In Pakistan today, we face a renewed challenge to both freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression, coupled with a naked, voluble display of authority by some power centres that have newly emerged. Therefore, it is important to seriously speak to the individuals and institutions hegemonising the affairs of the state and remind them of something which they might have forgotten, or may have never had a chance to learn in the first place. Likewise, the same reminder shall go to the obscurantist social actors who go about their work unchecked — or even receive tacit encouragement from the powers-that-be — violently imposing their wish and will on the people at large.

All who display coercion of any kind or use the agency of violence — accorded to them by the state or which they have self-appropriated by the use of force — need to be reminded that we acknowledge their power to demolish obvious dissent. They can successfully muffle any voices critical of them that are raised out in the open, or erase the memes and messages that they find derogatory which are circulated on social media networks. They can block websites and take broadcasts off air, get newspapers to not publish what they dislike and anchors to change the content of their telly talk shows. They can pick up young bloggers who are the same age as their children and release them — or not — as and when they wish after teaching them a lesson. They can even deal with an irritable reporter of a newspaper or news channel who, in their view, has reneged and is now filing stories from other sources. There are so many ways of emotional, physical, social and psychological pressure that can be employed to reign in those who do not conform or those who are not seen to be conforming. Fear can be instilled in the hearts of citizens, academics, commentators and journalists who differ from the powers-that-be by using the pretext of religion or sect. In extreme cases, a bigoted mob can also be unleashed upon them.

But how would those with power over others in our state and society deal with art, as it increasingly becomes sensitised to what is happening around us? Art is indifferent to those in possession of power. It is dismissive of those who exhibit their power. However, what art abhors are those who take pride in their exhibition of power in order to inscribe it on other people’s bodies and minds, senses and sensibilities. Art is conceited and takes pride only in its own creations. But since art, by its very nature, is averse to the idea of displaying any control to seek approval or allegiance, servility and subjugation, even the mesh of its self-absorbing elitism has pronounced strands of egalitarianism — among the creators of art as well as between the creators and the consumers of art. Therefore, art inherently takes to challenging, subverting and ridiculing power, its exhibition and the pride taken in that exhibition.

What is being written in poetry and fiction, creative non-fiction and polemical essays by many in Pakistani languages, from Urdu and Pashto to Sindhi and Balochi to Punjabi and Shina, is not simply chronicling, recording, commenting upon and critiquing the experience of life and liberties in the country. It is increasingly ridiculing and undermining power and its manifestations in the name of patriotism, religion, morality and conformity. The writer or the poet can surely be curbed and restrained, but the piece of art will survive him or her, unlike a news item.

A current affairs story about what happened in a critical meeting among the powerful has limited value if it is not broken at once. A poem or a piece of prose about a person in a position of authority, or a group of people exercising power, may appear whenever and wherever. It will also be free to treat its subjects as it desires. In the imagination of people, that creative work can decimate forever the one who is exhibiting his or her authority over others by flaunting a gun or a pen. Our history is full of such examples.

The writer is a poet and essayist based in Islamabad

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, April 22nd, 2018