Bittersweet Neighbours and the Patriots Pop

The pop culture machinery has always been generating alternative viewpoints that
the state has been unable to successfully repress, whether it was Junoons banned
Ehtisab in the 90s or Beghairat Brigades Aloo Anday in 2011. Through the presence
of mass acceptance and love for Junoon, Ali Azmat today has modeled himself as a
spokesperson for a political youth. Similarly Ali Aftab Saeed of Aloo Anday fame has
been writing about media and national politics in national newspapers and has quite
a readership.
Power and national/community culture create a symbiotic relationship over time
where they both reinforce the status quo. Pop culture is the only element of culture
that can resist the status quo, especially in traditional conservative societies were
views on religion, social relationship and political power are deeply entrenched.
Most of our counters to the status quo come from pop culture.
Examples of resistance to the state narrative are abound. They include Laal, the
band formed by two academics with a common interest in Marxist theory. Osman
Khalid Butt in his YouTube commentaries constantly critiques dominant social
norms. And then we have a massive corpus of Pakistani memes hosted on Facebook
pages like The Sarrialist Movement and Sarcasmistan, providing us with a daily
changing commentary on Pakistani life and culture with humor and wit to boot.
Indian culture and its in influence in Pakistan cannot be understated what with
Veena Malik marketing herself as the nations Malika Sherawat (with added masala),
and Amitabh Bachan being a household name. Our parents and grandparents grew
up on Kishore Kumars music and Rajesh Khanaas acting. There is a long history of
shared stardom with Muhammad Rafi, Musrat Fateh Ali and Adnan Sami Khan.
This connection is sometimes lamented as the pollution of a Pakistani-Islamic
culture with pagan Indian influence. In conservative discussions the influence of
Hinudism and India is ignored when it comes to our customs and traditions or
called, however this concern is irrelevant to pop culture. Pop culture is not
something that can be nationally or ideologically controlled.
What it is a collection of actions and influences that creates something instantly
recognizable. Nadeem and Waheed Murad would always have stiff completion from
across the border. Much of our urban youth looked to Shahrukh Khan and Kajol for
entertainment in the 90s and Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif today, rather than
Pakistani actors like Moammar Rana or Saima who seem to have graced the silver
screen since time immemorial. The neighborly influence is natural.
Cultures have regional and national characteristics, so for the subcontinent that has
a shared history of centuries; it is natural that Pakistani would be part of the
cultural influence of a much bigger and louder neighbour. Ten years ago Kyun khe
Saas Bhee Kabhi Bahu Thee had a monopoly over the hearts and minds of
housewives everywhere. Only recently did shows like Humsafar have taken this
territory back. But not completely. Within cultures own struggle for identity,
whether though an agenda, of for want to identify with something non-Indian and
Islamic, the broadcasting and watching of Turkish soaps dubbed in Urdu has
become a favourite national pastime.
Across the border, Prim Minster Modi has made Smriti Irani, a.k.a Tulsi, the actress
of Kyun-khe-Saas-Bhee-Kabhi-Bahu-Thee fame, his Human Resource Minister-- a
move that would fit well in an Indian soap. The influence popularity has on political
power cannot be understated. There is no other way to explain why the actor Arnold
Schwarzenegger could have such political success as to become the Governor of
California. Or the mass appeal Imran Khan has and his relative success in Pakistani
politics. His status as a national cricket icon has reaped him great dividends in his
political ambition. What is familiar is easier to trust, and the nostalgia his cricketing
days produce in our hearts and minds help up feel better about him as a leader than
the competition for
There is huge support in political and cultural theory for popular culture as an
untapped source for mass empowerment. Traditions from Gramsci (the Italian
Marxist philosopher) see pop culture as a space of struggle between subordinated
groups and the forces of 'incorporation' operating in the interests of dominant
groups in society. Post-Modern theory even goes so far as to reject the distinction
between dominant or high culture (fine art, architecture etc.) and pop culture,
giving as much importance to the phenomenon of crass Punjabi films as one would
to high brow films like Ramchand Pakistani.

Twitter: @saadiagardezi