‘More conversations, more dialogue at the people-to-people level is the way forward for forging peace in South Asia,’ said Indian-American academic Dr. Homi K. Bhabhaof Harvard Universitywhile speaking at The Distinguished Lecture Series organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) on ‘Changing Global Society: Post-Colonial World Order’.
While speaking on the prospects of India-Pakistan peace dialogue, Dr. Bhabha mentioned that there is no cultural problem between India and Pakistan. ‘We need to have people-to-people dialogue at regular basis, and need to listen to the problems people want us (politicians) to address,’ he added.
Speaking on post-colonialism, Dr. Bhabha argued that post-colonialism is not the end of colonialism and thus the strategy of dependence sustains the problems faced today such as ultra-nationalism. ‘The notion of security in culture has been disastrous because now people look at other cultures and question whether other cultures are “dangerous” to them or not,’ he added.
Zarrar Khuhro, Pakistani journalist anddiscussant at the webinar, further articulated that the otherisation, ‘us vs. them’ discourse, is perpetuated to gain some political goals, particularly in South Asia. On Kashmir, Dr Bhabha noted that while political warfare is being witnessed in Kashmir, the rights of Kashmiris must be emphasised on and their alterity must be appreciated.
Dr. Meera Sabaratnam, Senior lecturer at SOAS, University of London, and discussant, articulated that the technology behind social media is dangerous as well as manipulative. ‘On social media, we are fed with data asto confirm our bias,’ she added. Another discussant Dr.AhmarMahboob, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, emphasised that knowledge is at times biased, perpetuating a colonial-knowledge structure. ‘The world is morphing into ‘Colonisation 3.0′ where COVID-19 has been weaponised to allow a whole different shift in how the relationship between people and communities exists,’ he noted.
