While targeted killings increased by 175 percent in 2010 as compared to 2009, the number of such murders is said to be 12 percent higher in January 2011 than in the same period in 2010
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the review
What’s going
Sunday, 23 January, 2011
in Karachi? t depends on whom you ask, actually. A fresh wave of targeted violence began on Jan. 13 with an attack on the Awami National Party’s (ANP) acting provincial secretary, Bashir Jan. While Jan survived, two of his bodyguards did not, and thus began a series of attacks and counter-attacks, which have led to the deaths of at least 35 people, and injured many
others. Armed militias patrolled what are now referred to as ‘sensitive areas’ – Katee Pahari, Gulistan-e-Jauher, and parts of North Nazimabad and Gulshan-e-Iqbal – and the death toll rose to nine within an hour on 13 January; before sunrise, 15 people had died. The next day, armed Pakhtun men opened fire at a public bus passing through Katee Pahari, and by the end of that day, 12 more people had lost their lives. More Rangers personnel were called in and deployed around the city, and perhaps because of them or maybe because armed gangs had had their fill by then, the bloodletting decreased to single digits by the third day, although it had not stopped completely by the time this report was filed. As such, while targeted killings increased by 175 percent in 2010 as compared to 2009, the number of targeted murders are said to be 12 percent higher in January 2011 than in the same period in 2010. Contrary to Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s claims about ‘foreign hands’ and ‘third forces’, meanwhile, the main players this time around are the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the ANP – again. To make matters worse, political statements have been flying left, right and centre, adding to the confusion. Even Nawaz Sharif, who has no political standing whatsoever in Karachi, has jumped into the fray, attempting to extract mileage from the situation while riding high on the supposed ‘success’ of Operation Clean-up initiated under his first term in office. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief perhaps considers the brutal torture and deaths of countless innocent young men from the Urdu-speaking community a job well done, forgetting that the infamous operation is one of the reasons he has never been able to gain any political traction in Karachi. Nawaz’s minions, including party stalwarts such as Siddiqul Farooq, have not been doing him any favour either by going on air to issue crass and ridiculous statements bordering on racism. The past is being dragged in time and again, and old wounds that had been festering under the surface are now being aired. And the MQM, which had, in a 2004 petition in court, claimed that the Army and the Establishment were responsible for Operation Clean-up, has now laid the blame squarely at the doorsteps of the PML-N (after first expressing these views in late 2009).
The rest of the country has been led to believe that Pakistan’s largest city is not just overflowing with people, it is also overflowing with bodies. The fact of the matter, however, is that Karachi is a sprawling metropolis with a population of somewhere between 18 million and 20 million, depending on whose statistics you believe in (the last official census was conducted almost a decade ago). The death of 15 people in a single day may sound ominous, but it in the larger scheme of things it is less than a drop in the ocean. As such, while most residents of Karachi hear about a place where all hell has broken loose what the see is a city that is bustling with energy and enterprise. Areas classified as ‘sensitive’ constitute less than 10 percent of the entire spread of this vast city. And while some tension and concern is obvious, most of Karachi is going about business as usual. The residents actually are less perturbed and discomfited by flying bullets than by arbitrary bans on pillion riding, which was imposed again on Monday. As a result, the police went into overdrive and arrested 630 people while impounding 311 motorbikes on the same day alone. One wonders how any force can get away with randomly arresting 630 individuals, including college students and young and middle-aged office-goers in a single day. Most of them were people who can either not afford cab and rickshaw fares, or find public buses too cumbersome, or can’t afford even those. Hitching a ride with colleagues or friends was one convenience that they had in their entire day, and even that has now been snatched away, to be replaced with
The MQM has taken an extremely commendable step by tabling a bill in parliament, calling for the deweaponisation of the whole country and not just Karachi, albeit without providing any ideas as to how that would be done or even initiated at its base arbitrary arrests, impounding of vehicles, and demands for bribes from policemen. In the meantime, let’s clear up some facts: there is no curfew – either complete or partial – in Karachi. There is only the threat of one. Nor is any major ‘operation’ underway. Again, only the threat thereof exists. There were reports early on Tuesday of a door-to-door search operation by Rangers and personnel in Pakhtun- and Baloch-majority areas such as in Faqeer Colony in Orangi Town. This cannot be good, particularly in a Pakhtun area, where strict purdah for women is a major issue. Predictably while residents of Pakhtun-majority areas protested the absence of female Rangers personnel for the door-to-door search, women in the Baloch areas resisted by blocking the Rangers’ vehicles. Post-operation, after hundreds of ‘suspects’ had been
