Pakistan’s culture defines its humanity: Maleeha Lodhi

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s culture defines its humanity and reflects the spirit of a nation on the upsurge, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi has said while calling for promoting greater engagement across cultures to counter xenophobia.

Today the amazing outpouring of art and literature in Pakistan is the most forceful response to a tiny minority that seeks to impose an alien orthodoxy, she told a large and distinguished gathering amidst applause at the start of the festival the first time a Pakistani cultural festival has been held abroad.

Lahore has arrived in New York, the Pakistani envoy said of the US city known as the one that never sleeps. Nor does Lahore, by the way Lahore she said has led the national engagement with modernity and it embodies the country’s unique identity as a modern nation and ancient civilization. We are proud that for the first time a festival of ideas from Pakistan has been taken overseas.

Pakistan, the ambassador said, has a rich and diverse cultural heritage and artistic tradition present cultural landscape is especially rich and prolific. The country’s literary ethos of had been going through remarkable change with a growing number of globally acclaimed writers spearheading this transformation. As for music, she said the explosion being witnessed ranges all the way from traditional Qawali rendered with a modern twist to a fresh crop of pop artists, all creating a diverse and distinctively Pakistani sound.

Pakistan’s culture was about attitudes that value openness and dialogue, the ambassador said. Today we are engaged in a battle of ideas and it is culture which helps us create space and diversity to enable us to forge a narrative of tolerance openness and debate. Our response to those who challenge our centuries old tradition of peaceful coexistence informed by our great Sufi tradition is to get back in touch with joy and the freedom to create. Asia Society, she said, provided a platform and showcasing different cultures from the Asian continent to build awareness and advance understanding in the US of other cultures and civilizations.

Art it is rightly said transcends borders and helps to build bridges across cultures and therefore is an invaluable medium to promote inter cultural understanding, Ambassador lodhi said. At a time when we see the rise of intense xenophobia nothing is more important than the need to listen to each other build respect for the other and promote greater engagement across cultures. It is by enhancing our understanding of the values of cultural diversity that helps us to learn to live together better.