Democracy: only a glittering generality

Democracy is a virtue word. Dictatorship, on the other hand is its antonym, totally repugnant to human sensibility. Respectable image of a country is largely determined on the style of its management. Diversity is the quintessential element, which lends grace and dignity to a nation. To be a totally monolithic entity, is the distinctive feature of a tribal culture, which is of great interest to Anthropologists, who in their earlier phases of objective studies (Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict) first tried to understand relatively less complex cultures, the idea being that to understand the simpler ones was necessary in order to comprehend the dynamics of modern diversified and developed cultures. Just as in a monolithic culture, the objective or what one may call "social purpose" remains the same, in a well-knit and integrated culture, also the overall perspective of national identity is never compromised.

Viewed within the context of Pakistani Culture, there ought to be respectable political space available to all sub-cultural entities, like Sindhis, Balochis, Punjabis, Pathans and so forth and that there could be further differentiation's like Potoharis, Saraikis and Hindkos etc. It is like different notes in music which make it sonorous. But the central note remains the keynote of the music. This is how a "Super-ordinate Culture" comes into existence and differences and diversities contribute to the richness of the society. A great society is not acknowledged merely because of its size, the density of its population, but essentially because its sub-cultures do not have a sense of deprivation and alienation.

The tyranny of majority makes a society, prone towards what Durkheim, a great sociologist of modern times calls it anomie. When people fail to find a common orientation and sense of togetherness, a society develops pathological symptoms, which ultimately leads to its disintegration. Democracy is a political therapy, which firmly binds a nation. It is a great irony that it was collective sense of nationhood which led to the creation of a State called Pakistan.

The State however, could not preserve that psychological "glue" that could lend viability and strength to Pakistani nationhood. Only weapons – nuclear or otherwise – do not blend a nation into an un-impregnable entity. It is a "will" to live and die together, which makes a nation. Failure to produce a Super- ordinate Culture, inevitably leads to what is identified as Disjunctive Culture, where propensity to separate and opt out of the loosely woven Federation becomes the over-riding passion – a vulnerability, which comes in handy to the inimical forces to exploit.