Inroduction.          Gentlemen, please feel the hooves of a million galloping horses raising the dust to the outer limits of space. The swords of Indus battalions rising and flashing in defense before us. Mighty and turbulant rivers surging and shrinking thereby marking the unending cycle of immoderate seasons. Dry and burning desert winds sweeping across the endless plains every summer to be satisfied only by the relentless and thunderous monsoon clouds. Cycle continues unabated. The invaders never relented. The resistance never tired. Who are these people? Which civilization is this? Is this the land of our ancestors? Is It Pakistan? Is Pakistan merely an amputated limb of India? If not, than a Pakistani has to be somebody. Who is that somebody? Is that somebody an Arab or a Persian? Is there any history of such a nation and of its distinct ties to the geographical entity of the Indus Valley?These are some of the missing links of the larger Jig Saw puzzle that haunts our minds today and of many around the globe.

 

Aim.  To trace out the genesis of Indus valley civilization with a view to identify our cultural roots and heritage.    

 

Geography of Indus Valley.          As the name denotes, the civilization thronged along river Indus and its tributaries. Indus is one of the mightiest rivers on the planet. It rises on a small spring in the distant and inaccessible land of Tibet and then making its way through the mountain ranges of Himalayas and the Karakorams imbibly enroute the tributaries of Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, falls into the Arabian sea. The story is thus about the people that inhabit the Indus and its tributaries. Geographically, the civilization was spread over an area of one million square kilometers, bounded by great Himalayas in the North, Arabian sea in the South, Rajasthan desert in the East and rugged hills and plateaus of Balochistan in the West.

          What has to be perceived is that the giant mountain ranges of Himalayas and the Karakoram protected the people of Indus valley from the fierce, dry and chilly Siberian winds and created a climate that was suitable for the rise of a civilization and separated the Indus region from central Asia.  The gradual hump between Indus and India along a line roughly connecting Gurdaspur in Eastern Punjab to Kathiawar on the Arabian Sea, has been the critical dividing line of history and culture. It is this in unobtrusive strip of land, along with the Rajasthan desert, that separates Indus from India.

          It is to the North, along this line, that the Ganges comes closest to the Sutlej, the southern most tributary of Indus. But, keeping with the character of the two civilizations and like water drainning off the two opposite sides of a sloping roof, each journeys away to drain far out in opposite direction. The Indus thunders North-West through the skyscraping mountains bordering upon China and central Asia, turns southwards, blasts out into plains, slows down in the endlessly level lands at the feet of the great mountains, absorbs its tributaries at Panjnad, and then glides on majestically into the Arabian sea.

          Geological investigations reveal that around third millennium BC, there was another river that ran parallel to Indus. It was Hakra - Ghagger river. It flowed East of Indus and then exited into Arabian sea not far from the Indus delta. On the other hand, the Ganges sweeps out of the Himalayas into the northern plains, turns away towards the East, and spills out into the Bay of Bengal. The sources of both the rivers are within a hundred miles of each other. But their divergent courses take them away to their deltas almost 1500 miles apart in the opposite direction.

          This has also been the case with the civilizations that have flowered on the banks of these two mighty streams. They came close to each other in some periods of history. Each took stock of the other, and then each went along its own individual, distinct and opposite way. It is this gradual watershed in the plains between the Indus and Gangetic drainage systems that has proved to be palpable divide between two lands, two peoples, two civilizations, Indus and India. Thus Indus (Pakistan) has always been distinct from and independent of India. It is significant that Aryans, Mughals and the British rulers attempted to fuse these two civilizations into one but failed due to the centrifugal force which is naturally found between the two civilizations.

A Journey Through Ages.          The land where Pakistan is situated today had been a seat of world's leading civilizations from the time immemorial. Indus civilization is truly our pride and a testimony of our rich cultural heritage. The area has been exposed to several central Asian invasions from prehistoric times to as late as 16th century ranging from Aryans to Greek to Turks, Arabs, Moghuls and the British. The history of Indus valley civilization dates back to as far as 2 million years ago when the first Homoerectus man arrived on this land. However, it was around 8000 BC that the first ever permanent settlement started to take its shape at Mehrgarh near Balochistan.

          By some 4000 to 5000 years ago, a major part of Aryans settled in central Asia. The pressure of surplus population upon productive forces, perhaps on account of a long dry spell which depleted the pastures, compelled them to migrate. They migrated towards the areas of the present day Pakistan and Iran. Many food gathering tribes succumbed to the Aryan onslaught. Most resisted for several centuries but were driven out and moved towards the South preferring to migrate than surrender.

