It was not that long ago that the festivals held under the auspices of Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop were considered to be the biggest shows held in the country, especially in terms of the international participation.
These festivals were so numerous that they could be categorised under any of the genres like music, theatre, puppetry, film and dance. They could also be classified whether they were for the young or the well-established. During the decades of the 1990s and then the first decade of this century, Lahore became a hub of these festivals with the Alhamra Cultural Complex as its permanent site. The festival and the site became well-entrenched in the minds of the people wanting to be part of the show.
But after the terrorist attack about ten years ago, the momentum was disrupted, the festivals’ frequency became inconsistent, its scale downsized and gradually as the funding for the arts showed a downward curve these festivals started to become fewer in number and then became a trickle. It appears now that the 22nd International Festival of Puppetry which was held last week at the Rafi Peer Cultural Complex on Raiwind Road is the only one that is left of those numerous festivals.
But it was with puppetry that everything got started. Late Faizan Peerzada and his brothers Sadaan and Imran had been involved with puppets for a very long time. They learnt the art of puppetry as boys; then as young men they set up Puppet Company that performed in Karachi, and also in Lahore when they moved there. Encouraged by the response, they launched the International Puppet Festival in 1992 which was a smashing success.
When Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop decided to build a puppet museum on the outskirts of the city in the middle of the 1990s, most thought the plan was doomed from the beginning. Puppetry after all was a minor form of art, even the developed world did not boast of many puppet museums and the location of this museum was too far away from the centre of the city. But now it is a well-known centre for puppetry, a kind of nucleus, and the recent festival was also held there.
In the latest festival, puppeteers from Indonesia, Germany and Turkey too took part. Ambassador of Indonesia Iwan S. Amri participated along with his team and inaugurated the event. Papermoon Pupet Theatre Indonesia, puppet performance by Cengiz Ozek Turkey and Miriam Ellen Broek from Germany were the highlights.
The festival also included puppet performance by Imran Peerzada, folk puppet theatre by Aziz Bashir and Asghar from Bahawalpur, puppet performance and story-telling by Tasneem Peerzada and Mina Malik Hussain, and Puppet Making & Art Workshop by Yamina Peerzada.
The heartening aspect, which has been there all along, was the participation of a large number of children. The international and local puppet productions and activities for children were designed around them, and they had fun with other children and families in a large community outside of schools. Seeing the number of people who attended it, all apprehensions and fears were laid to rest. People came in the thousands, both young and old, in the three days that the festival was in progress and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, giving hope that the art of puppetry may still survive.
Folk Puppetry is an old and traditional form of marionette that can be traced back many centuries, but its recent phase can be mapped more accurately in the last five centuries through the tales pertaining to the court of Mughal Emperor Akbar, with one of the most important happenings being the revolt of Dullah Bhatti. In this part of the world, folk puppeteers nearly all trace their ancestry to various areas of Rajasthan, in particular Bikaner. Called Pakhiwaas or gypsies, a nomadic lot who have roamed from place to place, taking part in puppetry or singing mostly the vast repertoire of folk songs in various dialects of the language spoken in the length and breadth of Rajasthan, they have been part of the history of this area since times immemorial. They probably migrated to Bangla Fazil in district Ferozepur (now in Indian Punjab) sometime in the past and from there migrated to the new country Pakistan in 1947.
The current government’s policy initiative on promoting tourism can be served well by supporting and promoting artistic activity in the country. Visitors from outside come to a country not only to see mountains, lakes and deserts but also to partake of the culture of that land. Culture is the authentic expression of the people of the land and promotion of culture should not give the impression that one is putting up a show for entertainment of tourists.
The way culture and Sufic practices have been portrayed in the recent past, it appears the soft image of the country is kind of an advertisement campaign for the cleaning up act of stains of terrorism. Just let cultural expression free of the snares and fears of those who detest diversity and it will be attractive enough not only for the tourists but for those finding meaning in the creative potential of diversity. Building up a grand narrative of a single homogeneous culture referring back to a single source has been self-defeating, and has only served censorship well.