The Royal Visit – A Love Hate Relationship

The Royal Couple, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton were on a 5-day trip to Pakistan. Their trip has finally come to an end after visiting several key locations in Pakistan.

Their trip has drawn a lot of attention – from supporting local ventures and visiting scenic areas around Pakistan to the criticism of being slaves of the colonial mindset even 71 years after independence.

Let’s take a look at the different opinions people hold for this Royal visit.

I warmly welcome the royal couple on their visit to Pakistan. It underscores deepening friendship b/w our countries. UK has been a great dev. partner of Pakistan. With DFID's cooperation, Punjab achieved various milestones during our govt for which we will always remain grateful!
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) October 15, 2019

There are two emerging opinions regarding the Royal Visit – one highlights the need to identify remnants of the colonial mindset, while the other asks us to not be so resentful.

Let’s look at this in detail. There is certainly a need to identify remnants of the colonial mindset but that has to be done by not hating people rather the ideology that they left behind. We as people need to identify opinions and habits that hinder social growth, for instance, the preference of English over our cultural languages and the preference of white skin color over our own skin color. These are changes that we need to make on our own and that can be done without hating individuals because that hate serves no purpose. It only shows a hate mindset that our people love to adopt instead of making necessary changes at their own ends.

We also need to look at the purpose this visit serves. The Royal Couple visiting Pakistan reaffirms Pakistan’s relationship with the United Kingdom (UK). At this point in time, Pakistan needs the support of its allies when India is working diligently to build an anti-Pakistan narrative by pinning the label of terror financer on us. This particular visit will establish Pakistan’s soft power and help reduce the extremist narrative against Pakistan. There was a time when the influx of British tourists in Pakistan was a significant number but that has reduced post 9/11. This will certainly improve international tourism and improve Pakistan’s standing in the global political regime.

There is another emerging aspect of this conversation as well. Many people are commenting on how wonderfully Kate and William respected the culture of Pakistan by abiding by the dress code and respecting religious sentiments and showing a plurality of beliefs while on their visit to the Badshahi mosque.

While this is an important discussion to be had, it is also important to identify to not shame people for choosing to dress however they please in their own country. Many people were also right in identifying the hypocrisy shown to Malala when she was found wearing jeans, as per the Western dressing style. The standards we hold for our own people are not the same that we hold for people of foreign lands. We shame people for respecting different religious beliefs or participating in religious activities while praising people for doing the same for our religious beliefs. If we get rid of such prejudices and biases, the extremism that we hold towards our own people can help improve the social reality in Pakistan.