KARACHI:

Karachi is home to countless cultures and countercultures that keep its mighty heart beating, coursing diverse blood through its veins. Indeed, while many view Karachi as one city, it is more like multiple cities in one, each containing culture and counterculture. This understanding of what Karachi entails, the history as well as the current forces at play, allows one to fully understand how and why such a city houses countless cultures and countercultures, the most prominent among them resilience and resistance.

Understanding culture and counterculture

To understand what counterculture is, one must understand what the term ‘culture’ denotes. Culture, as pointed out by anthropologist Edward Burnett Tyler, whom the world acknowledged as the father of anthropology, is an overarching word that consists of set, widely accepted, and conformist behavior in social conditions in a society. This entails the values, information, virtues, beliefs, laws, and all other modalities of behavior specific to individuals within that society.

Sociological teachings dictate that culture is learned through primary and secondary socialization - where an individual’s beliefs are shaped by their immediate family, their circle of friends, family values and educational experiences. These influences are reiterated, reinforced, or in some cases challenged, throughout one’s lifetime.

To this end, counterculture consists as a subsection of culture. Even though it is a collection of shared values and behaviors in society, counterculture does not necessarily align with mainstream values or norms, explains E.D. Hirsch in The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. This subsection of culture could have variations in norms from the overarching culture. It could even oppose mainstream culture directly. Historically, as pointed out by William Outhwaite in The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought, countercultural movements have rewritten the very narrative of history, positing a challenge to the status quo.

Counterculture is the guiding set of principles and beliefs -- or lack of beliefs -- for a certain segment of the population during a certain, well-marked time period. The term “contraculture” was penned by John Milton Yinger in 1960 in an article in American Sociological Review, where Yinger describes how “contraculture” forms when norms or values of a group of people conflict with the society as a whole. Establishing what constitutes mainstream culture can, at times, be outlined far better by using counterculture as a relative mode of comparison.

 

Recap of the Pakistan’s cultural history

Pakistan has been a country plagued by upheaval and obstacles. From the disadvantages levied against it since its inception, to the social, religious, and political turmoil that has followed in the years after, many cultures have arisen within the nation. Some fade into counterculture but others persist.

Many are quick to point fingers at Zia-ul-Haq for giving rise to a culture of religious intolerance, but parts of this culture are also remnants of British rule and the influence that had on the country’s constitution. The British, with their staunchly evangelical values, their disdain for the brown man, and desire to “devulgarize” the population, introduced countless modes of policing.

It was the British that criminalised queerness, or the existence of khwaja siras (transgenders) who did not conform to the binary confines of gender. As pointed out by Jessica Hinchy in Governing Gender and Sexuality in Colonial India, members of the khwaja sira community were hunted to be eradicated under the British. Ironically, it was the inculcation of “Western” values that contributed to an atmosphere of unrest and division. While Western countries now claims to be progressive in their acceptance of queerness and other things previously criminalized or stigmatized by their leaders, intolerance in Pakistan was fed by conservative Western ideals during the colonial period. Leaders like General Zia-ul-Haq, who wished to Islamize Pakistan, reinforced these ideas hoping that values in Pakistan would mirror values in the Middle East.

Many Pakistanis remember the country before General Zia-ul-Haq, recalling a time where alcohol flowed freely in and casinos in Karachi were a booming business. With Zia-ul-Haq’s policies in place, conservative, right-wing views came to the forefront. We often hear about the “revival of Pakistani cinema,” with many woeful about the fact our industry fails to compete with its Indian counterpart. However, during Zia-ul-Haq’s time, the number of cinemas in Sindh alone decreased to a few hundred. Comparatively, between 1969 and 1980, there were over 600 cinemas in the province. The number of films produced by the Pakistani film industry dropped to a handful a year, only a quarter of the number that were made in decades prior.

Renowned film historian, Mushtaq Gazdar and author of Pakistan Cinema, 1947-1997, describes the years between 1967 and 1976 as “A Decade of Change” and the years between 1977 and 1986 as “A Decade of Decadence,” coinciding with the chaotic political situation with Bhutto’s regime and Zia-ul-Haq’s eventual military coup.

Before Zia-ul-Haq’s era, Pakistan celebrated relative progressiveness. The country was a notable destination along a popular route for Western backpackers from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. Pakistan experienced a hippie movement during this time, with various accommodations sprawling all the way from Peshawar to Karachi, boasting the availability of music, alcohol, and hashish.

This also spurred a culture surrounding Sufism among the youth of Pakistan, where they turned to mysticism in Islam – visiting shrines to escape the claws of capitalism and propel themselves into broader spiritual realms. Youth from Pakistan’s middle-class who were rebellious in nature turned to this form of religion to connect with who they viewed as the less privileged factions of society.

With increased interactions between Western travelers and the Pakistani youth, hippie culture seeped into Pakistani life and became mainstream enough for certain styles to be worn by big names in the entertainment industry like Waheed Murad and Shabnam.

Eventually, the loss of East Pakistan led to a worsening political situation, and ideological boundaries had to be reassessed. Nationalism experienced a change in mascot, with the newer version donning a mask of hostility. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the main man leading Pakistan People’s Party, had to appease a nine-party alliance, the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), for which he had to agree to put a halt to all “obscene” activities. This led to the closure of nightclubs, casinos, and all other cultural hubs that were blamed for the erosion of society.

However, at the cusp of compromise between the parties, the archaic regime of General Zia-ul-Haq began as he toppled Bhutto’s rule in a military coup, imposing Martial Law in 1977. With this, the dawn of Islamization began. It was within this wave of Islamization that resilience became an overarching culture -- with a population that had just seen a country come into existence three decades ago, experiencing political turmoil that directly impacted its way of life. Resistance arose as a counterculture.