Political forces in Karachi need to realise that shifting blame to each other, or laughably, to ‘third forces’, might serve to push matters under the carpet temporarily (again), but it is not going to solve the problem of periodic waves of targeted violence arbitrarily arrested from these localities, many residents accused law-enforcement personnel of unnecessarily kicking doors down, breaking locks on safes and suitcases, and in some cases, even making off with valuables. Similar allegations come forward every time military and paramilitary forces conduct door-to-door searches anywhere in the country. No action has been taken against this to date, however, nor has any investigation been promised The MQM, meanwhile, has taken an extremely commendable step by tabling a bill in parliament, calling for the deweaponisation of the whole country and not just Karachi, albeit without providing any ideas as to how that would be done or even initiated at its base. Especially since the MQM’s cadres, even at the mohalla level, are amongst those who need to shed ammunition and the associated notions of ‘power’ and false machismo. As such, while these periodic waves of violence are cause for immense concern, demanding curfews or the deployment of the army in Karachi is not just an exaggeration, it is also absolutely uncalled for. Political forces in Karachi need to realise that shifting blame to each other, or laughably, to ‘third forces’, might serve to push matters under the carpet temporarily (again), but it is not going to solve the problem of periodic waves of targeted violence in the city. A number of ghosts of Christmases past and present, so to speak, need to be exorcised, and the process of resolving these issues can begin only once the existence of a problem is acknowledged. To quote Martin Luther King, Jr, “I don’t think our loyalty to the country should be measured by our ability to kill; our loyalty should be measured by our ability to lead the country to higher heights of democracy and the great dream of justice and humanity.” On a side-note, it really does not do a party such as the MQM, which claims to base its politics on principles and ideology, any favours when one of its Rabita Committee members (read Waseem Aftab) goes on air to claim first that the violence in Karachi is being planned and executed by ‘forces from outside the country’; and secondly, that the unrest in Balochistan is also solely the result of ‘outside interference’. Get your head out from under the sand, Mr Aftab, and while you’re at it, also read some history. It will do you, and by extension your party, a world of good.
2 The Good (not Great) American Novel 4 Malot endangered
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By Urooj Zia
the review
The Good (not Great) A well-timed story with a thought-provoking backdrop and a well-intentioned social realism but it lacks the gravitas that propelled The Corrections to another realm altogether
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By Anum Yousuf
wish somebody would just tell me a story. A long, long story in a book. In today’s world, where artifice constantly punches art in the gut and postmodern drivel parades as profundity, well-told stories are sadly missing from fiction. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen is a ‘story’ with clearly defined events. The story chooses substance over style. It is staid in its restrained experimentalism and its nonlinear telling only makes it more intricately ordered. It is a saga of an American family from the Reagan years to present day USA and its expansive landscape canvasses not only political changes in modern America, it also tells the story of a struggling couple, their children and a doomed-to-be-lonely artist and a few other real enough characters. The book is an exploration of the titular phenomenon i.e. freedom but the fact that it is sensitive enough to tell the tale of
the people in it and not turn into an overloaded philosophical treatise is great. Just great. And for that, I am dearly thankful to Franzen. This book arrived at the scene fraught with expectations. Coming at the back of a hugely successful and hugely wonderful novel did not help matters. The fact that its author was pictured on the cover of Time in full-on auteur avatar as the next Great American Novelist also did not help matters. The fact that critics were eagerly waiting to love it or rip it to shreds also did not help matters. Much. I felt that this was really unfair to the poor novel
in question. Media attention has nothing to do with reading. Reading is an in-camera affair and big media furors are irrelevant to the dirty business of reading and enjoying a book. I think this was what hampered my enjoyment of “Freedom” for a bit. And I hate the media for it. The thing about hype is that it reaches you even if you live under a rock and it colours your perception even as you struggle to stay objective. Willing suspension of preconceptions is almost impossible especially when driven by such pervasive media coverage. So, screw you, media hype. On to the review,
