Arts see nascent revival in conflict-stricken nation

Islamabad: For folk musician Arieb Azhar, the ongoing conflict between religious extremism and the arts in Pakistan hit home when a bomb exploded during his performance at the famous World Performing Arts Festival in Lahore two years ago.

The explosion forced the organisers to order an evacuation, but not before the popular singer told the audience: "We will not let this dissuade us ever," a warning to the religious vigilantes later blamed by police for planting small devices around the festival's amphitheatre.

Fast-forward to 2010, and the arts seem to be undergoing something of a slow revival as a nation beset by flooding, terrorism, and instability looks for inspiration.

Form of communication

"Terrorism and violence is a form of communication," notes Azhar. "If someone shoots or slaps you, it's also communication. But music by its very nature goes against the concept of extremism of any form. Music is an outlet for someone to express what they want to say aesthetically; not to be violent, but to say it beautifully. It's the most sublime form of communication."

That peaceful form of communication is gaining recognition outside Pakistan's borders.

The venerable British literary magazine Granta devoted its autumn issue to a new crop of Pakistani writers, including former Air Force officer Mohammad Hanif, whose 2008 novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, weaves a dark comedic narrative around the death of former dictator Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, and Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the fictional story of a disaffected Pakistani-American's journey toward extremism. That tale has invited comparisons to the life of Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber.

"I find the arts scene ... very exciting right now.… Instability does make for fertile artistic ground in Pakistan," says Hamid, an internationally bestselling author. "The arts are likely to show how diverse Pakistan is, and in that sense, they are likely to give a richer, more complicated view of what Pakistan is. Pakistan is 170 million different people."

This nascent cultural renaissance extends to the visual arts and music.

Last year, painter Salima Hashmi led one of the first major delegations of Pakistani artists abroad at the Asia Society Museum in New York. Hashmi, the daughter of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, a legendary Urdu poet, is dean of the School of Visual Arts and Design at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. She says that art has grown in Pakistan as a response to the daily indignities suffered by the country during its chequered history, during which it has been restricted by laws as well as the whims of dictators.

"In the last five to seven years, there's been a phenomenal rise in the number of [academic] institutions, the number of practising artists. And the mobility of artists has ensured there's all kinds of cross-current, cross-fertilisations with other places in South Asia," she notes.