The boom of socialist politics in the global order between 1950-1970s, the Cold War episode that played out in Afghanistan during the 1980s and the ‘war on terror’ during the 2000s have been instrumental in state development, social progress, economic growth and the political narrative of Southasia. These global conflicts for power and resources have always been an external factor behind the gap in between states and societies.

After the British withdrawal, Southasian states needed a new state apparatus as the old ones were built to serve the interests of external colonisers. But the continuation of the colonial legacy of the state apparatus created local and internal colonisers who preferred to collaborate with external post-colonial and neo-colonial elements instead of redirecting progress and development to the people.

Due to the much-touted contest between the so-called socialist and capitalist blocks during the 1950-80s, the governments in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives could not bridge the gaps between the state and society by transforming the colonial, aristocratic and monarchial natures of their respective state oligarchies into a localised one.

Internal colonisation

In some of the previous colonies in Asia and Africa, the withdrawal of colonisers created an ethno-linguistic, racial, and/or sectarian hegemony and oligarchy over the rest of the citizenry, especially by tranferring state powers to selective or loyal ethno-linguistic and religious groups. South Africa, Indonesia and Pakistan have been typical examples of this.

A federation of previously sovereign and independent countries, Pakistan is a typical case study for internally colonised states. State formation in Pakistan has been a classic hegemony of ethnic Punjabis in association with the cultural, political and economic partnership of the Urdu-speaking elite over the rest of the federated provinces. Due to the Punjabisation of Pakistan’s military, civil, non-governmental and non-state elements of power, East Pakistan waged a freedom war and emerged as Bangladesh on the world map.

The Pakistani state had tried to accommodate a thin margin of Pashtuns in anti-Soviet campaigns with the support of the US. And it has internally colonised Sindh and Balochistan by accommodating the Urdu ethnic minority in Karachi city. This has resulted in a popular liberation movement, a low intensity insurgency in Sindh and highly intense warfare in Balochistan provinces. It is worth mentioning here that Sindh is the richest land in Southasia in terms of natural resources like oil, coal and methane gas.

Contemporary discontent

Globalisation has attached virtual wings to the state apparatus across the globe to fly uninterrupted in comparison to society. It has undermined the previous discourse of the gradual reduction in the role of state in societal affairs.

Technological advancements associated with global connectivity have limited the domain of individual liberties, privacy and movements within and across the nation-states. The worst impact of today’s state-oriented globalisation, in association with the globalised security doctrines and practices combined with the widening state-society gap, has been pushing the previous colonies to choose between orderly anarchy and result-oriented social movements and transformation.

In fact, the state structures in the previous colonies have become extra-ordinarily advanced and globalised in comparison to their own societies. This phenomenon is exclusive in locally-colonised federations, where federating states/provinces and their ethnic-nations are at odds with the centre or the dominant ethnic groups.

The technology transfer to Pakistan by the West during the last four decades has been misused for the ethnic cleansing of Sindhis and Balochs. The recent unearthing of mass graves in Balochistan and extra-judicial killings in Sindh by security agencies are highly visible evidences of such misuse. It is roughly estimated that the state, as well as state-sponsored mullahs and urban terrorists, have killed around 50,000 commoners so far in Sindh and Balochistan since 2000.

Global linkages

The states of the previous colonies are becoming highly intolerant of social movements, overall rights regimes and individual liberties. The persecution of human rights activists and journalists, the censorship of movies and books, disallowing urban life, limiting freedom for women, attempting to accommodate social movements through structural transformation into failed models are some of the most notable examples. The worst situation can be observed in internally-colonised federations like Pakistan.

Since the people of these countries are in a dilemma of a peculiar kind, in which previous colonisers and neo-imperialists have played key roles, it is necessary that the people from previous colonial and neo-colonial powers  come together to raise issues of common concern.

Perversion, dictatorships, local colonies and unnecessary interference of the state apparatus in societies have wrecked havoc in countries like Pakistan.

The time has come for the people of Commonwealth states, of the US and Europe in particular, to step up for real liberation and the development of people in the previous colonies so that states are kept in legitimate brackets, like in countries such as Pakistan.

It is strange that social movements, political rights and civil liberties of the developed and global north societies are highly dependent on the liberation and political salvation of societies in the previous colonies and the Global South. Let the people of previous colonies, particularly internal colonies like Sindh and Balochistan be given moral support in their battle for justice. Proper understanding, will and passion is all that is required to create connectivity for the collectivism of efforts to promote justice.

Besides, studies concerning social movements and civil liberties also need to focus on the process of social-waves versus the structurisation of human institutions. No phenomena in the human history of social progress and spiritual development combined with the relation between ‘Being’ (man) and ‘Absolute Being’ (nature) have surpassed this fundamental dynamics of human development.

Let us work out the dialectics of humanism for a better harvest of global citizenry, including poor classes and nations in chains around the world.

Shah is a Sindhi refugee activist, researcher and analyst