Something is to be said about characters that get under your skin, excite your disdain, infuriate and invite your empathies while being totally fictitious. One cares enough to find the incompleteness of the redemption of his characters unsettling
A socio-historical study of the Sindhi world It is an interesting miscellany on Sindhology though it may be difficult for a discreet and well-informed reader to digest some of the theses postulated in it in pursuance of its ‘interdisciplinary focus on history and society’
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Illustrated & Designed by Babur Saghir
Sunday, 23 January, 2011
his book is a miscellany of essays by a cross-section of Muslim, Hindu and Christian Sindhologists. The editors of the volume are Michel Boivin, a PhD from Univesite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies (CEIAS), National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris and Matthew A. Cook, a PhD from Columbia University working as Assistant Professor of Postcolonial and South Asian Studies at North Carolina Central University. The former’s research focus is the interaction between society and religion during the
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Freedom by Jonathan Franzen RRP: £20.00 Publisher: FOURTH ESTATE Publication Date : 23/09/2010 Hardback
19th and 20th centuries, with a special interest in the Sindhi region whereas the latter’s is on colonialism in South Asia and the methodological conjunction of anthropology and history. The book comprises ten chapters with self-speaking titles besides a comprehensive introduction by the editors. These are: Myths of Jhuley Lal: Deconstructing a Sindhi cultural icon; Mobility, territory, and authenticity: Sindhi Hindus in Kutch, Gujarat; Unwanted identities in Gujarat; Recreating Sindhi: Formations of Sindhi Hindu Guru movements in new contexts; Code switching among Sindhis experiencing language shift in Malaysia; Sufism, Hinduism, and social organization in Sindh: The forgotten tradition of Pithoro Pir; Getting ahead or keeping your head? The ‘Sindhi’ migration of eighteenth century India; Richard Burton’s Sindh: Folklore,
By Syed Afsar Sajid syncretism, and empire; 1947: Recovering displaced histories of Karachi; The Sufi saints of Sindhi nationalism. Contributors to the chapters, in serial order, include writers and scholars like Lata Parwani, a Harvard graduate presently working toward a PhD in history at Tufts University; Farhana Ibrahim, a PhD from Cornell University working as Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Rita Kothari, a PhD from Gujarat University working as Professor of Culture and Communication at the Mudra Institute of Communication in Ahmedabad, India; Steven Ramey, a PhD from University of North Carolina working as Assistant Professor of Religion at The University of Alabama; Maya Khemal David, a PhD from the University of Essex working as Professor of Languages and Linguistics at University of Malaya; Michel Boivin; Matthew A. Cook; Paulo Lemos Horta, a PhD from the University of Toronto working as Assistant Professor of Literature at New York University, Abu Dhabi; Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar, a PhD from Columbia University working as Robert Gale Noyes Assistant Professor of the Humanities at Brown
American Novel The best thing about this book hands down was the first-rate characterisation. Franzen takes delicious pleasure in making his characters annoying and forcing the reader to care about them despite their obvious flaws Freedom is the story of Walter and Patty Berglund and Richard Katz, their ‘best friend’. Thrown in for good measure are the Berglund’s neighbours and children and a do-gooder Indian at the end to help along a (somewhat) contrived ending to a poignant and pacy narrative. This story is undoubtedly well-told. Family histories are drawn out. Milestones of each life are sketched out. It not only gives the personal histories of each character, it also draws a lovely web of in-
teraction between them. The story is half told by the overlapping narratives of Walter, Richard and Joey (Walter’s son) and half by an ‘autobiography’ written by Patty Berglund in the third person which makes for some great foreshadowing and cliff-hanging within the novel. Patty is a former college athlete plus wannabe- super soccer mom married to greenpeacy Walter. Richard Katz is Walter’s best friend and an artist whose artistic journey is a glorious portrait of cynicism and a wonderful ode to the late David Foster Wallace, a close friend of Franzen. Their relationship is what forms the heart of this narrative but Franzen very skillfully avoids this devolving into a triangular relationship by having an intriguing roster of supporting characters. But the Walter-Richard story sometimes trumps the Walter-Patty story in its convoluted confusion. The political backdrop is employed to full effect as the novel is a great comment on the evolution/death of liberal middleclass America with some caustic observations about conservative America thrown in for good measure. The fact that it inserted socio-political commentary seamlessly
The essays contained in the book tend to envisage Sindh and its people not as ‘isolated regional entities’ but those in ‘a wider sociocultural and historical web’
