Deprogrammin Pakistanism-an Indian imperative and obligation

[sanjaykumar]

For close to twenty years here, the art of declamation, excoriation, condemnation, ridicule of Pakistan and its unfortunate citizens has been honed to perfection. And with much repetition. And of course not without a measure of Schadenfreude.

Of course the ultimate object of this discourse has been not Pakistan but India-the need to assuage and reassure Indians that in fact Pakistanis are chiral opposites and they are the ones who are evil.

A sense of developing relief at the chaos that is Pakistan and the plagues which they hoped for India are now let loose upon them, the enduring grip of religious bigotry, poverty, secessionism, disease, superstition, violence. India in the Christian and more recently Islamic imagination has been a byword for all these. Much as Nietzsche said of the Church: they were so determined to find the world an ugly and evil place that they made it so. That it serves certain dogmatic and prophesy requirements should not be lost on Indians.

The analysis has been trenchant and mostly cogent. However, India may have a civilisational mission. The reclamation of Akhand Bharat, which is a geographic idea but perhaps more importantly a civilisational ideation.

It is facile, repetitive and ultimately not very interesting to be reminded on a quotidian basis the perversity of Pakistan. However, it needs to be acknowledged that there are many, possibly the majority in Pakistan who find Pakistan an illegitimate state. These are mostly the ones with no obligation to the sarkari, fauji dispensation. The bulk of the poor or non-middle class, which constitute perhaps eighty percent of the population.

In a tightly controlled state with powerful control of the agenda by print and television media as well as the maulvi, one needs to ask why the demonisation of India? If it is self-evident, who are these people preaching to?





This man asks this question. He makes the observation, and concludes that the state itself is manufacturing a false reality. He is obviously a Pakistani and not Indian Muslim, his Hindustani is heavily accented and lapses into frank Panjabi.
Judging by his English, he has been educated and is living in Pakistan. I must tip my hat to him, a far more demanding and important as well as dangerous project than what most do with the keyboard.

[sanjaykumar]

So we learn that thinking Pakistanis are sophisticated and unafraid.

They discredit the cult. They present an alternate reality which is more commonsense and less paranoid and one that serves India's purpose. Thus they fulfill two of the paradigms of deprogramming, from mind control. From a mass psychosis. It is evident that any political or religious dogma meets fundamental neurobiological needs. Where the political and religious states conflate, determining identity and gestalt, one may expect stern resistance.

Deprogramming uses many tools, reasonableness, abduction, violence, kindness, transference. Historically during the cold war, the major problem was communication, that is the physical ability to deliver information. Hence Pravda and the CIA embedding journalists in western media (yes including Time and the NYT). With digital means, global communication is instantaneous and cheap-it is democratic and it is subversive.


There are some common steps in deprogramming techniques:

Acquisition of the target audience-digitally, as above

Ego dystonic information. India is now demonstrably in a position to confound the Pakistani self-image and narrative. Deprogramming techniques include embarrassment and isolation-Pakistan now meets these criteria.

Catharsis and identification with the new paradigm. The evangelists in India may require humiliation of the victims whilst the seed is planted- made trivial by the fact that India has been cognate with humiliation for the past two centuries. They then may require acts of desecration eg the consumption of beef. These are powerful and validated deprogramming methods occurring daily in India, but which Indians have not analysed to their profit.
Sometimes theophany can indeed be helped along by a handful of rice. This handful is growing with the promise of the Indian economy which may be a tide that lifts all boats.

Consolidation-the most dangerous ideology of India is the concept of the Indian film. It is a drug that rewards the masses with the dopamine of romantic love, adventure, wealth, sex, sadness and victory against impossible odds; in short a surrogate life of all that is forbidden in a theocratic, contrived state. It is the inverse of othering that shows Indians as larger than life, as gods; at the very least as deeply human. This creates the disequilibrium, the contradiction, the big lie is dimly perceived.

[shiv]

One thought that occurred to me was that the army which controls the media and is a prime mover in this demonization is not merely doing this for ideology - but their money is in it. Of course maulvis are their ideological allies, but there are so many ancillary businesses related to the demonization of India that earn individuals a great deal of money in an organization (the army) that is greedy but secular-democratically greedy. That is, the army itself takes people from all sections of society and gives everyone a change to make some loot over and above the rest.

