Celebrating culture

Sindh festival deserves our support at a time when the forces of darkness are knocking at our door.

The steadily rising profile of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari rose another notch on December 15 when he announced that an ‘apolitical’ Sindh festival would be held in February 2014. His sister Bakhtawar co-hosted the event at the Mohatta Palace in Clifton, which was attended by a galaxy of national and international dignitaries and a cross-section of political leaders. Much is promised, including a Basant event to be held on the beach, which will probably minimise death and serious injury from kite strings, and an opening ceremony to be held in the ruins of Moenjodaro, a piece of our cultural heritage that is crumbling back to the dust from whence it emerged. The maintenance and upholding of our cultural heritage was a theme that ran through the event, with Moenjodaro the pivot on which it turns.

Apolitical the festival may be, but Bilawal had some sharp words for those whose knee-jerk reactions have produced what he labelled ‘Banistan’. He cited the possible ban on the screening of Indian films and the ‘one dish’ policy at weddings, all of which he characterised as being a move to take Pakistan back to the Dark Ages. He was scathing about the way in which history had been distorted by military dictators and spoke of a desire to promote ‘a culture of peace’. The festival will run over two weeks and take in the by-now very large Karachi Literature Festival, as well as music and fashion and a Sindh international film festival. If all goes according to plan, it will make a sparkling start to the new year, not only as a festival for the people and cultures of Sindh but for all Pakistanis, whatever their cultural or ethnic or linguistic roots. It remains to be seen whether the festival will truly reach across political and ethnic divides, but it deserves our support at a time when the forces of darkness are knocking at our door, and we wish the project well.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2013.

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