So today I remembered an incident that occurred when I was in primary school, relating to the question above. Maybe not so much of an incident as such but a moment that I never ever forget...
It's a summers afternoon and the school is hosting a summers fair. There is a fancy dress competition in which the best dressed child wins a prize. My mum decided that my older sister (who was 10 at that time) would be an Indian princess. So she dressed her up in a really pretty green and pink lengha, a nice tikka with a matching necklace and green and pink vanga to match also. She had her hair and make up done too. In all honesty, I didn't think she looked like a princess, as cute as she did look, but it just seemed as if she was going to a wedding.
My mum takes my sister to the judging table and they say 'so tell us about her costume?' to which mum replies 'she's an Indian princess'.
Fair play. The judges (who were not Indian), also thought she looked adorable and agreed that she DID look like an Indian princess. I mean it's not like they see a little brown girl in her traditional outfit every day.
Not long after, another little brown girl dressed in a cream lengha with matching gold tikka and necklace goes to the judging table. The judges say 'looks like we have another Indian princess', to which the mother of the young girl replies 'no, she is not an Indian princess. She is a Pakistani princess'.
You know, at that time, I must have been 8 or 9 and even then I remember asking myself what the difference was between a Pakistani princess and an Indian princess. Both my sister and this young girl looked exactly the same to me. Both wearing lenghas and vanga and tikka. The little girl was in my class. She was from Lahore, which is in Punjab. West Punjab to be precise. Pakistan. I didn't know that at the time, but I just remember being really confused about the difference between 'Indian' and 'Pakistani' princess. I never even knew there was such a thing as a 'Pakistani' princess.
I asked my mum what the difference was , she never gave a response. I don't blame her. What sort of response would you give to an 8 year old? The answer was too complex for my young, inexperienced brain to understand.
Or maybe it wasn't.
It was so simple. There was no difference.
The young girl spoke Punjabi in her house. So did we. She wore a salvaar kameez at home. So did we. She ate daal and roti. So did we. She believed in one 'god'. So did we.
Neither the Indian princess or the Pakistani princess won the competition. The judges (who were English) said great efforts on the lovely sparkly costumes but the Indian princess and Pakistani princess costumes were the same. In retrospect, I find this very ironic that the English judges saw no difference in these two young girls, yet in 1947, a new nation called Pakistan was carved out of India because the then British ruling elites saw nothing but differences between the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh.
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