The importance of the Sindh Festival

The cliche that Pakistan is a land of contradictions is well known. The recently concluded Sindh Festival, despite all the criticism on the way it was organised, presented an alternative road map for Pakistan’s future. Using ‘culture’ as a means of furthering a political ideology is not new and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s foray into the mainstream used the cultural argument. In short, Bilawal presented himself as an inheritor of the Indus Valley civilisation and a torchbearer of pluralistic cultural mores now threatened by extremist ideologies of different varieties.

The opening ceremony at the ruins of Moenjo Daro invited heaps of criticism and negative commentary on the danger that the site may face. Sindhi journalists were vigilant and led an active campaign before the launch ceremony. Expert opinion was divided and the actual extent of ‘damage’ is unknown. What the criticism did was to shift the national (and to some extent, international as well) focus on the state of the Indus Valley ruins. For decades, the Pakistani state has, in effect, ‘disowned’ our pre-Islamic heritage. The moment you get into the past, Pakistan’s young and manufactured ‘national identity’ is everything that is not Indian. Bilawal’s decision to celebrate Indus Valley was, therefore, quite meaningful. It led to official patronage from the Sindh government and also unwittingly challenged the construction of the Islamo-nationalist identity that remains contested and has turned sectarian for all practical purposes.

Much fuss was made on social media on the use of the Superman logo, the catchy promotional videos and other features of the festival, which were not strictly according to our ‘values’. A pop singer being kissed on the cheek was an image that invoked the ire of puritans. Even a well-known Sindhi leader questioned on Twitter as to how ‘prostitutes’ were torchbearers of Sindhi culture? This unfolding of our creeping bigotry was instructive as powerful ideas challenge and expose all that we consider normal in the land of the pure. Sindhi nationalists were also upset that there was little of ‘Sindh’ in the galas that the festival organised.

For instance, I attended the Basant on the beach bit of the festival where Punjabi singers performed. Basant itself is identified with Lahore and Punjab’s Vaisakhi festival so its remembrance as a symbol and marker of a once plural culture was important. Regional identities have always been fluid. Basant was also adopted by the Chishti Sufis in medieval times and not all of them were Punjabis. While the high society fashion shows and studio art invited the media glare, the more subaltern donkey cart races and craft trade invited large audiences. A multi-class and varied series of events, not particularly Sindhi all the time, defined what turned out to be two weeks of festivities.

The final ceremony and speech made by Bilawal at Makli, Thatta, was also remarkable for its courage. A kind of narrative that even his party had abandoned after the murder of Benazir Bhutto. Dr Salam, Pakistan’s only Nobel Laureate, found a mention. Let’s see how far Bilawal can go. The greatest of challenges is to set an alternative narrative, of rejecting extremist mindsets. It is unfair to hold Bilawal responsible for what his party could not do during its tenure in government. Pakistan’s moderate parties during 2008-13 could not even start a decent public campaign against extremism, let alone fight the menace. The PPP, therefore, must share the blame for being adrift. Bilawal’s outlook is a turning point of sorts. And the Sindh Festival, for all its limitations, became a powerful statement of how our pluralistic past continues and is not dead despite the efforts to bury it. Fixing Sindh’s governance now becomes even more important. It is not enough to hold festivals and show resolve verbally. The PPP-led provincial government must check the growth of the seminaries network that is taking root in the countryside. In Karachi, the clean-up operation and institution-building is another test case. Bilawal must steer his party towards setting new precedents while in office. The immediate task would be to revise the education curricula for which a committee under a sitting minister has been set up. There is no reason why the MQM and Sindhi nationalists won’t support such efforts. The Sindh Festival must not be remembered as a one-off exercise, but as a new beginning. Let’s wish Bilawal the best while restating that time may be running out for reforms.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2014.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.