          The strong arm of Arayn invader had the capacity to take his bride but this was never without resistance. That the matriarchial society of the Indus people resisted is commemorated to this day in marriage rituals. The shoes of the bridegroom is taken away and kept by the sisters of the bride. He has to pay a price in cash for their return. The bride's superiority even though the status of women sank with the passage of time, is still established with the display of dowry to the guests at the ceremony.

          The defenders were infact superior to the invaders. They had a superior urban culture. However, the Aryans overpowered them. Their lands and pastures were destroyed. The assault upon the Indus civilization's mainstay could not go without immense resistance and conflict. Later and more vigorous waves of Aryans pushed the earlier settlers and the aborigins to the East and into the Jumna valley across which lay the giant reserves of a new metal, Iron. Bronze was replaced with iron. Iron axe facilitated cutting of the forests and deep ploughing of the fields. Vast areas were thus available for agriculture. The Indus region was back in full swing. 

          These attributes then attracted the Greek towards the great Indus valley and Alexander of Macedon after defeating Persia under Darius III in 331 BC, was compelled by the renowned wealth of Indus valley only to venture towards this rich outpost of the Persian empire. He crossed the mighty Indus at Swat and reached Taxila defeating whosoever came his way till he was resisted with a vigour and ferocity that he had not been confronted with during all his previous campaigns. Opposing him was the army of Punjabi king Poros, a brave son of the land of Indus. However, Alexander finally managed to defeat Poros but impressed by the valour and courage of Poros allowed him to retain his possessions.

          Upon Alexander's death around 323 BC, Chandragupta founder of Mauryan empire threw the Greeks out of firstly India then the Indus. The Mauryan empire thus remained the only empire other than the British to have ruled Indus basin from a centre far in the East. However, after the death of Ashoka,  the Mauryan empire began to shrink. The Bactrian Greeks claimed possession of Indus by about 180 BC. They were the ones giving birth to Gandhara art. Bactrian Greeks were over thrown by the Scynthians also called the Shakas.

          It was in this period that the entire Indus region came to be known as ‘Scynthia' which is believed to be the origin of the noun Sindh. The Kushans from China threw the Scynthians out of Indus and reached upto Kathiawar and again compacted the Indus and the Oxus together in one empire.  After the downfall of Kushans around 167 AD, Sassanids from Persia took over Indus. Thus the great Indus valley kept fluctuating in the hands of one and the other invader.

          From  the Alexander's Greeks to the Mauryans from the eastern India, the Bactrian Greeks to the Scynthians , Kushans to Sassanids to Afghans, Mughals and lastly the British. It changed hands from Afghans to the Mughals and then finally the British. The great Indus valley kept bracing the invasions and tolerating the new cultural changes that the invaders brought with them to their land but the resistance never died.

          Indus had always been a colourful, vibrant and a peaceful civilization. It was a civilization where many distinct and differing threads were interwoven and co-existed adding strength and value to the weave. There are countless colourful and gripping episodes in Indus history of countless instances of success, defeat, heroism, courage, timidity, and opportunism. It was a buffer between India and the invaders from the West and north west. However, during those times, the Indian civilization that existed on the banks of mighty Ganges witnessed an era of relative peace and quiet and that peace was the gift of isolation.

Profile of Indus Civilization.      The character of a civilization is determined by two major factors, the physical environment and the social environment. Together these two terms cover a variety of sub factors like the climatic conditions, the type of terrain, the social development of basic communities and the racial characteristics of the population. Though the area covered by Indus valley itself was almost the size of Europe encompassing  lot of inhabited areas, however, let us now see some of the elements, which were specific to Indus civilization itself which formed its character:-

Role of Clergy.          Religion has played a central role in all civilizations, ancient and modern. The people who gave a practical shape to religion were the priests. They were the wise men, the thinkers. The knowledge, which they acquired through their meditations and scholarly pursuits, was put to different types of uses in different civilizations. In some civilizations priests used it to exercise power and control over their fellow human beings. In other societies they subordinated themselves to more powerful elements in the society but still exercised considerable influence. The priests occupied an important place in the Indus society. Their primary concern was the spiritual matters. They were highly respected and enjoyed a high status but were not powerful people in the Indus civilization the way they were in the Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations. Though they provided strength to the state but their place was in the temples, hermitage and religious institutions. They remained outside the corridors of power unlike that of today.

Rulers and the Social Fabric.          The Indus state was governed by a group of Chieftains belonging to a number of clans. From among the groups, one Chief was selected to take care of the day to day affairs. All the important clans were represented in the governance of the state and in turn, the interests of a very large section of population were safeguard. Resultantly, adequate provisions were made for public facilities which catered for the needs of broad range of population. The focus of trade was not on exotic items but on raw materials and the goods crafted in workshops met the demands of all sections of the society.

