KARACHI: The second day of the 3rd annual Karachi conference at the Arts Council commenced with the welcome address by president of the Karachi Conference Foundation Dr Asma Ibrahim. In her speech she informed the audience about the salient features of the previous two meetings and on the selection process for research papers.

The topic of the editor of Himal Southasian Kanak Mani Dixit’s keynote speech was ‘Building the constituency for South Asianism’. He said Karachi was one of the important cities in South Asia and the conference should move out of the city in terms of its ethos. He pointed out it was important to have other identities rather than have just one, because there were multiple layers of identity, one of which was linked to cities.

Mr Dixit was of the view that the core value that should define South Asia was not compassion, but empathy. “The spirit of empathy will take us forward in South Asia,” he remarked, and argued that the spirit was weak and needed to be revived. He made it clear that the goal must not be a romantic one (that we share the same culture and history, etc) but a project for social justice. He said although Saarc and South Asia were synonymous, the latter went “way beyond”. He stressed that we needed to get out of the straitjackets of nation-states and re-conceptualise South Asia. Mr Dixit made the point that there were many alternative definitions to capture the diversity in South Asia. This led him to posit the suggestion that borders should be soft, like the Nepal-India border where there was cultural and commercial to-and-fro, unlike the “sanitised Wagah-Atari border”. However, highlighting the realities, he said there was a “bifurcation of experience” in the region. To elucidate, he gave the example of famous folk singer Pathane Khan, whose death was only felt in Pakistan and no “ripple” was caused in the rest of South Asia. Finding ways to join that experience was important for the livelihood of the people, he stressed. He iterated that we must sand down ultra nationalism. Giving out suggestions to improve the situation he put emphasis on making efforts like carrying out discussion in vernacular languages and having more connectivity to improve the economic situation. On connectivity, he cited the example of Sher Shah Suri, who built the Grand Trunk Road.

The first formal session of the day chaired by architect Arif Hasan was on Karachi’s built heritage. Dr Noman Ahmed gave a presentation on the city’s historical buildings’ re-survey project undertaken by his team. Giving the background to the task, beginning with the Sindh Cultural Preservation Act, 1994 to the time when in 2004 the government asked them to work on the historical quarters of Karachi, he described how his team went about doing it, discovering along the way 1,034 buildings which were not originally listed as heritage buildings. He said 13 per cent of them were under a high degree of threat. Commenting on the significance of built heritage, he said it was an important part of our cultural evolution, development and memory.

Dr Kaleemullah Lashari spoke on the challenges related to managing built heritage. He did that against a historical backdrop of Karachi when after partition things began to take a different shape, as issues like migration and political ups and downs reared their head.

Dr Asma Ibrahim’s presentation was on the conservation and promotion of Shri Varun Dev Temple, Manora. Showing pictures of the temple, she touched upon the various aspects of its rehabilitation and conservation.

Architect Mukhtar Husain, who was the discussant of the session, raised a few important points and asked Dr Ibrahim as to how she selected a project for conservation, to which she responded that she chose the ones which had “immediate threat”.

Arif Hasan said environmental degradation was causing the destruction of a good number of buildings.

The first post-lunch session of the day was dedicated to ‘Reminiscence’. Abdul Ghafoor Khatri read out a paper titled ‘Karachi ki bood-o-baash’. He said after the British landed in Karachi in 1839, they developed its port which created job opportunities. As a result, people from different areas and cultural backgrounds came to the city, fashioning a certain kind of pluralistic society. He then spoke in reasonable detail about the lifestyle, architecture and traditions of Karachiites which began to change after partition.

Ghulam Rasool Kalmati’s paper was on ‘Karachi mein riwayaat nishanian aur mansoobey’. He said the northern part of Karachi constituted of a mountain range called Koh-i-Baraan (now Khirthar) stretching to Balochistan. Some Baloch tribes had been living here for centuries; a war between two tribes, he said, broke out in the 15th century and lasted till the 16th century. Remnants and vestiges of that war, along with those of a love story, could be found in the mountain range, he said, but lamented that today those ‘nishanian’ were under threat due to modern-day constructions.

Zulfiqar Noor gave a presentation on the topic of ‘City after individualism’. He underlined the dilapidated condition of some old buildings in Karachi and the cause of their decrepit state, and also talked about the restoration work that’s being carried out at some sites.

Publisher and columnist Ajmal Kamal, who chaired the session, said the three presentations brought into focus Karachi’s historical ‘link’ which the people were not aware of. He said the link should be known to the citizens. On the subject of cultural diversity, he mentioned that by 1947 the city had already developed culturally, but after 1947 all of it got disturbed. He added that today the gulf between different communities was widening, which was why there was a need for connecting with the city’s history.

The third and last session of the day was on the Karachi police.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2015

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