In advocating a need to bridge today’s intellectual partition of India and Pakistan ( The Hindu , December 25) Suhasini Haidar regrets that the two societies look away from each other culturally and construct separate histories that accelerate their tensions. At the end of 2017 this has degenerated to suspecting as traitors any who share a meal with Pakistanis. Within this gloom, hopes of re-engagement may be dim. Yet 2017 also offered a silver lining: the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) organised in November to celebrate the cradle of modern Punjabi civilisation with a literary feast at which Indians were warmly welcomed.
LLF carried a mark of the times: its table was set at the British Library in London, where it followed another conference in the city which had affirmed faith in a “liberal, democratic, secular and progressive Pakistan.” Organised by former Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani, that gathering cautioned that without a change in its crisis-ridden trajectory, his country risked global isolation.
Founded by cultural activist Razi Ahmed in 2012, the Lahore LitFest has over five years brought some of the world’s most insightful voices to engage with Pakistani writers, artists and audiences. The largest open-to- the-public event in Lahore, LLF also organises editions in New York and London. Each celebrates the city’s traditions of enquiry, openness and tolerance “while looking beyond our immediate community, boundaries, and comfort to assess and assert Pakistan’s place in a fast changing world.”
Every Festival has invited Indians to share in Lahore’s mission as a symbol for Pakistan as well as for south Asia. This London edition heard from three Indians: Ved Mehta, Madhur Jaffrey and the writer. Other Indians remembered included Ismat Chugtai, Sir Ganga Ram, Khushwant Singh, Attia Husain, Rabindranath Tagore, Anita Desai — all in the context of Lahore and what Partition and its aftermath did to the city, to Punjab and to the subcontinent.
The clear message was for building a chance through cultural diversity, dialogue and partnership for new generations to live in peace. Nusrat Jamil and Aneela Shah, LLF co-organisers with Razi Ahmed, saw its purpose as re-embracing and re-kindling the storied and syncretic traditions of Lahore and Pakistan, and of directing south Asian culture toward shaping not only Pakistan’s own world view but the future of a British-Pakistani community now 2M strong. Pakistan High Commissioner Syed Ibne Abbas appealed to this audience to help return Pakistan to the inclusive vision of its founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah. He found particular relevance in the LLF toward educating a diaspora to better understand what it means to live in a Britain in which tolerance is a non-negotiable value.
A focus on pre-Partition Lahore literature explored the city and its thriving Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities. This syncretic culture was best captured by “Urdu’s uncivilised woman Ismat Chugtai”, whose contributions were celebrated by Prof Arfa Sayeda Zehra of Forman Christian College, poet Zehra Nigah and by Dr. Asif Farrukhi of Habib University. He recounted Chugtai’s power and wit when she travelled from Delhi to Lahore to defend herself against charges of obscenity in the infamous Lihaaf case.
Pakistan’s leading architect Nayyar Ali Dada presented the vision of Sir Ganga Ram (his great grand-daughter Baroness Shreela Flather is the first Asian woman to receive a British peerage) in creating a modern Lahore unbound by caste or colour. With Rudyard’s father John Lockwood Kipling and engineer Bhai Ram Singh, Sir Ganga Ram catalysed an intellectual discourse that led to buildings like the Lahore Museum created under the Raj by Indians who rejected imported idioms and instead blended the inspiration of the Badshahi Mosque into a hybrid style that was entirely original, now threatened by fly-over and high-rise ‘development’ that may soon destroy a precious heritage. Dada’s advice can echo in cities across the subcontinent: “The job for us is to respect the past if we expect the future to respect us. Our task today is to learn from yesterday as we move toward tomorrow.” Dada’s stunning presentation of archival drawings and photographs was accompanied by the voice of Omkarnath Thakur sounding softly in the background.
Prof. Salima Hashmi, eldest daughter of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, chaired a session on craft heritage, at which design innovations from the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture (Karachi) and struggles of artisans represented by the Craft Council of India reflected shared concerns and aspirations. Author Madhur Jaffery, hailed at LLF as the world authority on Indian food, flew in to join Pakistan’s Sumayya Usmani in an exploration of sub-continental recipes mutating in kitchens across the world.
Another session looked at Pakistani literature in English, including Sarfraz Manzoor’s meditations on “Life, Love and Luton” in which a British-Pakistani childhood is played out to the music of Bruce Springsteen. Literary celebrity Kamila Shamsie discussed her new book Home Fire (reviewed in The Hindu , October 15) which explores “citizenship, belonging and what it means to be young and Muslim in the world today.” In a powerful ‘Never Forget’ session, Shamsie was joined by Tahmima Anam and Kashmir’s Mirza Waheed. They asked how stories should now be told of south Asia’s most cataclysmic 20 th century event, while accounts of inter-communal horror, displacement and loss in 1947 are still being uncovered.
Shamsie also conducted a LLF highlight: a conversation with Malala Yousafzai preceding the release of her book for children, Malala’s Magic Pencil. Malala spoke of her induction at Oxford, the stringent security she must live with, the Malala Fund established to serve girls in some of the world’s most difficult locations, her longing for birthday cake (“Only my brothers’ birthdays are celebrated at home”) she revealed, with a mischievous smile at parents seated in the front row) and continuing threats to personal safety: “I consider myself lucky. Look at the opportunities I have for helping girls less fortunate than me. Even if those people finally get me, my cause and my work will not stop. I have identified other Malalas in other places. They will carry on.”
The openness and courage of this extraordinary young girl is symbolic of LLF’s endeavour. From a context of crisis, the Festival sends a message of tolerance and of the value of unfettered creativity. The message comes from Pakistanis who have paid a personal price for believing in a better tomorrow for their country. Their experience can resonate across borders, helping societies not to turn away and instead to look at each other. It can strengthen all who feel threatened in an age too often dominated by hate and by the trampling on hope.
