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The writer is cousin of [MENTION=1201]Toramana[/MENTION] ,Considered among the best satirist in south asia
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The searching 50s
Pakistan was carved out from the rest of India in August 1947. It was made up of the region’s Muslim-majority areas on the west and east sides of colonial India.
The creation of Pakistan had been the work of lawyer and politician, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and his All India Muslim League. Jinnah and his party’s ideologues had argued for a separate Muslim nation-state. They emphasised that the Muslims of South Asia were a different cultural entity compared to the Hindu majority of the region.
After successfully achieving his goal of creating this Muslim nation-state (Pakistan), Jinnah described it as a Muslim-majority state where the Muslims could freely live according to their cultural ethos, but where men and women of other religions too, were free to practice their respective faiths. He maintained that in Pakistan, ‘religion was not the matter of the state’ and that the Pakistani nationhood would triumph and prevail over divisions triggered by religious and ethnic differences.
Though over 90 per cent of the country’s population was Muslim, it was made up of various ethnic groups, languages and cultures.
Muslims who were a minority in India had now become a majority in Pakistan. But this majority contained deep-rooted sectarian and sub-sectarian theological and cultural differences and divisions as well.
Pakistan’s first batch of rulers led by Jinnah had the tough task to mould a concept of the Pakistani nationhood that would eschew ethnic, sectarian and sub-sectarian differences. But even before such a project could be launched, Jinnah passed away (1948).
Much of the 1950s in Pakistan was a decade of searching.
The new country’s early politicians, religious figures, intellectuals, artistes and society as a whole, spent most of their time and energies groping and grappling with various conflicting and vague ideas about the Pakistani nationhood; and/or what sort of an economic system Pakistan should have, how much of a role religion should play in the matters of the state and government, and what was a person’s ethnic identity vis-à-vis his or her national (Pakistani) identity.
Politics in the 1950s in Pakistan was at best wobbly. It was largely dominated by a highly politicised bureaucracy and political intrigues and infighting between members of the ruling party (Muslim League).
On the other hand, the opposition that was made up of various progressive and socialist groups and ethnic nationalists on the left and certain conservative religious outfits on the right was largely kept outside and away from Pakistan’s transitional Constituent Assembly.
The Muslim League, whose precursor, the All India Muslim League, had risen to become a strong, assertive and moderate-progressive Muslim party in undivided India, mutated into becoming a fragile abode of self-serving pragmatists.
Though the League governments occasionally experimented with the idea of using Islam to define Pakistan’s nationhood, it failed because its concept of such nationhood not only contradicted and undermined the cultural identities of the country’s various ethnic groups; it was also seen as being half-baked and elitist.
Politically, the 1950s was a turbulent decade in Pakistan that failed to provide a stable government. This encouraged political intrigues and infighting within the ruling elite, while opposition groups were often accused of working against the interests of Pakistan.
Economic variability could not tackle various social problems arising from the sudden growth of shanty towns in the country’s main urban centres where the rising number of poor Pakistanis became victims of exploitation, crime and disenchantment.
But in spite of the impact of these economic and political ills, and the fact that the Muslim League governments in the 1950s had haphazardly tried to weave religion into the political fabric of the new country, the social, political and cultural milieu in Pakistan remained inherently pluralistic
The Ups: Urdu literature; Radio Pakistan; Cricket.
The Downs: Politics; Economy; Poverty.
Birth of an idea: Front page of the DAWN newspaper the day after Pakistan’s creation on 14 August 1947.
Gone too soon: Jinnah’s sister, Fatima Jinnah, and some women mourning at Jinnah’s funeral (1948).
Common Pakistanis went about their daily lives and struggles as their leaders grappled with the idea of forming a cohesive concept of nationhood in the new country. Here, a street dentist in Karachi works on the teeth of one of his clients in 1951.
