A Millionaire Saves The Silenced Symphonies Of Pakistan

by PHILIP REEVES  April 26, 2014 8:07 AM ET

The city street where Sachal Studios is located looks like any other in Lahore, Pakistan. There are tea stalls and rickshaws and grimy car repair shops.
But it doesn't quite sound the same — or more precisely, there's a sound that Pakistanis have begun to forget.

Inside Sachal Studios, an orchestra is in rehearsal. The musicians are all men. Most are old enough to be grandfathers.

Their skills were going out of fashion in Pakistan. Now, they're winning applause worldwide.

A few decades back, Lahore had a booming film industry. Inevitably, it was known as Lollywood.

"This was like a magic age that fell apart," says Aqeel Anwar, a violinist in his 70s. He used to play in Lollywood soundtracks. "It was such an excellent time. I never thought it would end."

For many years, South Asian movies kept Lahore's session musicians pretty busy. And the Lollywood musicians were a class apart.

"In Punjab here in Pakistan, music is usually practiced by traditional musicians' families," says Mushtaq Soofi, a music producer. "They inherit it, they learn it from their parents and then transmit to the next generation."

Things started to change in the late '70s. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq seized power in a coup, ushering in a period of religious conservatism in Pakistan that lingers to this day.

Movie theaters began to shut down. Lollywood went into decline.

Ghulam Abbas played cello in the movies. When the work dried up, he packed away his instrument and broke with tradition by deciding not to teach his children how to play. He started up a garment stall, but struggled to get by.

"When I left this work, I was very sad," Abbas says. "I thought about how I'd worked hard and invested 25 to 30 years in my music."

Now, Abbas is sawing away at the cello again — though some of the music isn't exactly what he's used to. Bringing Back The Music

The reason Abbas is playing again is a music-mad millionaire. Izzat Majeed made his money overseas, in finance. But he was born in Lahore in 1950, remembers Lollywood's heyday and greatly admires its musicians.

"It was a brotherhood of great musicians," Majeed says. "I call them great because they are great and they lost it. They lost the avenue. They lost the money. They lost the creativity."

Majeed decided to rekindle that creativity by building a new studio complex in Lahore — and reuniting these men to form the Sachal Studios Orchestra.

He teamed up with the music producer Mushtaq Soofi, an old friend. Soofi says he remembers the first day the musicians played together.

"They were delighted and we were delighted, too," Soofi says. "Because we thought the music was dead, but when we met them, we realized it's not really dead."

Izzat Majeed says he's driven by a lifelong passion for music — especially traditional Pakistani music and jazz.

"Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Brubeck, Quincy [Jones]," he says. "I can go on and on."

When he was 8, Majeed was taken by his dad to see Dave Brubeck perform in Lahore. Brubeck's version of the classic "Take Five" seems to have made a big impression on the city.

"'Take Five' was a big hit in Lahore in the '60s," Majeed says. "Nobody knew what it was. It was just a melody and the whole thing. It was just a phenomenal, a fantastic piece of music."

Lahore was different back then.

"Even the tea boys and tea shacks put it on," he says. "First time I heard it [was] in the streets, coming out of a shop."

Majeed decided, a couple of years ago, that the orchestra should have a crack at "Take Five." Its version has a South Asian twist. Majeed posted it online, and it went viral. Brubeck, who was still alive at the time, even sent a note saying how much he loved it.

It's not easy running an orchestra in Pakistan. Some skills do seem to have vanished, Majeed says.

"I can't find a single piano player in Lahore, maybe in Pakistan, a real piano player," Majeed says. "People come and say, 'Oh, I can play,' but he can play atrociously — he doesn't know what the piano, the real piano, is. There's no brass left. Brass is dead."

When Sachal musicians go on tour abroad — to, say, London or New York — they hook up with outside musicians. That includes some big names, among them Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

The studio orchestra is now firmly on the map.

It recently released its second album, Jazz and All That. There's more Brubeck, among other Western classics by The Beatles, Jacques Brel, Antonio Carlos Jobim, R.E.M. — all with a South Asian flavor.

The weird thing is, Mushtaq Soofi says, while the old Lollywood session men are now winning plaudits abroad, no one back home knows or cares much about them.

"Music has to be recognized, and there is no patronage for music in Pakistan," Soofi says. "That is why people are upset, musicians are upset. If you sing, if you are a singer or a vocalist, you get kind of fame and name and money, but if you are a musician, a pure musician, people don't bother much about you."

