Smokers’ Corner: No country for old men
I don’t just read books. I devour them. One of my favorite things to do even while I’m travelling is to spend hours on end in book stores. And yet, till only recently I had never visited the annual Karachi International Book Fair.
It’s an event that has been taking place for the past eight years and has grown in size and scope with each passing year. All leading publishing houses in the country along with those from India, Turkey, Iran and Bangladesh have continued to participate in the event.
But why did I continue to ignore it? I thought about this a lot and the only convincing answer I kept coming up with, was that instinctively I knew there was nothing special about the fair and that I would be disappointed.
Now that’s a major concern for a person like me. I actually get depressed at book stores where inspite of spending hours browsing across section after section of books, I come out empty handed.
Well, despite my instinctive misgivings about an event that I had never been to, I decided to finally go. And, boy was I stunned!
No, I wasn’t gleefully and euphorically swept away by a tidal wave of books of all shapes and sizes.
Instead, my senses were bombarded by the kind of loud religiosity I had last encountered while doing a newspaper feature on the Tableeghi Jamaat in Raiwind back in the early 1990s.
As I entered one (of the three) main halls where the fair was being held, I was instantly swept in by a sea of (urban middle-class) humanity, largely made up of women in jet black abayas, men with long, curly beards, and kids. Very noisy kids.
Sure, nothing wrong with that (as such). But as I tried to make my way through this very pious looking crowd, the deafening PA system suddenly came alive with some guy shouting about how Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and then went on to literally scream: ‘Pakistan ka matlab kya… ? (What is the meaning of Pakistan?).
His rhetorical (and very loudly put) question was answered by what sounded like a bunch of kids about to storm an infidel’s castle: ‘Lailahaillalah!’ Answered the kids.
This went on and on and on, until I decided to check out where the chanting was coming from.
It was emerging (like a hurricane of disembodied voices) from huge amplifiers set-up at a big ‘book stall’ run by a religious publishing house.
There was this huge bearded man with a microphone addressing a group of cute little kids (with their abaya-clad moms).
He wasn’t just selling them books. He was selling them an ideology.
‘Pakistan ka matlab kya …?’ He bellowed. ‘Laillahaillalah!’ Answered the kids in unison, but without ever letting go of their lollipops, popcorn and packs of fruit juice.
I looked around to see if anyone else was as flabbergasted by this as I was. I found none.
And how could I? I finally realised that more than 70 per cent of the book stalls in this large hall were owned and run by publishers that only offered religious literature.
But wait a minute. It wasn’t as simple as that.
As I turned away shocked by looking at more than a dozen young kids mindlessly mouthing what some seriously warped elders of theirs had told them to, I came face-to-face with yet another bearded fellow who shoved two A-4 size glossy pamphlets in my face.
‘Take!’ He said. So I took. A casual, confused glance at the glossies told me they belonged to yet another religious publishing house. But that’s all I could understand because most of the pamphlets were in Arabic!
So, without taking names here, I must tell that the guy shouting in the microphone was representing a ‘publishing house’ associated with outfits advocating one particular sunni Muslim school of thought while the one who had handed me the pamphlets was representing another sunni sub-sect.
The Pandora’s box was now wide open. Stall upon stall that I passed had mountains of books, all on Islam, or rather, the Islam according to the stalls’ particular sub-sect and denomination.
A friend cynically said about the event, “There were 72 sects there, all trying to convert Pakistani Muslims to their particular strain of Islam.”
Baffled by what looked more like a recruiting ground for all kinds of Islamic evangelical outfits than a book fair, I frantically began to look for non-Pakistani stalls. And voila! I found one belonging to a Turkish publisher.
Ah, I thought. Good old secular Turkey. But, alas, it was Pakistan that the fair was being held in. But all that this particular stall carried was literature by Turkish Islamic author, Fetullah Gullen.
So amidst the loud chanting of aggressive sloganeering over the PA, abayas, beards and book after book after book claiming to contain the ‘true essence of Islam,’ (for mama, papa, Bablu and Baby), I loped out to check the other two halls.
Though things were a bit quieter here, but here too, the majority of the stalls were piled up with books, DVDs and CDs about Islam for men, women, boys, girls, kids, old people, bankers, economists, wives, husbands and more wives…
I finally came to three stalls that had nothing to do with faith. Or rather they had more than just books about how to become a ‘true Muslim.’
The tiniest of these was a stall selling books on MQM chief Altaf Hussain. I moved on because I had already read most of the stuff that they were selling.
