Death is a disturbing sight usually constitutes an awful
spectacle. It intrigues a phenomenon of insensitivity demanding empathy and
attention of concern. But we as Pakistanis have lost it
and made it an amusement to justify our ignorance to humanity. Many cultures
have depicted death, violence and tragedy as entertainment only a few have
managed to make it humorous amusement, we have not realized it yet we should be
put right at the top of that list. This turmoil is justified in the name of
religious sacrifices or battles according to a general belief prevalent in
Pakistan, but we Pakistanis have enhanced the scope to a day to day incident
and our media made it a theatre of tragedy.
We Pakistanis share common traits with ancient Romans that we
can witness if we would hit the cinemas, the only entertaining activity left to
common people after food. Romans viewed bloodshed of humans as entertainment. The
elites from English Renaissance theatre, also known as Elizabethan theatre in
England from 1562 and 1642 also did the same. Common genres of the period depicting
English or European history included violence and death. It should ring bells
once we turn on our news channels or Facebook accounts which is filled with
Taliban videos, disturbingly gaining thousands of likes and comments both pro
and anti. Yet this remains on our radar 24/7 if we don’t see a terrorist attack
killing none it wouldn’t be a news to us.
Shakespeare's plays about the lives of kings, such as Richard
III and Henry V, belonged to this category of death and violence, so does the Christopher
Marlowe's Edward II and George Peele's Famous Chronicle of King Edward the
First all of these depict tragedy, death and violence as amusement.Later came
the term “Dark humour” which became a more educated label for such
entertainment.Historical plays dealt with more recent events, like A Larum for
London which dramatizes the sack of Antwerp in 1576. The only difference was
the act depicting tragedy, battles, and bloodshed, was that it was fiction
inspired from the real life incidents leaving a strong moral or sometimes
sarcasm to the spectators and society. So people could learn from it despite
all the hindrances it continued to be bolder. But you don’t see that happening
in Pakistan, the theatre and its informal education has lost its value among
the potential audience.
Tragedy, death and violence were amazingly popular genres. Many
plays managed to live for centuries like Marlowe's tragedies,Dr. Faustus and
The Jew of Malta are only a few. Theatre even in darkages never left without a
moral. The morals spectators enjoyed the most were “revenge dramas”, such as
Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. The four tragedies considered to be
Shakespeare's greatest (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth) were composed
during this period as well as many others leaving strongest morals to date. How
we Pakistanis can be related to this is exactly the moral, that we get none, “revenge,
retribution, retaliation, rebellion mean nothing to us. Everything falls under
the entertainment leaving us more insensitive to the real incidents and not
fiction.
Speaking of dark humour as we know today were called “comedy”,
yes Comedies were common, too where people laughed. A sub-genre developed in
this period was the city comedy, which dealt with life in the city of London,
after the fashion of Roman New Comedy they became happy whileour city issues
remain to be the basic human rights, survival, and religion. These topics are
still not felt to shake consciousness among us. Certain issue like religion
still remains a sacred taboo in Pakistan that cannot appreciate controversial
or contradicting views.
After about 1610 in the West, the new hybrid sub-genre of the
tragicomedy became the centre of attention. Spectators’ laughter started
getting suppressed; audience became more conscious of their theatrical
experiences. Whereas in Pakistan this evolution didn’t occur, only the cultural
stories relying highly on the imagination became the source of education, but
with the advent of religious extremism in society even that was put to an end.
It only took a few decades to completely put this education to an end, and
spread the word of violence and tragedy in the name of religion showing value
to the evolved out of the darkages.
Religious fanatics in Pakistan follow footsteps of the Romans
killing for fun, raping for sexual pleasures and all of it gets easily
justified under the umbrella of religion that nobody can be certain of and
question. Criticism also doesn’t reach them, because the majority in Pakistan
accepts it as either a religious conflict or religion itself, the dead gets labelled
“Murtid” (Non-believer) so easily and deserving a brutal death gets justified.Leaving
spectators entertained with an inspiration, Never does it get labelled
“Extremism” that is punishable. This has become a day to day exercise and even
the silent spectators have joined the club, slowly penetrating insensitivity
among us. Now once a Shia, Christian, Baloch, Ahmadi, children, women get
killed it’s no big deal.Bombs explode kill thousands doesn’t do much to
Pakistanis yet some smile others stay quiet.
