Every March 23, Pakistan is covered in green: all country’s public buildings hoist national flags of green color with a white crescent moon and five-rayed star attached.
Following the 31-gun salute in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, the other four provinces begin their great celebration too. On this day, public buildings are closed, transport is limited and various festivals, fairs, and parties take place on the streets.
Pakistan Resolution Day commemorates a milestone event in the country’s history – the adoption of the Lahore Resolution in 1940 aimed at creating an independent state where citizens are treated equally.
Eighty years have passed since all the founding fathers of Pakistan declared that Muslims in India wanted a separate homeland, and the country still remembers the day that paved the way for its independence.
Сall for recognition
During Republic Day, Pakistan showcases the best of itself: armed forces march along Constitution Avenue in Islamabad, the fighter jets display aerial feats and paratroopers perform freefall jumps.
The celebration conforms to the image the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has in a world as a “warrior state.”
Pakistan’s way to become one of the fastest-growing economies and the state with strong nuclear and military potential started back on March 23, 1940, when the Muslim League political party called for separation from United India, which failed to represent Muslim interests at the time.
Lahore soon became a center of the Pakistani independence movements, where for many years, the Muslim majority in British colonial India had confronted Hindus in its beliefs, ideology, language, and traditions.
The Founding Fathers of Pakistan officially marked the differences between Muslims and Hindus during a Lahore session that on March 22–24, 1940 that resulted in the formation of a Pakistan seven years later and the adoption of the country’s first constitution on March 23, 1956.
The resolution to create independent Pakistan was signed there too, in Lahore – now the bustling hub of modern infrastructure, high industries, information technologies and an enormous talent pool of professionals.
Ukrainian parallels
During the same historic period, Ukraine rioted against usurpation and assimilation on two fronts – against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
When two aggressors signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, triggering World War II, the Soviet Union annexed western Ukraine. It marked the beginning of the new wave of Russification policy when countries, invaded by the Soviet army were pressured to give up their culture and language in favor of Russian.
The Russification in Ukraine and the Hindu’s “Kulturkampf” in Pakistan were aimed to annihilate the national identity of both countries, imposing the ideology of homogeneity.
In 1971, the Pakistan civil war and Indian military intervention resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. And even now, the country’s territorial disputes continue as it wants to reclaim the right for the Kashmir region.
Ukraine had only gained its independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But with the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the occupation of the eastern Ukrainian territories by Russian-led militants that have grown into the full-scale war, it seems that the policy of Russification and the urge to homogeneity is still part of Russian foreign policy.
Years have passed, yet both Pakistan and Ukraine continue its struggle for self-identification.
On March 9, 1940, the leader and the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, wrote about the attempts to recognize the Indian Congress Party song as the national anthem of Pakistan and supplant Pakistani Urdu with Hindi.
Now, almost a century later, every March 23, Pakistan celebrates its freedom under its own flags, flying them across the country as a reminder of the country’s long march towards independence.