Next was a stall run by a Sindhi publishing house. Impressive stuff on Sindhi culture, politics, art and the poetry of Shah Latif was on display. But unfortunately, most of it was in Sindhi.
The third was an impressive stall run by ABC Publishers and Random House.
These guys too had a religious section (who wouldn’t in Pakistan), finally, I could look at books on politics, music, philosophy and history as well.
Forget about secular space in Pakistan. It vanished a long time ago. This book fair proves that now even neutral space too is becoming a rarity.
Also, never underestimate the myth of subliminal messaging. Guess which book I did end up buying at the fair: Islam in South-East Asia.
Cant understand how one can have this observation. I have had a complete opposite observation. Nomatter where i went nowhere did i find anyone willing to talk about religion and most of the people mock if they find one to be religious. It was easier to find such people when one was young around in ones environments as every woman tried to teach you something nice. Now its sickening to see well grown women trying only to tell you how well informed they are about trends. It seems people dont grow mentally anymore. People in their mid thirties act as teenagers.
Nadeem, I thank you. As usual a very good article. Makes you think. For Pakistan I have one word: INNALILLAHWAINNAALAIHERAJIOON!
Why you have words in Arabic for Pakistan?
And mind you, what you wrote are six words, not one!
I’m a Pakistani and I learnt Arabic for general knowledge, not as an obligation
Its because the books written by Muslim intellectuals were stolen by Jews and Europeans according to Dr. Iqbal – The Eastern Poet!! Oolala!!!
“The 21st century will be religious one, or it shall not be”: prophesied Andre Malraux (d 1975) a Minister in de Gaulle’s Cabinet and the darling of the godless Left. There will be no 21st century unless it is a religious one.
Indeed. The world has becoming increasing “religious” since Malraux departed. Even the US Democrats in and Canadian Liberals have started talking about god.
Religion has always been more than salvation – political, about money and power. A religion is nothing more than a socio-economic system where rituals allow people with similar economic outlook bond together.
Socialism, Marxism, Capitalism are religions, so is Secularism. Even Atheism is a religion, albeit a godless one.
Every religion has the following traits.
1. A natural economic environment
2. An optimal building block
3. An central idea as the Axis
4. An investment source strategy
5. An output distribution formula
Take for example the 3 Abrahamic religions of Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (AS). The Economic environments are Pastoral, Agrarian, and Trading, respectively.
The optimal building blocks are the Tribe, the Family, and the Individual.
The central ideas are Equity (Insaf), Love, and Justice (Adl) around which the whole system revolves.
The investment is through horded capital with a price, through land inheritance, and through savings with no price on capital.
The output distribution is through the Central Idea – Equity, Love, and Justice (giving each his due).
Get used to religion. What religion do you belong to?
R U Surprized?
All religions, I believe as an atheist, are establishments/industries exploited by businessmen, politicians and, of course, ‘religious men’. This is happening more in Pakistan than elsewhere.in the world.
Pakistan appears to be a very messed up society especially for a non-Muslim. Do I see anything changing soon? NO… I can trace all it’s ills to the very idea of ‘Two Nation Theory’.. Jinnah sold the idea of differentiation and now people are more interested in finding differences than similarities. Add Muslim Superiority Complex to the equation and you have what you see in Pakistan….
Indians should be thanksful to Jinnah. He took out the rotten apples from glorious India and put them in a jungle call Pakistan. Life in India has been so peaceful ever since!
“Despite my instinctive misgivings about an event that I had never been to, I decided to finally go. And, boy was I stunned!”
You should not have been stunned as, your instincts had warned you in advance and very rightly so!
“——A friend cynically said about the event, “There were 72 sects there, all trying to convert Pakistani Muslims to their particular strain of Islam.”
Why this hang up about sects and religion ? Why is Islam displayed on ones shirt sleeves ?
Can one not be a believer within the inner recesses of ones heart and mind ? A private affair between the individual and his MAKER.
If it is indeed between me and my maker, why are these 72 groups trying to convert me in 72 ways? Can’t they leave it to err.. me and my maker?
why is a loudspeaker allowed in such a place anyway? i suspect nobody must ve dared to stop that shouting man from doing it.
The power of subliminal message should never be ignored. There is a need to deeply study how subliminal messaging was used in Pakistan (during Zia’s time) to convert a normal, multifaceted, and tolerant country into a chaotic and intolerant society which it has become. Just as they used religious connotations in all communications – and there were well designed tactics to it – in the same way secular and tolerant connotations could be transmitted to the general public to deprogram what has been fed to them day in and day out. But this requires political/security will which seems to be lacking at this point.