Title: Interpreting the Sindhi World – Essays on Society and History Edited by: Michel Boivin and Matthew A. Cook Publishers: Oxford University Press, Karachi Pages: 226 Price: Rs.695/-
Paulo Lemos Horta attempts to determine how Richard Francis Burton (1821-90), a British explorer, orientalist and ethnologist, was influenced by his experience of Sindh’s religious fusion in his conception of folklore, syncretism and empire as also his work on literature, faith, and imperialism University and Oskar Verkaaik, a PhD from the University of Amsterdam working as Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam’s Research Centre for Religion and Society. The essays contained in the book tend to envisage Sindh and its people not as ‘isolated regional entities’ but those in ‘a wider socio-cultural and historical web’. The cumulative view that emerges from a perusal
of these pieces, is that ‘Sindhis are a global community and this collection generates new perspectives on them by integrating detailed studies on Pakistan with those from India and the Diaspora’. It has been further asserted that ‘such an approach contrasts with other writings by celebrating rather than erasing multi-cultural faces from Sindh’s human tapestry’. The first three essays in the book deal with the theme of cultural integration of Sindhi society. Steven Ramey focuses on Lucknow in India to ascertain how Sindhis have assimilated innovative religious practices by interacting with the new socio-cultural contexts at a location which is away from both Sindh and the Kutch region of the Indian state of Gujarat whose mother tongue is a variation of Sindhi. In the 5th chapter, Maya Khemlani David focuses on Sindhis living in Malaysia to examine their intra-communal linguistics. In the next chapter, Michel Boivin, the co-editor of the book, analyzes the Sufi saint tradition of Pithoro Pir. Likewise Matthew Cook, the other co-editor, focuses on Sindh’s preBritish past by exploring the themes of culture and migration. In the eighth chapter, Paulo Lemos Horta attempts to determine how Richard Francis Burton (1821-90), a British explorer, orientalist and ethnologist, was influenced by his experience of Sindh’s religious fusion in his conception of folklore, syncretism and empire as also his work on literature, faith, and imperialism. In the penultimate chapter of the book, Vazira Zamindar touches a sensitive subject viz., ‘a crucial moment in the history of Sindhis: the exodus from Karachi in 1947’. Lastly, Oskar Verkaaik focuses on ‘Sindhi nationalist discourse during the post-Partition period’. To sum up, it is an interesting miscellany on Sindhology though it may be difficult for a discreet and well-informed reader to digest some of the theses postulated in it in pursuance of its ‘interdisciplinary focus on history and society’.
into the narrative and cultural critique was veiled as the voice of the characters was one of the strong points of the novel. While the story in itself was wonderful, expansive in scope, suitably symbolic in exploring the concept of freedom in its many manifestations, the voice of the novel was jarringly uneven. And while some novelist use this to great effect, this was not so in this book. The caustic wit was jumping off the pages in some sections, while conspicuously missing in others. Some moments were suffused with a tragic realism while others were just dull and bland. The novel is pretty smug and sure of itself even in places where it should have a hint of self-doubt. The best thing about this book hands down was the first-rate characterisation. Franzen takes delicious pleasure in making his characters annoying and forcing the reader to care about them despite their obvious flaws. Something is to be said about characters that get under your skin, excite your disdain, infuriate and invite your empathies while being totally fictitious. One cares enough to find the incompleteness of the redemption of his characters unsettling. He is also artful enough to not unravel
the psychologies of his characters in plain sight, it just happens in between the lines with brilliance. Their contradictions become the contradictions troubling the mind of the reader; their moral ambiguities plague the reader too. What else could one want when conversant with unreal people on the pages of a book. Their struggle with freedom and liberty (both personal and public) are treated with sensitivity and irreverence simultaneously. It makes for an intellectually provocative experience. One is forced to consider how modernity has changed freedom and how we personally deal with its demands. Freedom is supposed to be a ‘comic’ novel. And the best comic novels have a heart of gut-wrenching sadness. And while the wit in Freedom is sharp and the depression in it poignant, its heart is not mangled
enough for it to transcend. It is mordant enough but not melancholic enough. A well-timed story with a thought-provoking backdrop and a well-intentioned social realism but it lacks the gravitas that propelled The Corrections to another realm altogether. Nonetheless, immensely enjoyable. Again, if this review was coloured by media hype surrounding the book and I could’ve enjoyed the book more had it not been there, I wish my heartiest hell on the publicity mills.
