| May 4, 2002 | Saturday | Safar 20, 1423 |
‘The Language of Fiction’
Still not happy, Minister?: TV REVIEW
HOW did the tragedy of Karbala occur and what is the importance of its commemoration are the two questions which draw the attention of most of the observers? The tragedy of Karbala, being unique in its nature and form, has had many causes and purposes for its occurrence, yet from the chain of events after Hazrat Imam Hussain left Madina on 28th Rajab, 60th year of Hijra, to 10th Muharram, 61 Hijra, when the Imam and his companions were martyred at Karbala, a few things became quite evident.
THE topic of his talk was The Language of Fiction. It sounded odd and one could not comprehend it fully. The speaker invited that evening in the Model Town Library auditorium by the Lahore Arts Forum, was Salman Siddique. A bright young man, he is a teacher of Urdu at a local college but when he began with a mention of linguistics, he started sounding like a professor of English. He even had an indirect fling at those listening to him.
One, that it was not an impromptu incident with no deeper objectives. Two, the martyrdom of Imam Hussain carries with it a perpetual and continuous impact on society. Three, there were deep religious, political and moral repercussions of this tragedy on the Ummat that still has strong inherent potential to generate revolutions. Four, Imam Hussain launched a great movement against the fast infiltrating evil trends in the social, political and religious spheres of society.
The purpose for which Imam Hussain had preferred to follow the path of martyrdom becomes quite perceptible from the letters, messages and utterances of the Imam himself. During one of his addresses en route from Madina to Karbala (Iraq), probably when his small group was intercepted by a 1,000-strong contingent of Hur-i-Rehahi, the Imam said: “Don’t you see that righteousness is not being practised and evil doings are not being abstained? In these conditions it is incumbent on a believer to stand against the evil forces and be ready to welcome shahadat in the way of Allah”.
From this, one could notice that the Imam could not remain resigned to the circumstances. Therefore, for continuously and religiously keeping the spirit of Jihad revived against all forms of satanic and evil forces, it is necessary to keep reminding and remembering the tragic events of Karbala. These events are symbolic and Karbala is a great institution of Jihad and shahadat through which dynamic and revolutionary results could be achieved. What is more important is to seek inspiration, guidance and education from this institution as it has the potential of perpetually providing guidance, inspiration and motivation for upright actions and pursuit of righteousness.
One can see easily through the pages of history that the name of the Imam became a symbol of righteousness and many a big movement which dawned in the Muslim world was under the impact, influence and inspiration derived from the narrated events of Karbala. This great institution of Karbala has produced not only the great warriors fighting in the name of Islam and righteousness but have given birth to many revolutionary poets, dynamic leaders, speakers and reformists.
Great works of poetry and literature in almost all the spoken languages of the world have been created. Even today in the field of action the glimpses of derived inspiration from the martyrdom of Imam Hussain could evidently be observed. However, in case the desired objectives of character-building and Islamic guidance are not being achieved, the traditional activities in connection with the tragedy of Karbala would be lost to the religious rituals only.
The story of Karbala, which had to shape into the greatest movement and the most powerful event of history, could not merely be simplified by narrating that it started with the demand of allegiance to the authority of Yazid and subsequently when Imam Hussain parried the demand by leaving Madina with 19 male and 12 female members, besides a number of children of his family, over 30,000-strong army of Yazid surrounded him at Karbala and eventually killed his group of 72 males, including Imam Hussain’s six-month-old son. There are reasons which lie deeper than what the eyes can generally see. For this, some tracing back of the past of those people will be necessary.
The people of Arabia who revered idols and had deep impact of their own traditional beliefs nurtured through generations found it difficult to accept Islam as a complete code of individual and social life. Even after embracing Islam some of them could never digest the ideas opposed to the tribal, racial and family affiliations, which were deeply rooted in their hearts. Gradually due to covert and overt efforts in Muslim society of the time and also due to some other factors, the Islamic religious concepts of spiritual and moral uplift were relegated to individual endeavours whereas the community life of the Ummat took the shape of a socio-political movement.
