Should I Stand Up Or Bow Down?

The Pakistan we live in is by far not the Pakistan Iqbal dreamt of and Quaid-e-Azam stood up for. Today the situation demands me to take a stand, either I go on with what was or I support any force that demands change, freedom from continuity of every evil that stemmed and now has roots so strong it will take tears, screams, wounds or even blood to uproot it. “Should I Stand Up Or Bow Down?”

 I, while, thinking of this question thought of the Muslim Indians of Sub-continent before 1947… “FREEDOM” what did it mean to them?

For them, maybe, they lived in a place where ISLAM was not practiced but was just a statement or an apparent symbol, self-respect was shattered by the system that proclaimed to be their benefactors, education was non-existent and out of reach, the ones who could reach the unattainable education met their destiny through a question “You ought to study to be slaves or masters?” They became the slaves, merit didn’t matter because there was prescribed grading system in the society, they became the grass on which the authoritative trampled on. Status quo got all the perks, Injustice became the law, fight for rights was considered treason, and anyone who stood up against the system feared their existence. And the biggest irony was the people who made the qualifying rules and constitutions weren’t qualified to do so. A question rose then and there in someone’s mind, “Should I Stand Up Or Bow Down?” tears, screams, wounds and eventually blood to get rid of it all.

Laborers and farmers neither lived nor died the way lords and feudalists did, the honor of the women who belonged to the weaker class never mattered, every opportunity from the hard-working class was snatched, poverty was a crime and voicing their opinions was punishable, laws and constitutions were made and molded for the oppressors and rulers, caste creed and race made you eminent, accountability was only for the weak and the rich became the inevitable rulers.. And again the question echoes “Should I Stand Up Or Bow Down?”

Mothers losing their sons, daughters losing their fathers, they knew that Pakistan might not bring them their dear ones back but they were hoping for a land where they thought FREEDOM was finally made invincible through the dripping blood of the ones who laid their lives envisioning the land of Purity PAK-ISTAN where their generations to come will never see a sunrise that will shackle them again and with that last thought they rested in a peace that gulped their hearts for eternity.

The part that drowns me into sadness is that they were overseas rulers, they were supposed to be vicious, this time fate made us meet one of our own. This betrayal reminded me of a play by Shakespeare, when Julius Caesar sees that among his murderers stands one of his own, he cries out his last words “Et tu, Brute?(Brutus! You too?)”

NOW.

Should I stand up or bow down? The answer resonates through the decades, it might take tears, screams, wounds and eventually blood to get rid of it all, but, I have decided to ‘Stand Up!’.