A month does not pass without some awful news hitting the stands about artistes in our country. In the last few days an actress, Kismet Baig, was gunned down in Lahore and a vocalist, Darvesh Khan, was shot death in Swabi.

Artists are generally on the receiving end in this society for being hugely discriminated against while performing artistes happen to be the most vulnerable among this vulnerable lot. If something happens to the artistes, the general public begins to seek and search for reasons.

The reaction at large is not favourable as the artistes are generally held responsible for what happens to them. The blame ultimately boils down to some indiscretion on their part.

It has been usually seen that even as leading artistes perform, guests in the audience keep chattering, piling one gossipy remark upon another, hardly seeing or listening. It is always precedence of social gathering over an artistic performance. It is a general perception that artistes are supposed to be only for entertainment or to provide some kind of base pleasure, and then to be easily be dispensed with and forgotten, not given the same respect as even any ordinary human being.

Once the show is over and the curtain falls, the artistes are not only meant to be out of sight but out of the arc of any sympathetic response and treated in as demeaning a manner as any. They are not worthy of care and sympathy like other human beings. Even in marriage ceremonies one has seen them being placed outside the main arena while playing their instruments or whatever, and at the end mostly forgotten, not even served food.

They leave the ceremony in disarray like the stragglers of a defeated army. If the ceremony involves women dancers, the guests are more worried about what happens to the dancers after the performance. Taking the dancers away safely after the show or performance is an act that has to be shrewdly planned and flawlessly executed.

There has been a customary paradox where the artistes are concerned about their existence on stage and their existence off stage. When artistes perform they are treated like a god or goddess but once stepping down, only as fallen creatures. In case of women, the body is to be desired, and bought, if need be, and in case of a man not worthy of being broken bread with.

This status of a fallen man and woman has stuck despite euphoric outbursts of appreciation for them. Kismet Baig was shot and killed while she was going home late at night after performing in a stage play.

There is a certain bias against the performing artiste and it compounds when the artiste happens to be a woman. All the usual bias that has been stacked up against the gender then is placed at the door of the performing artistes. That is a perfect recipe for a poisonous potion. When a murder or an untoward incident takes place it is never seen as an act against the artiste but as a breach of some financial agreement in the case of men and sexual prurience in the case of women.

The prejudice against the performing artiste and the arts is primarily drawn from tradition and religion. Since there is a distinct discrimination against the arts, and of necessity the artistes, they are never considered at par with others and their activities looked at with great deal of disapproval or dislike. They are kept at an arm’s length.

When something like this happens very few come forward to stand by them or to raise a voice in their favour for fear of social disapproval, ostracism or excommunication. Performing art, if taken as hobby, is accepted in this society rather than taken up professionally.

It is normal for boys and girls to be taking part is schools or an amateur level performance, like in plays and music programmes, but the moment they consider taking it up professionally a storm is more likely to break loose. It causes heart attacks to the parents and offers a good enough reason for other members of the family to wag their tongues. Eventually, women settle down to becoming mothers and men as bread winners.

There was single-column news that a man had got into the car of Abida Parveen after she had performed at the annual Urs of Shah Latif in Bhitshah, a few weeks back. The man got not only as far as her car but actually got into it. When she herself got into the car she was startled to find a stranger sitting there. She immediately got out and luckily no untoward incident happened on the spot. It is amazing, after all the security arrangements being touted as foolproof.

Since there has been no follow-up on the story, the matter will rest in a state of inertia till the next shocking incident takes place.

This only dramatises the insufficient security arrangements and the peril that these artistes are put to. If the most prominent cannot be protected, the rest can be easily forgotten about. But the impunity to murder is the new sharpened edge of intolerance that one has witnessed over the past few decades. There was discrimination, hatred and the dislike but now it easily translates into taking a life away.