MUCH has been written about Karachi’s pluralistic culture that defined its socio-cultural fabric before it was frayed by ethnic and religious conflicts in the ‘80s. Not that the city has lost its all-inclusive characteristic ever since; it’s just that Karachi has grown so huge, horizontally and vertically, that it has become rather difficult to, individually, pick the diverse voices that come out of its different corners. It has to be said, though, that in the ‘60s no voice drowned out in the cacophony of demographic boom or chants signifying an intolerant attitude to life.

No, at the time Valentine’s Day was not something that everyone marked (with red pens) their calendars for. Instead, on Feb 14, 1967 the Hindus living in, or visiting, Karachi celebrated Basant Panchmi in Bath Island, Clifton. According to the Hindu calendar, it signals the beginning of spring. A short ballet on the early life of Lord Krishna highlighted the variety of programmes that were put up on the occasion. Other items included Bengali devotional songs, light and classical music and tilana dance by three young girls. Earlier in the week, the community also celebrated its Chand Festival at Native Jetty Bridge in which the women threw balls made of flour into the sea.

This diverse trait of the city was not limited to religious festivals; a variety of activities in the different genres of art were, and still are, a hallmark of Karachi’s bustling cultural life. On Feb 16, the visiting British stage stars Eithne Dunne and David Dodimead had their concluding performance of Jerome Kilty’s play Dear Liar at the Fleet Club. The play was adapted from correspondence between Bernard Shaw and Mrs Patrick Campbell, one of the greatest actresses of the London stage. The critics hailed Dunne and Dodimead’s acting calling it ‘brilliant’. One writer summed it like this: ‘by sheer artistry the actors cast their spell over the audience who gave them a long ovation at the end of the play.’ The play was directed by Eric Jones under the auspices of the British Council. Mind you, this was the time when Fleet Club was an important venue for art-related activities.

Another such venue that made the headlines that week was the Aiwan-i-Riffat (set up by Atiya Fyzee who died on Jan 4). The Archeology Department was in charge of the aiwan and its tussle with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) for the control over the building was going on for some time. On Feb 19, it was reported that the commissioner of Karachi, who was the controlling authority of the corporation as well, had asked the Archeology Department to vacate the Aiwan-i-Riffat and hand over possession of the building to the KMC. The corporation had taken that stand because it believed that the building was trust property and therefore could not be transferred to the department. It had also approached the government to get the record of the rights of the building corrected because ‘the entries in the records of rights are untenable and should be corrected immediately’.

This goes to show that compared to now, our civic bodies used to be more proactive in the ‘60s. Here’s another example of it. When the KMC was trying to get the aiwan back into its fold, the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) was considering some basic policy changes to solve the housing problems of 650,000 shelter-less people in the city. On top of the list was shift in emphasis from development of new areas of upper and middle groups to colonies for the shelter-less and displaced person with meager resources. Next in line was the principle of self-financing as against government subsidised schemes like Korangi, North Karachi and Liaquatabad. Wow! Even today we have homeless people in a big number. The problem seems to be an unending one.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2017