If last year the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) was done hurriedly with a changed venue, this year was much worse. Not only was the venue changed again, moved from the very public Alhamra Cultural Complex to the very exclusive Faletti’s Hotel, the three-day programme too, was truncated to one day.

When it comes to entertainment, the government of Punjab tends to instantly dub anything “insecure.” Last year, word had spread that certain development projects in Lahore had pushed the ruling party to close down any voice of dissent. This time, it seems that the Punjab government is not necessarily pleased with space being given to various schools of thought. Discussion, argument, and even opposition do not seem welcome. Bomb or no bomb, if the public was ready to come out and attend the festival, the government should have taken a stand and protected the area.

But today, from Narendra Modi to Vladmir Putin to Donald Trump, is it not the world order that autocracy in power does not take the public’s opinions or desires into consideration? This neo-fascism, as one can call it, is the modern-day plague of many nations. Telltale signs are evident underneath the facade. It would be incorrect to say that fascism ever completely died; after the Hitlers and Mussolinis, it seems there is a new wave of emerging authoritarianism.

The current political situation could be a catalyst in the rise of modern resistance literature

Maybe this was why there was a release of very strong anti-fascist sentiment at the LLF 2017. In more than one session, panellists lapsed into analysing the state of world affairs. “We are not new to this concept, having lived through both covert and overt times of fascism,” artist Salima Hashmi had to say in a discussion titled ‘Art in the Age of Fascism.’ “I remember the time when women were protesting at the Mall Road and were beaten up by the law enforcement agencies of General Ziaul Haq, despite the fact that it was a peaceful protest.”

Molly Crabapple, whom Hashmi introduced as having been born in that very time, is an American journalist and artist, and author of Drawing Blood. For her, the concept of fascism is as strong and repulsive as it is for those who experience it first-hand. Crabapple spoke of art not as a delicate tapestry of emotions which is ultimately reserved for the educated elite, but as a raw, unhinged weapon against fascism, one that can never be pushed back or brought down. She sees art as something which must not be restricted to art circles, but brought out to the public so it can spread.

In the same manner that the regime of Gen Zia gave artists and writers here a startling realisation, art in the age of fascism is always very important, with a strong context.

“Under pressure, countries are turning inwards, turning towards strongmen, looking for someone to blame,” said Crabapple. The recent violence in Lahore inspired allegedly by religious fanaticism, is fed by the racist war machine that has taken over the United States as well. So whether it was the government or the blast that forced the festival to shrink, in a way it was all one and the same thing: the new wave of authoritarianism in Pakistan.

This is an age when ‘dictators’ are rising again but in different attires: not all of them wear a starred jacket with a beret tilted sternly on their heads. Not all of them have greased hair or a toothbrush moustache. But their minds are the same. They are demagogues, most of them, brandishing their weapons publicly. They create distrust, confusion, weakness. They create nostalgia for a time that did not include any ‘otherness’. They create the news, they create the information onslaught.

In more than one session, panellists lapsed into analysing the state of world affairs. “We are not new to this concept having lived through both covert and overt times of fascism,” artist Salima Hashmi said.

“There is a building in Saint Petersburg where trolls actually sit and create information,” said American journalist and author of Cairo: The City Victorious, Max Rodenbeck. “The idea is to control information in such a way that you scramble it, and get people confused. Who is the good guy and who is the bad guy, for example?” (In this precise context, Qasim Nauman, associate editor Newsweek Pakistan, reminds us of how the interior minister said some time earlier that sectarian outfits weren’t as bad as other militants.)

This scrambling of information is a typical fascist move, and it is unnerving to realise how the Pakistani style of governance seems to be aligning similarly. Many would argue that the country never really emerged from strongman mode despite having democratically elected leaders, and this may be true. But to see the symptoms materialise in front of one’s eyes is disturbing nevertheless.

One example is how new technology is gaining power over information. In one of the panels, Ahmed Rashid, author of Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan amongst several other books, said that social media — in particular tweets — have become a convenient way for leaders to make statements or give information. But contrary to the essential craft of journalism, no journalist can question or argue with any of these leaders. “In three years I think there has been no press conference by the prime minister,” he said. “We get no briefings by any of the state’s departments, either. No one can ask any questions or ask for further information.”

This is nothing new. Inter-Services Public Relations often takes to tweeting, as do various other leaders of the government. By the time a tweet is verified, says Rashid, it has already been retweeted many times.

Dilating more on the control of information, and on scrambling it so that people don’t know which way is up, there is the style of holding a press conference that is so long that it ends up mentally exhausting attendees, although at the end very little has been said.

Crabapple’s solution to fascism is to love and to work. This, pointed out Hashmi, is reminiscent of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s couplet “Kuchh ishq kiya, kuchh kaam kiya” [some love, some work]. “I wish I could write about, talk about, draw anything other than the bloated tangerine that is in the White House,” she said. “And yet here I am. Trump’s presidency is just the showiest example of the global love affair with fascism. He’s another pea in the Erdogan, Putin, Modi pod.”

With Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the Punjab government’s new best friend, who says that strongmen don’t have friends? After all, the move to compress spaces for voices and discussion seems to point a finger in the same direction.

However, the fact that the festival did take place — despite all odds, despite the security issues — is what resistance is actually meant to be.

The writer is a member of staff

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, March 5th, 2017