The Myth of Independence

Here is an interesting trend that I have come across: the nations that celebrate independence with the most fervour are often the ones that are barely independent.

Seventy-seven years after gaining independence in 1947, there isn’t much left for Pakistan to celebrate at a time when social media is shutdown, internet throttled, media entirely controlled or censored, and the leader of the largest political party that won a landslide election victory suffering in a prison cell.

While the political and feudal elite, especially in what became Pakistan, may not have wanted to be ruled by the British Raj, they certainly didn’t mind adopting the British colonial system of governance as a preferred way to rule over the people of ‘independent’ Pakistan.

The clearest evidence of this is the 77 years of reluctance to reform the colonial-era governance structure, state, and society, which exposes the myth of our independence. The truth is that the local ruling elite merely replaced the foreign rulers, becoming rent-seekers and oppressors, funneling the nation's wealth to Western capitals and only visiting their native land when given the chance to rule. Even worse, the ruling elite served as a ‘hired gun’ providing land, personnel, and resources to fight foreign wars in their own lands, and often against their own people. And when faced with public resistance, using brute state force to crush dissent as we have witnessed over the decades, and more vividly in the last 2 years.

For the public at large, I wonder which is worse: the illusion of ‘independence’ or the reality of its absence.