The fact which the people misunderstood was that the Prophet became the de facto ruler of the people was an outcome of Apostleship and not an essential part of any other forms of government. With the passage of time the confusion became worse and eventually was cleared by Imam Hussain for all times to come at Karbala. We should have profound indebtedness to the sacrifices of this great Imam that today no ruler of the Muslim world can misrepresent either the true mission of the Prophet or misguide the Ummat away from the true spiritual and moral leadership.
As history has recorded, those who were apparent victors at Karbala disappeared without trace. While the plain of Karbala was transformed from a deserted place and barren land into a bustling town of which the central monument is Imam Hussain’s glorious tomb. The massacre at Karbala turned out to be the most prominent instrument by which Islam spread all over the world.
Karbala is not only an institution for character-building but also a continuous source of guidance and life for the oppressed. There was never, perhaps, more pressing need for remembering and commemorating the tragedy of Karbala as what it is at present, when the Muslims are being subjected to persecution, atrocities and tragedies of great magnitude in different parts of the world. The story of Karbala could be used for character-building and nourishing of talents in individuals and it can lead and motivate the Ummat towards the path of Jihad and shahadat.
He said: “When I express my interest in linguistics I often hear people say, ‘Oh, then you must be knowing a lot of languages.’ At times, he added, he even had to clarify that the word, linguistics, despite the ‘s’ at its end, was as good a singular as physics or mathematics.
He then went on to explain what linguistics was all about. He said that language being an instrument of communication, linguistics happened to be the scientific study of human language. In this regard one could study sounds, how they were formed in the mouth, how they travelled to the brain of the listener, how they were interpreted there, and so on. Such a study, he said, was called phonetics. Mercifully, he did not go further to explain phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. He even did not try to bring in Noam Chomsky, one of the greatest living linguists, who tells us about the way the mind functions and that we must have some rules in the mind to enable us to make a sentence.
After that sort of a complicated preamble, Salman Siddique reverted to the given topic. He said that story telling had been in vogue since time immemorial. People had been gathering in the village square to tell and hear stories. Originally these stories were sort of a fantasia relying on supernatural creatures, fairies, demons, flying carpets and the like. With the passage of time and as the human mind developed, people started disbelieving creatures like supermen and demons. They started looking forward to stories about stark realities of life.
Going over the different phases through which Urdu fiction, especially the short story, had passed, the speaker came to his main point. He said the difference between one story and another was the way in which it had been constructed. Just as a sculptor gave shape to a model with the help of chisels, so did a fiction writer give shape to language with the chisel of his thoughts and apt use of words. To give an example, he read out passages from four reputed novels describing an identical situation.
He then pointed out that seventy per cent of the words used in the four passages that he had read out were the same, yet each passage produced a different effect on the reader. The credit for that went to the writer for using common words found in every dictionary in his own inimitable way.
The talk was well attended and well received.
THE Lahore Arts Forum arranged a function in the Alhamra Cultural Complex this week to pay tribute to the celebrated English poet and dramatist, William Shakespeare. If I am not mistaken, the function coincided with the 438th birthday of the bard. In his introductory remarks on the occasion, Muzaffar Ghaffar said that although Shakespeare was born in England, he belonged to the world.
Since Dr Robert Snell of the British Council was also there that evening, Muzaffar Ghaffar made sure to say that although Shakespeare was British, he was accepted in Wales as well. That was because once when Muzaffar Ghaffar introduced Dr Snell as a countryman of Shakespeare, he forthwith corrected him by saying, “I’m Welsh.”
The programme had an altogether different format this time. There were no long lectures to prove that Hamlet was the most popular tragedy of Shakespeare or that King Lear was his greatest work. For that matter, I have heard Hamlet being denounced as well. Tolstoy said that “Shakespeare destroys all that forms Hamlet’s character in the legend.”
Some short speeches were there that evening as well but the major portion of the programme was devoted to readings from Shakespeare and enactment of some scenes from his plays by students of English literature. They deserve credit for their performance as they had hardly any training in theatrics nor did they have the advantage of props and sets. They opened the programme with the nunnery scene in Hamlet which was well received.
