Some Thoughts on Pakistani Culture

From my Substack

I will be speaking at the 10th Faiz Festival being held in Lahore this weekend as part of a panel titled “Faiz and the Cultural Policy of Pakistan”. I was invited to be a part of this panel primarily because of my book A New Explanation for the Decline of Hindustani Music in Pakistan (Aks Publications 2024).1 Though my book–a republication of my M.Mus thesis in Ethnomusicology– focuses narrowly on Hindustani music, I did discuss the Faiz Cultural Report of 1968, particularly in the context of arguments that Hindustani music declined in Pakistan because it did not accord with the national identity of the newly formed Pakistani state.

While preparing for the session, I thought I’d briefly share some of my thoughts here since others might find them interesting.

What is the Faiz Report?

The Faiz Report was a report of the Standing Committee on Art and Culture, 1968. Faiz Ahmed Faiz–one of Pakistan’s greatest 20th century Urdu poets– was the Chairman of the committee. The committee submitted its report to the Ministry of Education towards the end of 1968. However, due to political upheaval, the report never saw the light of day and was never officially accepted or rejected.

In summary, the report concluded that:

• Opposition to art and culture in Pakistan stems from social prejudice and political considerations rather than religious or moral scruples
• Classical traditions being common to all regions of Pakistan are an important factor in national integration. These traditions must be remolded in the light of modern knowledge and contemporary conditions

Hindustani Music and Pakistan’s National Identity

One of the dominant explanations for the decline of Hindustani music in Pakistan is that these musical genres were not compatible with Pakistan’s national identity. The 1947 Partition of British India was largely justified by the “Two Nation Theory”–the idea that the Muslims of British India were a different “nation” from the Hindus and were therefore entitled to their own state. It is argued that while the proponents of this view succeeded in achieving a sovereign Pakistan, they struggled to define a new cultural identity not shared with India. Since it was a part of the syncretic Indo-Islamic culture, classical music became entangled in this struggle to separate Pakistan’s culture from India’s.

In actual fact, there was no concerted action on the part of the state to define a national identity. Rather, many opinions were in circulation in which the xenophobic ones were not met with sufficient resistance. It is ironic that the one committee founded in 1968 to frame a national policy on art and culture, under the leadership of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, came to a conclusion contradicting the narrow-minded national identity viewpoint. In the report, Faiz responded to the contention that Muslim or Islamic ideologies were the rightful frame for defining Pakistani culture. He noted that this position “ignores the reality of the non-ideological components of culture, e.g. language, dress, cuisine, architecture, arts and crafts, non-religious customs and social observances, etc. These are mundane products of historical origin and geographical environment and cannot be dubbed Islamic or un-Islamic”. He noted that what differentiates one Islamic state from another is their nationhood or culture. Faiz concluded quite categorically that “There is little justification, therefore, for any ambivalent or apologetic attitude either towards Pakistan (sic) nationhood or towards Pakistani culture” (Salim and Ishfaq 2013: 50).

Faiz also responded to the contention that those elements of Indo-Muslim civilization that existed outside the geographical boundaries of Pakistan could not be termed authentically Pakistani. He wrote:

One school holds that to establish a completely different national and ideological identity it is necessary to discard all these ingredients and if this is not possible with regard to a particular artistic tradition it is best to do away with this tradition altogether. The opposite view is that by maligning a tradition evolved by Muslim society in the days of their greatest glory, a tradition which represents their main contribution to the cultural history of this subcontinent, we really malign our own history, that we are not justified in taking exception to what our ancestors, in whom we take pride, not only took no exception to but actively sponsored and patronized (Salim and Ishfaq 2013: 52).

Hindustani classical music developed and flourished under Muslim patronage, and thus Faiz saw no need to reject it as part of Pakistani culture. He concluded that “opposition to art and culture in Pakistan stems from social prejudice and political considerations rather than religious or moral scruples” (56).

An Alternative Explanation for the Decline of Hindustani Music in Pakistan

In my book, I have argued that the dominant explanations for Hindustani music’s decline in Pakistan–the contested status of music in Islam, the self-imposed need for Pakistan to craft a distinct national identity and shifts in the patronage of classical music–are incomplete. I have argued for a more robust explanation grounded in a sociological analysis that examines the cultural and economic changes that resulted from Partition. The urban elites that were overwhelmingly non-Muslim and were the carriers of high culture migrated in their entirety to India to be replaced by a population comprised overwhelmingly of lower income groups who had different social values and cultural tastes.

This shift left classical music without a core constituency in society to advocate on its behalf. The heroic efforts of individual patrons were not enough to make up for the elimination of this core constituency.

Reference

Salim, Ahmed and Humaira Ishfaq. 2013. Faiz, Folk Heritage and Problems of Culture. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications