The ironies of Ramazan

With the first days of Ramazan came a crippling heat wave, and extended loadshedding, which, literally as well as metaphorically, sent people reeling across the country. The first rains may bring relief, though humidity can make heat feel hotter, and fasting will obviously be a tough business this year – especially for those who do actually work through the day rather than adopting a nocturnal lifestyle and sleeping away the hours.
But beyond the power cuts the first of Ramazan also brought a string of texted messages to cell phones. The beeping seemed to be incessant, notably the day before the first month. Many of the notifications advertised food, offering more for less, super-sized meals at both Sehr and Iftar and convenient home deliveries. Other waves of advertising for food flashed across television screens and have appeared on billboards where families tucking into giant meals stare down gleefully at us. And of course every restaurant seems to have its own packages to offer with the tables often filled even for the pre-dawn Sehr meal.
Of course these establishments need to make up for the fact that they are not able – not permitted – to serve during fasting hours. A law made during the 1980s prevented them from doing so, even though in religious terms, fasting is a purely voluntary demonstration of faith and one would expect that those exempted from it should be able to order at a café. This also applies to the non-Muslims who live in our country, even if we ignore their presence or their needs. Christians who have been spotted eating or carrying bottles of water have been harassed for violating what an increasingly intolerant majority calls ‘respect’ for Ramazan. How somebody else eating could weaken the fast of a believer is an open question.
There is however an inundated degree of irony in the fact that, as we can judge from the scale of advertising, consumption actually rises during Ramazan in most households rather than falling, as would be expected, given that fasting is intended to build patience, help understand the hunger of the poor and encourage displays of simplicity. The opposite seems to be true. Few surveys have been conducted, but it has been estimated that on average in Pakistani households, spending on food goes up by around 20 percent or more during Ramazan. This is true even in poorer households, whether the percentage may be less but where an effort is invariably made to put the very best on the table. This of course is understandable. But we wonder if the lavish eating we see at elaborate Iftaris really falls into the spirit of the holy month.
To add to the problem, judging by the lists of sales maintained at major department stores the items the more wealthy buy seem destined to hasten their journey to the grave. Huge amounts of ‘ghee’ are purchased, one would expect to serve up fried delicacies regularly, as well as beverages which most experts agree contain enormously large amounts of sugar and are detrimental to health. The highly processed foods, convenient to prepare for meals but offering little in nutritional value, are also bought with literally carton after carton loaded into trolleys. The eating patterns of Ramazan then need some thought and discussion.
So does the expansion in charity seen during the month. This is hugely beneficial to many in an economy which thrives on philanthropy rather than anything offered up by the state. Food is indeed provided in generous quantities to poor households throughout Ramazan and other charity given away to institutions and individuals. The problem, however, is whether we should be ignoring the people in need of such help through the rest of the year. The assistance they receive over a 28-day period is not likely to help them overcome the hunger more and more Pakistanis face in the longer run.
Yes, the generosity displayed during Ramazan is a positive feature. But it should be possible to extend it beyond this month in some way and also to work towards creating a situation where fewer people need charity and instead are provided for by offering them the employment and opportunity that they need in order to bring income into households.
It is true that during Ramazan some aspects of business life undergo a slump. But many boom, including the consumer retail business involving food, clothing and luxury items. This is true in fact of most Muslim countries according to the surveys conducted. In the evening hours, once the Iftar meal is over, people seem to feel a need to treat themselves and of course also to prepare for the Eidul Fitr festival which lies ahead. Just like Ramazan, Eid too has of course become a highly commercialised affair with more and more displays of wealth involved in celebrating it. This has happened in the case of religious festivals around the world and we have not been exempted.
It is, however, disturbing that in the past Ramazan has been used to display intolerance in various ways. We already hear this year of members of minority communities being told not to eat in public. Last year, even television channels raided stalls set up by vendors a short while before the fast broke and chided them for selling food before it was time to open the fast. Naturally, vendors can only do business before people go home to consume the ‘pakoras’, ‘samosas’ or other delicacies they have bought. Already this year during the morning Ramazan transmissions on television and radio stations, we hear suggestions that there should be no ‘violations’ of fasting and that establishments which in any way break this rule should be clamped down on.
Fasting is a personal business. The fact that it has been converted into public property is disturbing, giving extremists yet another opportunity to demonstrate the kind of fascist zeal that has been incorporated into our society.
This is a matter for scholars to take up. It is also something we need to think about as citizens. Religion is not something to display or engage in rituals for the sake of public consumption. It is something that connects us to our beliefs and every citizen under our constitution has the right to believe as they choose. The extraordinary circular being circulated, apparently sent out by a local company’s food manager to his employees, suggesting it is compulsory that they fast and observe the Taraveeh prayers and could face dismissal if they fail to do so without giving a valid reason, is disturbing.
Such actions are something we need to move away from. The month of Ramazan, with its lavish consumption patterns, should also make us think about what we eat, what the poor eat and how often they eat in regular circumstances. We cannot act in one way for a set period of time and then more away from this for the rest of the year, putting behind the compassion and empathy that some citizens seem to discover during Ramazan but also find it easy to abandon once the month is over and the celebrations that mark it observed in traditionally ostentatious style. Our new reality, changing what was a simple occasion that united into a far more complex social phenomenon is not a comfortable one to live with.
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.
Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com