If, in theory the artificially supported antagonism toward India were to be diluted or removed - there are entities that will go out of business. For example the part that makes money from counterfeit currency printing. Each import of machinery, ink and paper will bring kickbacks with it. Similarly arms imports being juicy payoffs. Even the control of media will give employment to relatives and friends while generating cash flow from adverts or from the national exchequer.

So while I have no disagreement with your general thesis about deprogramming I have always felt that the army needs to be shamed in order to wean people away from its spell. That aside, I think actively insulting Islam is a necessary tool to break down the myths about "fastest growing" etc - fastest LOL generating type propaganda. The latter is tricky because respecting Islam has the effect of "proving that Pakis are right about Islam" and disrespecting Islam has the effect of proving that they are right about Hindus/kafirs. But the latter is necessary to tear down Islamic pride because I believe that Pakis at ground level need to be shown the murder, bigotry and bloodshed of Islam rather than shying away.

The truth is that far from being uniting Islam is fractious and deadly - using death sentences lightly on all opponents. This too needs to be aired in a very very public washing of Islamic linen.

Just my thoughts.

Is that a typo in the title - "deprogrammic"?

[sanjaykumar]

Please moderators correct the typo.

Insulting Islam makes Indian Muslims collateral damage. India has several major constraints. It has been Pakistan's benefactors. In future it may be domestic.

[sudeepj]

Wonderful thread that I am sure will be delight to read in the days to come and on an extremely relevant and always overlooked topic. If you ask a Jihardi, what is their 100-200 year vision of how the world will be? The answer is immediate and well known to all members. If one asks an Evangelist, there is a similar alacrity in the answer. If one asks a technocrat/technophile, again the answer is quite clear.

But on the Indic and Indian side, the answer simply does not exist and hence thought on the lines of 'Jo jaisa chal raha hai, waise hi chalta rahega' (Things will go on as they have in the past). An avg. Indian has many many problems to solve and its forgivable if s/he does not think about these really long term things, but there is a striking lack of thought leaders in this domain.

I feel, such 'deprogramming' should be a medium term, 30-50 year goal for Indians and as the OP pointed out, social media, culture will all be important components.

[Peregrine]

The "Long Term" Brain washing of Pakistani Muslims is well documented in the following publication :

The Subtle Subversion - The State of - Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan, Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics - Editors: A. H. Nayyar and Ahmad Salim : SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICY

Cheers

[Peregrine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6BhGkJGn5Y
Distortion of History in Pakistan -1/3


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnkTaPWRRGk
Distortion of History in Pakistan -2/3


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf9MqO9ZXPU
Distortion of History in Pakistan -3/3


Cheers

[shiv]

Please moderators correct the typo.

Insulting Islam makes Indian Muslims collateral damage. India has several major constraints. It has been Pakistan's benefactors. In future it may be domestic.

Yes, but that is exactly what Pakistaniyat thrives upon. As I see it - the thrust towards more and more Islam in Pakistan was to show how it was impossible to be properly Islamic in India. India in fact was quick off the mark with our secularism allowing Muslims more freedom than in Pakistan with 4 wives, triple talaq, Haj subsidies, "hands off" Muslim issues etc. The Pakistani state - from 1947 has tried to play on Indian Muslim sensibilities by claiming that to be a good, practising Muslim, one cannot live in the shadow of bigoted Hindus. But with all the sops Muslims got in India - Pakistanis had to go further into sharia and piety to go one-up on Muslimness

Allowing myself a digression, it now appears to me that a large proportion of Indian Muslims have "seen through" the Pakistani game precisely because of the media that you have suggested as tools for deprogramming. However pockets of Indian Muslims in UP, Bengal and perhaps AP still live in a Pakistaniyat cloud where they imagine that "they ruled".

