For a change, the spirit soars with the kite

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, FEB. 18. It's a different Pakistan. This weekend Lahore, the cultural capital of the country, is just that. Food, kites, lights, colour, especially yellow that signifies Basant- the spirit is that of unfettered festivities or, as observers put it, of defiance.

``Hai ishk bhi, junoon bhi; masti bhi josh-e-khoon bhi.''``There is love and there is passion; there is fun and there is ardour.'' Lines out of Malika Pukhraj's famous Basant song stand for the deep set cultural zest and scintillating basic energy that the festival stands for. As all winter cannot stop the spring flowers from blossoming, so perhaps, all restraint cannot stop a renaissance of the real people's culture, that's the message.

As one writer put it in a leading English daily of Pakistan, for once there are no gun-toting militants but people armed with kites, ventilating what psychiatrists call their secondary urges through mock battles and victory celebrations after bringing down somebody else's kite. And in Punjab, the bigger the kite, the more beautiful.

They call it the cultural self of Punjab which has always risen against the dominant puritanical attitudes year after year. They say even during the Gen. Zia years Basant was seen as defying all imposed prohibitions and social restrictions here. And it used to generate the fervour year after year.

This year too, it has invoked fatwas and threats. The Lahore High Court has asked the Council of Islamic Ideology that is against Basant to decide on the status of the festival. Others have called it a Hindu concept and questioned the celebrations. And Karachi administration has banned the celebration in the South District where many major hotels of the city are located.

The Punjab state apparatus is all involved in the festival and even the official television channel, PTV has planned special programmes. After all, they say, it is to mark the advent of spring. And Punjab has celebrated it for as long as they have grown sarson (mustard). In fact the Government agencies are trying to secularise the fest calling it a ``spring festival'' and a ``food festival'' instead of Basant.

As an editorial in the Karachi-based English daily Dawn says, ``whatever the origin of this festival, it has now taken on more of a cultural connotation like anything else and provides people a chance to enjoy themselves for a change, putting aside the cares and anxieties of daily existence for a while. Why grudge them this innocent respite.'' And besides this, Basant is now among the few things here that still attracts tourists and kick- starts an annual economic wave. The Chief Executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is expected to be in Lahore to share the joys of the festival with ordinary folk and in the process reinforce his image as a ``liberal'', an image that has of late taken a beating.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Iraq flays Bush
Next     : Benazir faces fresh corruption charges