Early divisions: College students at a rally in Dhaka (East Pakistan) protesting against the West Pakistan’s ‘discriminatory attitude towards the Bengali language and culture.’ (1953)
Cover of Shaukat Siddique’s famous Urdu novel, ‘Khuda Ki Basti’ (God’s Colony). The novel was written in the 1950s and its tragic story took place in the congested shanty towns that sprang up in Karachi and Lahore to accommodate millions of Muslims who had migrated from India to Pakistan.
Original poster of the 1953 Urdu film ‘Sheri Babu’ (City Man). This was one of the first Pakistani films to comment on the interaction between urban cynicism and rural simplicity.
The poster of Pakistan’s first ‘socialist film’ Jago Hua Savera (The Day Shall Dawn). It was penned by famous leftist poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and released in 1958.
Sadat Hasan Manto is considered to be one of the finest Urdu short-story writers. He migrated to Pakistan and became as controversial as he was famous. His stories reflected his increasing perplexity regarding the impact of partition of India on the common folks of both India and Pakistan. He also investigated the repressed sexuality and its effects on a society confused about its national identity. Manto was labelled as being crude by the leftists and ‘obscene’ by the rightists. He died in 1955 in Lahore due to depression and alcoholism
Lahore’s famous Pak Tea House in the 1950. It was a bustling bastion of intellectual and progressive political activity.
A press ad for a radio brand called ‘The Democrat’. It was launched on the day the Pakistan Constituent Assembly passed the country’s first constitution in 1956.
A hotel and pub in Karachi’s Malir area (1955).
Couples dancing the night away on the 1955 New Year’s Eve at Karachi’s Hotel Metropole.
Legendary American jazz saxophonist and trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, visited Pakistan during his whirlwind tour of Asia and the Middle East in the early 1950s. Here, he is seen playing his sax with a Sindhi snake charmer at a public park in Karachi in 1954.
Pakistani sprinter, Abdul Khalique (left), on his way to winning Pakistan’s first international gold medal in athletics. He won this honour in the 1959 Commonwealth Games in the 100 meters dash.
The Pakistan cricket team performed well throughout the 1950s after getting international Test status in 1952. Here are three of that team’s players in 1954: AH Kardar, Fazal Mahmood and Imtiaz Ahmad.
================
====================
========================
The searching 50s
Pakistan was carved out from the rest of India in August 1947. It was made up of the region’s Muslim-majority areas on the west and east sides of colonial India.
The creation of Pakistan had been the work of lawyer and politician, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and his All India Muslim League. Jinnah and his party’s ideologues had argued for a separate Muslim nation-state. They emphasised that the Muslims of South Asia were a different cultural entity compared to the Hindu majority of the region.
After successfully achieving his goal of creating this Muslim nation-state (Pakistan), Jinnah described it as a Muslim-majority state where the Muslims could freely live according to their cultural ethos, but where men and women of other religions too, were free to practice their respective faiths. He maintained that in Pakistan, ‘religion was not the matter of the state’ and that the Pakistani nationhood would triumph and prevail over divisions triggered by religious and ethnic differences.
Though over 90 per cent of the country’s population was Muslim, it was made up of various ethnic groups, languages and cultures.
Muslims who were a minority in India had now become a majority in Pakistan. But this majority contained deep-rooted sectarian and sub-sectarian theological and cultural differences and divisions as well.
Pakistan’s first batch of rulers led by Jinnah had the tough task to mould a concept of the Pakistani nationhood that would eschew ethnic, sectarian and sub-sectarian differences. But even before such a project could be launched, Jinnah passed away (1948).
Much of the 1950s in Pakistan was a decade of searching.
The new country’s early politicians, religious figures, intellectuals, artistes and society as a whole, spent most of their time and energies groping and grappling with various conflicting and vague ideas about the Pakistani nationhood; and/or what sort of an economic system Pakistan should have, how much of a role religion should play in the matters of the state and government, and what was a person’s ethnic identity vis-à-vis his or her national (Pakistani) identity.
Politics in the 1950s in Pakistan was at best wobbly. It was largely dominated by a highly politicised bureaucracy and political intrigues and infighting between members of the ruling party (Muslim League).
