I want to talk about this. Some days ago there was a horrid video of a man harassing an older shia man on the wheelchair about how the string tied on his hand is what Hindus in mandirs wear. The older man was haplessly trying to fight a lost fight. 1/n https://twitter.com/HaleemaTalat/status/1313359635668250625

Pre 1971, Bengali Muslims were similarly otherized as "Hindu", as lesser Muslims, because they were shorter, dark skinned. 2/n

My first weekend in Lahore, an aunty in Packages' washroom asked me if I was from India, and I was so lost? @khoonsurat_ later told me it was probably because I am darker than most women in Lahore. 3/n

There is a very real and deep otherization which happens in this country. Agar aap ko pasand nai kartay tu aap Indian hain, and if you don't exactly match what the Punjabi Sunni layout looks like, you're a Hindu. 4/n

And what do we fear more than Hindus? After all, Pakistan was made as a response to Hindu nationalism, ye mulk tu musalmaanon ka hai? 5/n

For the past however many years we have been taught propaganda in our classes, our assemblies, our playgrounds, our circles. We have been made to forget our roots our shared culture and our heritage. We have been robbed of our history. And what greater sin than that? 6/n

In this chaos of a lost past, we hurriedly forge new, mythic pasts. Pehla Pakistani tu Bin Qasim tha. Most of us force trace our lineage to Arabia and Persia. Ertugrul, not Bhaghat Singh. Saaris are what prostitutes wear. Humaray culture mai tu ye sleeveless behayi nai 7/n

I don't know what I'm getting out of this thread? Perhaps just to vent and lament. Walter Benjamin had this sketch of the history of angel, a beast? An angel? With a goat's head, his eyes turned towards the past, his feet flying towards the future. 8/n