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A few weeks ago on a usual trip to my ancestral village
near Bahawalpur I heard several stories of young and
not-so-young girls eloping with their lovers. These women
either married these men or returned to their families after
a while without risking being killed. At best, they could
expect some walloping. Should I be surprised to hear such
juicy gossip?
This is nothing new to the district located in Southern
Punjab. Despite the apparent conservatism and feudal nature
of the society, women, especially from the lower and the
upper classes of society, have led interesting lives. This
matches the overall social environment that offers a mix of
religious and cultural conservatism and, on the other hand,
complete defiance of moral norms. The district is known for
its jihadis but also for prostitution, drugs and gambling.
There is a saying: police officers go to Bahawalpur crying
and return crying. They would be unhappy going there because
it is remote, less interesting and less developed; they
would return crying because they had got to spend time
peacefully. Before terrorism became fashionable, the only
noticeable crime there was women eloping.
What made the lives of district police officers easier was
the fact that there was hardly any incident of honor
killing. A woman is a precious commodity who would be of no
use if killed. According to local tradition, daughters are
quite valuable since they bring bride money or can be easily
traded in marriage. So, the men have a better chance of
getting married without having to pay bride money if they
can trade-in a family female, preferably of marriageable
age.
Such a tradition is prevalent in lower- and lower-middle
class households rather than the upper class. This does not
mean that the lives of upper class women are less
interesting, especially of those from very conservative and
religious families. There is much that goes on behind the
chaddar and the chardewari, and under the garb of piety; no
one would spill the as long as a certain level of silence
and decorum is observed.
So why was I surprised to hear the stories? Maybe because my
imagination was consumed by the stories of honor killing;
perhaps, because over the years Bahawalpur has experienced a
certain kind of transformation denoted by greater visibility
of orthodoxy and characters such as Maulana Masood Azhar,
Riaz Basra and others? Bahawalpur is one of the few
districts which has contributed as much to jihad as some
districts in the frontier province.
Honor killing is found mainly in areas with Punjabi
settlers rather than the local Seraiki people. If one looks
at the statistics and co-relates them with the data on where
these killings take place, it is easier to access that most
such incidents take place in areas bordering the frontier
province. There is an entire belt in the Punjab including
districts such as Multan, Mianwali and others where the
social morals have always been far more stringent than in
other places.
In Bahawalpur, gambling and narcotics addiction is quite
rampant. The police surely cannot do much because of the
influence of local politicians who prevail upon the police
not to apprehend a drug dealer or addict, and because
addicts, in particular, are always a liability. With hardly
any facility for rehabilitation the police is better off not
arresting drug addicts.
The reason I was surprised at the gossip mentioned earlier
was due to my expectation that the environment might have
changed after the reported increase in religious orthodoxy
and militancy in the district. Jaish Mohammad, which is one
of the most notorious militant organizations, is based in
Bahawalpur and its head, Maulana Masood Azhar, had a free
run for many years. He would recruit young students from
government schools for jihad and his men were known for
terrorizing people for indulging in more innocent pleasures
such as dance and music at wedding ceremonies. Still, it is
not as if Masood Azhar or Jaish Mohammad has completely
disappeared from the scene. Indeed, the districts can boost
of other militants as well.
My question is: why didn’t these militants start with an
internal jihad against the many ills that the society is
ridden with. I have also discovered that the jihadis do not
necessarily observe a puritanical life style. Some jihadis
benefit from prostitution (if not drugs) like other common
mortals. They draw a distinction between what they want to
follow themselves and what they would impose on the rest of
the society.
There are three basic explanations for the militant
organizations not launching a jihad against social ills.
First, their leadership views their area of operation more
as a piece of territory which they need to occupy to
establish a power base from where they can extend their
power to other areas. It is more in terms of conquering and
using force to convert people to their views rather than
adopt more conciliatory methods such as preaching. In
political terms, the militant organizations plan more like
the feudal armies for whom territorial gains are more
important.
Second, the jihad waged by these militant organizations owes
a lot to the generous financial help provided by their
national and international principals. The external funding
provides these organizations with the tools to fight. The
behavior of many of the jihadi organizations is very
similar to women of questionable reputation who render a
service to someone for cash or kind. Most of these
organizations took money for buying men and material that
could then be used in undertaking jihad by violent means. In
both cases, the objective is not to convert the heart of the
people but to establish influence through physical power.
Finally, both extremes in Bahawalpur’s society have existed
due to the state’s willingness to abdicate its
responsibility for economic and social development of the
region. Since the princely state of Bahawalpur joined the
One Unit in the 1950s the government cannot boast of
undertaking major infrastructure development other than an
airport, a medical college and an extremely impotent and
unproductive university. Then there is also the sprawling
cantonment, not accessible to the local people, or major
historical buildings that are under military control. A
district, which is one of the most productive agricultural
regions in the country, has unfortunately been treated like
a territory on rent used for breeding sectarianism and
militancy.
Despite the knowledge that most of the madrassas, which had
proliferated during the 1980s, were fanning sectarian hatred
and supporting violence, nothing was done to stop the trend.
In fact, this is one district where the number of religious
seminaries has increased. The state’s primary intelligence
agencies and the religious elite tend to treat the youth
like cannon-fodder who were fed to different war fronts.
Under the circumstances, the society’s growth has been
extremely slanted. The mix of socio-economic
underdevelopment, poverty, inequitable distribution of
resources, conservatism and spates of violence have made the
social environment extremely wobbly. Prostitutes and jihadis
co-exist and represent the same end of the spectrum rather
than the opposite sides. They both have something to sell:
the prostitute her body and the jihadi his life. Both also
sell dreams (of different kinds) to the local population.
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