Not all writers are visionaries but some are. Some of these seers have written in our local languages many years ago about the times we are living in now. Or so it seems when one reads their visions of the future or forewarnings. Bulleh Shah, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Muhammad Iqbal, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ghulam Abbas, and Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi had all warned about the dangers of religious fanaticism and thought control. Quratulain Hyder, it is said, left Pakistan after witnessing the censorship and persecution which had become Manto's lot.

Not all writers are visionaries but some are. Some of these seers have written in our local languages many years ago about the times we are living in now. Or so it seems when one reads their visions of the future or forewarnings. Bulleh Shah, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Muhammad Iqbal, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ghulam Abbas, and Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi had all warned about the dangers of religious fanaticism and thought control. Quratulain Hyder, it is said, left Pakistan after witnessing the censorship and persecution which had become Manto's lot.

A society is like a breathing, living organism. For those who are sensitive to societal trends, it is possible to see what is coming in a decade or many decades ahead. For example, Michel Houellebecq, a French writer, has predicted in his post-human novel, Atomised, how human beings will be replaced by another species which will live happier lives. It is a vision inspired by all the scientific developments in the field of organ transplants, stem cells, and genetic scanning of the embryo. In the early days of Pakistan, when the non-Muslim minorities constituted 27.1 percent of the total population, it was not easy to predict the kind of Talibanisation the nation is trying to curtail these days. But some writers saw the trends and wrote about it. Ghulam Abbas, in 1967, wrote a short story Hotel Moenjodaro, in which he commented on the moribund vision of the mullah. Manto wrote about the seedy underbelly of a shallow moralist society and tried to build a new sense of morality grounded in a post-lapsarian humility.

A society that does not tolerate and promote self-examination is not willing to learn about its shortcomings. This stubbornness to not learn anything new manifests itself by censoring writers and thinkers. With each trial of a critical writer, the society becomes more and more blinkered. It has happened all over the world: with Edward Said in the USA, with Jean Genet in France, with Manto and Ghulam Abbas in Pakistan. It is those who suffered for the clarity of their visions who have actually saved this society from a total collapse and anomie. We owe whatever little sanity and social order that we still have prevailing in this society to our Jalib, Manto and Faiz. They are our real saviours instead of the sword or the gun. It is to their visions we have dedicated this report, which also attempts to show what we have not learnt from our writers in the last six decades. All the indicators of the Mullah becoming the Big Brother were there. It is demonstrated here.

The men who saw today...

Hotel Moenjodaro

The first light of day is yet to appear. In a small town, hundreds of miles from Karachi, a mullah is speaking to his small morning congregation. 'I have just heard on my transistor radio that some Pakistani, may there be a curse on him, has landed on the moon. May God destroy him!

'My brothers in Islam, it is apostasy to expose to view in the name of science and so-called progress, things across whose face our Master and Sustainer has drawn a veil of mystery and secrecy.

'Brothers, because of this vile and disgusting act, we have been guilty of a grave sin in the eyes of God and my heart tells me that a most terrible punishment awaits us from the Great Avenger. And let me warn you, it won't be long in coming…'

The unrest among religious leaders was not confined to small towns and villages but soon spread to big cities as well.

'O Muslims, go forth and spread the word in every town, village, city and settlement that the time for repentance is come, because the day of judgment is about to overtake us.'

Using their gift for words and employing their oratorical skills, the mullahs soon succeeded in convincing the common people of the approaching end of the world. ...Every day, more and more people would join the protest rallies. At a huge public meeting in the capital itself, the following resolution was carried unanimously: 'The people of Pakistan believe the present system of government to be steeped in irreligiosity and founded on falsehood. They fear that they are in imminent danger of being overtaken by the resulting cataclysm. They, therefore, demand that this system be immediately abolished and the Law of God proclaimed in the land.'

This resolution unnerved the government and its members.

It was first argued within the government that the mullahs were not to be taken too seriously anyway, since they always denounced every new scientific breakthrough or invention, but were also the first to use the very things they had fulminated against. There was not one venerable mullah or religious divine whose home was without a phone, a radio or a television, all of which they had declared to be satanic inventions when first introduced. Weren't they also always vying with one another to get more time on the radio to broadcast their sermons?