Nature of Economy.          The economic activities were not concentrated in one or two urban centers. Each region was more or less self sufficient in food and had a number of craft industries which were engaged in mass production of utility and ornamental items used by the common man which were the mainstay of the economy.

Militarism and Warfare.          Most of the weapons were made of copper or bronze. A number of daggers, swords axes and knives have been recovered from the sites. In a civilization in which the general technological level was quite high, the attention given to the development of effective weapons for war was very little. Some of the safety measures taken by the Indus regime against external aggression were in the form of fortifications around citadels and protective walls around the settlement or parts of a settlement.

Organized Living Pattern.          Another point, which stands out in the character of the Indus civilization, is the very modern concept of planned layout of the cities and towns. The entire residential areas were divided into squares or rectangles between streets and lanes. The architects who planned these layouts had very clear ideas about optimum utilization of space. The appreciation of the need for organized system of drainage and sewerage disposal was in itself unique in the ancient world. The concept of personal and environmental cleanliness was part of the character of the Indus people. The Indus people were the pioneers in these concepts of planned layouts and public hygiene. It was several centuries afterwards, that people elsewhere started using these concepts.

Decline / Collapse.          Around 1900 BC, signs of a gradual decline of this great civilization began to emerge. People started to leave the cities. Those who remained were poorly nourished. By around 1800 BC, most of the cities were abandoned. Over ambitious wars, barbarian invasions, dynastic or capitalistic intrigue, the malaria mosquito or the plague have been urged on one or more than one occasions to be the possible causes of the decline of this great civilization. Other theories have relied upon racial degeneration or cautiously vague phenomenon that "Life is one long process of getting tired".

          A possible natural reason of the Indus valley civilization's decline is connected with the climate change. The Indus valley was verdant, forested, and teeming with wildlife. Floods were a problem and appear, on more than one occasion, to have overwhelmed certain settlements. As a result, people of the Indus civilization supplemented their diet with hunting. By 1800 BC, the climate is known to have changed. It became significantly cooler and drier. The crucial factor may have been the disappearance of substantial portions of the river system.

          The region in which the river's waters formerly arose is known to be geologically active, and there is evidence of major changes in the earth's crust at the time the Indus civilization collapsed. Moreover, unlike other ancient civilizations, the archaeological record of the Indus civilization provides practically no evidence of armies, kings, slaves, social conflicts, prisons, and other negative traits that we traditionally associate with early civilization, although this could simply be due to the sheer completeness of its collapse and subsequent disappearance. Although these factors are speculative, the decline of the Indus valley civilization would have been due to a combination of a variety of reasons.

 

Difference Between the Indus and Indian Civilizations.              Nehru was India's ideologue. He expounded the concept of the inviolable oneness of India that the Indian scholars keep harping. Even the epic Mahabharata unquestioningly assumes the oneness of  subcontinent. Captivated by this oneness concept, Indians when focusing upon Indus history always pay more attention to the role and influence upon it of the Indian dynasty then of Indus itself. The question however remained, was the centripetal pull of India a supernatural force that could again pull the Indus region (Pakistan) to itself.

          On the contrary, ladies and gentlemen, we must know and tell our children that every tale, legend and ritual from the most ancient to the relatively recent, from the pre Islamic to the post Islamic, has assured that there has always existed a state or region or a civilization encompassing the Indus and its tributaries, which was independent and distinct to that of India. The subcontinent has itself always been at least too distinct worlds. The truly ‘Indic region' comprising the Gangetic plains and peninsular India, on one hand, and the Indus region consisting of the basin of the Indus and its tributaries on the other. In fact the twain have seldom if ever, truly met.

          During the last six thousand years Indus has indeed remained independent of and separate from India for almost five and a half thousand years. Only the three universal states, those of the Mauryans, Mughals and the British welded these two regions together in single empires. For the remainder, from prehistory to nineteenth century Indus has been Pakistan. 1947 was only a reassertion of that reality. Arab authors themselves were perceptive enough to provide one important insight into the distinctness of Indus from India. In their view, there was no doubt about it. They consistently treated the two lands as different. They always, and with a relentless consistency, referred to India as Al Hind and to Indus as Al Sindh.

          As such, Pakistan, the land of Indus preceded even the advent of Islam in the subcontinent. It was not a chasm that one people created for themselves in the ten short years from 1937 to 1947, as some Indians may like to believe. Indus has a rich and glorious cultural heritage of its own. This is a distinct heritage of a distinct and separate nation. There is thus no fear of any other country devouring or destroying the state.

