AJOKA presents "Hotel Mohenjodaro" on 19th April 2011 at 7:30p.m. at Alhamra Hall # 2, The Mall, Lahore
Based on the short story by Ghulam Abbas
Adapted & Directed By : Shahid Nadeem
It is generally accepted that great writers can be at times, prophetic. Their fiction can predict future reality. Unlike the predictions of scientists and intellectuals, great fiction writers don’t base their prophesies on data analysis or scientific formulas, but on their prophetic vision and intuition. But sometimes they can be much more exact, much more graphic in their predictions than great scientists or thinkers. Ghulam Abbas, one of the great Urdu short-story writers, was one such writer.
Ghulam Abbas wrote “Dhanak" in the mid-1960s and read it at a meeting of Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq in Lahore. The reading caused quite a furor. The rightwing writers and critics were enraged by the horrifying picture of religious zealots as painted in the story. They thought it was highly exaggerated and distorted. “No Muslim can even conceive of killing religious leaders or bombing mosques”. It was said. “ It is an insult to peoples’ religious beliefs”. it was alleged. Ghulam Abbas had to be escorted out of the YMCA hall. The story was not included in any collection of his stories. Some years later, it was quietly published and conveniently forgotten. No reviews, no launchings, no awards. The picture of Pakistan painted in this story was considered far-fetched, unimaginable. The religious fanatics were a marginal force in the 60s. Jamaat-i-Islami was an isolated, fringe group of rigid, intolerant and exclusivist zealots. The state was all-powerful, the military ruler Ayub Khan was in full control, feudal and tribal lords controlled the destinies of large sections of the society and the “Westernized” civil-military elite held sway. The scenario of Ghulam Abbas’ “Dhanak’ seemed to have been created by the rich and cynical imagination of a story-teller.
Today in 2011, the story seems to be so close to the present-day troubling reality that it is hard to believe that a writer could have foretold it with such uncanny accuracy. It seems to be an account of a TV reporter from one of the troubled tribal or settled areas or a from the scene of a devastating suicide bombing. The retrogressive and intolerant ideology of the religious fundamentalists, propagating an orthodox, rigid interpretation of Islam, the acquiescence of the establishment and the disastrous consequences of following the logic of a theocratic state are so evident now that the story doesn’t seem to be shocking or unbelievable. The mindset is the same: the same primitive thinking, the same deep-rooted prejudices, the same irrational worldview, and the same burning desire to destroy civilization, to self-annihilate. The total take over by the turban-brigades of the story doesn’t seem unimaginable anymore. The havoc wrecked in the past few years in the name of jihad and talibanization is pushing us over the precipice and before we know it, we will be hurtling down into the abyss. The chilling end, as foretold, is coming.
Unfortunately and tragically, the media and analysts of 2011 are in the same state of absolute denial, not much different from the conservative writers and their cohorts of 1960s. They still want us to believe that the society doesn’t face any serious threat, the brain-washed and cold-blooded suicide killers have a legitimate grievance to rebel and a justifiable reason for the course of death and destruction they have adopted. They still announce “no Muslim can kill his brethren or bomb shrines” even if the killers and bombers are trained in the madrassas next door. They still claim that mysterious foreign hands are behind all terrorist attacks, that we are the best and chosen ones and our country and our deen is protected till eternity by the all-powerful and omnipotent God. Well, like the concluding scene of the story, the sounds of the war planes in our skies can be clearly heard and surely they are not friendly planes!
HOTEL MOHENJODARO
Based on the short story by Ghulam Abbas
Adapted & Directed By : Shahid Nadeem
It is generally accepted that great writers can be at times, prophetic. Their fiction can predict future reality. Unlike the predictions of scientists and intellectuals, great fiction writers don’t base their prophesies on data analysis or scientific formulas, but on their prophetic vision and intuition. But sometimes they can be much more exact, much more graphic in their predictions than great scientists or thinkers. Ghulam Abbas, one of the great Urdu short-story writers, was one such writer.
Ghulam Abbas wrote “Dhanak" in the mid-1960s and read it at a meeting of Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq in Lahore. The reading caused quite a furor. The rightwing writers and critics were enraged by the horrifying picture of religious zealots as painted in the story. They thought it was highly exaggerated and distorted. “No Muslim can even conceive of killing religious leaders or bombing mosques”. It was said. “ It is an insult to peoples’ religious beliefs”. it was alleged. Ghulam Abbas had to be escorted out of the YMCA hall. The story was not included in any collection of his stories. Some years later, it was quietly published and conveniently forgotten. No reviews, no launchings, no awards. The picture of Pakistan painted in this story was considered far-fetched, unimaginable. The religious fanatics were a marginal force in the 60s. Jamaat-i-Islami was an isolated, fringe group of rigid, intolerant and exclusivist zealots. The state was all-powerful, the military ruler Ayub Khan was in full control, feudal and tribal lords controlled the destinies of large sections of the society and the “Westernized” civil-military elite held sway. The scenario of Ghulam Abbas’ “Dhanak’ seemed to have been created by the rich and cynical imagination of a story-teller.
Today in 2011, the story seems to be so close to the present-day troubling reality that it is hard to believe that a writer could have foretold it with such uncanny accuracy. It seems to be an account of a TV reporter from one of the troubled tribal or settled areas or a from the scene of a devastating suicide bombing. The retrogressive and intolerant ideology of the religious fundamentalists, propagating an orthodox, rigid interpretation of Islam, the acquiescence of the establishment and the disastrous consequences of following the logic of a theocratic state are so evident now that the story doesn’t seem to be shocking or unbelievable. The mindset is the same: the same primitive thinking, the same deep-rooted prejudices, the same irrational worldview, and the same burning desire to destroy civilization, to self-annihilate. The total take over by the turban-brigades of the story doesn’t seem unimaginable anymore. The havoc wrecked in the past few years in the name of jihad and talibanization is pushing us over the precipice and before we know it, we will be hurtling down into the abyss. The chilling end, as foretold, is coming.
Unfortunately and tragically, the media and analysts of 2011 are in the same state of absolute denial, not much different from the conservative writers and their cohorts of 1960s. They still want us to believe that the society doesn’t face any serious threat, the brain-washed and cold-blooded suicide killers have a legitimate grievance to rebel and a justifiable reason for the course of death and destruction they have adopted. They still announce “no Muslim can kill his brethren or bomb shrines” even if the killers and bombers are trained in the madrassas next door. They still claim that mysterious foreign hands are behind all terrorist attacks, that we are the best and chosen ones and our country and our deen is protected till eternity by the all-powerful and omnipotent God. Well, like the concluding scene of the story, the sounds of the war planes in our skies can be clearly heard and surely they are not friendly planes!
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