Adil Najam
A cascade of horrible recent events, all involving an outpouring of violence – in thought, in words, in deed – and culminating in the brutal murder of Salman Taseer continues to haunt the Pakistani psyche. We are left numb in disbelief of a reality which we always knew: the dysfunctional divisions in society are not just a scar on the face of modern Pakistan, it is a bleeding wound that threats the very body politic of our fragile being.
The fanatical murder of Salman Taseer, and even more than that the reaction to it, has shaken us as we should have been shaken well before. As one tries desperately to make sense of the senselessness that surrounds us, this line from an old poem by Himayat Ali Shair – Abhi tou kuch nahiN hua – keeps coming back to hound one’s senses. Indeed, this, along with two other poems – Obaidullah Aleem’s ‘Meyray shehr jal rahey hain, mairey loug marr rahen hain’ and Ahmed Faraz’s ‘Aaj aisa nahiN, aisa nahiN honay daina’ – resound today even though all three were written inn very different times for different (but not unrelated) crises. They are all worth a listen again:
Himayat Ali Shair: Abhi tou kuch nahiN hua
Obaidullah Aleem: Meray loug marr rahey haiN
Ahmed Faraz: Aaj aisa nahiN, aisa nahiN, honay daina
All three were written in very different times – Aleem in 1971, Faraz and (I think) Shair in the 1980s – in different contexts and about different but very related challenges to the ones we face today. Each was a cry of pain and a warning to the nation. Warnings we did not heed. One listens to them today and one wishes we had paid attention then. One also wonders if, in fact, we are paying attention even today.
The self-righteousness and intolerance on everything that everyone seems to have is frightening. Even on the most minor things and even in our comments section, just disagreeing seems to be never enough; there seems to be a compulsion to be disagreeable and uncivil, and forever angry. The hatred we display for anyone who we do not agree with and the violence we justify on the basis of that hatred boggles the mind. Intolerance is everywhere.
Anyone we disagree with becomes not just a subject of disagreement, but a fair target for slander and character assassination, verbal abuse, and ultimately murder. Indeed, there is a huge difference between venting anger with words and anger that leads to murder. But both lie on the same progression. A society that tolerates – and promotes – too much of the first will inevitably harvest too much of the latter.
It is good that at least some discussion has begun on what is happening to this society where everyone seems forever angry, forever incensed, and forever aggrieved, and forever at the tip of blowing up. But in proportion to the air of self-righteousness that pervades society the discussion is too little, and may well be too late. Some of the chest-beating is also self-serving and itself so angry as to lose its own meaning. But, at least, we are beginning to talk about things we have been ignoring for too long. That is a good sign. Maybe we should also do a little listening. It would be good to begin by listening to the reasoned words in these three poems. Reason is often the first casualty of anger. Ultimately, it is also the only antidote.
P.S. We are adding a fourth poem, sent to us by a reader, called “Abhi kuch dair baqi hai“ by Shakil Jaffery:
I think the best one is the one you quoted last week:
roz aik cheez toot jaati hai
@Meengla and others.
Let me first say that there is NO MORAL EQUIVALENCE between the religious fanaticism and violence of the extreme right and anger of the left. So, I certainly do not adhere in any way to the Hamid Mir nonsense of two extremes, nor does this post. But having said that, there is this larger issue of anger in society that is beyond left and right and feeds off the violence that is already there . The religious right has ‘harnessed’ that violence and made it ‘legitimate’ by using religion and society has begun buying into that. And that is the problem. How do you DELEGITIMIZE their violence. And not just their violence but all violence, including that in the name of religion. That, I think, is the challenge that these poems are grappling with. I tend to agree that you can never deligitimize that violence without first dismantling the legitimacy of all violence.
Sorry for the convoluted argument, but I do think this is one of our biggest challenges today.
Calling these religious fanatics even ‘mullah’ is not correct, though I too have often loosely used the term. It is more like the political face of an extreme version of ‘Islamists’ which has not been able to come to power via the ballot box in Pakistan and so has decided to let go of any pretense of following any ‘rules’ and is now resorting to killing of anything which stands in its way to power. And these fanatics have tasted ‘victory’ after murdering Taseer, after seeing the govt. retreat (never forget Rehman Malik’s boast about shooting any blasphemer himself! Rehman Malik is Pakistan’s interior minister), and after seeing that all they have to confront are a few thousands in the blogspace on their (the fanatics’) path to power.
Warning signs were aplenty in these aged-poems. Now are the clarion calls.
This race for everyone to get angrier than everyone else can only lead to more violence. It is amazing how in one case after the other people resort to justifying why their anger or violence was ‘deserved’ without any sense that some violence is just wrong in itself.
I think what has shocked so many of us after Salman Taseer is seeing the extreme form of this attitude. But what we saw was the same thing that you have been writing again and again, vigilantism and burning people and hanging people and murdering people and abusing people and attacking people you do not like. I wonder after seeing all that over and over again, why are we surprised.
A poem by Zehra Nigah
Suna hai jungalon ka bhi koi dastur hota hai!!!
Suna hai Jungalon ka bhi koi dastuur hota hai!
Suna hai sher ka bhi jab pait bhar jae to wo,
hamla nahi kerta!
Suna haijab kisi naddi k pani men
baye k ghonslay ka gandumi saya larazta hai,
to naddi ki ro.peli machlian usko
parosi maan leti hain!
Hawa kkay taiz jhonke jab darakhton ko hilate hain
to mena apne ghar ko bhool ker
kawway k andon ko paron men thaam leti hai,
Suna hai ghonsaly se jab koi bacha giray to
sara jungle jaag jata hai!
Naddi men baar ajae, koi pul toot jae to
kisi lakri k takhtay per
gulehri, sanp, cheetah aur bakri
sath hote hain!
Suna hai jungalon ka bhi koi dastur hai.
Khudawanda, Jaleel o Mautber, Dana o Bina, Munsif o Akbar,
hamare shehar men ab
Jungalon ka hi koi dastuur naafiz kar !!