Amra Raza of the Punjab University, one of the people involved in arranging the programme, then came up and read Scene 2, Act III from Hamlet. This was followed by the dumb show with King Claudius pouring poison in the ear of the sleeping king. A small scene from Othello was also enacted.
Shireen Rahim, also of the Punjab University, then came up and read out some portions from As You Like It. But I think the pick of the evening was the reading of Shakespearean sonnets by Khadija Hasan, a former student of LUMS. She simply enthralled the audience. That is in no way to underrate the readings of sonnets by Dr Robert Snell at the end of the programme.
One thing I have noted in all programmes arranged by LEAF, or even by other organizations. Whenever a university or college teacher is invited to speak or read a paper, he comes in with a trail of students. However, when he has spoken or read his paper, he tends to leave early. As he moves out, the entire crowd which had descended with him also starts disappearing. That not only leaves wide wedges in the rows of seats in the hall but also leaves the unheard speakers to hear their own voice. This, I think, is rather unfair.
AS a colleague pointed out quite aptly, PTV couldn’t have got it any more wrong when the first person to be interviewed on the Khabarnama right after the referendum was none other than Mr Ejazul Haq. What kind of message did the government — which keeps PTV under tight wraps — have in mind when it decided that the son of the man who had stage-managed referendum was asked to come forward and give his views?
To its credit, some would say, PTV did invite a fair number of known critics on the nightly talk shows leading up to the referendum. People representing parties that were quite vehemently opposed to the whole exercise, like the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Pakistan People’s Party for instance, were called to make their point. However, the opportunities that were presented to the opponents of the referendum were at most a handful and nothing compared to the excessive coverage that was given to the president and his point of view in the days leading to April 30.
Other than that, PTV should not be thanked for inviting people with views that differ from the government’s since that is supposed to be what it should be doing in any case. And, even when such dissenters are invited, there is no guarantee that what they say will not be manipulated thanks to some novel editing. The state-owned broadcaster is supposed to be a national network and hence should air opinion and comments that are representative of this national outlook.
Much through the day itself, PTV seemed busy in broadcasting images of the president and his various ministers casting their votes (which doesn’t make sense). At various times during the day, and especially during Khabarnama, viewers were told where the Punjab governor, the Sindh government, the NWFP governor, the Balochistan governor, the federal finance minister, the federal interior minister, the information minister, other federal ministers, and various provincial minister cast their votes. This, of course, was told to viewers under the assumption that they really care about which minister votes where, and hence wanted to know the exact details of where each of them voted — an assumption that, it can be safely said, does not hold true.
The comings and goings of the chief election commissioner, and former chief justice of Pakistan, Irshad Hasan Khan, were also much publicized and the people were told that he, along with other officials accompanying him on his flying visits, were very much impressed by the arrangements made. Information Minister Nisar Memon, who it later turns out was most unhappy with the press coverage of the voting, was also quoted as being most content with the arrangements, and with the reasonably high turnout. Of course, the people at PTV can surely see that a minister saying that he or she is “satisfied” with the polling arrangements and that voting has been “smooth” (what else would it be with the turnout that one saw on April 30) is not newsworthy at all. But, then, who said that PTV reports on matters that are generally newsworthy?
In fact, this was also the ideal time for PTV’s bevy of industrious and daring reporters to get out on the street and file in their highly illuminating reports. Voter turnout was apparently very high everywhere, and people were most happy with the choice they had made. Of course, trivial matters like polling staff voluntarily not putting any of the indelible ink (hence no use for the nail polish remover needed under conventional circumstances to take the mark off before voting again) on people’s thumbs, letting people vote with no photo ID or underage kids voting freely did not make it to the stories filed by PTV’s enterprising team of correspondents.
As if all this weren’t enough, we had to face the likes of Qureshpur (who should really stick to doing shows like Kasauti) who during the night-time transmission — as the ‘results’ were ‘pouring’ in — kept reminding his female co-host that fate had been kind to them since they were taking part in a truly momentous phase of Pakistan’s history. And the information minister is unhappy with the press coverage.— OMAR R QURAISHI