Festival under threat
Shandur must be saved from the ensuing danger of excessive tourism or else...
By Muhammad Niaz
Accessible through the mountainous terrain of Chitral and Gilgit, the picturesque Shandur pass is characterised by alpine and sub-alpine pastures, peat land and wildlife species. It offers opportunities for promotion of eco-tourism -- its extensive landscape is ideal for outdoor recreation, hiking, camping, mountaineering, photography and bird viewing, for Shandur is a staging and wintering ground to some of the migratory waterfowl. But the area is best known for the Shandur lake and the Shandur polo festival, an internationally renowned event, held in early July each year.

The Aligarh Muslim University is known to all school-going children because of its association with Sir Syed Ahmed Khan; and, more pertinently for its association with the Pakistan Movement. Though the university is located in India, there still exists this link in the Pakistani mind through the fast vanishing breed of those educated at the university who proudly emblazon the word Aligs on their name plate. Very little, however, is known of another great institution of learning for Muslims of India: Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), a growing and prestigious university in Dehli.

Jamia, like the Aligarh university, represents an important facet of Muslim personality in the history of Muslim India. Perhaps one major reason for the absence of JMI from our national narrative is its irrelevance for the people of Pakistan. But Jamia remains a fascinating subject of study and represents an important strand in the Muslim thinking in South Asia.

In some vague sense, Jamia has always fascinated me since I discovered it in Maulana Mohammad Ali Johar's unfinished autobiography about 20 years ago. Since then, I have carried this fascination with Jamia, which grew fainter during my sojourn in England. While negotiating the complex business of Muslim identity in Europe, Jamia Millia and its link to Muslim identity bubbled to my mind when I visited India in 2001. During the tour, I made a special effort to get a sense of Jamia by paying a fleeting visit on the last day. Though this did not lend me any earth-shattering insight, I was somehow happy to see my wish granted. The link was further amplified when I finally got an opportunity to visit the Jamia in March this year.

The idea of a group of religiously-influenced Muslims setting up a university based on secular principles jars with our secularly founded universities increasingly turning to religiosity. This idea somehow tips me in favour of Jamia as a role model of how Muslims can coexist as religious people and be at ease with modernity. We can trace the lineaments of how Jamia has evolved by comparing it with the Aligarh Muslim University. While the Aligarh university grew out of Muslim's reformist desire to plug Muslims into English education, JMI sprang from a two- pronged anti-colonial agitation combined in the non-cooperation movement and the Khilfat movement.

Jamia was set up in response to a call from Mahatma Gandhi asking Muslims to boycott British educational institutions. The Jamia founders were: Maulana Johar, Mehmmod Hassan, Dr M.A. Ansari and Hakim Ajmal Khan -- all leading lights of the Khilfat movement. In fact, the founding committee formed in 1920 contained all major Muslim figures of the time including Allama Iqbal, Saifuddin Kitchlew, Chaudhry Khaliquzzan, Maulana Farangi Mahal, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to name a few. The university, originally sited in Aligarh, was funded out of the Khilfat committee funds. Later, it moved to Dehli where it faced a serious funding crisis that was overcome by the generosity of Hakim Ajmal Khan. Mahatma Gandhi was also instrumental in getting funds flowing to Jamia at a difficult period in its history.

However, the bond forged between the Jamia and the Congress remained intact and contributed to the formation of a strand of nationalist Muslims who were associated with the Congress party. This outlook permeated the character of the university as a bastion of anti-colonial Muslim thinking within the Indian federation context. The Aligarh Muslim University, on the other hand, represented a trend of Muslim nationalism, which stressed Muslim's distinctness in India. This sentiment and identity construction was to lead to the Pakistan movement.

The diverging visions are still reflected in the way JMI is run. Jamia's radical and colonial roots are plain to see all over the university. Many lecture halls or seminar rooms are named after anti-colonial heroes like Ho Chi Minh, Nelson Mandela, Guru Nanak and Jawahar Lal Nehru. Fidel Castro café along with M.F. Hussain art gallery are intriguing. Dr Zakir Hussain, long serving chancellor, is buried the premises of the Jamia. Fragments from his speeches adorn the wall lining Muhammad Ali Marg. Dr M.A. Ansari, the founding father, also finds pride of place in a hall dedicated to him.

