May i tell you something really boring? Yet another round of Indo-Pak talks – the NSA talks – was cancelled. Both sides blamed the other. Each chest-thumped at home about how they refused to talk to the other first. Are you sleepy yet? You should be. It’s boring.
For several decades we have enacted this drama with our barely legitimate neighbour. We want to be the big brother who talks peace. We send a flying kiss. They smile back. There is joy all around. Then they sting us, often quite badly.
They send terrorists to our country, kill our people, create unrest in Kashmir. We get annoyed. We stop talking. A new Indian politician comes along, determined to go down in history as the person who tamed Pakistan. We send a flying kiss again. They smile. They sting. Rinse. Repeat.
Can we stop this nonsense? If there weren’t lives involved, and the fact we spend massive sums of money from our defence budget for Pakistan, this love-hate cycle would be funny. Unfortunately, we can’t ignore or laugh about Pakistan, even though we would rather focus on our domestic and economic issues.
The partially legitimate leaders of our pesky neighbour manage to thrive on all the attention they receive from India, whether positive or negative. Our flying kisses and angry grunts is exactly what these leaders want.
What are we to do? Are we to ignore this poking for attention? Are we to escalate the conflict? Or do we keep repeating this happy-angry dance?
Frankly, there is a solution. It is unconventional. Self-styled foreign policy experts, keen to protect their turf, will scoff at it. But none of their so-called expert solutions have worked and many have often made India look foolish.
The solution is to take over Pakistan through the one extraordinarily powerful tool we have – culture. For no matter what the Pakistani leaders – politicians and army generals – do, nothing stops Pakistani people from consuming popular Indian culture in the form of our movies, music and television. It is through this culture that we can make inroads into Pakistani hearts and appeal to the minds of the Pakistani aspirational set.
What exactly does this mean? First, let us understand Pakistan by dividing its stakeholders into four parts. These are the army, the politicians, orthodox Pakistanis and modern-aspirational Pakistanis. Each of these classes has a different attitude towards India. We often make the mistake of clubbing all constituents of Pakistan together when we say ‘Pakistan did this’ or ‘Pakistan doesn’t listen’.
India can never convince the Pak army on peace. The Pak army is incentivised to maintain its relevance through conflict with India. Speaking to powerless Pak politicians is pointless as well, you might as well talk to the doorman at the Pakistani embassy in Delhi.
The orthodox Pakistani set is a tough nut to crack as well. It’s like expecting VHP types in India to fall in love with Pakistan. Frankly, there is only one segment left – the aspirational Pakistani.
This is a highly influential and important segment, comprising mostly of youth who want to do well in life above anything else. We have to reach out and talk to them and only them. We are frankly wasting our time elsewhere.
How do we do it? Fortunately, technology today provides us a chance to do so. For instance, say there was an amazing, free-to-air television channel that Pakistani people could watch. The channel, although backed by our government, would have no overt signs of this.
The channel would air the latest and slickest of Bollywood and television content from India. Interspersed in this primarily entertaining content would be some interesting current affairs, news and youth related programmes. The anchors and panelists, and that’s the clincher, would be from India and Pakistan. The channel would hire the best, coolest people from Pakistan to talk to Pakistanis.
They would represent all the values the aspirational class in Pakistan aspires to – peace, progress, innovation, wealth, freedom and true democracy. Slowly, we can build a narrative that Pakistan doesn’t have a real government. It is in the grip of armed dictators and the political system is flawed. Also, India is a friend that can make the aspirational class in Pakistan get what it deserves, a true democracy and economic progress.
The entertainment will hook the Pakistanis, the messaging of progress will appeal to the aspirational set. We will eventually be able to create a better image for India in Pakistan, despite all the propaganda by the government and army.
This cannot be a half-baked exercise. Serious money, say Rs 10,000 crore, should be earmarked annually for it. The quality of the content has to be the best the Pakistanis have ever seen (no Doordarshan stuff please). The money may seem a lot, but it is a droplet compared to the money we are spending on weapons every year to defend ourselves against Pakistan.
In the modern world culture, media and technology play as crucial a role as weapons and diplomacy. US popular culture, for instance, plays an important part in the perception of that nation, apart from its military and economic might. It’s time we did the same with Pakistan. Let’s not talk to them. Let’s invade them. Not with guns, but with culture.
September 5, 2015 ()