HYDERABAD: Intellectuals have emphasised the need for reimagining Pakistan and said that poets, artists and intellectuals will have to be creative to save the country, otherwise, its survival will be at stake.

They said that progressive intellectuals needed to launch a serious discourse to resist the state’s narrative of militancy, religious extremism, terrorism and coercion.

They were speaking at a session on Role of intellectuals on post-colonialism on the second day of the 7th Ayaz Melo being held under the aegis of Khanabadosh writers cafe here on Wednesday.

Initiating debate, Dr Jaffar Ahmed, former director of Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, discussed how the de-colonisation process was seen in Latin America and Africa after freedom from colonial yoke but no serious effort was seen in the subcontinent.

“We got liberation but our model of colonisation remained intact in post colonial era,” he said, adding that intellectuals fought against post-colonialism and produced poetry of resistance.

He said that states where de-colonisation process was successful modernised their indigenous cultures. “We have to stick to indigenous cultures but have to modernise them as well,” he said while regretting the varsities were not producing new ideas.

“They look like mere extensions of colleges. Have we produced any sociologist or political scientist of note?” he asked and said Hamza Alvi and Ayesha Jalal, were Pakistani origin, but they grew on foreign soil.

“Progressive intellectuals will have to fight a battle against state sponsored militancy and religious extremism,” he said, adding western hegemony should be opposed.

Seasoned journalist and author Ghazi Salahuddin said Pakistan was termed ‘a place insufficiently imagined’. “We need to re-imagine Pakistan,” he said.

He said that Pakistan needed to have intellectuals failing which its survival would be at stake. “We need intellectuals and not heroes and we need people who make us start dreaming again,” he said.

Dr Sahar Gul said that state coercion and terrorism would have to be resisted. “We made traitors heroes and vice versa and we did nothing to reform syllabi,” she said. “Sindh faced a class question but it turned into an ethno-centric dilemma,” she said.

She said that it was intellectuals’ job to abridge this divide. “We must rise against state coercion and terrorism. Today we need a narrative that has an element of pluralism and secularism,” she said.

Dr Zafar Junejo said that intellectuals felt insecure and used ‘censored’ language for rulers’ fear. “In fact intellectuals will have to de-colonise themselves first,” he said.

He said that authors and intellectuals had to expose official lies. “Intellectuals will have to pay a price for an alternate narrative for which they should be ready. Those who try to side with people as well as with government are in fact not with masses,” he said.

He said that intellectuals always challenged de-politicisation because a society’s salvation was in its politicisation.

Meanwhile, Harris Khalique’s book Hairan sar-e-bazaar was also launched at a session moderated by Amar Sindhu. At another session collection of Sheikh Ayaz’s letters compiled by Dr Fayyaz Latif was launched.

Sheikh Ayaz termed heritage of Sindh

Speakers at the inaugural session of the Melo a day before termed Sheikh Ayaz a heritage of Sindh and said people would have to turn to his poetry for seeking answers to today’s existential and political crisis.

Sindh Minister for Culture and Education Syed Sardar Ali Shah, who presided over the session, said that Ayaz witnessed tragedies and transformed them into poetry. Today, the state liked making people apolitical although politics triggered change, he said.

He said that people took pleasure in issuing certificates for patriotism and treason.

He proposed introducing ‘Ayaz shansi’ in schools and announced the culture department would celebrate 100 years of excavation of Moenjodaro.

Author and poet Harris Khalique said: “We will have to find recourse to present crisis in the poetry of Ayaz as we are confronted with existential, political and social crisis”.

He said that military institutions’ interference in political decision making and economic matters had led to governance issues. Present right wing government had stifled critical voices, gagged media, confiscated books and censored news, he said.

He said that ironically Allama Iqbal was made state’s poet but Bhitai’s poetry remained a common legacy. Ayaz remained connected with international literature of resistance movements and remained worried about tyranny against his motherland. “It is like one talks about Palestine but forgets East Pakistan or feel pain for occupied Kashmir but does not mention Balochistan,” he said.

Dr Sahar Imdad said that Ayaz always talked in a decent manner and never indulged in bickering with opponents. He had reflected Sindh’s pain in his poetry, she said.

Madad Ali Sindhi said that all those who fought for their motherland and nation could never be forgotten.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2021