But after the movement took an entirely new and unexpected direction, the government began to get seriously worried, making use of the press and radio to explain its point of view. One establishment intellectual was made to broadcast a forceful talk entitled 'Science and Islam' in which he argued, 'Our mullahs associate science with apostasy and atheism and denounce its teachings as sinful, whereas in the Holy Koran, God repeatedly exhorts man to subjugate the universe, ride over the winds and take control of the light of the sun and moon. He calls on man to quarry the earth for its hidden treasures and establish his writ over the stormy waves of the sea. The conquest of the moon, therefore, is only an attempt to obey God's wishes.'

The mullahs felt so encouraged by the move in the legislature that they called a national convention which demanded that since those who were in charge of state affairs were apostates and atheists, they did not qualify to govern the God-given state of Pakistan and should, therefore, be forced to resign. The convention was very well attended and some very fiery speeches were made, including one by a mullah who declared, 'A pity, a pity that those who run the government have not paid the least heed to our warnings, but friends, the time for warnings is now past and the moment is upon us when the levers of the state should be snatched from the hands of atheists, agnostics and those who have rebelled against God, and placed in the care of true believers and upright men. Arise, ye Muslims, and take away power from the standard-bearers of this godless culture so that the word of God can ring forth from one end of the earth to the other.

'Do you want to know what kind of government we want established? Let me show you a glimpse of it. Under that government, there will be no beggars and no one shall want, because the state will take responsibility for everyone's welfare. The land shall belong to God and God alone; there will be no landlords and no landless peasants. If you want the Kingship of God to be established, raise the slogan Allah-o-Akbar, God is great, so thunderously that the citadels of atheism and inequity should be shaken to their very foundations.' The audience responded so resoundingly to this call that their voice could be heard miles away, making wayfarers wonder what on earth was going on.

The next man to take the stage was a particularly short-statured mullah whose theme was, making war in the name of God. He jumped up and down as he spoke, 'We are the soldiers of God. The government is living under an illusion because it is not aware of our power. If we do not so wish, no weddings would be performed or solemnised, nor the dead prayed for and buried.

It is difficult for a government to keep its cool when its authority begins to get rejected openly on the streets. Consequently, all those who had made provocative speeches at the big public meeting were picked up at night from their homes on the charge that they posed a danger to public peace. Section 144 which prohibited the assembly of more than five persons, the carrying of sticks, swords, daggers, knives and other arms, the possession of items such as bricks, stones, acid and soda-water bottles that could be put to use as Molotov cocktails, was imposed all over the country.

These arrests further stoked the fires of rebellion. This action of the government was seen as interference in the performance of religious duties.

The mullah-inspired fantasy of God's kingdom on earth now became a reality.

After the resignation of the government, an Amir was chosen on the basis of adult franchise and declared God's deputy on earth. The election was a most noisy event and it appeared as if the entire country was in the grip of a crisis. As long as the mullahs were at war with the government, they were united and spoke with one voice, but as soon as elections were announced, rivalries were unleashed and a relentless race for office began.

A large number of parties got ready to take part, each going public with its separate manifesto, organisational rules and regulations and even specially designed uniforms. Their workers would go around in groups, from street to street, singing the praises of their chosen candidate for Amir. There were public meetings, marches, billboards and hoardings, pamphlets and wall posters and, consequently, many fights. The parties which led the roost were the Greens, the Reds, the Blues, the Yellows, the Blacks and the Whites. The Greens were made up mostly of village folk. Actually, they all had different names but those nicknames had become popular because of the uniforms of their workers.

The lucky mullah whose party won the election was the Amir of the Greens. He was a magical speaker and a brilliant polemical writer. His oratory was electrifying and his extensive public appearances, backed by an organised campaign of pamphleteering and posters, had made the country take notice of him and what he said. There was not a corner of the land where his voice had not reached. His propaganda machinery was so effective that he won decisively and the Reds, the Blues, the Yellows, the Blacks and the Whites were all left trailing.