The university exemplifies the idea of secular Muslim identity firmly embedded in the Indian soil. Its current chancellor, Dr Mushirul Hasan, is the embodiment of the idea of Jamia Millia. He is the author of several highly acclaimed books on Muslims of India. He has also authored a book on the history and what Jamia means in the context of India and the wider Muslim world. Under his hand, JMI has seen growth, which is reflected in new buildings springing up all over the campus. Though the university has expanded to embrace every new discipline, the department of mass communication is by far the jewel in the crown of the university. The department runs an active exchange programme with academics from western universities. I met a couple of teachers from the USA and France who were there for short courses on video production. I was told they come as visiting teachers almost every year.

After hearing so much about the department of mass communication, I decided to visit the department. I was surprised to meet Obaid Siddiqi, one time producer at the BBC Urdu service, who now heads one of the departments in mass communication. He showed me around the massive department whose graduate output is in perpetual demand all over India.

It would be entirely in order to put in a few words about the Nehru guesthouse where I stayed. The guesthouse, though modest in its appearance, smells of history preserved in photographs of the heroes of Indian freedom struggle. It feels like walking through, and living in, a chamber of history.

Apart from faculties, there are also centres of learning and area research institutes of which third world studies is well-known. The centre runs an active programme on Pakistan and the region. The research is massive and intellectual debate is alive, fresh and invigorating. I came away with the feeling that we have to learn a lot from Jamia and its unique contribution to the formation of a Muslim identity fit for the 21st century. My next task is to put more flesh on the bare bones of my thesis about Jamia by reading more about it.

Accessible through the mountainous terrain of Chitral and Gilgit, the picturesque Shandur pass is characterised by alpine and sub-alpine pastures, peat land and wildlife species. It offers opportunities for promotion of eco-tourism -- its extensive landscape is ideal for outdoor recreation, hiking, camping, mountaineering, photography and bird viewing, for Shandur is a staging and wintering ground to some of the migratory waterfowl. But the area is best known for the Shandur lake and the Shandur polo festival, an internationally renowned event, held in early July each year.

Though this tourist activity boosts the local economy, it leaves adverse impacts on the ecology of the area. The influx of tourists creates issues of solid waste management, water pollution, noise pollution and unregulated camping to the extent that many tourists wash their vehicles and clothes in the lake.

Last year, the Northern Alpine Wetlands Complex of Pakistan Wetlands Programme, launched a comprehensive and unique solid waste management initiative during the Shandur polo festival. It was the first ever organised attempt to hold an environment-friendly festival. Many local community members, students and tourists volunteered in the clean-up operation that collected about 4,000 kilogrammes of solid waste which was later disposed of safely. There is intense need to replicate such a solid waste collection campaign through coordinated efforts of management authorities, agencies and environment-based NGOs on regular basis.

Shandur lake is an ecosystem which has great potential for scientific research. Research of a MS student, David Johnson titled, 'Acessing the impact of Shandur Polo Festival,' in 2006 reveals that this ecosystem is threatened with eutrophication and there is need to minimise this risk.

However, there is a dire need to conduct an in-depth research on various parameters of the lake. This would not only expand horizon for enhanced awareness among various target groups but will also pave ways for many steps leading to conservation of the lake and to holding cultural events in environment-friendly ways.

Unmanaged tourism in Shandur is an ecological shock and threat to the natural beauty of the lake. A proper tourism management strategy and land use planning must be devised for Shandur polo festival in terms of zoning for car parking, camping, cooking and waste disposal. Tourists should be guided through signboards, promotional materials, guides, banners in a more systematic, comprehensive and standardised manner.

Also, there is need for better facilities such as accommodation, transport and more importantly information centres that create awareness among visitors regarding the ecological significance of the area.

The Shandur polo festival has a high probability of sustainability, provided it is held according to norms of environmentally sound management. This can only be done if there is coordination among various actors involved in organising the festival.