 

Difference Between the Indus Civilization and the Arabs.          In looking out side the region for genesis of Indus civilization, the rationale for Muslim separatism is attributed solely to the middle eastern Arab influence. This concept runs contrary to the historical fact that Indus had almost no direct interaction with the Arabs. In the long period since the advent of Aryans to the present age, Sindh alone out of the entire Indus region, had a direct political contact with the Arabs. That too, was for a brief period of 144 years, from 711 AD to 854. To suggest that contacts between Indus and the Arabs were historically brief is not to imply that there were no significant contacts between Indus and Islam. On the contrary, Indus was constantly exposed to Islamic doctrines over long centuries of continuous interaction with the Muslim conquerors and empire builders, and the ascetics of the Sufi order.

          Except for the young Muhammad bin Qasim, these invaders, soldier kings, and saints were almost entirely of central Asian or Persian origin, whether Mongols, Afghans and Turks. The story of the Pakistani people share little cultural commonality with the Arab. The fact remains that racially, ethnically, linguistically, and, above all, culturally, the people of Pakistan are closely linked to the peoples of central Asia and Iran than to the people of the Arab world. The Arabian sea and the monsoons separated Indus and the Arabian peninsula and maintained a civilizational distance between them.

          By taking the monsoon corridor to India in summer and back in winters, century after century, the Arabs completely bypassed Indus. The direction in which the wind blew took them to the southern coasts of India. They did not blow towards or from Indus. Both ways Indus remained away from Arabs. Even Muhammad bin Qasim's advent was the result of political exigencies. The Arabs were primarily Semites whereas the Indus tribes were mostly central Asians or aboriginal or a mixture of both. The Arabs were not an agrarian community but nomads whereas the Indus people were agrarian. Being nomads, Arabs were a patriarchal society. Women were not only denied inheritance but the girl child was considered a shameful liability. Whereas the Indus people were a matriarchal society many features of which continue to enrich it to date. There was no concept of family in the Arabs where as the Indus society was bounded by a strong family system.

Traits of an Indus person.          Indus is the land of the intense poetry of Khusru, Hussein, Bahu, Bullay, Waris, Latif, Khushal, Iqbal and Faiz and of the incomparable, liberal, progressive and enlightened Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It is the civilization that has been shaped by the deeds and tales of resistance and valour. It is the story of bold and courageous men and women of resistance. They gathered to resist alien expeditionaries, invaders and imperial armies. Let us now see some of the traits specific to the men of Indus civilization.

          Indus man has never surrendered willingly. As a matter of fact it may even appear that the entire resistance that successive central Asians expeditionaries met with was confined to the Indus region. The Greeks were stalled in this region and compelled to turn back. Taimoor was confronted by Jasrat and Sheikha Gakkhar. Babar repeatedly tried to get to India, but returned after losing heart in the Indus region. It was Indus that has always saved India from the onslaught of countless invaders.

          Indus person is a family man. Family, is the gift of the agrarian mode of production that has been the dominant means of subsistence of Indus inhabitants from pre historic to the contemporary times. Bonds between the members of a family are strong. Responsibility and care for ageing parents and grandparents is the normal trait of the Indus man. There is no abandonment, even in times of economic stress and penury. Even in the interpretation and applicaion of the Sharia, Indus remains largely the land of the Sufi, and of the softer, benign, Sufic doctrines of Islam.

          The Indus woman is intelligent, brave, and confident, and has initiative. No amount of fundamentalist mumbo jumbo can obscure these features of her character. Even when she is put behind the veil, she remains the social driving force, giving impetus and direction to the son and the husband. Denied education and opportunities of gainful employment, she is the greatest untapped resource of Indus and of Pakistan.

          Indus has always discarded those who have denied its traditions of tolerance. Indus rejection of fundamentalism and extremism does not imply that the Indus person is irreligious. But he shuns fundamentalism. He readily gives his soul to an unorthodox Sufi but resists the influence of the dogmatic and inflexible maulvi. Enlightened and liberal in his outlook, the Indus person will not submit to the political leadership of the orthodoxy. Despite his devout commitment to Islam, he is more likely to opt for liberal and modernist leaders.

Cardinal Points.                The first basic concept embodied in the Indus civilization was the belief that no one individual had the right to usurp the wealth and resources of the land and use them for his or his family's benefit. Ancient history is replete with stories of mighty kings and conquerors like the Pharaohs with extremely greedy egos and limitless desires for personal glorification at the expense of the rest of the population. However, in case of Indus civilization, there is overwhelming evidence to show that the wealth of the cities was distributed among all segments of the society. There were rich people and poor people, but the executive hold  of one individual or family on the wealth of the cities is nowhere found. 