Masterly treatment of plot, theme and characters In essence, the novel is the portrayal of the plight of the oppressed, the downtrodden and ‘the marginalized’
Title: Sifr Se Aik Tak: Cyberspace Kay Munshi Ki Sarguzishat Title: Interpreting the Sindhi World – Essays on Society and History By: Mirza Athar Baig Publishers: Sanjh Publications, Lahore Pages: 393 Price: Rs400/-
By Sardar Hussain
M
irza Athar Baig, the author of Gulam Bag, returns with another novel, Sifr Se Aik Tak: Cyberspace Kay Munshi Ki Sarguzishat (From Zero to One: Cyberspace Clerk’s Ordeal). The novel deals with a strange world, the world as transformed over the last two decades. It is the story of Zaki, a software en-
gineer with an oppressed feudal background, who stands up against the menace of our society. While telling the tale of love of Zaki and Zaulaikha, the novelist brings out the bleak face of feudalism, the parasite which has maintained its hold on society in connivance with other exploitative forces like bureaucrats, industrialists and ‘intellectuals’. So in essence, the novel is the portrayal of the plight of the oppressed, the downtrodden and ‘the marginalized’. The exploitative join hands to make networks which ultimately lead to the formation of the Network at the International level. Thus, the story at another plane also alludes to ‘the End of History, the role of MNCs, and 9/11 etc, making Sifr Se Aik Tak a social critique, a ‘realistic fiction’. The way Computer and Internet have influenced and transformed human relations and social phenomena is also been dealt with in the book. Zaki and Zulaikha are connected through Cyberspace and the traditional concept of time and distance cease to be. No other novel in Urdu has explored this virtual relationship, a phenomena which has become very come in our society. Internet has also affected the relationship between the strong and the weak. Internet not also makes the access to the sea of information possible but it also assists those working to loosen the grip of the strong on the weak. Written in first person singular, the
diction employed is very simple. The tone and theme reinforce each other. Athar Baig has so unique a way of knitting a story that, once in it, the reader can not put aside the book until the end. The style might seem a bit racy but it complements the theme and makes the reader feel the desired effect on mind. All elements of genre of novel – psychological, romantic, social and philosophical – are combined in the book, without losing the unity of theme and story. The novel maintains the unity of impression. All the places and characters are taken from the time and place we are living in. The reader easily associates himself with the characters. It is highly unlikely that the reader would not feel the mental trauma of the protagonist and fail to feel repugnance and nausea against the exploitative hands. With careers of playwriting and teaching philosophy, Baig has mastered the art of incorporating meaning into day to day events and characters. The ability to see the uncommon in the common makes him create such unique characters as Zaki, Nawaz Salar, Mogo, and Zulaikha. They all are common but unique in the real sense of the word. They are different windows to different aspects of the world around us. The masterly treatment of the plot, theme and characters make Sifre Se Aik Tak a unique novel in Urdu literature. It is truly the voice of the times we are living in.
