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‘If I Speak, They Will Kill Me, to Remain Silent Is to Die’: Poetry of resistance in General Zia's Pakistan (1977–88)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2019

VIRINDER S. KALRA  and
WAQAS BUTT
VIRINDER S. KALRA
Affiliation:
University of Warwick Email: v.kalra@warwick.ac.uk
WAQAS BUTT
Affiliation:
Independent researcher, Email: wmbutt@gmail.com
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Abstract

The ethnic and sectarian divisions that were part of General Zia's (1977–88) political strategies in Pakistan were resisted not only through street protest and political opposition, but also in the realm of culture. In particular, poetry was a vehicle through which to express discontent as well as to mobilize the population. By offering an analysis of a number of poems and the biographies of the political poets who wrote them, this article offers another perspective on the question of resistance in this period of Pakistan's history. Whilst the outcome of the policy of ethnic division was to divide the struggle against General Zia into a broad anti-Punjab front, this article highlights how it was class division and the securing of elite consent that were the major achievements of the Zia regime. In contrast to previous research, we highlight how resistance came from all groups in Pakistan as reflected in the poetry and literature of the time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , July 2019 , pp. 1038 - 1065
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

Ethical approval: this article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. No financial benefit arises from the research. All copyright for the poetry has been gained from the poets where living and from family members where not.

References

1 Zahoor, H. Z. (1998) Kaurey Ghut, Ameer Publishers, Urdu Bazaar, Lahore, p. 47Google Scholar. All poetry and books referred to in Punjabi and Urdu have been translated by authors.

2 See Rahman, H. (1995) Resistance Poetry, Pakistan Academy of Letters, IslamabadGoogle Scholar.

3 General Zia's impact on Pakistan in terms of Islamization is mentioned in almost every book on the country, but a detailed analysis of the opposition to the regime remains to be written.

4 See Rouse, Shahnaz (2011) ‘Women's Movement in Pakistan: State, Class, Gender’ in Visweswaran, K. (ed.) Perspectives on Modern South Asia: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, pp. 9–17Google Scholar.

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11 Indeed, Nukbah Langah's book on the Siraiki movement is entitled Poetry as Resistance just to emphasize the way in which language plays a crucial role in subaltern political mobilization. Langah, Nukhbah Taj (2012) Poetry as Resistance: Islam and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Pakistan, Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar.

12 This is a reading of Gramsci, which takes seriously the ‘spontaneous’ account of all people as able to understand their social world, but does not posit the hierarchy that is implicit in the account. Gramci, Antonio (1978) The Prison Notebooks, Lawrence and Wisehart, London, p. 323Google Scholar.

13 See Pamment, Claire (2008) ‘Mock Courts and the Pakistani Bhand’, Asian Theatre Journal, 25.2: 344–362, at p. 359CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 For more information on the Mazdoor Kissan Party, see Kalra, Virinder S. and Butt, Waqas M. (2013) ‘“In One Hand a Pen in the Other a Gun”: Punjabi Language Radicalism in Punjab, Pakistan’, South Asian History and Culture, 4.4: 538–553CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Azadi (1986, p. 4), published in Amsterdam in Urdu, from personal collection, translated by authors.

16 See Talbot, Ian (1998) Pakistan: A Modern History, Hurst & Company, LondonGoogle Scholar. For our perspective on student politics, see Kalra and Butt, ‘In One Hand a Pen’, p. 8.

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18 From personal correspondence with a member of the Mazdoor Kissan Party.

19 See Amnesty International, Pakistan, Report: Torture and Death in Police Custody, June 1991.

20 Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History.

21 Both Shaikh, Farzana (2009) Making Sense of Pakistan, Columbia University Press, New YorkGoogle Scholar, and Devji, Faisal (2013) Muslim Zion, Cambridge University Press, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar, give far too much credence to the Islamization project.

22 Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History.

23 See Lieven, Anatol (2011) Pakistan: A Hard Country, Public Affairs, New YorkGoogle Scholar, for an analysis of this perspective, which is only problematic for its association of the military with stability.

24 Daily Dawn, Karachi, 15 May 1978, in Ahmed, Tauseef (2009) ‘Fauji Aamreeat aur Pakistani sahafat’, Sehmaahi Tareekh, special edition, No. 39, Ali, Mubarak (ed.) History of Martial Law in Pakistan, Thap Publications, Lahore (Urdu), p. 175Google Scholar.