 

The many faces of resistance

One key part of resistance at that time was music. While Pakistan is a treasure trove of regional music, countercultural music began to make its way into the country in the 1980s, with cassettes from the West introducing rock rhythms to the masses. Mainstream influences like Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, and Pink Floyd, provided young Pakistanis a new mode of expression in the wake of a dictatorship and the moral policing it brought. The music appealed to a public that found itself oppressed under General Zia-ul-Haq’s policies. By the mid-1980s, the underground culture of gatherings and concerts was born.

Later, heavy metal music also grew in popularity. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the influence of British heavy metal musicians, which led to the formation of heavy metal bands in Pakistan, including The Barbarians, Final Cut and Dusk. More recently, metal music is played by bands like Takatak and Foreskin.

Resistance also came through mainstream vectors as well, like PTV. “There were things that could not be talked about, and from within that, a rebellion was created,” Awan said. “Haseena Moin dramas are loved by all. Moin Akhtar cross-dressing as a nurse to get the hand of a girl whose father falls in love with him - this was PTV during that time.”

As time went on, Pakistan’s cultural landscape changed further. Under General Pervez Musharraf’s regime, which was also a military dictatorship that had overthrown its previous government, President Musharraf’s desire to promote art to create a more palpable, anti-terrorism image for an international audience, led to many countercultures finding their voice, especially in Karachi. Pioneers in fields like tattoo art and stand-up comedy started to become more ambitions in their approaches at that time.

“I have this picture of my dad’s uncle getting married and this probably right after independence,” said Ali Gul Pir, a comedian and digital media influencer. “There’s a comedian there. He’s alone, wearing a sherwani and he’s got a mic, and everybody’s looking at him. He’s sitting down, though, in a circle. That was in Sindh. I’ve seen stand-up since then.” Stand-up comedy we see today has an important, perhaps shrouded, history with a vein of resistance running boldly through it.

 

Resistance in Pakistan today

Today, Pakistan is still reeling from the forces put in play under General Zia-ul-Haq. As intolerance becomes an astonishing norm with attacks on minorities, murders and rapes happening frequency, countercultures are loudly retaliating. Examples like the Aurat March show a well-spring of resistance among women that is criticized by other parts of society, showing how mainstream cultures are reacting to these forms of resistance.

 

Karachi has survived, adapted, and pushed back when it comes to culture and counterculture. Certain cultures are mainstream and bind the people of Karachi together through core values, beliefs, and shared experiences, while others divide them. The more privileged faction of society in Karachi lives a very colonial truth, wanting to be seen as being better than those that have been “othered” due to their lack of access. Meanwhile, groups like the LGBT community have created their own counterculture where they defy the binarity offered by a heterosexual form of life.

“The beauty in queer culture is that the way we exist is by not existing,” said Mehrub Moiz Awan, a khwajasira activist and researcher.“We exist by not being able to be defined in one box, unless we choose to.” Awan’s drag avatar, Phudina Chatni, who is known for her raunchy, unapologetic comedy, is, herself, a marriage between queer culture and stand-up comedy. When asked about how Phudina Chatni was born in a society that is, by and large, very anti-LGBTQIA+, Awan snaps her fingers, stating, “Just like that.”

Comedy is also a niche culture in Karachi that houses the counterculture of dirty comedy, which has a no-holds-barred approach and a sex-positive theme. From a historical perspective, comedians Shehzad Ghias Shaikh, Akbar Chaudhry, and Ali Gul Pir all credited Saad Haroon as being one of the pioneers of contemporary stand-up comedy in Karachi, singing praises of the man who trained all of them in various capacities.

“Stand up is counterculture,” Pir said. “It is the voice of the people and talks about what people experience in life. It’s all about what you feel, but never think of consciously. It is the voice of reason, and also highlights just how hypocritical we are. Dirty comedy is another sub-genre. However, comedy should be comedy. Calling it a dirty comedy, to me, is childish.” Since it is a countercultural activity in Karachi, comedy does not pay well. Yet, shows go on – representing a display of resistance, despite small returns.

As the world rapidly digitises, other forms of countercultures have taken off, such as an interest in astrology and tarot card readings. Saira Khan, a cartomancer who goes by the name Serena, has benefited from this. He has a Facebook following of more than 20,000 credits his success to the rise of this counterculture. “The response to me doing these reads has been excellent,” Khan states. “Most of my clients are people who have been frequenting me for years. I think the future for this is very bright because as long as there is a mystery, we will always want to know more about it.”

Another growing counterculture that is flourishing in the city is tattoo art. InkGrave Tattoo Studio, one of the oldest tattoo studios in Karachi, alongside Black Canvas Studio, set up shop in 2012 and has since garnered a strong digital presence.

“A lot of our clients are those folks who knew us from the beginning or come to us repeatedly,” said Rameez Arif, the owner of InkGrave. “We have a lot of celebrity clients, and we’ve posted about them on our Instagram page. Since we’re one of the first tattoo studios in Karachi, people have usually heard about us, and tend to opt for InkGrave.”

Arif’s celebrity clientele boasts of names like Hina Altaf Aagha, Saheefa Jabbar Khattak, Danyal Zafar, Mushk Kaleem, and Mathira. However, even with famous clients, the team still experiences some pushback since tattoos are still not accepted within mainstream culture. “We’ll get comments that state that we shouldn’t be doing this,” Arif said. “However, most of those people have been filtered out. If you’re coming to a page that is about tattoos, you will see tattoos.”

These few examples of counterculture in Karachi show the diverse sphere of existence within the city. At every step in history, the city’s culture has changed, and so has its countercultures. These competing forces coexist, albeit with some tension, contributing to Karachi’s diversity, its resilience and resistance.