Pakistani progressives have historically understood India as something to aspire to- as essentially a modern secular democracy, a status that Pakistan failed to achieve (because of is its very raison d’etre). This is essentially what we were taught at LUMS tbh.

I think for most of us Modi’s election was a shock, and the first time we had to entertain the possibility that India was not all it was touted to be. Clearly we didn’t take Kashmir (and many other conflicts within India) seriously enough.

And since then, many have tried to equate Imran Khan to Modi (and Trump). Not to critique him for his own failings and but as a reductive mirror image of Modi. Because we are, cannot but be, as bad or worse than India!

But it’s also understandable where this sentiment comes from: the global image of India and that of Pakistan for the last many decades couldn’t be more opposite. India Shining and Pakistan the rouge/failed state. Add to that the absolute suffocation of doing activism in Pakistan!

A lot of Indian progressives think the same. Pakistan is always exceptionally bad, not the normal postcolonial bad, a whole different Sharia law kind of bad (literally sat through a symposium at ANU where this was being claimed).