The only people who do bother about you tend to be the religious extremists, like the Taliban.

"It is very difficult for musicians, because music is considered forbidden because it is un-Islamic," cellist Ghulam Abbas says. "Yet the same people think it is acceptable to kill people."

Be that as it may, Abbas says he isn't planning to hang up his cello again.

Source : http://www.npr.org/2014/04/26/306874889/a-millionaire-saves-the-silenced-symphonies-of-pakistan

The Mortification of Pashto Music

 

Written by N Yousufzai

Bibi Shreeney , Shinwari lewangina  and Zama khukhaly janana  are one of those songs that truly reflect the beauty of Pashtun culture. In old songs the beloved’s honour and beauty were appreciated in an indirect manner.
Rabab and damama (Tabla) with delightful shpelai  were the necessary instruments in a song. Romantic subtle poetry and soft composition would add magic to a song.

Those were the days when music was not like any other profession, it was considered a serious business, and people who possessed qualities of a singer, practiced it. Music was a sanctified form of reciting the romantic and innocent poetry. That is the reason music lovers still listen to old classical music. It’s not that they don’t want to listen to modern music, but in modern Pashto music they barely find any meaning.

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The change of the trend in Pashto music was not abrupt. The quality music changed early in the year 2000 after the emergence of militant Islam in the form of Taliban in Pakhtunkhwa. It’s not hard to link the decline of the quality of Pashto music with the emergence of the Taliban. Taliban opposition to music negatively impacted the traditional musical parties in the form of live majlas . Surprisingly, the number of singers, despite the brutal killing of few female singers including Aiman Udhas, Yasmeen Khan and Ghazala Javed, increased. The hostile environment created by the Taliban for music further curtailed the already insufficient opportunities present in the society to produce quality music. The intimidation faced by artists in the field of music, the death of music in traditional hujra  and the daily attacks on music stores have forced musicians and singers to produce low quality Pashto music during the time the Taliban remained in control of the society.

The trend to produce low quality music continued even after the Taliban lost control on major towns in the region. As a result, most Pashtuns find the contemporary Pashto music a negative portrayal of their culture and society and avoid listening to it in the presence of their family members.

The music accompanied by dancing women  dressed in unnecessarily revealing clothes in Pashto movies and music videos is, most of the times, not an easily accepted form of art in the Pashtun culture but is seen as an easy way to sell the low-quality music. In some cases the real meaning of high quality poetry is changed. Those, who know the real meaning of the poetry of poets, such as Ghani Khan’s, can certainly feel offended. Philosophical poet Ghani Khan`s famous poem, Chy masti wi aw zwani wi- (when you are young and yearning) originally sung by Sardar Ali Takar , is recently sung and filmed  in a typical new style that completely changes the meaning of the poem.

The following few factors could be attributed to the demise of quality of Pashto music:

Kabul became the bastion of quality Pashto music after the leftist Saur revolution in 1979. Musicians received state support that continued until the take-over of Kabul to the then Mujahiddin in 1992. Shunned by the civil war, which erupted in Kabul, and the conservative mujahidin factions, almost all Pashto singers of that time migrated to Peshawar and made the city their home for many years to come. Among them were famous singers, such as Nashanas, Naghma, Mangal, Shah Wali, Qamar Gwala, Dawood Hanif, Huma, Abdullah Maquri and many more. These singers, despite the lack of basic facilities, state support and financial hardships, have tried not to compromise the quality of their music. “When we went to Peshawar studio for music recording, there were only few music instruments, such as a sitar, a harmonium and a pitcher. By bringing and introducing music instruments, such as Tamboor, Dilruba etc. and different forms of Afghan music from Kabul to Peshawar, we made a great deal of difference in the music industry of Pakhtunkhwa,” Shah Wali, a harmonium master and Pashto music legend says. Among those of the new generation from Afghanistan and Pakhtunkhwa, musicians such as Haroon Bacha, Shafiq Mureed, Latif Nangarharai, Shama Ashna, Ismail and Junaid, Irfan Khan, and others have been accepted as the singers who have continued the legacy of quality Pashto music with the addition of a personalized touch.