The sky is falling. Attack India. Attack Bollywood. Attack Cinemas. Attack Joy.
Destroy Fun. That will please God.
Good writing. If secular book houses like oup and feroze sons also participate as enthusiastically as ones nfp came across at exhibition then needs of more readers will be catered. Write up also throws light on the uni-polarisation in our academic and teaching system.
There is nothing wrong with religious literature; there is a big problem with the tacit ideological underpinnings. When will we realize that we cannot practice religion in a vacuum; it has to be practiced in this world with the good and bad realities. Some not-so-religious literature too is a good teacher!
These truly are dark times but CHANGE is coming vote for PTI and pray!
I hope you are right, but it seems more like vote PT and PREY.
No single person or party will solve complex national problems of a big country. Please stop giving a false hope in the name of no Zaradri or no Nawaz Sharif. The reason our nation has issues is not corruption of politicians. Corruption is a problem indeed. But our society is conducive for crime as there is no consensus on basic things as Constitution and provincial autonomy.
When I was growing up in Pakistan, I knew many people who would either watch every new movie released, buy or read every new book of genre of their interest, listen to all new music of their favorite type, and so on. These were enthusiasts with borderless interests. I wonder if such people exist in Pakistan any more or they too are victims of the lifestyle NFP has described in his column. A society is alive only when there is a variety of people actively pursuing things of their interests at the same time. With advent of internet, pursuing one’s hobbies has become a lot cheaper and accessible. I remember spending hours in libraries looking for a piece of information that is now just a 10 minute google search away or is a matter of just buying a e-book. Things are much more conducive for pursuing one’s interests as class barriers have been largely been taken down by the internet.
@Mr. Paracha
Still you call it a book fair ? Religion doesn’t make a person wise , education makes . Doesn’t feed a person , money does . Doesn’t bring a good life style , money and etiquette does . Doesn’t bring NATIONALISM , only creates religious cluster through out the world . So time to dump this religion and make some good stuff for humanity.
“Knowledge, not old age brings Wisdom.”
and liberalism, conservatism, socialism, fascism, feminism, communism were less that they are promoting mullaism…
I would agree if you say that neutral space is becoming rare in Pakistan, but don’t you think that the social media is wholly responsible for promoting such acts? Don’t you think that channels and journalist who cover them, give them fame and such fame makes the uneducated mass follow them blindly?
by highlighting that the two stalls belonged to different sects, do want to show us how much divided we are? we know it already NFP, do something constructive please.
These sects exist because everyone wants to prove everyone else is wrong.
Shia and Sunni will never coexist.
Tolerance must be jammed down their throats.
Every small religious sect is like a tropical fish in a big aquarium. “Look at me. I’m unique. I’m special. Watch me swim. I am the prettiest. I am the smartest.”
So true. And the fish keep trying to eat each other.
‘Divided’ is not the whole story. There’s more to it in NFP’s article. Intolerance is imprinted early into children’s minds to become divided from others, uncaring even to allow other voices to be heard. They learn from example: never mind the idea of attracting people by the content and human value of a message — just turn up one’s own loudspeaker volume to its maximum, so they can hear none else.
.
Agreed. There used to be good books on engineering and medicine subjects for university students. Now, it is so difficult to find them.
What is happening to my Sindh?
( Why is it losing its secular culture? 
(
Your beloved PPP is looting ‘your’ Sindh under your noses while you bow down to them
Karachiwalla whats your point ? I do disagree with NFP alot but he is an intellect to value ! who has originality in his ideas ( thought I dont agree with most). Reading is one amongst many good habbits Pakistanis lack. Money cannot be yardstick of civilisation progression.
So what is the point Mr. Karachiwalla (seems Gujarati) ?
Should we emulate these foolish and fanatical people or enlightened person like Mr. Paracha ?
Awake ! We need religion to function our society smoothly, not to commit societal suicide.
Bashing Islam and Muslims, even if done indirectly, is not “enlightened person”. The whole world is doing it. Nothing new.
No we don’t need religion for our society to function. We need people to keep religion in there house for this society to function.
I think the perfect point is that there is no country for an old man like NFP in RAIWIND? LOL
I do not think religion should be needed for anything except one’s personal life to provide assurances to the person who needs it. The rest of us and the society as a whole is much better off without religion.
“Should we emulate these foolish and fanatical people?”
You will join them in war, or fight them in war. The fence you sit on is shaking.
Airline tickets out of the country are still available for families.
