Most Pakistanis celebrate the “creation of Pakistan”, but forget the loss of united India and our historical connection with it. I fail to understand what the "Jashan-e-Azadi" (festival of freedom) is for because we have none. If you want to test it, just embrace Christianity in Lahore and you will find out.

On a personal level, I lost my family to immigration. Those who moved to the West either broke all ties to their culture to ease the transition or tried to form an indefatigable bond with Islam to evade Western influence, particularly on their daughters.

This meant they had to remove the last remnants of Hindu culture from their lives - the music, the wedding celebrations, the literature and arts. To meld with the foreigners, almost everyone dropped Urdu — just like we Punjabis had initially dumped Punjabi for Urdu in order to blend in with an “idea of Pakistan” that had no room for anything remotely non-Muslim.

- Ammara Ahmad

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