Among the other areas of Pakhtunkhwa, Swat remains at the top in producing new singers mostly females. Like in Kabul, the credit of large number of Pashto singers coming from Swat also goes to state support in the valley. The Wali of Swat, who ruled the valley before it was force- merged by the state of Pakistan in 1969, was a passionate supporter of Pashto music. Famous classic singers Aqal Mina, Bakhtzamina and Shakila Naz were among the many singers from Swat.
When the valley was merged into Pakistan, most of the Swati signers started moving to Peshawar, the capital of the province of which Swat was a part. The new town provided them new career in music and show-business, though they had learnt music at home.

In mid 80s and early 90s Panjabi film industry started attracting viewers. Panjabi film-star Anjuman and Sultan Rahi were the most popular couple of the big screen. Punjabi cinemas attracted viewers with bulbous women shaking bodies to get the attention of angry heroes . Those producing and directing Pashto movies started copying Punjabi style and in order to compete Punjabi film songs, Pashto music had to sacrifice its purity andinnocence . Pashto music adopted a different style  to attract more non-Pashtun audience in the region.

Peshawar’s private Pashto TV channel AVT Khyber was launched in 2003. The new style of music was promoted largely compromising its standards. A well-known Pashtun artist Sardar Ali Takar told me “There is serious conspiracy going on against Pashto music. At the state level Pashto music is intentionally targeted and low quality music is promoted. To save music from the ongoing disaster, the government of Pakhtunkhwa must consider starting institutions for music learning”.

In the recent years, a few emerging Punjabi music producers and singers migrated to Peshawar to maximize their business profits in the music industry utilizing the fertile ground and talents in Peshawar. They have introduced a fusion of Punjabi and Pashto music. The music industry solely became a source of income for few production companies, recording ten to twenty songs in a single day.

Khyal Muhammad, known as the king of Pashto ghazal speaks about the impacts of violence and intolerance in Pashtun society on music- “ Song like “Khudkasha dhamaka yama ” (I am a suicide blast) truly reflects what exactly is going on in the Pashtun region, but fortunately we are still loved, that means people still value classic music”.

Musicians are as much affected by the ongoing violence and cultural changes as any other aspect of our society.

Blaming and scapegoating the singers and musicians for the loss of quality in Pashto music is not only no enough, but also is unjust and ineffectual. The society at large, the ongoing political turmoil, religious intolerance, lack of state support have all played a role in the downward trend in Pashto music standard. It’s time the Pashtun society, particularly the governments in Peshawar and Kabul face this reality, take practical steps in order to enhance the quality of Pashto music and support those musicians who produce Pashto music with its true standards and meanings.

SOURCE: http://www.pashtunwomenvp.com/index.php/2013-01-28-03-21-27/social/283-the-mortification-of-pashto-music

Afghanistan Elections and Pakistan`s Anxiety

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Written by N Yousufzai- Mona Naseer

Afghanistan is holding its presidential elections coming month of April 2014- which could be the first peaceful transfer of power in the history of the country. Elections in Afghanistan not only   safeguards the political stability and democratic values in Afghanistan- but also heralds another phase of Afghans history

The countdown to the American withdrawal and Afghan election   2014 is perhaps the most talked about phase of the Afghanistan from its political stability to economic viability point of view.  Americans success and its goal achievements in the country along with what are they leaving behind in their post withdrawal policy are some of the questions on its neighbours and stakeholders mind. Neighbouring countries are flexing their muscles on how to exploit the situation of a nascent nation by increasing their sphere of influence in Afghanistan if the NATO withdrawal leaves any vacuum.

The three candidates leading in the election campaign are Abdullah Abdullah a prominent member of the former anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, Ashraf Ghani former finance minister and a popular candidate among Pashtun middle class and urban Afghans.

Another prominent candidate is Mr Rassoul, who has served as President Karzai's foreign minister. Karzai`s family support has brought him into the spotlight and on equal footings in the campaign with the rest of the two candidates.

The neighbouring countries especially Pakistan is closely watching the latest developments in Kabul- where it seems that it can no longer influence the process by playing the old cards of dividing Afghans on the basis of ethnicities. Afghans apparently seem to have learned a lesson from its ethnic and tribal infighting which lead to the destructive 1992 civil war. Younger generation Afghans has shown faith in national unity and has expressed their frustration in the past politics which caused enormous destruction and brought miseries upon them. In a recent story on the Afghan elections, Washington post wrote a "disputed election could lead to ethnic and tribal fighting a corrupt election would be a death knell for U.S. and foreign support for Afghanistan". Afghanistan president Karzai understands the significance of ethnic unification. Al-Jazeera reported that whether these ethnically mix teams were designed by President Karzai or by calculations on the part of the candidates themselves, the result is that no presidential team can be claimed by any one ethnic group.

