“My name is Pakistan: I was an Arab yesterday, a Harappan today”, First Post, July 01, 2026
“Pakistan has suddenly fallen in love with its pre-Islamic past. The very civilisation it spent decades dismissing as an age of jahiliyyah — a dark era supposedly redeemed only by the arrival of Islam — is now being celebrated as Pakistan’s glorious heritage. While Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Takshashila and Gandhara have overnight become objects of national pride, Panini, Porus and Chanakya are suddenly being claimed as esteemed ancestors.
The obvious question is: what has changed? Has Pakistan suddenly become liberal? Has its ruling establishment undergone a civilisational awakening and finally reconciled itself with the land and history that predated Mohammed bin Qasim?
Truth is often stranger than fiction.
If anything, Pakistan today is more Islamised, more ideologically rigid and more radical than at any point in its history as a state. The military establishment remains the supreme arbiter of national identity, and Field Marshal Asim Munir has projected perhaps the most overtly ideological military leadership since General Zia-ul-Haq. This is the same establishment that continues to define Pakistan primarily through religion and perpetual hostility towards Bharat…….”
Read full article at firstpost.com