The new leader came to the conclusion, after his victory, that it would be best to invite the defeated parties to join the Majlis-i-Shoora or the consultative council that was to be set up. It would not only provide them with the equivalent of a consolation price but have the added advantage of keeping him safe from their intrigue. That was how the Amir put it to them: 'Separate colours in themselves have no value, but when they get together they make a rainbow.'

This analogy worked, and the defeated parties joined the Majlis which was expected to advise the commander of the faithful on how to run the government. Work began in right earnest. The Amir chose the Jamia Masjid, the principal mosque in the capital, as his government and administration's headquarters and himself took up residence in one of its chambers. The Majlis held its meetings in the mosque at all times of the day and night, and development and reform work were taken in hand with great enthusiasm.

The first order of business for the Majlis was the extraction of the poison of westernisation that the previous government had allowed to penetrate and infect the body politic. Consequently, all western habits and customs, including dress, basic etiquette and general behaviour, were completely sworn off. In order to ensure that the western evil was fully rooted out, the English language itself was eliminated from all teaching courses and educational syllabi.

Since the administration was not being directly run by the Amir, the old government structure was dismantled, and the secretariats abolished along with their attached and subsidiary ministries and departments. All old files and records were set on fire. The only departments retained were the police and the office of local customs duty.

All schools, colleges and universities, along with their teaching and educational systems, plus the courses and textbooks they taught, were abolished and replaced with madrasahs or religious schools of instruction, attached to mosques. The subjects that were permitted to be taught were Islamic legal systems, the traditions of the Holy Prophet, Koranic interpretation and commentary, and qirat, the mellifluous art of reciting the Holy Book. It was decreed that everything would have to be transcribed in the Arabic, the national language, within a short and pre-determined period of time.

Special attention was devoted to the art of calligraphy and the services of eminent masters were obtained for the teaching of such classical styles of writing as Naskh, Kufi and Tughra. A large school was established for the teaching of the art of war and training in the use of the sword, the lance, the mace, the dagger and the scimitar.

All the freedom and rights given to women by the previous government, such as going unveiled where they pleased, were withdrawn. They were banned from leaving their houses unless properly attired and covered. Since according to the mullahs, women were not entitled to any administrative or executive responsibilities, there obviously was no need for them to receive a higher education. It was sufficient that their education should equip them to count, read and write just enough to keep household accounts.

The Majlis-i-Shoora also took steps to reform the courts. The legal profession was declared redundant because lawyers were paid to hide facts and argue cleverly before a judge in order to get their guilty clients acquitted, something that ran counter to Islamic injunctions. Court fees were abolished because they placed a burden on the litigants and many of them were unable to seek justice because they did not have enough money to buy court stamps. The nomenclatures 'judge' and 'magistrate' were done away with, and in every city muftis and qazis were appointed. The need for court staff naturally disappeared with this step.

As for land rights, it was decided that those in occupation of land were its legal owners, but the taxes on agricultural income were reconstituted on the traditional religious basis of land area, yield and the crop grown. If a man had land which he had not cultivated for three years or had been unable to put to other reasonable use, his ownership of it was to be considered as having lapsed and anyone could lay claim to it. On this count, there could be no recourse to courts. Unoccupied or uninhabited land was to become the property of the person who put it under cultivation or took up residence there. As for income from land, after paying land revenue, the owner of the land and the cultivator were to split the balance equally.

The Majlis-i-Shoora also declared it incumbent on every Muslim to say his prayers, fast, pay zakat, offer animal sacrifice on festival days and perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, if he or she could afford it. Anyone who disobeyed these laws was to be lashed. Deduction on account of zakat was fixed at an annual rate of two and a half percent of cash held. The same rate was to apply to the value of land, ornaments, milch cattle, camels, sheep, goats and horses.

While Muslims were free to make, keep and invest money without any restriction, their entire wealth was to be distributed among their family on demise and if there was no family or issue, the assets were to stand appropriated to the state. The non-Muslim citizens were declared zimmis and exempted from paying zakat. However, they were required to pay the special Islamic tax of jazia which was only about thirteen rupees a year. However, anyone who volunteered to join the armed forces was to be exempted from the charge. Some non-Muslims protested against this measure but the more sensible among them were able to convince the dissidents that were they to be required to pay zakat, they would have to pay much more, so the deal offered by the state was not a bad one.

