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July 7, 2005
Cultural diversity
By Amna Kaleem
While each culture draws from its own roots, it cannot bloom without contact with other cultures. — UnescoGlobalization has shrunken the entire world into a global village and has made just about everything accessible, but it has also given rise to fears and concerns regarding the preservation of a community’s or a nation’s cultural identity.
Preserving one’s identity is as essential as granting the same right to others. It was this agenda that gathered the academia and intelligentsia of the Pakistani society around a dialogue table at the conference on Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue, held recently in Karachi.
The prelude to this conference was the adoption of the Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which has institutionalized respect for cultural diversity and inter-cultural dialogue as the main components of development and peace.
In the conference academics, bureaucrats and artists from different fields of art and media deliberated on areas that need immediate attention with regard to cultural preservation in Pakistan.
The participants also identified issues that have created unrest in some ethnic communities in the country and made recommendations to deal with these.
Naeem Tahir, the Director General of the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA), presented the paper for the federal secretary of culture. He defined culture as a concept having two realities, one that deals with art and literature and the other, which involves human rights and value systems.
Tahir defined both the perspectives as two sides of the same coin. For cultural preservation a close link between the two is imperative. Being a spokesman for the government, he also confirmed Pakistan’s commitment to Unesco’s convention and hoped that it would address the culture oriented threats.
Farhat Gul, Culture Officer of Unesco, lamented that in the country cultural diversity is not enjoyed by the people and dialogue is the only way of seeking a meaningful solution to these issues.
The topic of cultural diversity and preservation was confined to two broad categories such as ‘tangible cultural heritage’ and ‘intangible heritage of humanity’. The former includes historic sites and monuments, while the latter encompasses languages, customs, and celebrations.Academia and artisans mostly discussed the preservation of tangible heritage while participants from the media dealt with the intangible artistic expressions. Presentations on clay and textile crafts were also made.
Dr Ihsan Ali, Director of Archaeology and Museums of NWFP, gave details of the work being done by his department for the development of museums and the preservation of artefacts.
Similarly, Salman Beg, CEO of Aga Khan Cultural Society for Pakistan, shared his organization’s experiences in the Northern Areas, where students are also being involved in the preservation work.
Beg said that the younger generation should be made aware of our cultural heritage and for this purpose the government should include more subjects of humanities in the curriculum.
The role of the electronic media in promoting cultural diversity was explored in detail by veteran actress Samina Peerzada. She criticized the TV channels operating in Pakistan as being extremely commercial and thus failing to play a favourable role in representing the diverse cultural identities existing within the society.
Peerzada, during her presentation, chalked out ways and means through which the members of the performing arts can make their contributions. Conversion of folklore into animated movies and theatrical projects was advised by her in order to make these stories more attractive for the younger generation.
Sindh’s Secretary of Culture, Mehtab Rashidi, stressed that people should be made comfortable in their own culture, but that should not come at the cost of their traditional values and belief systems. She praised the efforts of Unesco and said that such conferences help the government in formulating policies on culture.
Noorjehan Bilgrami, the executive director of Koel, discussed the plight of artisans. She said that the capitalist culture had ended the rapport the producer had with the consumer.
While all the presentations dealt with tangible and intangible aspects of culture, the paper presented by Dr Sabiha Syed of the Migration Research Centre discussed the theoretical concept of culture. She defined multi-culturalism as a phenomenon that supports assimilation of cultures while maintaining their diversity.
Dr Syed rejected the notion that Pakistan was a monocultural Islamic society, saying that Muslims can be multi-cultural, too. Citing the debacle of 1971, she said that the history of multi-culturalism in Pakistan is confused and negative and all the so-called manifestations of the concept are superficial.
Yasmin Lari said that heritage brought people from different background together, as was seen at the Karachi Caravan programmes. She emphasized that cultural and not nuclear Pakistan should be promoted. Heritage in Pakistan when back 9,000 years and that women are custodians of cultural traditions and should be allowed an active role in it.Unesco’s representative Jorge Sequeira said that his organization intends to work in the country without interfering with the government. He added that the conference was more of a brain storming session to build consensus regarding the formulation and implementation of the upcoming convention for the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expression.
While all the speakers took up different aspects of the culture debate, they agreed on the point that each culture needs adequate expression and the only way different cultural identities can co-exist is through dialogue between them.
Hence the conclusion drawn after the deliberations was that intercultural dialogue and multi-culturalism were means through which preservation of cultural diversity can be achieved.
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