The story at another plane also alludes to ‘the End of History, the role of MNCs, and 9/11 etc, making Sifr Se Aik Tak a social critique, a ‘realistic fiction’
the review
Sunday, 23 January, 2011
04
Malot endangered Malot that has withstood one millennium of minor geological changes, may not have much more time left. Sooner or later it will collapse. But before that happens, it is essential that plans be made for its preservation
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prinkled across the Salt Range of Punjab, there are five temple-fortress complexes. Beginning with the ruined Nandna fort and temple in the extreme southeast corner of the hill range, there are Ketas, celebrated by the Hindus as a Shivaite sacred site, Malot, Sassi da Kallara and Amb. Built by the Hindu Shahya rulers of Punjab, the temples are known by that name and date between the late 9th century and the early 11th. Little is known of their history, but they were obviously built during a period of peace and tranquility. Between the end of the Central Asiatic incursions around the beginning of the first millennium CE and the advent of the Turkish raids, there were five hundred years of relative peace and the Hindu Shahya kings (themselves of Turkish extraction as their name suggests) ruled without the threat of invasion. Among other things, they built the temple-fortress complexes of the Salt Range which either doubled as universities or were simply holy sites. Sitting on the edge of a five hundred-metre high escarpment overlooking the Punjab plains and now also M-2, Malot was one that was purely a Shivaite temple. For the purpose of security, a fortification ran along the north edge of the hill it stands upon. Nothing but two ruinous turrets of that wall now remained. Constructed of locally quarried red sandstone, Malot certainly is the prettiest of the lot of Salt Range temples. Its beauty lies in the delightful synthesis of Kashmiran temple architecture with Greek tradition. This is very curious: Taxila was moribund when Malot was built. It is doubtful if any of Taxila’s Hellenistic buildings then survived, yet the architects and the stone masons at Malot were able to furnish this temple with fluted Greek pillars and stylised pillar bases and capitals that recall the Doric tradition. Rudyard Kipling had never been to Malot, but in Kim he comments on the continuation of the Greek architectural tradition introduced first by Alexander and
the south side of the temple and in 1995 was grouted with cement on the orders of the then deputy commissioner. This was better than not doing anything at all. Now with the building of a number of cement factories very near Malot, we do not know how the unstable geology of the Salt Range will shape up. But certainly the roundthe-clock running of heavy machinery and huge lorries can only adversely affect the region. Malot that has withstood one millennium of minor geological changes, may not have much more time left. Sooner or later it will collapse. But before that happens, it is essential that plans be made for its preservation. The Indus Valley School of Arts in Clifton, Karachi is housed in a building that once stood in Kharadar – a building that was a protected monument because of its age and was threatened not by nature but by greedy land-grabbers. It was systematically dismantled, the blocks numbered and re-assembled in Clifton. Even if someone does not immediately dismantle and shift Malot, it is now time to prepare detailed drawing, number the
Through some two hundred generations, Punjabi stone masons had preserved the Hellenistic tradition and passed it down completely unspoiled. As one stands in front of the ruinous façade of Malot, one cannot but marvel at its striking Grecian aspect.
building blocks in preparation for the time when the exquisitely beautiful one thousand year-old temple will have to be shifted to safer ground. –Salman Rashid is a travel writer and photographer who has travelled all around Pakistan and written about his journeys. He is rated as the best in the country.
Pictures by the Author
By Salman Rashid
more cogently by the Bactrian Greeks who came a hundred years after him. He wrote of buildings having been raised by ‘forgotten workmen whose hands were feeling, and not unskilfully, for the mysteriously transmitted Grecian touch.’ Through some two hundred generations, Punjabi stone masons had preserved the Hellenistic tradition and passed it down completely unspoiled. As one stands in front of the ruinous façade of Malot, one cannot but marvel at its striking Grecian aspect. In the Kashmiran tradition, the elevation of the temple was reproduced in miniature on all outside walls. Here too we see the same trefoil archway, the fluted pillars with the same capitals and bases. The only difference is the very impressive spire – the shikhara that is missing in the main building. The spire once did indeed top the now flat roof, but it succumbed to some long ago earthquake. So long ago did this event happen that over the years the debris has been removed and perhaps gone into the building of the houses of Malot village. In 1810 the Sikhs under Maharaja Ranjit Singh overran the Salt Range. In order to keep an eye on their Janjua adversaries, they built the ugly wart-like protuberance on the flat roof of the main temple. During daylight hours, a Sikh solider kept the watch from that ugly cubicle. Across the temple to the east and separated from it by about forty metres is another ruined roofless hulk. This, according to Dr Saifur Rahman Dar was the entrance. Dr Dar postulates that a timber walkway once ran between the entrance and the temple. The hill upon which Malot stands is riven with narrow chasms. This, according to geologists is because Malot stands on an up-thrust that is imperceptibly rising. As it rises, the hill splits. One of these cracks ran very near