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WHEN I was doing voluntary teaching in my post Dawn years, I tried an experiment with the children in The Garage School. I would encourage them to read the text from their book and then after they had understood it thoroughly, to perform a little play based on what they had read in their textbook. I found that it worked very well. The children would understand whatever they had read because if they could not read the text carefully and understand it, they would not have been able to come up with a play on it.
That, in a way, was very exciting for them because they were able to learn the lesson much better than is normally done in schools where the teacher reads out the text and gives the meanings of the words and then rushes to give the answers to the questions. The more enterprising children would also focus on the finer issues such as syntax, rhyme, rhythm, etc.
This view is confirmed by Paulo Freire in his book, We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change. He writes: “The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile and can shape the students.
What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.”
To deny children the advantages of dance and music is hard to explain.
Given Freire’s views, one can well wonder why parents do not want their children to learn the performing arts in school. The fact is that music, dance, singing and playing various instruments are not at all culturally acceptable in our society. The only genre that has succeeded in making a breakthrough are the visual arts.
Many attribute this to the fact that singing was associated with the kotha culture, and therefore, not considered something to be practised by ‘decent’ men and women. This also points to a paradox. It is known that in our culture devotional poetry and music is very highly rated and also popular with the masses, for instance, Mirza Ghalib and Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai are still included among the world’s best.
In Bhit Shah, after centuries, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai’s murids still continue to sing at his mausoleum. Even the extremists, in spite of the threats of violence, have not been able to break this tradition. In Shia Islam, the tradition of performing arts brought Mir Anis and Mirza Dabir into the limelight, with many singers such as Kajjan Begum and her daughter Mehnaz Begum, reaching perfection in the art of rendering marsiyas. There is also the example of qawwali, which was perfected by Amir Khusro who is believed to have invented the tabla and sitar.
On such occasions, the performing arts never lost favour with the people.
At another level, to deny children the advantages of dance and music, seems to be difficult to explain, especially where women are concerned. A key feature of music is its devotional aspect as well as its cultural popularity.
Many women have shown the courage to give expression to their love of performing arts, which is a natural talent they have been bestowed with. They have had to fight the stigma that has been heaped on them. Sheema Kermani, the founder of Tehreek-i-Niswan, has used her skills to struggle for gender equality in Pakistan. Others, too, have brought the country a good name, such as Suhaee Abro through her dance performances in Italy, where she now lives. This devotion shown by performers is secular as well as religious. But the element of love is always present.
It is time we stopped blaming women by using false pretexts to prevent them from exercising their aesthetic self-expression and denying them the right to achieve the best that they can.
It is quite evident that in our class-based society, the standards of right and wrong are not what they should be for a woman. Besides the performing arts are generally not profitable. There is not much money for the artist; in an environment where people in position decide what is good for society, it is the women and the performing arts which suffer. It is time we gave the arts the value they deserve, so that our best talents have the opportunity to develop.
It is important to understand that the forte of the artist comes from his or her natural love for this medium and not to generate an income from this skill. Those who perform at Bhit Shah always begin with ‘Allah-hu’, an expression that underlines an indigenous cultural feature of society rather than simply a religious aspect.
Meanwhile, the immediate need of the performing art is the indigenisation of dance in Pakistan. It is also important to add to it a strong element of devotion and the cultural dimension. And on no account should it be commercialised.
Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2025