Meanwhile, Pakistanis policy makers are discussing what would any of the three leading candidates, if elected, mean to the interest of the country in Afghanistan and in the region.

Given the tenuous Pak-Afghan relations and the Pakistani interference in Afghanistan, no presidential candidates gauging the mood of Afghans risk voter’s support by showing a soft corner towards Pakistan in their campaign, regardless of how they would deal with Pakistan after elected as president.

The candidates tough talks against Pakistan, makes it harder for Pakistani establishment too to endorse the suitable candidate in the election. The disputed Durand Line border between the two countries remains top of the Pakistani agenda when devising any sort of bilateral relations. Florida based Political analyst of Pakistani origin, Dr Mohammad Taqi feels the difficulty of choice for Pakistanis. He believes Pakistan best bet to influence the elections would be its manipulation of the North/South ethnic divide. “I don't think Pakistan has any favourite’s much they despise Dr. Abdullah Abdullah his ascent might suit them to play on the Pashtun/North divide”.

Afghan political experts and officials are of the view that Pakistan’s attempts to make a peace deal with the Pakistani Taliban so TTP or Afghanistan Taliban can channelize its energy towards the disruption of polls in Afghanistan. Taliban have vowed that they will disrupt the election. The recent attack on Serena hotel, and series of bombing near election offices just weeks before the election, which killed nine local and foreign guests has sent shock waves throughout the country. Afghan intelligence is indicating the attack was planned by the intelligence of a ‘neighbouring’ country- a common reference to Pakistan in the official statements of the agency.

The lack of ‘favourite’ among the candidates leaves Pakistan with the option of increasing its political influence through its Afghan proxies – the Taliban. The addition of Pakistani Taliban to the political and war turf might make it difficult for Afghan security forces to provide a safe and secure environment to voters on April 5 – adversely impacting the convention of free and fair elections.

The long term benefits of this strategy are questioned by many Pakistani analysts for the future of the country itself. Pakistani esblaihsment believe in sustaining war intensity in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and by trying to achieve its objective of friendly and issueless Afghanistan (strategic depth and Durand line) has serious questions over it.

With more than 60000 thousand people hanged on the altar of strategic depth policy in KP and FATA, with its   economic fallout, IDPS and, along with loss of human lives have not changed much the hawkish policies we are pursuing as a paranoid security state.

The past policy of Afghanistan regarding Durand line and pukhtunistan are still haunting our policy makers. But the question arises” Can Afghanistan as a landlocked war ravaged  state afford to create trouble for its neighbour, and  are the dynamic of pukhtunistan or pukhtun nationalism still strong enough to fan the fire of separatism in Pakistan,  or  our  fears not  tangible  anymore but  rather  is   Pakistan military establishment  obsession with its   eastern borders and the weight of our policy towards India . How we see the world from the prism of India fixation.

 Our policy makers predominately from Punjab forgo the interest of smaller provinces, particularly KP and FATA which still continues to suffer with this myopic policy of Pakistan establishment safeguarding eastern border at the expensive of Pukhtun in Pakistan.

 Pakistan should realise that its policy of dividing or playing up the ethnicity card in Afghanistan will have serious repercussion if Afghanistan fell into the chaos as predicated with the possible compromised elections, resulting not only in influx of refugees from Afghanistan which with our own internally displaced will create a situation beyond the state capacity, and the possible merger of TTP and Afghan Taliban  challenging the sovereignty of not only our western borders but even further creating the chaos beyond the peripheral areas.

By having a weak chaotic neighbour in Afghanistan and its continuous fall out in Fata and KP, it won’t be long that we might set out to redraw our borders once again after the 1971 adventure.

