David and Goliath
The most well-known story of a weaker opponent overcoming a
much stronger adversary is the story of David ( Da’ood ) and Goliath (Jalut).
David, a young shepherd, agrees to rise to the challenge of the legendary
Goliath, armed only with a slingshot and five pebbles. A well-aimed pebble to
the forehead, brings down the 9 foot Goliath despite his armour and weapons.
The story is seen as a symbol of the power of brains over brawn.
A similar story is that of Scheherazade, the Vizier’s
daughter, who agrees to marry the belligerent Sultan Sheheryar, who has vowed
to put to death each of his wives after the nuptial night, in revenge for the
betrayal by his first wife. An educated well-read woman, Scheherazade keeps the
Sultan’s attention by relating fascinating stories night after night until his
anger abates forever. Immortalized as the Arabian Nights or One Thousand and
One nights, the transformation is beautifully depicted in music by the Russian
composer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The common man gets strength from stories of the weak
overcoming the strong or the few defeating the many: the Battle of Badr where
313 followers of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) defeated an army of 1000 Meccans; the
First Battle of Panipat where Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodhi’s 100,000 strong
army with 12,000 soldiers. Pakistan itself was never expected to survive Indian
aggression even two years let alone 75, because geographically it has no depth
for a sustained war.
The videos of Ahed Tamimi, a feisty young Palestinian girl,
screaming and arguing with Israeli soldiers became viral. First when she was
only 12, again at 15 and then at 16, after which she was arrested for 8 months.
She was protesting the confiscation of the freshwater spring of her
neighbourhood by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers used tear gas, stun grenades,
water cannons, and rubber bullets on the protestors one of which hit her
brother in the face.
The image of the unidentified lone man standing before the
line of tanks in the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising, became a haunting symbol
of defiance. Mao Zedong spoke of ‘‘using
the weak to defeat the strong’’ in what is now called asymmetric warfare.
Poet Allen Ginsberg promoted the use of masses of flowers to
be given to policemen, press, politicians and the public to protest against the
Vietnam War. The Flower Power strategy was encapsulated in a now famous image
of George Haris, a protestor placing a carnation in the barrel of an M14 rifle
of soldiers outside the Pentagon.
Phrases like “the
lone hero”, “against all odds”, describes the courage of so many across the
ages, in war, as well as in ordinary life. Maula Jatt, portrayed by actor Sultan Rahi, was the best
known of a genre of Pakistani film in which the ordinary villager become folk
hero taking on powerful oppressors. Fictional
characters such as Batman, Rambo and Jack Reacher have thrilled viewers with
their one-man army of justice.
Some countries have established the reputation of heroic
self-reliance such as China from the 50s to the 70s, Cuba and Iran, or by
resisting invasion from a stronger country, such as Finland in 1939 and more
recently, Afghanistan. Just last week the streets across Pakistan resounded
with calls for “Azadi” or freedom from external interference.
Nature has many examples where we witness the courage of
smaller animals who take on predators to protect their young or weaker members
of the group. There are many accounts of unlikely heroes who run into a burning
house or jump into a river to save someone. Malik Adnan became an unlikely hero
when he tried to save a Sri Lankan from a violent mob in Sialkot.
People love to root for the underdog because we can relate
to them and their resilience makes our own success a possibility. Although
psychologists find that there are some who choose to align with the top dog,
deep down inside, people long for a just world.
Durriya Kazi
Karachi
April 10, 2022
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