Call for inclusive cultural narrative for peaceful co-existence

Prof Emeritus Aslam Syed has said that Pakistan has multi ethnicities and diversified culture and the inclusive cultural narrative should be promoted to help reshape society as a peaceful place for all segments.

Speaking at a Webinar titled “Discourse of History on Indo-Pak History from Antiquity to Modernity: Pakistani Culture and Cultural Narrative of Pakistan”, organised by the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research (NIHCR), Centre of Excellence, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Prof Syed said that the area which now forms Pakistan attracted people from different parts of the world; these people came here and made this land their permanent homeland. The social system has emerged as a synthesis of Arab, Iranian, Greek, British and a number of other cultural impacts.

Replying to a question on the cultural narrative of the state, Prof Syed stressed that the valuable heritage of Pakistan should be our identity and the cultural narrative should be based on our rich cultural heritage.

“Culture is human interaction with nature and history and it is an adaptive mechanism,” he said adding that culture is the patterns of learned and shared behaviour and beliefs of a particular social or ethnic group. Humans in turn use culture to adapt and transform the world they live in.

Prof Syed, who has been serving the Centre for Religious Studies, Ruhr Universität, Bochum, Germany and also remained Chairman, Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and also served the NIHCR as its director, said that the anthropological study of culture can be organised along with two persistent and basic themes — diversity and change.

“An individual’s upbringing and environment are what makes them diverse from other cultures. People’s need to adapt to physical, biological and cultural forces to survive represents the second theme, change,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2022.