Crossroads: Searching for answers in a ‘cauldron of confusion’

The seminar has been organised in connection with the 28th annual exhibition of the Artists’ Association of the Punjab in collaboration with the Pakistan National Council of Arts.

She said, “We stand at a cross roads of a new age in which the world is rapidly undergoing drastic transformation. Technology has taken us by a storm. All cultures of the world, old and new, believe this is the end of an age. “Globalisation is inescapable and with it comes the homogenisation of culture.”

“But whose culture?” she asked. America and Europe being the dominant powers of the era have projected their culture widely onto TV screens. Since they have power over channels of information and knowledge, it is their version of history being transmitted to the rest of the world, she said. “Rejecting globalisation would lead to isolation from the world but going with the flow would only add to the cauldron of confusion bubbling in our national psyche.”

“As our identity becomes diluted in a diverse mix of influences, there is a desperate search for lost identity,” she said. “Although our art is as vibrant as it is in the developed world, an objective observation of it suggests subservience to the ‘superior’ western culture.”

Masud said the corporate world was also responsible for changing the cultural environment, language (by mixing Urdu and English in advertisements) leaving people confused. On a positive note, Pakistan is more informed than ever today, she said.

Artist Quddus Mirza also presented his paper titled One Hundred Ways to Solitude. “When we talk about the crisis of culture, it is not about creating culture or it dying out, it has to do with our perceptions- rather misconceptions about culture.”

He said, “We believe our culture is better than the rest. We are so overprotective of it that we consider all those abandoning their heritage or modifying it as inferior or even infidels.”

He said this type of cultural superiority could create a social ulcer. This is incurable most of the time as the intellectuals posing as social healers cannot even detect it. “I see a link between the rise of extremism and popularity of Islamic Calligraphy and Mughal miniature painting.”

He said it was necessary to acknowledge changing times and sensibilities in analysing visual arts. “The revival of miniature painting and Islamic calligraphy as modern day art can be viewed as an answer to the urge of reverting back to our past.”

Mirza said even though the Mughals were not practicing Muslims, “yet we like to classify that period as Muslim or Islamic History.” The craze for red brick buildings with carved balconies, grills and tiles, and the love for Qawali music all appear to be in harmony with the revival of miniature painting. “Attempts to fabricate identity are fine, but if it is in the framework of the past, it has ideological resonance,” he said.

The Taliban too are trying to revive a certain type of religion despite the transformations in the outside world, he said. “They are trying to impose and implant their narrow interpretation of Islam, which in their view is the actual and unadulterated version of the true faith as practised 1,400 years ago. However, instead of reviving the past their attempts have led to their isolation from the rest of the world.” They follow their own fabricated model based upon distant history, from a period that was different, distinct and perfect. “I should be talking about our pictorial practices and artistic pursuits, rather than political problems, but I see this as the real crises of our culture,” he said.

Dr Shahnawz Zaidi recited Masjid-i-Qartaba by Allama Iqbal, his own poem Time Machine, Aik hee Rung hai by Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi and Nisar Mein Teri Galiyoun Mein by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Artist Aasim Akhtar, also read his paper at the occasion. Ataul Haq Qasmi, Dr Mujahid Kamran and Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali were chief guests and Mian Ijazul Hassan presided over the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2014.