Authority of one man over another is
not justified unless it is derived from a legal social contract. People want
themselves to be bastion of the power,
as they should be, have a meaningful input in the state business, practice the
religion of their own choice, utilize their
natural resources for their own benefit, and the ruler must be a man
elected by the of the ruled. It is therefore that the colonialism is resisted as it negates the
aforesaid values and favors force rather than the will of the people in ruling
them. The tactics of the colonial powers vary with passage of time same, even
if they physically withdraw; they make use of imperialist devices and exert
their influence on the third world countries. The colonized resist the
oppression physically as well as through certain befitting intellectual
responses. But it is strange to learn of certain cases where the colonized hold
a brief for the colonizers and condone the same. Arab’s colonization of some parts
of the Muslim world, Pakistan certainly is no exception, is one of such
examples.
The Arabs have made use of physical
might for colonizing some parts of the world, and the same exercise was done in
the sub-continent in 712 AD. However, a score of circumstances showed them
their way back. The British came in 1600, and it were 1857 when the
sub-continent came under rule of the majesty. The British colonization has been
hotly debated among the intellectual circles and bids of neocolonialism are
resisted. But ironically such acts of Arabs are favorably condoned.
Arabs certainly export their own brand
of Wahabi Islam and culture, and use the same for realization of their
political ends. The practice has been resulting into growing extremism in most
parts of the Muslim countries and disturb their internal social order and
religious harmony among the various denominations. The undercurrent purpose is
to indoctrinate mind of the people against the Shia’s doctrine.
A strong intellectual response has
been in the vogue against the western colonizers ‘approach and their so-called
projects of civilizing the world on the pretext of which they exploited the
colonized and misappropriated their resources. Their bid to universalize their
own culture and world view is challenged by putting the counter patterns. The
marginalized cultural patterns are revived, their tastes and cultural values
are given importance, and history and literature are re-read (as Edward Said
puts it) to highlight the marginalization of the colonizers. The European’s bid
to universalize their own model of democracy, political and judicial systems,
which they regarded as a panacea for all ills, is challenged. Attempts are made
to revive the past the era before the arrival of the white men, which the
colonizers usually call a pre-civilization era. Even use of the modern tools of
exploitation in the field economy, social and cultural fields, are termed as neocolonialism.
But ironically no attention is paid to the inroads of the Arabs into the social
and cultural fabric.
Colonization should be condemned in
all its manifestations, man should not be deprived of the his fundamental
rights and freedoms: freedom of speech; freedom of religion; freedom of
association assembly and the right to rule
himself is certainly one of them which the colonization negates. However, a
critical approach is necessary identifying and analyzing the different modes
colonization. Approach to condone colonization of one power and resist against
the other reflects a double standard which certainly obstructs one way to true
liberty.
READ ALSO
Political issues of Pakistan.
SOCIAL ISSUES.
CRITICAL CURRENT ISSUES