Source: http://www.pashtunwomenvp.com/index.php/2013-01-28-03-21-27/current-issue/435-pakistan-s-anxiety-and-afghanistan-elections

Bacha Khan, The King Without a Throne

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Written by Abdul Hai Aryan

Tragically, Pakistan is a country whose curriculum has no space for progressive and true heroes.  It admires Muhammad Bin Qasim, the Arab nationalist who conquered the Sindh in 712 and later on, was killed by his own Caliph. Mahmud Ghaznavi, the destructor of ‘Somnaat temple’ in India is an icon of pride in the country’s textbooks. Pakistan history has great reverence for the Mughal emperors who instead of building schools and universities just built luxurious monuments like Taj Mahal built by king Shahjahan’s in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal with an amount of Rs.22 million accumulated through taxes. It has space for Syed Ahmad Barelvi, the fanatic fundamentalist who tried to implement Wahhabism, Taliban’s school thought in the then India through the swords but the country’s textbooks unfortunately has no room for the son of the soils of the country and has the deficiency to honor and value its true heroes like Bacha Khan, G. M Syed and other protagonists whose endeavors would holistically be productive for the generations to come.

Abdul Ghafar Khan known as Bacha Khan in Pakistan, Frontier Gandhi in India and Fakhr-i-Afghan in Afghanistan is internationally known as monger of non-violence but disastrously  is known to very few in his own country. In 1890 he was born to Behran Khan House, a tribal but moderate chief of Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Bacha Khan after completing his education joined the British army however shortly realized the atrocities the Indians suffered in hands of British officers; then as a protest left the army and started to change his people lives through education. In 1921 he started his social reform movement in NWFP now Khyber- Pkhtinkhawa province. and later he organized youths under the platform of Afghan Youth League and in 1930 founded Khudai-Khidmatgar movement (the servants of God), a nonviolent and social reforms movement for awareness. The movement had millions of members who always adhered to their oath of reforming the society through non-violence and peaceful revolution of education. During 1915 to 1918 in a short period of three years he visited more than five thousands villages of K-Pakhtunkhaw and setup more than 70 schools in the province. He was a great advocate girls’ education. Henceforth, In 1932, he was the first person of the province who sent his daughter Mehr Raj abroad for getting higher education.

He always believed in serving humanity and correspondingly was a staunch believer of non-violence, Peace, love, freedom, service to men and equality were the core values of his teachings and politics. Denouncing violence by the religious extremists at that time, he said, “killing of people on the name of religion, plundering and burning their houses is not the religion of Allah,” the religion of God is ‘love’ and the purpose of religion is to serve humanity.” Being a progressive grandee and becoming the symbol of harmony regardless of any religious discriminating he urged his supporters to know your true enemy and true friends. The over sixth-feet-tall Khan Baba tortuously ruled the hearts of millions of people instead of sitting on a throne. He was so simple; his dress was that of an ordinary man. The Afghan President Hamid Karzai while talking abou Khan’s Personality which he had seen during his childhood when Bacha Khan was invited to his home in Kandahar by his father, During his speech on the death anniversary of Bacha Khan, Karzai added that Bacha Khan Baba was very tall and strong man but he wore pretty simple dresses. In spite of surrounded by many dishes and meal, he just dinned on ‘Shorwa’, an ordinary Afghan meal saying his life was going to be tough.

Bacha Khan was the close ally and the most trusted friend of Mahatma Gandhi. In an interview Mehr Taj, the daughter of Bacha Khan explains Baba’s relations says, “ They were more or less alike in ideas and the way they lived, the clothes and the simple food were the same.” The personal secretary of Gandhi, in an interview says, “Bacha Khan used to read the holy Kuran. Sometimes he forgot his glasses and borrowed Gandhi glasses to read the Kuran.”  Gandhi had a great respect for Khan and called him ‘Man of God’.

 In the 1920s, he formed an alliance with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, an alliance that lasted until 1947--the partition of India. The 27 years long alliance with the Indian Congress remain futile as his supporters and Bacha Khan felt betrayed by both India and Pakistan after the partition, and his last words to Gandhi were, "You have thrown us to the wolves," because the Pashtuns of British India were not offered the choice of being an independent state or re-joining with Afghanistan after the formation of the Durand Line, the boundary between modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan; instead, they were compelled to choose between joining Pakistan or India, and voting results showed that the majority wanted to join Pakistan--the Muslim state, considering Pashtuns are also Muslims.

 In 1967, he was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding while after his withdrawal from politics; he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. Eventually, during his visit to India he partook in the centennial celebrations of the Indian National Congress in 1985; his untiring struggle also earned in 1987 the India’s highest civil award the ‘Bahrat Ratna’.Unfortunately after the emergence of Pakistan, despite his speech in the first constituent assembly in which he expressed his commitments to work for prosperous Pakistan, was portrayed as ‘persona non grata’ due to his alliance with the Indian Congress party.

Bacha Khan had spent as many as 27 years in imprisonment, 12 years under British rule and 15 in Pakistan, There were times he went in fettered for six months, the marks of which remained on his feet till he died at the age of 98. In the words of Bacha Khan "I had to go to prison many a time in the days of the Britishers. Although we were at loggerheads with them, yet their treatment was to some extent tolerant and polite. But the treatment which was meted out to me in this Islamic state of ours was such that I would not even like to mention it to you."

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan in the united India campaigned for the release of Bacha Khan from prison in 1929-1930 which has been duly noted by Stanley Wolpert in his biography of Jinnah. it was Jinnah who had put forth Bacha Khan’s name for inclusion in the first round table conference 1930, an all Indian parties conference called by the then British government. But after the creation of Pakistan Bacha Khan and Jinnah were always kept at distance. In 1948, a meeting due in Peshwar between the two leaders was canceled as Abdul Qayum Khan then Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkaw cunningly deluded Muhammad Ali Jinnah terrifying him of his assassination plan plotted by Bacha Khan.

Bacha Khan always urged for ‘character integrity’ and candor.  At an occasion, he said, “A nation that is merely power monger and wealth oriented, will never enjoy national harmony, it will never go through democratic values, Socialism and even the true face of Islamization.”  Sadly, the aphorisms of Baba have never been followed by his own family and supporters. He commenced the endeavors of politics from his small village which gradually became the most powerful voice of India uniting millions of people in his movement oddly, his political heirs are proving clumsy. Many roads, hospitals and airports were retitled after him but forgot Baba’s true teachings.

After retirement from politics he remained in Jalalabad, Afghanistan and finally a heart attack followed by a coma on January 20, 1988 caused his demise. Many still question his burial in Jalalabad but many deem it as a symbol of Pashtun.

Source: http://www.pashtunwomenvp.com/index.php/2013-01-28-03-21-27/political/397-bacha-khan-the-king-without-a-throne

Taliban as "Anti Imperialists and "AntI Colonialists"

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Written by Mona Naseer

If we choose to believe our media, the shock which Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) initially delivered to the state of Pakistan and its people since it first struck in 2007, targeting the urban cities, has evaporated. The narrative moved swiftly from rage and anger to the point of calling the Taliban an ‘anti-imperialist’ power and issuing a call for ‘decolonization’.  This discourse is blended with and explained by tribal people’s nature, norms and propensity.

An example of this being PUKHTUNWALI, a code practiced in the Pashtun area supporting violence along with their AZAD QABAIL Status (the area was never under occupation and the people are free to follow their own traditions and customs).

One such article appeared March 2, 2014, in The News on Sunday (TNS). This article entitled, ‘Pakhtun ethos for Ghamidi’ suggests that ‘Taliban, too, ostensibly are fighting for decolonization not only from America but more so from the Pakistani state, which they deem un-Islamic, therefore condemnable’. The writer follows by saying, ‘Taliban in contra-distinction to Foucault, to some extent, fit in well with Franz Fanon’s ideas in which he considers violence as a necessary and inevitable tool for decolonization’.

Now let’s look at the terms anti-imperialism and decolonization in light of the TTP intellectual framework, its goals and objectives. What sort of anti-imperialist and decolonization agenda are they pursuing?

Anti-imperialism can be roughly defined as a movement in which all efforts are made to destroy imperialism as a system where the oppressor subjugates the indigenous population, their resources, labour, capital and uses instruments of domination like arms and a well-equipped army to keep the people oppressed and obedient. Decolonization was a movement based in calls and demands for independence on the part of the colonies of the imperialist powers.

The TTP ostensibly was formed in 2007 in reaction to the American occupation of Afghanistan and the Pakistan army operation against the Taliban in FATA.  FATA, as a special status of political, social and economic isolation, provided the perfect sanctuary to Taliban who, along with remnants of Pakistani jihadist organizations present in the area, were fleeing Afghanistan after the American occupation. From the start the Taliban agenda, if they had an agenda, has been to provide support to the Afghan Taliban against NATO forces, jihad against the Pakistan army’s ‘occupation’, demand a withdrawal of the Pakistan army from tribal areas, abolish all army check posts in FATA and ultimately to implement Sharia Law not only in FATA but throughout  Pakistan.