For the crime of theft, the culprit was to lose his hand and if an unmarried couple was caught in the act of fornication, they were to be lashed one hundred times. As for adultery, the punishment was death by stoning.

In cities and towns, all cinemas and theatres were turned into religious schools or orphanages. In place of hotels and clubs, old-fashioned inns were established. All sports and games which had western associations or origins were abolished. It was forbidden to play cricket, soccer, hockey, tennis, golf or badminton. They were replaced with such ancient forms of diversion as riding, lancing, polo and archery. The art of wrestling and weightlifting was revived.

Factories and workshops that manufactured iron and steel shields, swords, lances and daggers sprang up everywhere. Every male Muslim citizen was declared qualified to carry a sword, while women were authorised to carry daggers. Whenever there was a birth, government agents would appear with one of these gifts, depending on the sex of the child. The sword had now become an essential part of average attire. Even water-carriers would have swords dangling by the waist while carrying their load on their backs. Artisans in the bazaar who made essential household implements also wore swords while at work.

Strict restrictions were placed on poetry and literature. Poems and lyrics on the theme of love were banished altogether because it was believed that their circulation would have a harmful effect on the morals of young women. Instead, hymns in praise of God and poems extolling the Prophet, plus narrative verse about heroic battles, elegiac pieces devoted to the theme of martyrdom, patriotic songs and lullabies were given pride of place. Since novels, short stories and fictionalised narratives were based on invention and likely to encourage the habit of making up stories and lying, they were declared unsuited to the new Islamic culture. Newspapers were directed to carry no pictures, not even cartoons. Painting, sculpture and music were denounced as sinful and, consequently, forbidden.

All professions which could possibly harm the morals of society were banned.

The profession of medicine and surgery was abolished since the medicines prescribed by doctors often contained alcohol. In its place, it was decided to revive traditional and holistic medicine and to restore the barber to his traditional role as surgeon. The profession of nursing was abolished as most of its practitioners were women anyway.

The first result of these steps was that hundreds of thousands of once gainfully employed people became unemployed. The Majlis recommended that such people should be given land so that they could grow enough food on it to feed themselves and their families. However, the difficulty was that good and fertile land was already occupied. What was available was barren or waterlogged. In order to make such land cultivable, the new owners had to undergo unimaginable hardship, including the laying of canals over hard and inhospitable terrain.

Everyone was ordered to wear simple clothes and live in a modest manner. Men were required by law to grow beards and get their moustaches trimmed. Ostentation in all forms was banned and it was forbidden to put money to wasteful use. It was also expected that no one would seek to live in comfort or ease. All luxury goods from city stores were ordered confiscated, including refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, overhead electric fans, cooking stoves, irons, and china and glassware. Even the use of the toothbrush and toothpaste was forbidden. People were advised to use the young green twig of a certain tree to clean their teeth. It was the opinion of the mullahs that this habit increased the user's oratorical skills.

The sale of other modern and new-fangled inventions such as radios, TVs, telephones, tape recorders, record-players and cameras was also banned. It was declared that electric power was haraam, or not permissible to the believer. All foreign or foreign-seeming soft drinks such as Coca Cola and Pakola were declared illegal.

No structure higher than the Jamia Masjid, the seat of government, was allowed to stand, and any buildings which went beyond the specified height were ordered demolished to the extent of infringement.

Since it was feared that the continued presence of ambassadors and missions from other countries would affect or influence the nationals because of the different value systems of these foreigners, they were told that they were no longer welcome to stay. They were advised that in case there was need for bilateral consultations on some important state matter, they would be invited to return for the purpose.

The Majlis-i-Shoora laid down a deadline of thirty days during which all Muslim citizens were to adopt the Islamic way of life. Anyone found transgressing the Islamic way after that date was to be excommunicated.

Watch the city from here

Faiz Ahmad Faiz's Yahan Se Shehr Dekho

Those shadows shimmering around the distant lamps:

Who knows if these are assemblies of pain or

gatherings of wine and drink

Those scattered colours on every wall, every door:

The distance doesn't divulge

if these are petals or blood

Translated from Urdu by Bilal Tanweer

Siah Hashiye

Saadat Hasan Manto

The Garland

The mob suddenly veered to the left, its wrath now directed at the marble statue of Sir Ganga Ram, the great Hindu philanthropist of Lahore. One man smeared the statue's face with coal tar. Another strung together a garland of shoes and was about to place it around the great man's neck when the police moved in, guns blazing.

