'Live with differences instead of overcoming them'

According to Kamran Asdar, despite apparent violent, misanthropic nature of Karachi, a lot of repair work is going on

KARACHI:

The future politics of a mega city such as Karachi with its different ethnicities, languages and class should revolve around having to live with these differences and not overcoming them, said Dr Kamran Asdar Ali on the second day of Karachi conference held at the Arts Council auditorium on Saturday.

Ali, who is a professor of Middle East and Asian Studies and the director of the South Asia Institute at University of Texas, Austin, gave the keynote address on social inequality. He spoke about how in the last three decades, large metropolises had become ground for hatred. He said that the trend of differences and hatred was not just restricted to South Asia but had spread to European urban centres as well.

Asdar believes that contrary to the popular notion that only people hailing from the middle or lower strata were subjected to social injustice, even the most passive or indifferent were no longer spared. "There is a need to address the moral ambiguity that we witness in our everyday lives and not put it aside for a later date," he said.



By citing examples of Johannesburg, South Africa, Asdar tried to establish a case of heightened xenophobia. Since Karachi's society lives in very close quarters, informal ways of collaboration and possibilities of sharing can help erode the vengeance found in people, he suggested.

While talking about Karachi's current social environment, Asdar presented a few social mechanisms that he thought would help alleviate some differences. He discussed how politics that was the centre of problems faced by everyone. Environmental issues such as garbage dumping sites and transportation were those mundane problems in his view that all ethnicities demonstrate together. Additionally, he stressed on making public spaces more accommodative for one another without having to necessarily interact with each other on any level. Metros, public parks, elevators and festivals, according to him, were places that can develop the 'light touch and create spaces for flora and fauna we need in our city.'

Asdar added that despite the apparent violent and misanthropic nature of Karachi, a lot of repair work was going on.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2014.