          In most cities of other civilizations, the cities grew haphazardly. However, that was not the case with Indus valley civilization. The concept of town planning was well ingrained and built into these concepts were modern ideas of cleanliness and hygiene. Thus we can very confidently say that it was our pride which is being claimed by the West due to the collapse of Indus civilization.

          The third basic concept ingrained in the Indus civilization is the separation of  the clergy from the state administration. Religion was a very important part  of the spiritual, social and cultural life of the Indus people. The role of the priests was to provide spiritual comfort and to promote cleanliness and purity of thought and actions. There is no evidence to suggest that they craved for power or to indicate their involvement in the affairs pertaining to state administration.

          The fourth basic concept, which characterized the Indus civilization, was that of unified culture and decentralized form of government. The Indus civilization was spread far and wide over widely different regions and terrain, yet these regions were knit together by common bonds of religion and culture. The design of the artifacts and the layout of the towns were all very similar. All this uniformity was achieved without the direct interference of the central regime in the administration of the city states.

          The fifth concept which characterized the Indus civilization was that of voluntary association of city states and a desire and inclination towards peaceful coexistence. It was the common economic interests, which kept the different city states together in a sort of federation. There is no evidence of war and conquests or forceful occupation of areas or of plunder or extraction.

          The economy was based on Industry. The Indus civilization attached great importance to development of new technologies and to establishment of craft industries. The craftsmen developed new technologies for mass production of certain items of common use and paid very less attention to produce sophisticated weapons.

          The proud people of Indus were docile, peace loving and accomodative. The Indus person demonstrated tolerance and broadmindedness. The Indus person stood at a distance from fractious sectarian movements, never himself involved, and quite apprehensive about their potential for violence and conflict. However, unfortunately, we the Pakistanis of today (the people of the great Indus civilization) have involved ourselves into many ills. The very fabric of our society is in ruins today. We have been engulfed with sectarianism, fundamentalism, intolerance, feudalism and linguism, terminologies that were absolutely alien to our ancestors.

          Indus person was a family man and believed in matriarchal society contrary to the other ancient civilizations. Family, was the gift of the agrarian mode of production that had been the dominant means of subsistence of Indus inhabitants. Agriculture tied men to specific, demarcated plots of land thereby fragmenting the tribe and giving impetus to the development of the family as the primary social unit.

          The belief in the futility of savings and in the advantage of instant consumption is one of the dominant traits of Indus region. It is not considered a flaw but a virtue of sorts. The Indus man will borrow to over spend at marriages and betrothals. Consumerism and ostentation are nor merely contemporary modern phenomena. They are the legacy of the anarchy of several centuries of devastating wars, destruction, plunder and loot that the Indus region was subjected to.

          Another lasting impact has been the minimization of expectations of the people of their administrators. Darbari was a term originally used for a minister commanding respect and honour which later became a term of derision for any low and parasitic character. Citizens had to be coerced into submission and then fleeced. This raised the threshold of tolerance that the Indus elite displayed towards oppressive and cruel rulers.

          The Indus person when trained, drilled and subjected to discipline, makes a very good soldier and a best military officer. As a soldier he can perform great feats of heroism and valour. He ready learns the value and necessity of discipline and coordination.

          Nations must, no doubt, learn from history particulary their own. The essential differences between India and Indus are civilizational and cultural. These differences are deep rooted, primordial and many. To restrict these differences merely to those of religion is to refuse to comprehend the issue.       

          There is absolutely no doubt that we the Paksiatnis are the people of the forgotten Indus civilization. We are the people of the land of mighty Indus. The commonality of religion with the Arabs and the Persians is obvious, but it neither makes us an Arab or a Persian although it is significant to our identity.

Conclusion.      Our quest to search for our indentity has taken us to the land of Mighty Indus. To a civilization that once thrived on an area as large as modern day Europe. There is absolutely no doubt in our minds that we the Paksiatnis are the people of the forgotten Indus civilization and not the amputated limb of India. We are the people of the land of mighty Indus who were docile, peace loving, accommodative, moderate and open minded, traits that we have lost. It is time now that we shake off this dust that sectarianism, linguistic and regional conflicts have showered  upon the very fabric that our ancestors had woven, that consumerism and opportunism have laid upon it, and to expose its original brightness to all the sons and daughters of this nation , to assure them of its inherent strength. It is time to discover and restore our lost soul. It is time to rediscover and restore Pakistan as a liberal, progressive, modern Muslim state with its rightful place into the community of nations.