More from the same author http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2009/04/aatish-salmaan-taseer-punjab- pakistan/
>“In Pakistan, the clothes people wear are much better. There’s far less > poverty. India makes its own things, its own cars, but then you don’t get > Land Cruisers. In India, you get Indian needles. In Pakistan, we get > Japanese needles!” > >In India you now got Japanese needles too. The lieutenant had visited before > economic liberalisation, but that was not the point. What struck me was how > this man, who would never come close to owning a Land Cruiser, could talk > of such things as core human differences. The poverty around him was as bad > as anything I had ever seen, yet he spoke of expensive cars. It was as if > the mere fact of difference was what he needed. It hardly mattered what the > differences meant: that was taken care of by the inbuilt rejection of > India. In the confusion about what Pakistan was meant to be—a secular state > for Indian Muslims, a religious state, a military dictatorship, a > fiefdom—the rejection of India could become more powerful than the > assertion of Pakistan. <snip> >“The other difference,” he began, “was that while men here wear flat > colours, the men there are fond of floral prints, ladies’ clothes.” Hindus > weaker, more feminine, and Muslims stronger, manlier: this was the dull > little heart of what the lieutenant wanted to say and a great satisfaction > came over his face as he spoke. This was the way he reconnected with the > glories of the Islamic past when the martial Muslims ruled the “devious > Hindu.” <snip> >Pakistan’s economic advantage, the manliness of Muslim men, Land Cruisers > and Japanese needles, even an imagined better climate: these were the > small, daily manifestations that nourished a greater rejection of India, > making the idea of Pakistan robust and the lieutenant’s migration > worthwhile.