25 Ibid.

26 Abbas, Azmat (2002) Sectarianism: The Players and the Game, South Asia Partnership, LahoreGoogle Scholar.

27 Riots between 22 February and 19 March 1983 claimed 12 lives. As insightful commentator and analysis Nadeem Paracha notes, 50,000 disciples of the Makhdum of Hala successfully blocked the national highway in 1983.

28 See Rouse, ‘Women's Movement in Pakistan’.

29 (1984) Al-Mushir, 26.l: 17.

30 Kennedy, Charles H. (1991) ‘The Politics of Ethnicity in Sindh’, Asian Survey, 31.10: 938–955CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 947.

31 See Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History, p. 444.

32 See Waseem, M. (1996) ‘Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan: The Case of MQM’, The Pakistan Development Review: 617–629CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 Siddiqa, Ayesha (2007) Military Inc, Pluto Press, London, p. 87Google Scholar.

34 Ibid., pp. 88, 94, 156.

35 Lieven, Pakistan.

36 Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History, pp. 140–143.

37 Ibid.

38 Kalra and Butt, ‘In One Hand a Pen’.

39 The list of well-known Punjabi poets who spoke out against General Zia and who suffered as a result consists of: Munno Bhai, Ahmed Salim, Sain Akhtar, Abbas Athar, Akhtar Sheikh, Rashid Hussan Rana, Mushtaq Soofi, Mazhar Tirmazi, Zubair Rana, Sara Shagufta, Ashiq Buzdar, Aziz Shahid, Irshad Taunsvee, Ishoo Lal, Rifat Abbas, Sarmad Sehbai, Gulzar Raza Chaudhry, Nasreen Anjum Bhatti, Yusaf Hasan, Ali Arshad Meer, Mian Salim Jahangir. In addition, there were prose writers and columnists who also wrote against marital law: Asif Khan, Shafqat Tanveer Mirza, Ilyas Ghuman, Ahmad Salim, Jamil Ahmed Pal, Iqbal Salah-u-din, Salim Khan Ghami, Kanwal Mushtaq, Maqsood Saqib, Parveen Malik, Ahsan Wagha, Dr, Anwar Ahmed, Fakhar Zaman, Afzal Tauseef, Faruk Nadeem, Azra Waqar, Farkhanda Lodhi, Mansha Yaad, and Ahmed Daud.

40 Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History, mentions the following Sindhi poets, who were part of the anti-Zia resistance: Rehmatullah Manjothi, Naseer Mirza, Tariq Alam, Adal Soomro, and Atiya Dawood.

41 Salim, Ahmad (1985) ‘Punjabi Adab, ik Sawaaliya Nishan’, Research Forum, Issue No. 3, Research Forum Publications, Karachi (Urdu), July, p. 114. Translated from the Urdu by the authors.

42 Salim's view is, to some extent, well illustrated in Safir Rammah's review of Punjabi poetry in post-colonial Pakistan in which the Zia period is not mentioned at all. Rammah, Safir (2006) ‘West Punjabi Poetry: From Ustad Daman to Najm Hosain Syed’, Journal of Punjab Studies 13.1&2: 215–228Google Scholar.

43 Yaqin, Amina (2009) ‘A Reading of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Jamil Jalibi, and Fahmida Riaz’ in Pemberton, Kelly and Nijhawan, Michael (eds) Shared Idioms, Sacred Symbols, and the Articulation of Identities in South Asia, Routledge, New York, pp. 115–143Google Scholar.

44 Ahmad Salim's comments are somewhat ironic, given that he is one of the Punjabi writers who was very active against the Zia regime. It may be that his comments are meant to taunt the writing community into action from their passive support of martial law.

45 Though the role of street theatre as a tool to resist the restrictions of the Zia regime has been somewhat documented (see online supplementary material: Afzal-Khan, F. (2001), ‘Exposed by Pakistani Street Theater: The Unholy Alliance of Postmodern Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Fundamentalism’, Social Text, 19.4: 67–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Afzal-Khan, F. (1997), ‘Street Theatre in Pakistani Punjab: The Case of Ajoka, Lok Rehas, and the Woman Question,’ TDR, 41.3: 39–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar), there has been little analysis of Punjabi literature in this period and what there has been is negative, even though groups such as Lok Rehas in the 1980s was also closely intertwined in Lahore with activists previously involved in the language movement of the 1980s.

