Festivals and festival fatigue

As the number of literary conferences and festivals is increasing every year, some people are complaining about a festival fatigue, meaning there will soon be more festivals than people attending them. This observation may have some truth in it, but the throngs who attended the Sindh Literature Festival (SLF) in the last week of February proved that there is no festival fatigue in sight – at least not in Karachi. For three days, the halls of Beach Luxury Hotel hummed with heated arguments and discussions on issues that you normally don’t encounter in a festival funded by the corporate sector.

Since such events get scant attention in the mainstream media, here a brief overview is presented for the benefit of readers living across Pakistan. Aijaz Mangi and Noorul Huda Shah were the moving spirits behind this festival, but of course they could not have achieved this feat without active support and hard work by Naseer Gopang, Zohaib Kaka and Najia Mir. They made sure that all the session were conducted in a well-organised manner and that the discussants and participants from all walks of life, and many ethnic and linguistic groups were well represented.

A combination of Balochi, English, Sindhi and Urdu made this festival a truly multilingual affair. I am sure soon we will have Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab literature festivals too. One of the best visually appealing aspects of the festival was the fact that the backdrops on stage were not cluttered with corporate brands, as the lead sponsors were the information department of the government of Sindh and the Endowment Fund Trust. With patronage from the government of Sindh, the festival was able to present a truly representative picture of the province rather than an artificially imposed aura that emanates from the presence of retired civil and military bureaucrats in other festivals.

The SLF was a much more middle and lower-middle class affair as opposed to an upper-class sheen of other such events. Normally, in other parts of Pakistan, especially in Islamabad, a picture is drawn of Sindhi activists, intellectuals and politicians as narrow-minded nationalists who are always active in playing the so-called Sindh Card. If this were true, the SLF would have invited a Sindhi nationalist to be the keynote speaker at the inaugural session, and Sheema Kermani wouldn’t be the lead dance performer on the first night. Instead, Dr Mubarak Ali was invited all the way from Lahore with his family to attend the festival and deliver the keynote speech.

Dr Ali, a former head of the history department at the University of Sindh, has been living in Lahore for almost three decades now. For his people’s-history approach to analyzing events, ideas, and personalities, he has become a persona non grata in festivals where the sponsors are more interested in promoting books by former bureaucrats that mostly endorse the dominant narrative and if they deviate, they do so in a mild and mellow tone. Dr Mubarak Ali is known for his straight talk, his no-holds-barred writings, and his critical appraisal of personalities who are normally considered beyond reproach.

The SLF has done a tremendous job by honouring Dr Ali in this manner; and, of course, he deserves much more. Sheema Kermani was the one who, after that devastating blast at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s shrine, visited ground zero within a couple of days after the tragedy and performed dhammal in defiance of the fundamentalists who had attacked the shrine. This act of valour by Kermani has gone down well with the people of Sindh and has sent a message to the harbingers of doom that dance and drama is not only part of our culture but that it is also people’s right to entertain themselves, perform, or pray in whatever manner they like, as long as it doesn’t harm other people.

The SLF also didn’t confine itself to the people of Sindh alone; the invitation to Mayoons Band from Gilgit was an example of how broad-based the participation was. Coming to the moderators, Dr Ayoub Shaikh, Niaz Nadeem and Sikandar Ali Hulio conducted some very good sessions, and had complete command over the topic they were discussing. In particular, the session titled ‘Awami Shaoor, social media, aur challenges’ moderated by Sikander Hulio brought to light the issue of how people’s understanding of social issues has been affected by social media, and how people can be made more aware of real problems rather than hiding behind a pseudo-patriotic curtain.

One of the most informative and interesting sessions was conducted by Dr Ayoub Shaikh. Where else could you fondly remember, pay respect to, and freely talk about the renegades of society? Be it stalwarts of literature such as Ibrahim Joyo and Fehmida Riaz; or a mobiliser of women in the Sindhyani Tehreek, Rasool Bux Palijo; or die-hard communists such as Sobho Giyanchandani and Jam Saqi – all were paid rich tributes. Dr Murli Dhar, a right-hand man of Dr Adeeb Rizvi at SIUT did justice with his homage to Dr Ruth Pfau. Dr Bakhtawar Jam shared her memories of her great father, Jam Saqi.

A full separate session was devoted to Dr Adeebul Hasan Rizvi, beautifully moderated by Noorul Huda Shah. Some other mavericks adorning stages elsewhere included the firebrand Ayaz Latif Palijo, the dejected daughter-in-law of Z A Bhutto, Ghinwa Bhutto, Baloch leader Sanaullah Baloch, Pashtun intellectual and leader, Afrasiab Khattak, and the red rebel, Laal Khan. Alternative perspectives on CPEC were presented by Ahsan Iqbal, Aslam Bhutani, Bushra Gohar and Nafisa Shah. Among the many book launches, the one that was most interesting was the Sindhi book, ‘Duniya ju Darsgahoon’ (Universities of the World) by Professor Mukhtiar Samo.

On this topic, the only other book in Urdu that comes to mind is Dr Sher Shah Sayed’s ‘Ilm o Agahi ka Safar’ (The journey of knowledge and awareness) published by Scheherazade in 2015 . Dr Sher Shah has focused more on ancient universities, whereas Prof Samo has planned a multi-volume encyclopedia about the universities of the world, both ancient and modern. In this first volume he has covered European universities from Oxford to Oslo. Though most information is now available on the net, having a compact and nicely printed book in Sindhi or Urdu is a treat in itself.

From the last day of the festival, at least two sessions deserve a special mention. The one focusing on non-Muslim communities was moderated by Krishan Sharma. The title ‘Hum bhi barabar key shehri hein’ (We are also equal citizens) didn’t go well with the discussants. They were of the opinion that the title itself is biased – as if being an equal citizen is a privilege and not a fundamental right. Saleem Michael talked about the issues Christians are facing and how his community has contributed to the development of Pakistan. Prof K S Nagpal talked about how the textbooks in Pakistan portray non-Muslims, especially Hindus, in a negative colour.

Dr Jaipal Chhabria was as vocal as he could be about the constitutional discrimination meted out to non-Muslim communities. He stressed that the use of the word ‘minorities’ itself is discriminatory. This was enlightening for this writer too, which is why ‘non-Muslim community’ is being used here. Dr Chhabria highlighted the fact that even the 18th Constitutional Amendment had clauses that were against non-Muslims, and no political party including the ANP, NP and PPP, wrote any dissenting notes about barring non-Muslims from occupying high offices such as president, PM, governor, or even chief minister.

The last session that needs special mention was about G M Syed – moderated by Hameed Sabzoi. Dr Jaffar Ahmad, Mehtab Akbar Rashdi and Ghulam Shah paid rich tributes to this great personality. Dr Jaffar Ahmad was especially very articulate and appreciative of the contributions made by G M Syed to Sindhi intellectual life and literature. With such enlightening sessions, you can rest assured there will not be any festival fatigue – provided that such events present diversity of voice and freedom of expression.

The writer holds a PhD from the

University of Birmingham, UK and works in Islamabad.

Email: mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk