Why support Sindh Festival?

A province engulfed in seri­ous eth­nic and urban-rur­al divide is now cel­e­brat­ing its cul­ture and her­itage which is undoubt­ed­ly remark­able. Sindh’s his­to­ry is mag­nif­i­cent­ly rich and com­pris­es of a civ­i­liza­tion which dates back to 3000 BC. One can imag­ine the rich­ness of this land by this fact alone that the Indus Val­ley Civ­i­liza­tion rivaled the coex­is­tent civ­i­liza­tions of Egypt and Mesopotamia in terms of devel­op­ment and cul­ture.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the peo­ple of Sindh are giv­ing mixed opin­ions about Sindh Fes­ti­val. In spite of the fact that the cel­e­bra­tion is unprece­dent­ed, it is being sub­ject­ed to harsh crit­i­cism main­ly because it is being backed and orga­nized by the Pak­istan People’s Par­ty (PPP) which does not main­tain a good rep­u­ta­tion in urban parts of the province, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Karachi. Many make fun of the broth­er sis­ter duo name­ly, Bilaw­al Bhut­to Zardari and Bakhtawar Bhut­to Zardari with­out giv­ing any ratio­nal argu­ment against the two. Instead, they resort to pass­ing on remarks about their per­son­al­i­ty traits ignor­ing the mer­its of their ini­tia­tive. Too many peo­ple seem to have a prob­lem with them but I won­der if sim­i­lar cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tions were announced by Imran Khan in Khy­ber Pakhtoonkhwa, the same chat­ter­ing class would have joined him ecsta­t­i­cal­ly.

There are oth­er crit­ics too with more con­vinc­ing argu­ments such as bad gov­er­nance by PPP as the province has not under­gone sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ment under PPP’s rule. But the prob­lem with their ratio­nale is that they com­mit the mis­take of com­par­ing devel­op­ment with cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tion. It is an obvi­ous fact that PPP’s track record has not been sat­is­fac­to­ry but using the argu­ment of poor gov­er­nance to dis­cred­it this cul­tur­al ini­tia­tive is illog­i­cal. More­over pro­mo­tion of cul­ture is also a part of ‘gov­er­nance’.

Some also argue that the fes­ti­val is a pre­text while the real agen­da is to strength­en polit­i­cal sup­port plus polit­i­cal groom­ing of Bilaw­al Bhut­to Zardari. It sounds appeal­ing but why would PPP need to strength­en its posi­tion where it already wears the crown of biggest polit­i­cal stake­hold­er?

There are numer­ous rea­sons to sup­port this ini­tia­tive. First of all, a province which is divid­ed along eth­nic lines crit­i­cal­ly needs a unit­ing force to har­mo­nize dif­fer­ent eth­nic­i­ties. A size­able fac­tion of the pop­u­la­tion lives with a mis­tak­en iden­ti­ty and do not own Sind­hi cul­ture. It is imper­a­tive to own the iden­ti­ty of the land you have been liv­ing on for gen­er­a­tions. Also, there also exists an urban-rur­al divide and cul­tur­al her­itage can play a proac­tive role in bridg­ing this gap.

With our tra­di­tions, norms and val­ues being under threat from ris­ing extrem­ism, own­ing and cel­e­brat­ing the plur­al tra­di­tion of our cul­ture would def­i­nite­ly pro­mul­gate a mes­sage of peace and har­mo­ny. It should also strength­en our resolve that we will not let bar­barism erase our his­to­ry and val­ues. It is time to find com­mon­al­i­ties and unite rather than to crit­i­cize end­less­ly and stay divid­ed. Cul­ture is one of the strongest forces which bind peo­ple togeth­er; give cul­tur­al uni­ty a chance and most impor­tant­ly, give broth­er­hood a chance. Pak­istan Paind­abad, Jiye Sindh!