With their strict Deobandi version of Islam and a ‘decolonization’ agenda, which some of our right-wing intellectual commentators attribute to them, the TTP themselves acknowledge the presence and influence of Arab funds and Arab fighters as well as a drawing of ideological strength from Islam as practiced by a monarchy like the house of Saud.

To date, there is no discussion of the cultural realm in the TTP debate on Sharia. Their demands for Sharia show no concern for the religious minorities, sects or social classes or what this might imply under their version of Sharia. Based on their actions it seems the only philosophy they believe in is that of violence and militancy. That may be because they are trained by the jihadi fighters of 1979 and no leaders at present have any substantial Islamic education or training. This is apparent in the Shia-killings in Kurram Agency, the targeting of Christians in the Peshawar church blast, as well as their recent statement regarding Kailash and Ismaili communities in Chitral and the rest of Pakistan. How does the targeting of religious minorities achieve ‘anti-imperialist’ or ‘anti-colonial’ objectives?

Another prerequisite which the TTP as a national decolonizing movement lacks is the crucial support of the ordinary people of the area. According to some estimates, since 2009, more than 2.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes in areas under their domination/occupation. These are mainly people from Bajaur, Mohmand, South Waziristan, Khyber and Kurram agencies in FATA and the Swat Valley. While many internally displaced people (IDPs) from Swat and areas rescued from the Taliban have returned, significant numbers still remain as IDPS. One internally displaced person spoke to Al Jazeera TV in these words ‘we fled our homes because of [the Taliban] - there is no point in sending us back to them’. This must be a very strange version of ‘anti-colonialism’ whereby ‘liberated’ people prefer escape the decolonized spaces. Ironically, the theoretician behind the theory of Taliban-as-anti-colonial-force himself works at Cambridge University.

The withdrawal of American forces in December 2014 should now see the end of TTP ‘anti-imperialist’ policy since it will be an all Afghan affair in the coming months. If opposition to the presence of the Pakistan army in the tribal area is one of their goals and if under this context people are attributing their rise as ‘anti-colonial’ power, then probably some fact checking is required in this regard. Tribal areas were always effectively under government control with Frontier Corps border forces operating in these areas since 1907 with more than 21 forts under their control. The interesting detail which most of us choose to ignore is that this border force ensuring the territorial integrity of Pakistani state is mostly manned and recruited from the tribal and Pashtun belt.

Furthermore, the TTP has made no demands of abolition of this set up under the Frontier Crime Regulation, 1901 - a crude instrument of historic British imperialist power. Perhaps they want the FCR and its oppression to continue because it suits their needs, and to get the requisite right-wing support without talking about poverty, deprivation in FATA or other unresolved issues since 1947.

Their philosophy seems to stem from slavery, forced recruitments in the tribal areas, violence and savagery. In fact they are the coloniser who has played havoc with the system operating in tribal areas, by targeting the Jirga, a local population, with throat slitting, occupying their land,  targeting the locals Aman Lashkar and  holding them hostage in a situation not of the majority’s doing.

No matter how much Frantz Fanon is quoted by the Cambridge professor, or others justifying TTP’s violence as having a therapeutic effect on the colonised. The fact remains that their wanton violence has terrorised the very people they wish to represent and made them hate these so-called ‘anti-imperialists’. I would rather put TTP in the bracket of colonisers by referring to Aimé Césaire here, ‘societies drained of their essence, cultures trampled underfoot, institutions undermined (Jirga system), lands confiscated, religions smashed (they pursue a violent ideology in the name of Islam), magnificent artistic creations destroyed (artist killed or banished), extraordinary possibilities wiped out (schools destroyed and girls education banned)’.

source : http://www.pashtunwomenvp.com/index.php/2013-01-28-03-21-27/political/433-taliban-as-anti-imperialists-and-anti-colonialists

TIME’s Loathsome Cover Story

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Written by Bilal Nikyar

  

TIME magazine is famous for its featured stories along with an image on its cover. That has been their trademark for decades; it’s also a great marketing strategy to attract customers’ attention. It’s well-known around the world and has a distinct style. Frankly, it’s my favourite magazine too. However, on April 3^rd (two days before the Afghan elections) the magazine published a cynical and distorted cover story, which has stirred some criticisms amongst the media-savvy Afghans.

