Sarwat Ali lays down the problem in the simplest of words: "Pakistan is going through a bizarre phase. On the one hand, the traditional sites, places or venues which house and promote culture are under attack and, on the other, huge festivals are being held in the major cities of Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore and even in a place like Mohenjodaro."
This is precisely the phenomenon that we have tried to address in today’s Special Report. We want to look at these huge festivals, literary and cultural, in the urban centres attracting middle and elite classes, to see if they are a logical consequence of the fact that the traditional venues of culture are under attack or not.
There may not necessarily be a connection between the two but there is certainly a huge sense of celebration at the mere holding of urban festivals, as if they are the right political response to Talibanisation and the attached militancy. This is what was made a subject of contestation in an article by Afiya Sheherbano Zia in this very magazine last week. She made a serious attempt to bring in the issues of class, corporate sponsorship and more inclusive manifestations of culture to the debate.
In today’s Special Report, we have tried to take the debate further. I.A. Rehman in his insightful interview agrees that festivals and events in urban centres do contribute, "but there is no development of society" at large which is "still in the same shackles as before". Sarah Humayun takes a dispassionate view specifically of the literary festivals.
Culture is not something static we are often told. So why should the debate on culture remain so. At a time when musicians and singers and artistes of all hues are being attacked by people of one set of beliefs, when not everything that we hold dear as culture is praiseworthy, when culture has been politically used, especially by the unelected rulers, it is time to take the debate forward and see what culture means for us today. Who defines it and do people understand what culture means.