Daily Times Editorial Feb 25, 2013

Something to celebrate at last In the cultural desert that Pakistan has been reduced to, the first few drops of rain are starting to fall (literally and metaphorically). First we had the 2013 recast of the Karachi Literature Festival, the fourth so far. The enriching wares and discussions available in the city by the sea enthused Karachiites, but not only local denizens. Literature festivals, as they have evolved, have increasingly become international in composition and flavour. It is as though the revolution in communications has affected literary output and outreach as well, crashing through barriers of country, culture, distance. A virtually connected world is now able to actually connect at these fests. Karachi was followed by the Lahore Literary Festival, set in the magnificent setting of the Alhamra Cultural Centre on the Mall. It was the first such effort for the Punjab capital, a breach of the darkness into which we have incrementally been falling. Lahore’s heart has always been about art, culture, literature. In recent years, that ethos has been under siege from narrow mindedness, bigotry, intolerance, extremism and terrorism. The public space has thereby shrunk and been denied citizens. In Lahore on February 23rd and 24th, that space was reconquered by the thronging crowds that seemed to have an insatiable appetite for enlightened, fresh, interesting ideas expressed through the written word. Neither the rain on the first day, nor traffic and parking problems deterred the enthusiastic crowds of Lahoris, guests from all over the country and further abroad from thronging the festival and giving it the air of a mela (festive fair). The commonplace for long in Pakistan has been that the reading habit is a threatened or even extinct species, younger people no longer read, at least not books, and we are therefore doomed to be trapped in the inadequacies and pitfalls of our flawed education system, which critics argue is producing generation after generation of educated illiterates. Well, if the young teeming crowd at Alhamra is any guide, all these ‘self-evident’ truths are about to be challenged, if not overthrown. There was such a hunger and thirst amongst the young attendees for ideas, a commodity considered scarce in Pakistan, that even hardened old cynics felt the lift of joy that a promised new dawn harbingers. It was wonderful to see the interaction, exchange and sharing between young and old, local and guest, Pakistani and foreigner that animated the halls and gardens of Alhamra. The organizers of this initiative are to be congratulated on a brave venture that has turned out to deliver more returns than could be imagined in their wildest dreams. Reclaiming the lost public space is of course the site of the current struggle between the forces of enlightenment and darkness, but the roaring success of the first Lahore Literary Festival has vanquished all doubts if there were any, that the city (and Pakistani society at large, not to mention the global community of writers and literature lovers) is more than ready to make this event part of its annual cultural calendar. While kudos are due to the organizers, the Punjab government’s support to the event is deserving of mention, particularly the personal interest taken by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The sign of a vibrant and alive society and culture is its literary output and the audience it attracts. History indicates that societies in crisis are at the same time offered the possibility of producing great literature. On the first condition, we more than qualify. On the second outcome, some very interesting trends are in evidence. Traditional literature in our indigenous languages is arguably going through a lean patch, with the exceptions standing out like shining beacons against the tide of decline that threatens all that has been good and rich in our past. On the other hand the phenomenon of an emerging crop of Pakistani writers writing in English is an area deserving of attention. It was perhaps inevitable that our elite and middle class, with access to education in English at both basic and higher levels would sooner or later give rise to a wave of writing in the language they are most comfortable in expressing themselves in. That is an exciting development not only because they bring to the table a new way of looking at our society, its flaws, warts and shining qualities, but also because English offers a wider, international audience. Taking a cue from this fact, perhaps one of the ways to revive the rich traditional heritage of our indigenous literature is to encourage translations of works in the indigenous languages into English to provide the same advantage of a wider, global audience. Since we live in times where the received d wisdom is that the market determines everything, it may be worth exploring ways and means to use market forces to strengthen intellectual and cultural depth even in our struggling traditional literature.