46 From personal correspondence.

47 Ali, Mubarak (2012), Tareekh Kai nay Zaaviey, (Urdu) Fiction House, Lahore, p. 31Google Scholar.

48 Zahoor, Tanveer (2009), ‘Ustad Daman’, Hayaatee Shairee te Vichaar, Sachal, Lahore (Punjabi), p. 33, translated by authors.

49 Daman, Ustad (1993) Daman Dey Mooti, Feroz Sons Lahore, Punjabi, pp. 88–89Google Scholar.

50 Zahoor, ‘Ustad Daman’, p. 34. This refers to the fact that Zia was himself from Jalandhar.

51 Kammi, Syed (1988) Punjabi Zabaan Naheen Marey gee, Punjabi Esperanto Academy, JhelumGoogle Scholar, has a whole chapter devoted to the issue of how Punjabi is seen as the language of Sikhs, pp. 93–122.

52 Rahman, Tariq (1998) Language and Politics in Pakistan, Oxford University Press, Karachi, p. 204Google Scholar.

53 Sadiqui, Raza Alhaq (1976) ‘Report on Government College Sahiwal, Annual Awards’, Imroz, Lahore (Urdu)Google Scholar.

54 Butt, Qaswar (1989) Suraj Mukhi, edited by Kanwal Mushtaq (Punjabi), Volume 1: Lahore, June, p. 23.

55 Mughal, Amin (1979) Pakistani Adab kai nai rujhanaat, Volume 8, Issue No. 7–8, Ahtesaab, edited by Abdullah Malik, Lahore (Urdu), p. 354. A similar form is described by Abu Lughod in the context of Bedouin women, where: ‘Poetry cloaks statements in the veils of formula, convention, and tradition, thus suiting it to the task of carrying messages about the self that contravene the official cultural ideals.’

56 Daily Dawn, Karachi, 12 March 1978.

57 This was the recited version, in which Rao Sikander is mentioned, whereas, in the written form, the slightly odd phrase about beetroots is added!

58 Zahoor, Kaurey Ghut, pp. 133–135.

59 Kiernan, Victor (1971) Poems by Faiz, Oxford University Press, LondonGoogle Scholar.

60 Mir, Anita, (2012) ‘Sense Experience: A Reading of the Verse of the Punjabi Sufi, Bulleh Shah’, Religious Studies and Theology, 31.1: 55–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 In 1977, Zia promised elections within 90 days of taking over. Eight years later, things had not changed.

62 A wonderful example of this is given in the theatre play, Sammi di Vaar, by Najam Hussain Syed. Set in a Punjabi village around 1920, on being told by a fugitive that he is part of the Ghadar movement, Dhuni tells him that ‘We are part of the rebellion of the River Ravi, that tells the tales of Ahmad Khan Kharral in its flow’.

63 These were gathered and preserved in detail by A. D. Ijaz in the book Kaal Bulaindee.

64 Pamment, ‘Mock Courts and the Pakistani Bhand’, p. 359.

65 General Zia also spawned many jokes, which are mostly too obscene to print, but have been collected by Dr Tariq Mehmood, who offers this as an example: General Chisti was walking past a graveyard when he heard a voice: ‘General Chishti, get me a horse.’ Immediately, the loyal servant ran to General Zia and told him what had happened. Zia slapped Chisti across the face and said: ‘The dead don't talk you daft donkey.’ The next day, as General Chisti was walking past the same graveyard, the same voice said angrily: ‘General Chishti, where is my horse?’ The brave general ran to General Zia and told him what happened. Zia let out a mouthful of doabi poetry (swearing in a Jalandhar style) and said: ‘Right you imbecile, I will come with you, to show you the dead don't speak.’ When the two generals got to the graveyard, the voice was infuriated and shouted: ‘General Chishti, I told you to bring me a horse, not an Ass!’ Fuchs, F. (2018) The Testicles of General Zia, Acocks Publishing, BirminghamGoogle Scholar.

66 Awan, Mahmood (2014) ‘A Symbol of Freedom’, The News on Sunday, 30 March 2014Google Scholar.

67 In personal correspondence.

68 Ameeq, Abid (2000) Tal Vatnee: Saraiki Poems, Rut Lekha, LahoreGoogle Scholar.

69 Jatoi, Talib (2000) Channan dee Had Beetee (Nazmaan), Al Barkat Publishers, MultanGoogle Scholar.

70 Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, p. 334.

71 See Kalra and Butt, ‘In One Hand a Pen’.

72 See Rahman, Resistance Poetry.

73 There is also no doubt that Baluchistan and FATA have been subjected to outright subjugation since the formation of the state of Pakistan.