Adil Najam
An absolutely fascinating documentary from Dawn TV on the Karachi music scene from the 1960s into the 1970s. About a Karachi that is no more. A Karachi where Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones fly in to play. A Karachi which had the only piano manufacturing facility in all of pre-1947 India. A Karachi that even the Beattles passed through.
Absolutely fascinating. Or have I said that already!
This is about a Karachi from a very different time. A Karachi that moved to a very different beat.
Nostalgia – and the glamorization of nostalgia – not withstanding, this does not mean it was a ‘better’ time or a ‘better’ beat. It was also a time with many many problems. And big ones. Of poverty. Of economic divide. Of intolerance of a different kind. In many ways – and for some people – it was a much more innocent time. In other ways – and for other people – it might have been harsher.
But it was, quite clearly, a very different time. And that, of course, is the point.
What one sees in this documentary was not the only face of Karachi of that time. Karachi had many many faces. It has always had many many faces.
It is too easy to forget that it still has many many face. And that, of course, is the point. And not just about Karachi. About any place, really.
Oh my giddy aunt! I’m going to watch this video again. I wish I was born in that era.
My post to the NY Times today is hopefully related to this Topic:
http://tinyurl.com/2dw9hj4
”
1) To blame the Pakistani nation of tens of millions for the jihadist-cancer is not fair: From 1977 till 1988 Pakistan was under a brutal military regime which publicly flogged and hanged ‘criminals’ like lawyers, journalists, civil-society activists and, yes, political workers of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (the PPP). The reign of terror was unprecedented even by Pakistani standards: Under the two previous Martial Laws there was never such kind of repression as was under Zia’s. And Pakistanis saw Zia being treated as a celebrity on the lawns of Washington in his yearly pilgrimages to Reagan.
2) I, too, have witnessed the brutality of these so-called Jamiat party: They beat up at least two of my classmates for merely sitting with women on the premises of the University of Karachi in the 80’s. There was nothing I could do except to be angry–and be quiet–lest the same fate was given to me.
3) To the Indians here: Why do you always come and mock the tragedy facing Pakistan all the time in the blogspace? Pakistan was brutalized by a military regime, supported by a large part of the world, in such a way that the once-Sufi-oriented Pakistani society got the cancer of Saudi-version of Islam. Culpability assigned to the millions of ordinary Pakistanis is unfair.
4) Now, there were some ‘liberal’ Pakistanis who did not support Zia’s Afghan-posture of helping Americans by nurturing the Jihadis. They were called ‘Surkhey’ (‘Red’, for Communists) and were termed traitors and were banned and persecuted.
5) Pakistanis, at least in cities like Karachi, know how to tackle the Jamaat i Islami and their student goons. I think the Zia era is over and the so-called Jihadists are on the re-treat if you follow the election results of 2008 where the liberal segment of the Pakistani society re-asserted.
6) There is indeed a lot of rot in Pakistan. But there is indeed at least some vitality even in Pakistan. It will help us all to better understand what are the causes of human actions. We are all human beings. We need to learn to live with each other. If the Europeans who fought the bloodies wars in human history in 20th century alone can now form the EU then Pakistan and India can form an alliance which comes to them naturally.
6) Finally, instead of stereotyping Pakistan, why not take advantage of the free web and go and learn something to better understand them: Here are but a few sources:
http://www.pakistaniat.com [top blogspace]
http://www.dawn.com [Pakistan’s own version of NY Times]
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk [a good relatively pro-west news source]
Peace!”
Wow!
What a great production by my niece.
Umbreen Butt. Great job. We are proud of you.
A riveting post by all means..
But after having a look at the comments from the facebook readers(that are always in the same vein), I have to admit I am ‘nostalgic’, though with complete understanding of the problems of those days. I haven’t lived through ‘those better’ times of Karachi Jazz scene but I have lived the times when words like ‘woman, music, dance’ didn’t lead to questions of religion, heated discussions-cum-sermons on evil, ending in calling names and terming each other non-believers. I am nostalgic for the ‘good’, yes, you read it right, days when we could term ourselves ‘tolerant’.
Excellent post and thoughful write-up. Diversity is good not because we like all the faces, but because more faces is better than less and adds to the vitality of society