LOS ANGELES, Oct 26: If playwright Shahid Nadeem had things his way, the history books taught in Pakistani schools would be thoroughly revised.

Besides other changes, these books would emphasize that the partition in 1947 was meant to be a compromise to end the conflict between the two large religious communities of South Asia; the momentous event was definitely not meant to start the conflict and create a hostile environment in which the two neighbouring countries point nuclear weapons at each other.

The director of Ajoka Theatre, Shahid Nadeem, who lives several other lives— as a columnist, human rights activist and a self-appointed Pakistani ambassador at large — visited California last week and amused the liberal Pakistanis with his non-conformist stand on every issue.

He gave two presentations in the Bay Area. The first one was held at the Stanford University and consisted of screening of his play Aik Thee Naanee (Once there was a grandma) followed by a questions and answers session.

It was organized by the Friends of South Asia in collaboration with Ekta, Dosti, 3rd I, Sanskriti, Koshish Foundation and Urdu Academy. While Ahimsa and Ekta organized the second presentation, a show of video clips of several of his plays, at UC Berkeley.

Shahid Nadeem has written over 40 plays, all of which challenge the views of various power nuclei. He does not seem interested in making friends in high places.

In his play Bala King, he elucidates the process of criminalization of politics in Pakistan. In Bulha, he exposes the audience to the brand of Islam that was once prevalent in South Asia— Sufi’s Islam. In Aik Thee Naanee, he questions the forged Pakistani identity, with a horde of sprouting questions: How far should the two-nation theory be carried; should we associate ourselves with the Middle East just because Pakistan was created in the name of Islam; should the people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan revere Mahmood Ghaznavi, the Afghan adventurer, just because he had a Muslim name; why do Pakistanis listen to music and appreciate the arts while they look down at the people that are involved in producing them?

Ajoka Theatre— Ajoka means ‘of today’ in Punjabi — is based in Lahore and has taken Shahid Nadeem’s stage plays on the road all over Pakistan and to India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Presentations of his play have been made by local groups in North America too.

The world of Shahid Nadeem is provocative: in his plays, you would see veil-clad women dancing, men with flowing white beards whirling in ecstasy. Still, he has not been declared a kaafir (infidel) and a threat to our values.

Why? Probably because his TV plays have always been censored, and his theatre productions have had a limited and the elitist audience. All this may drastically change with the new government currently being formed in Pakistan.

But Nadeem does not seem perturbed; he told his audience: “We have survived the wrath of governments before, and we will keep on doing our work.”