UNBELIEVABLE, but not untrue, for there does exist a bewildering link between Josh Malihabadi, the great Urdu poet, and the horribly cruel, ancient custom of Karo-kari, that continues to claim the lives of so many innocent Pakistani girls and women, savagely hacked to death by their husbands, fathers, brothers, sons and uncles, in the name of ghairat (family honour).

Josh, in his autobiography Yadoon ki Baraat (Cavalcade of Memories), relates an event that took place a few years before his birth. His uncles and their cronies were lounging in the parlour of the poet’s family mansion, reciting light verses and exchanging heavy jokes, as was the wont of the landed gentry of the time. Suddenly, one of the guests spotted a woman’s head peeping down from the covered terrace in the zenana, or ladies’ portion of the house. Shocked by this unimaginable enormity and the unpardonable female audacity, the righteous feudal — a male chauvinist to his fingertips — whipped out his revolver and fired at the offending woman, killing her instantly.

“My dear fellows,” said the trigger-happy friend to Josh’s flabbergasted uncles, “I could not take it, since your honour is my honour. A lady of this noble house had the gall to expose her face to male strangers! Strictly verboten! So I did the right thing, as any cavalier would do to save the honour of his buddy. I shot the woman.”

The poet’s uncles rushed inside and came back, dragging by the hair the dead body of the unfortunate female.

“God’s mercy is with us,” one of the uncles cried out with a grunt of relief, “she is not a family member, you see! Only a maidservant, a foolish and worthless menial. Thank God, the honour of our ancient house is intact, and thank you so much, my good friend, for your exemplary action.”

The great poet’s narrative conveys a painful message and tells us much about our grim heritage, the ‘barbarian’ roots of the nation; but, actually, the real point of the story lies in the disturbing fact that Josh, hailed as the poet of revolution, the champion of the oppressed, here clearly comes across as one taking pride in the ‘strict moral code’ and the ‘mighty martial traditions’ of his family, failing even to recognize the male savagery, let alone condemn it!

Now, for further shock, refer to a news item in the Dawn of December 25, 2001. It reported a rally in Sindh held against a Nazim for labelling a girl as kari. According to the protesters, the said high official — also a tribal chief — usually got girls killed on the charge of loose morals, and that the influential fellow was, indeed, in the habit of demanding money from girls’ parents, denouncing as kari any girl whose parents failed to fulfil his demands.

Is it not a horror story? No, in the nation created by the Quaid — a great champion of female rights — it is not. It is just another story, and a news item to boot! The daily press is choking with the sickening reports of crimes against women in all parts of the country, so much so that Karo-kari news and Karo-bari news (business news) seem to be vying with each other for space.

Why are they all silent — our concerned citizens, eminent thinkers and philosophers, acclaimed social scientists, exalted educationists, legal luminaries (with their vast libraries — oceans of knowledge and wisdom), devoted reformers, influential political leaders and decision makers? Where are our pioneers of enlightenment, pillars of academia, intellectuals, the liberal upholders of social justice and national uplift, the wise, selfless spirits, the true nation-builders and gifted trailblazers, imbued with the required missionary zeal?

“Remember, even your socialists are feudalists and progressives reactionaries!” thus opined Akhtar-ul-Imaan, the famous Indian poet, to a Pakistani journalist 25 years ago. Was he right or do we lack the courage of our convictions? Who would venture forth in our land (and when) to give a humanitarian and progressive orientation to our culture? Who would accomplish the Athenization of our rigidly Spartan society? Our socialist waderay, our progressive patriarchs, our enlightened tribals, our liberal clerics or our egalitarian bureaucrats and humanist law-enforcers? Civilization is best governed by the principle of Cephalization, letting the head play the superior role, to control and guide the limbs (and the tail). Not the other way around.

And where are the forceful writers who arouse a nation’s conscience from its death-like slumber and touch off revolutionary changes by producing such epoch-making books such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin of Harriet Beecher Stowe? Is there something intrinsically wrong with Pakistani intelligentsia’s Weltanschauung, or with our national ethos and psyche that, steeped in a morbidly fatalistic and deterministic brand of Scholasticism, have turned us all into dupes of intellectual Charlatanry and spiritual Tartuffery?

World at large, kindly pay attention. Absolutely at the mercy of tribal and feudal inquisitors, most of the Pakistani girls and women (specially in villages) pass their lives as bondmaids, prisoners or even condemned souls waiting on death row. And Pakistan’s misogynist, misoneist and misologist establishment possesses neither wisdom nor the will to improve our national life by putting an end to these ancient inhuman customs, and introducing the badly-needed social, economic and political improvements and simplifications that have been embraced by a majority of nations in the East and West.

Maybe, we prefer to live in a cocoon spun around us by our self-serving myth-makers. However, the global tide of human progress is unstoppable. Flotsam and jetsam, momentarily impeding the flow, are bound to be swept away and a great change, a great historical rectification is going to be forced down our throats by invisible hands.