KARACHI: “Art should be accessible to everyone for it to be meaningful,” said Sheema Kermani, underscoring how performing arts in Pakistan are neglected and those who believe in their power for bringing about a positive change in society are struggling for their (arts’) sustenance.

At a talk held on Wednesday at the Oxford bookshop on the book Gender, Politics, and Performance in South Asia, editors of the book — Kermani, Asif Farrukhi and Kamran Asdar Ali — came together to offer insight into the evolution of performing arts, their social impact, and how politics, women’s rights and marginalised societies are enveloped in these art forms.

The book is the result of Tehrik-e-Niswan, which was founded in 1979 by Kermani, after it organised a conference in Karachi in December 2010 aimed at rethinking issues of gender, performance and politics in South Asia.

The papers presented at the conference took shape and the final product is this volume.

According to Kermani, “We somehow wanted to document the work we did in around 40 years and bring to public notice because not many people come to see a performance. So this is our contribution and our input towards the performing arts in Pakistan.”

She added, “The work that we do must not only entertain but it must go beyond and say something about the concerns for our lives, society and environment.”

Asif Farrukhi recalled how the scope of the performing arts has changed over time, especially with regards to dance.

“I remember when I was a young physician and we were working in a programme in a katchi abadi, Sheema and her team would come and put up tents and bring out people without a lot of announcement.

“What we saw was theatre, stories that people were talking about and some dance. So nobody could object to that because it was aimed at creating awareness and was completely apolitical,” he said.

Farrukhi added the book may have originated from a conference but “it isn’t limited or confined to it and has become bigger and bolder”.

Subverting the text and the adaptations, and the changes Kermani did to the plays was a topic discussed.

An interesting observation the editors made was how female playwrights were neglected in the documentation and dramatisation in the years after. One such example was Rashid Jahan.

“People tend to acknowledge that she was one of the pioneers who was part of Angaarey, the book which changed the direction of Urdu fiction, but there is a sort of grudging recognition,” said Farrukhi.

Jahan, he said, in addition to her single story in Angaarey, wrote more fiction and plays, however, her work is not easily accessible.

“Jahan is given a sort of passing reference but no assessment of her importance is done and neither was her work made mainstream.”

Atiya Fayzee also suffered a similar fate, it was shared, as have many other less popular male writers.

For Asdar, one step to rectify this is to have a series of biographies published.

Another important thing needed is to critically engage with them and their work rather than just keep a tally of who came from where and belonged to which country.

“We need to have serious critical engagement with, for instance Rashid Jahan, so that when the canon is formed, Rashid Jahan is there when we talk about Manto and Faiz.”

Engaging with the writers’ flaws and their amazing contributions is necessary, he explained.

The body of work, editors explored, is at times neglected at the cost of the personal lives of the writers which must be halted.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2017