The story is about Women versus Taliban—two famous topics in the Western media about Afghanistan and the two topics that to some extent justifies everything the West does in Afghanistan. The story is about how Afghan women suffer and are badly treated by their male counterparts after all these years of international assistance and how their situation won’t change with the election, which was scheduled to take place on April 5^th.

Ironically, the most disturbing part of the story is that the Taliban are going to come back no matter what the Afghans think or want. Therefore, everything is going to go back to square one, including the rights of women.

Later, Bobby Ghosh, TIME magazine’s world editor, goes into Morning Joe program to boast about how much hard work his team put into this cover story and how TIME knows the return of the Taliban is inevitable, which is going to diminish the rights of Afghan women.

So let’s just look at how wrong the TIME magazine was in its assumptions in this piece.  First, it’s true that women’s condition in Afghanistan isn’t perfect and it needs a lot of attention. However, it’s definitely better than how it was 13 years ago. The important thing is that women have come a long way since the Taliban were ousted from power. It’s only going to get better from now on as the country is slowly but surely coming out of over three decades of war. 

 Afghanistan just had a successful election on April 5^th (praised by the International community) in which more than 7 million people voted, of which 35% were women. It’s defiantly not the case as the TIME magazine suggests that Afghan women are left out there to the wolves. Afghan women are more active than ever before. They go to schools & universities; they are active members of the Afghan parliament and civil society.  They are in a better position now than ever before to defend their rights. 

Obliviously, there are still some challenges facing Afghan women, but you cannot resolve everything in a matter of a few years. It takes time and Afghans are surely on the right track to finally be a more pluralistic society. For TIME magazine to say that Afghan women are waiting for the Taliban is incorrect. No, they are not waiting for the Taliban; they are waiting for a stable and prosperous Afghanistan.

Secondly, the most troubling part of Time’s piece is their misinformed and ludicrous claim that the Taliban are returning. What the magazine doesn’t recognize is that Afghans don’t want the Taliban to return at any cost, and the best way to realize that is to look at last Saturday’s turnout during the elections. If only the TIME magazine could wait for the election and then published its featured article, things would have been a lot different 

We had a successful election with old, young, men and women marching towards polling stations. They all have made it loud and clear that Afghans support democracy. Afghanistan has changed; the fact that the turnout was higher in this election than what experts predicated shows the political maturity of Afghans. It’s almost impossible to think that we will have the Taliban regime again in the near future.

I don’t understand how TIME magazine came to that conclusion. Afghans don’t want to go back to the times of medieval. If TIME thinks that the spike in pre-election violence is an indication of Taliban’s return, then they must know that they know almost nothing about Afghanistan. Couldn’t the recent spike in violence, as is the case in every destabilised nation when election arrives, be the job of regional intelligence agencies to disrupt and discourage people from voting? Couldn’t it be the job of other political mafias?

We Afghans don’t see every bomb blast and killing as a black & white scenario. There are numerous other actors that hide behind the name of the Taliban in order to cause insecurities. So to say that the Taliban are returning to Afghanistan is fable. Therefore, TIME magazine needs to double check its facts and come up with a more realistic view of the current situation in Afghanistan.

The problem with Afghanistan is that there are too many bad pundits and very few good pundits as well as there are too many foreign experts and too few Afghan experts.  The experts who know Afghanistan either speak/write too little on Afghanistan or can’t make it to the mainstream international media. On the other hand, people who have very little knowledge of Afghanistan get a lot of space to comment on Afghanistan based on what they read on the internet. This really has been the root cause of most of the problems and misunderstandings in the last 13 years. Anyone who has been to Afghanistan once or twice in their entire life presumes to know everything about the country. Most of them call themselves experts based on what they read and see on the internet. 

It simply doesn’t work that way. You have got to know the country’s culture, history and people in every place to understand Afghanistan and its issues. There is a lack of Afghan journalists and analysts to talk and report about Afghanistan in the international press. Hence, the void that’s there has been filled by distorted reporting such as the one in the cover of TIME

Afghans must take charge from now on to introduce their country better to the international audiences and to iron out most of the myths that have been circulating around the world such as the one that the Taliban will return. 

Bilal Nikyar is a freelance writer, he tweets: @BilalNikyar

source : http://www.pashtunwomenvp.com/index.php/2013-01-28-03-21-27/current-issue/443-time-s-loathsome-cover-story