NFP possesses a gift of talking about tricky subjects in a way that is not a direct attack (unlike JI or Taliban), does not show malice (JI again), or does not show ambition to change (say like Imran Khan or current CJP). NFP is a true thinker. NFP is an asset. The best thing I like about him is that he is an individual with keen observation of society (I use nick name ‘observer’ but NFP is a star of observation). This column is one of his best, or is it his best ever so far? For sure this article is most relevant to the society. It is huge tragedy that Pakistanis have complicated their lives and society by forcing religion into things where religion is not needed. Long live NFP.
I would say Amen to that. Long live NFP.
Books of Hitchens and Dawkins should also have been sold at the Fair.It’s highly discriminatory that you have thousands of religious books and religious publishing houses peddling their wares but nothing by Dawkins,Ayan Hirsi Ali or Sam Harris at the book fair.
Hitchins, Dawkins, Sam Harris…but Ayan Hirsi Ali? You got to be kidding.
Why not? One should read as much one can.
Though my preference will alwaus be Hithins, Dawkins, Sam Harris and the like, I won’t advise others not to read something I don’t agree with.
Why????
@Deb
‘Why????’
Why of what?
It’s very difficult to find books of Dawkins,hitchens,wafa sultan or Hirsi Ali in Pakistani book shops.Our public likes to live in denial & viciously attacks those who don’t agree with the populist narrative.Anything that might make the religious people engage in rational thinking is viewed as a threat and so attacked.We like to keep our heads in the sand & pretend alternative viewpoints don’t exist.
The Books of Dawkins,Hitchens,Wafa Sultan should have been sold at this fair and should be offered for sale in our bookshops as well.
“Anything that might make the religious people engage in rational thinking is viewed as a threat.”
Yes, because Islam is closer to Totalitarianism than it can be Democracy. As pointed out at DAWN more Iranians are seeking asylum abroad than ever before. Asylum is the idea that your own government is cracking down on You.
“Any thinking outside Mass Think will not be tolerated.
SADDAM
Businesses sell what the market has demand for. Who would buy (or let people sell peacefully) book by Hitchens called God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything or buy material from Dawkins and others you have named (who essentially advocated and propagated antitheism). What NFP has lamented is lack of interest of public in non-religion books. You talk about selling material in book fair that is most probably banned in Pakistan already.
The question is : did anyone try to sell Hitchens or Dawkins?
Could anyone try to sell Dawkins, Hitchens and Hirsi Ali and still have his or her head attached to the shoulders?
Would they not be afraid to sell Hitchens or Dawkins? That seems to be open invitation to bombing or shooting.
If anyone tries to sell books by Dawkins, Ayan Hirsi Ali or Sam Haris in Pakistan, I fear that the Pakistanis will probably end up killing such a person. Pakistanis I find are very narrow-minded.
Hi asif fantastic set of atheists who i admire too.Their reasonings are full of logic and common sense.Add to them the brilliant historian Nial fergusson and his lecture on the 6 apps for countrys to thrive ,prosper in the modern world.He set out these factors as to why the west was ahead of the rest for the last 400 years.Now the BRIC countrys are following this path with China way out ahead and forcast to surpass USA within next 30/40 years .Will Pakistan ever join them….not while religion is so pervasive and deeply entrenched in society.
Sorry dumb question but it is not a rhetorical one…are there people in Pakistan who even know the name of Chris Hitchens (what a loss with him gone) or the commentators here are Muslims but living abroad?
I also agree that Ayan Hirsi Ali, though a brave woman and I enjoyed her book much, is not in the league of Hitchens or Dawkins.
I agree with your opinion on Ayan Hirsi Ali.
More education and more you read more you become foolish. What is required is business type attitude. Most people in Karachi , many businessmen are not book worms but they employ many educated people and provide food to them. They have 100 times more money than book reading babus.
It’s not about money, mister.
So i money everything in your life. What a pathetic life model
One who can, but do not read is no different from the one who can not read.
“Karachiwalla” Not sure what you are getting at, but, kindly leave my name alone. Thank you
@Karachiwalla; This song was written for you – read it as gender neutral.
Kyun paisa paisa karti hain
Kyon paise pe tu marti hain
Karachiwalla to dukandar: Yaar zara toothbrush dena mere brush ka 1 baal toot gaya hai
Dukandar: 1 baal toota hai to naya kyun le rahe ho?
Karachiwalla: jo toota hai woh akhri tha.
Even an uneducated business man need those educated people to run his business until of course its a business man with a small stall on the road.