On the other hand, the opposition that was made up of various progressive and socialist groups and ethnic nationalists on the left and certain conservative religious outfits on the right was largely kept outside and away from Pakistan’s transitional Constituent Assembly.
The Muslim League, whose precursor, the All India Muslim League, had risen to become a strong, assertive and moderate-progressive Muslim party in undivided India, mutated into becoming a fragile abode of self-serving pragmatists.
Though the League governments occasionally experimented with the idea of using Islam to define Pakistan’s nationhood, it failed because its concept of such nationhood not only contradicted and undermined the cultural identities of the country’s various ethnic groups; it was also seen as being half-baked and elitist.
Politically, the 1950s was a turbulent decade in Pakistan that failed to provide a stable government. This encouraged political intrigues and infighting within the ruling elite, while opposition groups were often accused of working against the interests of Pakistan.
Economic variability could not tackle various social problems arising from the sudden growth of shanty towns in the country’s main urban centres where the rising number of poor Pakistanis became victims of exploitation, crime and disenchantment.
But in spite of the impact of these economic and political ills, and the fact that the Muslim League governments in the 1950s had haphazardly tried to weave religion into the political fabric of the new country, the social, political and cultural milieu in Pakistan remained inherently pluralistic
The Ups: Urdu literature; Radio Pakistan; Cricket.
The Downs: Politics; Economy; Poverty.
Birth of an idea: Front page of the DAWN newspaper the day after Pakistan’s creation on 14 August 1947.
Gone too soon: Jinnah’s sister, Fatima Jinnah, and some women mourning at Jinnah’s funeral (1948).
Common Pakistanis went about their daily lives and struggles as their leaders grappled with the idea of forming a cohesive concept of nationhood in the new country. Here, a street dentist in Karachi works on the teeth of one of his clients in 1951.
Early divisions: College students at a rally in Dhaka (East Pakistan) protesting against the West Pakistan’s ‘discriminatory attitude towards the Bengali language and culture.’ (1953)
Cover of Shaukat Siddique’s famous Urdu novel, ‘Khuda Ki Basti’ (God’s Colony). The novel was written in the 1950s and its tragic story took place in the congested shanty towns that sprang up in Karachi and Lahore to accommodate millions of Muslims who had migrated from India to Pakistan.
Original poster of the 1953 Urdu film ‘Sheri Babu’ (City Man). This was one of the first Pakistani films to comment on the interaction between urban cynicism and rural simplicity.
The poster of Pakistan’s first ‘socialist film’ Jago Hua Savera (The Day Shall Dawn). It was penned by famous leftist poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and released in 1958.
Sadat Hasan Manto is considered to be one of the finest Urdu short-story writers. He migrated to Pakistan and became as controversial as he was famous. His stories reflected his increasing perplexity regarding the impact of partition of India on the common folks of both India and Pakistan. He also investigated the repressed sexuality and its effects on a society confused about its national identity. Manto was labelled as being crude by the leftists and ‘obscene’ by the rightists. He died in 1955 in Lahore due to depression and alcoholism
Lahore’s famous Pak Tea House in the 1950. It was a bustling bastion of intellectual and progressive political activity.
A press ad for a radio brand called ‘The Democrat’. It was launched on the day the Pakistan Constituent Assembly passed the country’s first constitution in 1956.
A hotel and pub in Karachi’s Malir area (1955).
Couples dancing the night away on the 1955 New Year’s Eve at Karachi’s Hotel Metropole.
Legendary American jazz saxophonist and trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, visited Pakistan during his whirlwind tour of Asia and the Middle East in the early 1950s. Here, he is seen playing his sax with a Sindhi snake charmer at a public park in Karachi in 1954.
Pakistani sprinter, Abdul Khalique (left), on his way to winning Pakistan’s first international gold medal in athletics. He won this honour in the 1959 Commonwealth Games in the 100 meters dash.
The Pakistan cricket team performed well throughout the 1950s after getting international Test status in 1952. Here are three of that team’s players in 1954: AH Kardar, Fazal Mahmood and Imtiaz Ahmad.
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