Khaandani Aadmi ... Bourgeoisie
To start off with the usual Urdu and English translation of this topic is not entirely correct. A Khaandani Aadmi is not actually what you call a Bourgeoisie. A Khaandani Aadmi is someone who has about 5-6 generations of middle or upper class family background roughly speaking.

I know I know. This is a topic that does touch on a severe ancient pattern of thought. But I cannot help but neglecting it. I am from the Pakistani Middle Class. I have been taught all my life about everything. And at least in our family the Nouveau Riche are looked down upon. Very looked down. Everything has to come with a past. When there are marriages the profession and the educational level for the prospective spouse's great grandfather are also asked and checked up.

I know you can call me very class conscious. But I am not. It is not about the money. It is about the generations of a well educated background. It is about the teaching, the manners, the habits and the morals that are taught from generation to generation. It is about the human beings that are churned out by a continuous process of teaching and making. It is about what one generation learns and makes sure it teaches each and everything to the next. It is about this and the subsequent ten links in the chain. It is about the continuation of a cultured and mannered people who mind their "Sheen Qaaf" and that is what sets them apart.

What is a Khaandani man to me? Well he is someone who has at least four generations of education in the men of his family and at least two for the women. It is education that makes the mare go. Because no matter how we rate the 'Education System' we can not neglect it. People who did not have an education in the 20s and the 60s and before and during and after that period cannot be compared with people who did. People who spent a greater part of their lives studying in colleges and universities and learning from the ensuing exposure to the world.

The concept of being Khaandani or not is a very very big concept. It is kind of like the concept of the Holy Ghost in Christianity. It is cery hard to explain clearly what it is. But it is very clear to people who have heard about it all their lives and have the clear meaning of the word in their mind. Actually a Khaandani Aadmi is a different thing for different people. Some people include being a religious and pious family in it. Some people include education in it. Some people equate it to what you might call 'old money'. But in the end it is mixture of these and many other small parameters.

One thing that is interesting is that all the Noveau Riche elements in society feel very irritated by this concept. They say that it is an old concept that does not have a place in lives of the post industrial man. But when they want to enter marriages and they meet propective families they too look for a history and a background. They too ask about the fathers and grandfathers. But they only ask about the size of their land. Not the degree and the institution where they got it from.

Now that I have proven myself as a complete bigot to you. I might add that I am not a bigot. I dont differentiate between the two. But over time everytime I was shocked by someones behaviour. Everytime I saw a cobra in my presence. Everytime I saw someone do something that was wrong and I dug a little. I found a lack of a family history. A lack of a background that would have taught them not to go down that road.

I am not saying that people who are not from this background are worse and bad. I am saying that there is a larger chance of them doing what a Khaandani man would not do. At the end of the day life is always about generalizations. We should NEVER make them. But we always do. When we say Hi to an American and Aadab to our elders we are making generalizations. We are human. And we will continue to make generalizations. So will I. Being human that is.
- posted by aalahazrat @ 18:53 (0) comments

 
Jamhooriyat ... Democracy
Well to be honest I have realized that it is a western concept. At least in the way that it is portrayed and taught to us. This is a concept that can work very well in the nation states of europe with very high literacy rates, huge middle classes, industrialized societies and 200 year old history of democracy.

But look at the third world. We dont have nation states here. There are huge ethnic minorities. Nations are divided into physical divisions based on this. You cannot tell a group of people like that to come together. Because they will not do that. It is too strange for them to do that. We have low literacy rates so telling people abotu the goods of democracy is not that easy. So that makes it hard for us to work out.

Then to top it all. Democracy is a forced goverment on us. It didnt develop here. It is a transplanted systen of government. And that is the only reason why it is not working in the 3rd world. You cannot just bring things from one place to another and expect them to work. Communism worked well in 1920s Russia but you dont see everyone trying that out. Because it is clear that you cannot transplant governments.

What we need to do is think about what kind of government do we want.


- posted by aalahazrat @ 01:23 (0) comments