The Intellectual Basis of Punjabi Politics

When we talk about the the PPP and it's associated problems, the most common points raised are about its dependence on captive votes, about its leadership crisis, and more importantly, its opportunistic, and patronage plagued system. For the more nuanced observers, the primary reason for this is that the party has not only moved away from its original theoretical basis, but has also failed to theoretically contextualize itself in the post-Zia period. This form of disengagement and the accompanying unwillingness to talk about more abstract notions of party ideology has highlighted several contradictions in the present day scenario, such as the inherent struggle to handle populist, pro-poor interventions on one hand, and the neo-liberal baggage carried by a multi-lateral trained Finance Minister on the other. The marginalization of the left in the PPP by its own leader was the earliest example of opportunism sidelining party ethos and similarly, the current behaviour of turning somewhat of a deaf ear towards textbook liberal voices in its ranks is perhaps a repeat performance of sorts.

A sensible route towards avoiding theoretical, and subsequently practical contradictions, is if a political party, representing a particular socio-economic class, derives its leadership from two possible sources. One source is from the class itself. If it's a party of the poor, the poor lead the party - which all things considered, is something that's not going to happen anytime soon in Pakistan. Hence the other viable source is from a party-elite disciplined by ideology in a way that makes them completely cognizant with the problems and world-view of the class they eventually represent. However, when both of these two sources fail, the vacuum left by this crisis of sorts is eventually filled by opportunists, cronies, and half-baked ideologues.

This is, at least in theory, part of the explanation for the PPP's evolution and why it does what it does. As unpalatable as this is for liberals/progressives in the country, the flip-side of the coin is just downright frightening.

The sad tale is such that over the last 25-30 years, Punjab has been witness to the emergence of an urban Muslim League that has achieved almost complete harmony between its politics, the prevailing intellectual basis of its surroundings, and most importantly, the world-view of its supporters. Whether it was by design or by accident, the fact remains that multiple shifts, some in state policy and some in the nature of the economy, have transformed the Muslim League into the most socially organic party in the province, and probably only second to the MQM in the entire country. The Muslim League, for the lack of a better description, has a fairly solid intellectual basis.

What, one may rightly ask, is the intellectual basis for Khawaja Saad Rafique? Our first instinct would be to say absolutely none - with the reason being that amongst certain circles, their exists a tendency to dismiss right-wing, reactionary, conservative discourse, as somehow less intellectual than liberal/progressive discourse. Perhaps at an objective level, this might even be true, but as far as Punjab is concerned, the dominant narrative is nationalist, largely conservative and mostly pro-middle-class in nature.

So where exactly does this dominant narrative take shape? Well for starters, in our higher-education system, where a certain 'brand' of history and science not only influences students who graduate into society, but also students that end up becoming teachers themselves. The next step in the shaping process takes place at the level of media. Popular literature (Shahabnama type), as well as print and electronic media, further creates pockets for conservative thought to flourish, hence entrenching itself as the dominant world-view of media consumers i.e. the urban middle-classes. Finally, civil society organizations (religious or otherwise), create platforms for social engagement and the mutual reinforcement of such ideas. The average Punjabi urbanite is more likely to interact with his peers in the Anjuman-i-Tajiran meeting as opposed to the Anjuman-i-Taraqi-Pasand-Musanafeen meeting. (or in the local after-prayers meet and greet as opposed to the seculars anonymous group)

Okay so how does the Muslim League figure into all of this?

Firstly, the primary building block of this 25-30 year old intellectual tradition is capitalism/private property/economic mobility, due to which the individualized notion of material success has become increasingly entrenched as urban Punjab has grown. The services economy feeds into this new way of thinking about the economy, and most importantly, the memories of Bhutto's nationalization remain fresh in the older generation. Punjab has become a rabidly capitalist society, if not in the vein of Weberian capitalism, but in some indigenous variant which is equally aggressive. And for the sake of our discussion, there is nothing there that goes against what the Muslim League stands for.

Secondly, Punjabi discourse is largely establishment driven Pakistani discourse, (with a slightly heightened sense of Punjabi-ness). Hence India remains the enemy, the army remains the guardian of our ideological and geographical boundaries (which errs on occasions but insaan khataa kaa putla hay) etc. Again, there's no fundamental disconnect between that and the politics of the Muslim League. The ML might have been anti-Musharraf, but it's certainly no fauj-dushman, and while there might be certain individuals who prefer a closer relationship with India, most of it's leadership and it's support base is decidedly hawkish. In the same vein, even voters who dislike the ML leadership because of its actions (corruption etc), will rarely ever oscillate to any other party. This is the biggest example of how strong this intellectual cognizance actually is. Anecdotally speaking, even if Ansar Abbasi criticizes Nawaz Sharif day in day out (which he doesn't), can you imagine him voting for any other party, especially the PPP?

Thirdly, various variants of Islamic beliefs in urban Punjab manage to find themselves in line with the Muslim League's vague position on religion. This is where i believe the Jamaat loses out because in its insistence on Shariah and Khilaafat as the ultimate goal, it drives away the so-called soft-right in our cities. In their heads, all this Khilaafat business is clearly bad for business. (see issue number 1). On other hand the Muslim League busies itself with moral policing through state policy, and by paying token lip-service to Kashmir and other pretend pan-Islamic causes.

So as a consequence of these three aspects of public discourse, the Muslim League has finally managed to root itself in the masses to a certain degree. Unlike the PPP, which faces the near-impossible task of rooting itself in multiple discourses across 4 provinces, the ML has entrenched itself in fairly homogenous surroundings. Maybe this will be the ultimate hurdle in it breaking out of Punjab, but at the very least it creates the chance for it to act at the national level without being a national level actor. For the PPP, sadly enough, the task is becoming more difficult as it continues to duck and weave in macro-politics whilst largely ignoring party-building in the present-day context. In the current scenario, it's the Muslim League that's turned into the party of ideology, and that ladies and gentlemen is something i never thought i'd say.

Special thanks to my senior colleague Dr Zaigham Habib for initiating this conversation in the first place.