The man with the garland of shoes was shot, then taken to the nearby Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

Modesty

The rioters brought the train to a stop. Those who belonged to the other religion were methodically picked out and slaughtered. After it was all over, those who remained were treated to a feast of milk, custard pies and fresh fruit.

Before the train moved off, the leader of the assassins made a small farewell speech: 'Dear brothers and sisters, since we were not sure about the time of your train's arrival, regretfully we were not able to offer you anything better than this most modest hospitality. We would have liked to have done more.'

Ritualistic Difference

'I placed my knife across his windpipe and, slowly, very slowly, I slaughtered him.'

'And why did you do that?'

'What do you mean why?'

'Why did you kill him kosher?'

'Because I love doing it that way.'

'You idiot, you should have chopped his neck off with one single blow. Like this.'

And the kosher killer was killed in accordance with the correct religious ritual.

Ungrateful Lot

'What an ungrateful nation! After all the trouble I underwent slaughtering fifty pigs in this mosque and what happens? Not one bloody customer! And do you know, on the other side there are people queuing outside every temple to buy beef?'

Pathanistan

'You, stop at once, who're you?'

"I… I… !'

'You offshoot of the devil, at once… are you Indoo or Musalmeen?'

'Musalmeen.'

'Who is your Prophet?'

'Mohammad Khan.'

'Let the man go.'

Losing Proposition

The two friends finally picked out a girl from the dozen or so they had been shown. She cost forty-two rupees and they brought her to their place.

One of them spent the night with her. 'What is your name?' he asked.

When she told him, he was taken aback. 'But we were told you are the other religion.'

'They lied,' she replied.

'The bastards cheated us!' he screamed, 'selling us a girl from our own faith. I want our money refunded.'

----

One is enough. Break the counting-frames,

forget hell's terrors and its flames,

purify your dreams and desires,

belief and unbelief are just names.

Truth stands in the hall.

One point settles it all.

In prayer why abrade your forehead?

Away with it, tear down the façade

of morality. Causing people pain

is the only sin you should dread.

The writing is on the wall.

One point settles it all.

To the same jungle the hawks repair

and seed by seed they scrounge there;

in this their energy is spent,

and they are left gasping for air.

Prayer is body's gall.

One point settles it all.

From a pilgrimage some have returned,

but any merit they may have earned,

despite humility in dress,

in percentage and shady deals is burned.

Truth stands too tall.

One point settles it all.

Enough of

Learning, Friend

Excerpted from Bulleh Shah's Ilmon Buss Kareen O Yaar

Such learning fools elevates

and some fresh bother creates,

is used to con illiterates

make vows with false intent,

Enough of learning, friend.

Mullahs mug their way to power,

and now are judge and juror;

and avarice grows by the hour,

and straight to hell you wend.

The Benighted

Bulleh Shah's Mullan Tae Mashalchi

Enough of learning, friend.

Mullah and torch-bearer come of one stock,

giving light to others, themselves in the dark.

(Translations from Punjabi by Taufiq Rafat)

A Few Days More

Faiz Ahmad Faiz's Bus Kuch Din Aur

A few days more, my dear, only a few days

Must we gasp in the shadow of tyranny

Bear oppression, writhe and weep.

This is our inherited condition:

Bodies imprisoned, feelings chained,

Thoughts captive and speech punished,

Yet we resolve to go on living.

Is life the coat of a pauper,

Hourly patched with scraps of pain?

But now the tyrant's term expires,

Forbear a while, the days of grievance wane.

In this parched wasteland of our age

We must remain, but something will change --

The anonymous burden of foreign hands

We bear today, but not always.

This dust of hardship blurring your beauty,

Defeat on defeat in our transient youth,

The futile anguish of moonlit nights,

Fruitless throbbing of the heart

And the body's wail of despair --

A few days more, my dear, only a few days.

Translated from Urdu by Ruth L Schmidt