by: Farhan Tariq
Sometimes geographies are not drawn on maps, they are carved in the minds of people. In every society in the world, there have been walls of classes, castes and interests, but there is also a region where democracy opened its eyes not due to the will of the people but amidst conflict, fear and silence.
The story begins with a government official who was the commissioner of a division during the colonial partition. It is said that he laid a brick in the halls of power on which the building of democracy was later built and great ghazis and mujahideen were born, but in this foundation, the echoes of state order and proxies were heard more than the voice of the people.
As time passed, this democracy created two new symbolic castes within itself. The first was those whom people began to call “Brahmins”; the owners of power, authority and decisions. The second was those who were declared “Shudras”; More in number but deprived of rights.
Storytellers say that the Brahmins were not just a class but a mentality. They had the law, tradition and power in their hands. On the other hand, the Shudras were those who considered them their leaders, considered their slogans as their destiny and sought their identity in their shadow.
The dust of time settled, but the scale of power tilted in one direction. The Brahmins became steel and the Shudras a wall of sand. Every new morning strengthened the fortress of the powerful and every new evening broke and shattered the hope of the weak.
Then one day the wind changed direction.
It is said that silence is also silent to a certain extent. When decades of silence speak, their voice resonates against the mountains. The Shudras stood holding each other’s hands. For the first time, they realized that if numbers are combined with consciousness, the definition of power can change.
But the history of power also shows that the elite does not give up its grip easily. It is said that the Brahmins had called an army to gain power, an army that did not only fight with bodies but also created an atmosphere of fear, rumors and division. There were not only weapons on the field, there were also narratives, accusations and silence. And today, again, an army of Brahmins is engaged in a war for its survival.
Today, the war in this imaginary land is not just between two classes, but between two concepts. One concept that considers power to be right and the other that wants to turn right into power.
Perhaps the end of this story has yet to be written. It is possible that tomorrow’s historians will call it a rebellion, it is possible that someone will write it as the beginning of reform, and it is possible that someone will call it just a chapter in a long conflict.
But one question will always remain: Can a society, which is based on fear, class division and imbalance of power, ever become a true democracy? Or will it always create new castes, new classes and new clichés?
Perhaps time will answer this question, for the pen of history is not always in the hands of the victor; sometimes it is picked up by those who for centuries were simply ordered to remain silent.
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