Projecting Ideologies on Maps

by Shahid on December 1, 2010

in other stuff

I received a map of this kind for the first time some two years ago and continue to receive variations of this kind every now and then. The text might have been MS-Paint-ed by somebody else initially but the idea was the same.

Pakistan : The Way it was meant to be

Update : Found another version of the original map in my archived mails.

The forwarded email that this map was attached with was the usual Khilafa enthusiast (of the hyper-nationalist rather than Hizb-ut-Tehrir strand). The ideological insecurity and bankruptcy of ideas of the creators of such maps need not be commented on since I assume that it’s very much easy to understand why names of Prophets aligning with shape of the country’s political boundaries, that too rather poorly, is meaningless. Religious symbolism carving shape of political boundaries is definitely a new thing for me however.

My observations at that time were the same as they are today:-

  1. Pakistan ka Matlab kia, La ilaha Illa Allah
  2. Pakistan is the Fort of Islam
  3. Kashmir ban ke rahay ga Pakistan
  4. Bengal, later East Pakistan was therefore never meant to be part of this divinely gifted land. Or maybe, it would read Ya Allah the way two “Ya Allah” and  ”Ya Muhammad” plates adorn the Masjid walls (Blaspehmous!). Nevermind, to hell with those bhooka traitor Bengalis of Hindu descent.
  5. Where are poor Jungadh and Manavadar that the Government of Pakistan still includes on maps printed by the Survey of Pakistan? (they are included mostly with the “Political Map” on front page and excluded from later maps if you’re unaware of this stupidity).

Yesterday, this  new, rather brilliant map landed in my mail. It carried the caption “In Response to the Jamati. You can write anything inside a map”.

Hey, where are my provinces?

So  the guy who made this map took Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan from us and declared that the land of the Prophet and the poor ones living in Sindh and Punjab (and Islamabad, since that’s 10 miles from Pakistan) to be citizens of the land of Ranjeet Singh. Why Ranjeet Singh, I ask the creator of this map? Why not Porus? Anyways, Greater Afghanistan, Greater Pakistan, Greater India, so many greater nations.

Whilst I certainly do not agree with the Pashtun nationalists of the Pashtunistan type, the map is funny and rubs the religious card in the face of the hyper-nationalist religious types. I think I shall start my own Rawalpindi nationalist movement with religious symbolism too by fitting the Prophet’s name in the map of the boundaries of the Holy Rawalpindi district. I cannot think of anything religious that can mimic the shape of Sargodha district (you know who you are).

Credit and copyrights to the original creators of these maps.

{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }

Tazeen December 1, 2010 at 07:27

I cant stop laughing at Ranjeet Singh … being a Karachiite, my association with him is zilch but according to this, I am living in his land

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Shahid December 1, 2010 at 07:42

Even though he never ruled Sindh, you are all living in his land. I thought Raja Dahir would’ve been a better choice.

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M. S. Najam December 1, 2010 at 07:31

Brilliant post! Poor Sargodah :)

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Waqas December 1, 2010 at 07:44

Rawalpindi Nationalist Movement with Religious Symbolism FTW!

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ijayqureshi December 1, 2010 at 07:47

where is sindh! who said sinDhis will LIVE under the offspring ranjeet singh :) GA SINDH!

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TLW December 1, 2010 at 12:28

Yaar Shahid bhai, Hilarious! You inspired an entire post.

And don’t pick on kids from Sargodha!

I wonder what shape Karachi and Lahore district have? Since we’ve exhausted every possible one, we’ll take Yah Ali!

Zindabad

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Ayesha December 1, 2010 at 21:04

And then these zealots blame western think tanks for drawing hypothetical maps of Middle East and Asia :-D

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Muneeb December 2, 2010 at 08:43

AWESOME…. LMAO @ Ranjeet Singh

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ammar latif December 2, 2010 at 16:25

nice shahid…. seems to me that junior NFP has arrived…..

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Tazeen December 4, 2010 at 08:01

Junior NFP!!!! please. NFP is quite alright but he rehashes 5 topics again and again. Humara Shahid comes up with newer stuff with fresher perspective in every post/column.

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Shahid December 4, 2010 at 15:20

Ji shukria Janaab.

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Shahid December 4, 2010 at 15:20

I do NOT idolize NFP. DO NOT.

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Takhalus December 3, 2010 at 21:09

It is not unusual for Afghan nationalists to say they own everything up to Jhelum
Ht or serious pan Islamists don’t perceive Borders or a clearly defined state After all they r the product of diaspora

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Shemrez Nauman Afzal December 19, 2010 at 01:39

Nicely done.

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