of party of Muslims. A person with feudal background named Ch. Rehmat Ali coined the name Pakistan. Most of the Muslims in Muslim majority provinces were rural, who were won over to ML with the help of feudals. The road to the creation of Pakistan was finally cleared of hurdles once Punjabi and Sindhi feudals and feudals-cum-pirs joined ML during mid-1940s upon the advice of British, after failing to win British Raj’s support for separate ethnic based regional entities. Pakistanis are Pakistanis, thanks in parts to feudals’ support at that critical juncture in history.
Pakistan was truly a bureaucratic state during the early years until about 1955. Bureaucracy ran Pakistan efficiently despite political turmoil until military started interfering directly in the politics. Ayub Khan introduced large number of feudals directly into active national and provincial level politics in order to win popular rural support and later Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto followed same strategy. Rural Pakistanis (feudals territory) did not participate in two movements, to get rid of Ayub Khan in 1969 and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1977, while urban Pakistanis took part enthusiastically. Later feudals joined hands with Zia Ul Haque and more recently with Musharraf. It turns out that feudals made the right decisions by staying away from movements in 1969 and 1977. Within a short duration of less than 25 years, history has exonerated them from distancing popular urban political movements. The 1969 movement led to Yahya Khan’s rule, political divisions and the cessation of East Pakistan whereas the movement in 1977 gave Pakistanis 11 eleven years of Zia ul Haque rule whose repercussions are likely to be felt for a long time to come. In the case of supporting Zia and Musharraf, it looks bad but Zia did not and Musharraf does not need feudals’ support for the continuation of dictatorships.
Feudals are an essential ingredient of rural culture. They provide order – though imperfect one – in near absence of law enforcing and justice dispensing state apparatus. Yet rural society abides better by the common sense values better than their urban Pakistanis. Fruits are picked after ripening in rural areas whereas fruits from unprotected trees in urban areas are stolen before ever reaching ripened stage. An old bus polluting the atmosphere with smoke runs for years in rural areas whereas new buses are set on fire often in routine Friday demonstrations in urban areas. The presence of tribal chiefs and feudals at the top has definitely contributed to this order. Feudals are deep-rooted in local cultures; they are part of the folklore, traditional songs and festivals. Feudals as a class have contributed more than average in non-feudal fields such as producing poets, writers, professionals, educators, politicians, bureaucrats, military officers, etc. They have definitely contributed below average in producing religious figures, thus serving people instead of religion.