I don't mean insult Islam as in pedophilia allegations. I mean that Pakistani claims on Islam need to be countered by pointing out all the inconsistencies, the factionalism and tendency to kill first, women's rights etc. I think it is a mistake to try and show Indian Muslims as leading lights while being critical of Pakistan. Indian Muslims are Indian, but they too need to come to terms with all that is wrong with Muslims claiming to live proper Islamic lives.

All criticism of Islam has to be neutral and fair without weighing Indian Muslims against Pakistanis because Pakis have used that tool to make India more and more and more secular - so afraid are we to even cheep a word against Islam/Muslims in case Indian Muslims should take umbrage and start siding with Pakistan. This in fact has had a huge negative effect on the way non Muslims in India view Muslims, but that is another digression and I will stop.

[sanjaykumar]

....it now appears to me that a large proportion of Indian Muslims have "seen through" the Pakistani game precisely because of the media that you have suggested as tools for deprogramming.


One of the most effective tools in deprogramming is fear. East Pakistan did more to subdue fanciful Muslim temperaments and notions of the uma than any state propaganda. Ask any Muslim in India if s/he would like to move to Pakistan today.

[sanjaykumar]

One technique for deprogramming is the use of what has been called arousal, the activation of the autonomic nervous system, specifically the sympathetic. Naturally fear is the key in the induction of this state, following which catharsis and new mental patterns may be established and accepted. In a state of fear, an act of kindness can be instrumental in pivoting the brain to our goals. An unexpected act of humanity may be cataclysmic. This fear may not necessarily be directly induced.


An outstanding recent example, simply brilliant, was following the massacre of those 134 school children in KP. Mr Modi called for a minute of silence/prayer in every school in India. I am sure he likely knows nothing of deprogramming protocols but he may well be a master psychologist.

[shiv]

One of the most effective tools in deprogramming is fear. East Pakistan did more to subdue fanciful Muslim temperaments and notions of the uma than any state propaganda. Ask any Muslim in India if s/he would like to move to Pakistan today.

The entire idea of deprogramming fascinates me and encapsulates in one word a slew of things that I have been feeing needed to be done but could not list out with any degree of coherence.

But I have always felt that a certain degree of deprogramming of Indians too is required because the issue of Hindu-Muslim relations is a complex one wherein changes in the behavior and attitude of one community can be either retarded or enhanced by what the other community does. Long ago I had written the article linked below attempting to link the manner in which Muslims are viewed in India to the events before and after partition. Muslims have been/are viewed with suspicion by a segment of non Muslim Indians leading to a mindset where even patriotic/"son-of-soil" Muslims cannot be accepted as card-carrying Indians. But this suspicion has been encouraged by secularism. Instead of an open appraisal of relationships secularism was the "Indian chapter" of Pakistaniyat that accepted that Muslims are different and may want to opt out unless the are treated and handled differently by landing a kick on Hindu backside as reassurance.

The Partition Factor In The Status Of Indian Muslims - The moulding of Hindu attitudes towards Muslims, and the outcome for the Muslims of India.

Once again it is the media - including social media and ease of travel that have shown that Saudi and Pakistan are hardly the jannat-on-earth places that they have been made out to be. That message need to be heard by Pakistani Muslims as well as a segment of mullahs and Muslims in India.

[sanjaykumar]

Yes dumb brutes fight and kill, the intelligent change the software of the brain. We need to analyse and systematise the tools and the processes. Pakistan itself is a laboratory for deprogramming, as much as they turned Indians into Pakistanis and also much like Hitler and Mao. The west employs a more subtle protocol.

Indians can be socially engineered but the processes are much more difficult in a complex, heterogenous, laissez faire culture.

[Screambowl]

....it now appears to me that a large proportion of Indian Muslims have "seen through" the Pakistani game precisely because of the media that you have suggested as tools for deprogramming.


One of the most effective tools in deprogramming is fear. East Pakistan did more to subdue fanciful Muslim temperaments and notions of the uma than any state propaganda. Ask any Muslim in India if s/he would like to move to Pakistan today.

And for that, the first step is demoralising. You cannot create fear unless until some one is demoralised specifically against it's own identity and develops inferiority complex. This can be through multiple ways. But every time their military intervenes through ISPR. Specially in Punjab.