Dual identity - Pakistani and Indian

[goodname]

Re: Dual identity - Pakistani and Indian

@Sehrysh

Ah, but that’s the rub, my being Canadian, I was taught as part of the political/social policy of the nation, that I can own and celebrate my ethnic cultural heritage and still be Canadian. I can proudly be Pakistani-Canadian. So, if Canada allows me to hyphenate my identity, my inclination is to hyphenate my Pakistani identity as well.

As I said in an earlier post, I was neither born nor raised in Pakistan. My connection to India is not as tenuous as for others - my dada and dadi lived and died in India and it was only my father and two of his sisters who moved to Pakistan.

I do consider myself to be Pakistani-Canadian - based on the circumstances of my heritage, it’s the natural connection I make. But, if I express any loyalty or pride (and like I’ve said throughout - these are two different emotions) in India, it automatically garners me the tag of a traitor to Pakistan. That’s what I find difficult to reconcile myself to.

Precisely my point! I can love both countries without being disloyal to either. Yet, the response I get from some is that I must choose Pakistan and have no remaining loyalty or affection (and I use both words since there is a difference in the sentiment) for India.

We can all have multiple identities. And that is ok. As you said, as hyphenated Americans or Canadians, we pick and choose from the culture of our parents/grandparents. Irish Americans can celebrate St. Patrick’s day; Canadians of Italian descent may be partial to Italian food; we may prefer wearing shalwar kameez on special occasions or have Indian style weddings. Similarly, if one has roots in India one can definitely feel affection or pride for that place. I am not sure about loyalty because I don’t think it is wise to feel loyal to a state that does not recognize you as one of its own; people of “Indian origin” in the Indian Diaspora, for example, can get Indian nationality, should they wish, but not if their parents/ grandparents were Pakistani or Bangladeshi citizens.

I think those we call muhajir, living in Pakistan, are loyal just to their country of nationality because they know their parents or grandparents left behind so much—their homes, their relatives, their whole lives behind—to start a new life in Pakistan. However this loyalty doesn’t mean that they renounce their past or their connections to India and it is unfair to expect that they should. After all few in Pakistan identify themselves solely as Pakistanis. You can simultaneously be a proud Pakistani and a proud, say, Punjabi or Pakhtun as well; just because you are a Pakistani you do not–and perhaps cannot-- distance yourself from your heritage, language and traditions that go back generations. Likewise ‘muhajirs’ are not a monolithic group. And it is not India per se that they hold dear or whose particular traditions they cherish but the particular region of British India they or their ancestors left behind.

Especially for the older generations of muhajir Pakistanis, food, clothing choices and indeed, for many, who their offspring married to were primarily influenced by whether they identified themselves also as, say, “UP walay”, Bihari etc. And that, I think, continues to hold true, albeit of course to a lesser extent, for many Pakistanis of “Indian” descent.