The Artists and Writers Convention hosted by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Karachi recently, made one more acutely aware of the gap created by lack of public forums where writers, poets, scholars, artists, art critics, literary critics, social scientists and other exponents of culture can have a healthy exchange and expand their capacity to listen to diverse points of view.
The convention that focused on how writers and artists perceive and articulate the social change in their society with special reference to human rights, was based on three sessions with presentations and panel discussions that helped to add layers to the debate.
Two strands that dominated the deliberations were the emerging distance between urban and rural literature. While urban writers and poets have left their mark in the past, today the centre for resistance literature has shifted to the rural areas where poetry and texts on human rights abuses and oppression are being written prolifically in regional languages. Also taken into account was the ‘conventionalisation’ of the urban poet/writer that holding on to established vehicles like the printed text and mushairas that fail to communicate issues with urgency to a wider audience. Self censorship on controversial issues by a majority of urban artists and writers has also compromised the voice that has the potential to speak for the marginalised and wronged.
It is the non-availability of these dynamic and pertinent literary works, beyond regional languages, that has unfortunately prevented divisive issues, many that need collective solutions, from entering national consciousness.
The politics of language and its impact on culture and development was also taken up. Zubeida Mustafa’s book on The tyranny of language in education came under discussion which elaborates on how English, an imposed elite language can exclude a majority and exacerbate issues of learning, literacy and a sense of self. A disconnect with the cultural matrix of the land can also be traced to the diminishing importance of the national language in the higher education system where English dominates professional education. The audience would have liked to know more about the first-hand experiences of senior professors and a former vice chancellor of a major university on the panel in this matter so it would have given an insight into real bottlenecks and steered the discussion towards real life solutions.
Khuda Buksh Abro’s presentation brought optimism as he talked about his recent success in organising a ‘poster for democracy’ workshop for art college students. He pointed to the systematic apoliticisation of the curricula that has deprived them of tools to understand citizens’ rights and responsibility with objectivity. He was happy to report that just a few sessions of political discussion at the workshop made it easier for participants to create effective political posters.
There was the usual rhetoric about the ‘darbari’ artists that depends on the largesse of the establishment to which professor Mohammad Ali Siddiq’s call to prioritise critical thinking is the best response. For, it is the culture of accountability that compels all citizens to view their relationship with state with responsibility and pro-actively participate in nation building. There is also the misguided belief that somehow activism distracts an artist or writer from achieving professional excellence.
This perception which has been developed by critics with corporate and academic priorities, have distanced themselves from the needs of a participatory democracy.
The widespread abuse of human rights, violence and oppression legitimised through draconian laws in Pakistan has made it imperative that all sections of society, especially creative thinkers, come together to resist un-democratic practices. The present models for cultural production which have been either inherited from the colonisers or borrowed from capitalist societies also needs to be re-examined critically if a new connection with the people has to be established. Cultural models from Latin America, where art and literature that have been an integral part of the struggle against dictatorship and for economic rights, can offer a good blueprint as they have had success in building a symbiotic relationship that enriches the arts and made it significant to the communities from which it springs.
In the same spirit I would like to suggest that such a convention be held every year in all major cities and towns of the country under the auspices of credible organisations like the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan to bring cultural exponents together to deliberate on a cultural vision for future policies. The most successful pro-democracy cultural interventions of the year should be highlighted, shared and celebrated so they can be mainstreamed as national strategies to bring the focus back to the real issues of the citizen.
As Pakistan’s creative minds presented their views for a full day at the HRCP Convention for Artists and Writers, it became abundantly clear that it is their vision which should be shaping an all embracing Pakistani cultural identity of tolerance, diversity and harmony and not that of myopic politicians and bureaucrats, who hi-jacked it some decades ago.