Fighting extremism has to go a long way in Pakistan since our
society does not know what social change could be to them. We haven’t learnt
anything from our past. Yet we set forth our critic and keep adding fuel to the
fire of extremism on daily basis. We refuse to identify our enemy; we may come
to a point where we can agree upon blaming the “Mullahs” but refuse to open our
minds. We are immune to tragedy and are cold at heart, we enjoy being
insensitive now. We are a country run by Islam leaving everything to Allah and
the judgement day that is our escape If we consider extremism wrong in general
we instantly come to point where we justify the acts of terror and we have been
cold to this issue for so many years that now it has developed into humour.
Tragedy, pain, agony, death has become material of laughter in
our society today. Our cinemas are reviving since 2008, people in urban areas
can now have an activity other than eating food. Movies like ShoaibMansoor’s
“Bol” (Speak) and “Khuda key liey” (In the name of God) have brought families
to the cinemas a few years ago and they have highlighted social taboos like the
role of “Mullahs” and religion in context to taboos such as violence, death,
child molestation and women in our society. The subjects highlighted are disturbing
on its own, (seeing ourselves on the screen being mocked and getting a reality
check). But for me these negative highlights diminished when I experienced a
much more disturbing social act, people in Pakistan laugh in cinemas while
watching a child being molested by truck drivers (quoting a scene from “Bol”)
that was funny to people. The hall laughed and I sat numb and shocked to see
their reaction to the disturbance and tragedy on the screen.
How did this happen, we were taught in schools to obey the
prerequisites of Islam based on “peace and humanity” when did we lose it I
really can’t say. But it definitely has a lot to do with our beliefs and
religion that failed to educate us unlike the theatre in the West. After the
Peshawar attacks I believe all humans in Pakistan were in shock. Even the loss
of 140 children in APS (Army Public School) didn’t do much to raise a
consciousness in people and reclaim their sensitivity. A handful of people
raising their voice against extremism stand isolated with threats of being
killed.Neither the army nor the political parties’ wishes to back them, why!Its
simple because it is not a big enough reason and the people in general are
insensitive to this issue.
A few weeks ago I went to watch Aamir Khan’s latest movie “PK”.
There is a scene when Aamir Khan goes to the railway station’s platform to
receive his friend Sanjay Dutt and suddenly a bomb explodes killing many the
very instant. Aamir Khan survives and as he sits in a shock … numb, I heard a
roar of laughter rising from over 300 seats. The disturbance and shock of the
scene itself died that very instant and the disturbance and shock coming from
the crowd’s reaction took over and slapped my consciousness. I was disgusted of
the people I was watching the movie with. How Roman could we be and how
inhumane we were I cannot express.
The movie “Bol” was released in 2011, and “PK” was released in
December 2014. In last three years over 50,000 people have lost their lives as
a result of terrorist attacks, but their loss of lives has only added humour to
our lives mocking their pain and tragedy either through our silence or through
our pro-Taliban approach. Yes, this is who we are, we laugh at the loss of
lives and nothing matters to us. The religious extremist mind-set has sucked
sanity and sensitivity out of us. The few raising their voice against extremism
stand alone to be opposed by 20 million people who laugh at the loss of lives
and eat popcorn on it. They come out of the theatre without being bothered
about their insensitivity proved not to be silent spectators they are bred to
be.
The graphic images on the television showing blood stains,
bullet holes, and wounded children yet again failed to kindle humanity among
us. It’s going to be a month in a few days since the Peshawar attack on APS,
nothing has changed, people can still sleep, Lahore High Court continues to
free more accused terrorists, while others roam freely, we can laugh at the
effectees, or simply forget their suffering,although the majority condemned the
attack but they did not condemn the attackers.Yes they were Taliban but just
not humans rather a mind-set that we all share shamelessly without a conscious
analysis. The darkages and the Roman culture still relates us, violence still
stands as the highest authority challenging and ridiculing humanity in the name
of religion or beliefs. What would make a difference is empathy for humanity,
or we can continue to spread bloodshed and laugh at it as well as get entertained
by the death of others. This is what we will pass on to our generations with a
similar violent abstract belief depicting extremism. Killing in the name of God
or entertainment we should not differentiate rather just realize or may even
feel bad about as humans so we could be more sensitive to humanity.
