Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies

Raja, Masood A.

Contributors to this Issue

Akhtar, Rizwan

Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (2011) 
 
 
The Mystic Dancers of Punjab 
 
By Rizwan Akhtar 
 
Rolled in orange and green chadars 
dervishes dance to the metallic balls 
clanging around ankles; iron-wristed, 
knee-jerking, necks clogged with beads 
they stamp the earth  with their heels  
and the earth’s heart crack 
tongs-clasped chanting verses  
they whirl to become the circumference  
of time measured in braided ringlets  
touching their patched faces; children clap  
to Dhamal*, and copy their limbed world;  
the saintly melody turns into a solemn 
crescendo as they surround their murshid,* 
love becomes a cradle in which they sleep 
with smoke-tinged fragrance of agarbattis* 
the whole world drowns for the one Man  
the kafis and songs shape 
the mud-smelling Punjabi poetry. 
 
  
*Sufi trance dance 
* Arabic word for ‘guide’ or teacher’ 
* a kind of incense 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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English

The Mystic dancers of Punjab

Martin, Taffy

Review, Rococo and Other Worlds by Afzal Ahmed Syed

Waterman, David

Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 2, No. 3 (2010)
Pakistan – Terre de rencontre (Ier-VIe siècles): Les arts du Gandhara. Musée Gui-
met, musée national des arts asiatiques, 6 place d’Iéna, 75116 Paris. www.guimet.fr 
The exposition runs from 21 April to 16 August, 2010, in collaboration with the Na-
tional Art and Exposition Center of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn: www.
bundeskunsthalle.de and the government of Pakistan. Pakistan – Terre de rencontre 
is a modified version of Prof. Michel Jansen’s and Dr. Christian Luczanits’s earlier 
conception, entitled “Gandhara. The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan. Legends, mon-
asteries, and Paradise,” which was earlier displayed in Bonn, Berlin and Zurich.   
Pakistan � Terre de rencontre � L’art du Gandhara
By David Waterman
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Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 2, No. 3 (2010)
 This magnificent exhibition brings together over two hundred works of art, 
sculpture for the  most part, on loan principally from the museums of Lahore, Pe-
shawar and Swat, although some pieces come from further afield, notably Taxila 
and Karachi. The central theme is, as the title in English makes clear, the Bud-
dhist Heritage of Pakistan, although the French title chooses the larger historical 
background of rencontre, or meeting / exchange of cultures. Those who have read 
Nadeem Aslam’s 2008 novel will immediately recognize Gandhara as the region 
of northwest Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan where The Wasted Vigil is set, 
a detail which the organizers have not overlooked – the French translation of the 
novel is on sale in the gift shop. We learn, from both the Guimet exhibit and The 
Wasted Vigil, that Gandhara is where the Buddha was first represented with a hu-
man face, although given the multiple influences in the region, it is perhaps more 
appropriate to insist on the plural: human faces.   
 Historians have called the art of Gandhara “the child of an Athenian sculp-
tor and a Buddhist mother” (Le Guide Pratique 2), a largely forgotten child re-
discovered at the end of the nineteenth century with the recognition of the multiple 
influences on the art of the region: Indian, of course, and Greek (including the 
intervention of no less than Alexander the Great), never forgetting Persian, Scyth-
ian, and Parthian influence and later conquests by the Huns, Genghis Khan, and the 
Mughal empire (Le Guide Pratique 3). Under Kanishka, the most illustrious of the 
Kouchan emperors, around 120 BC, mutual tolerance was the rule, with the result 
that, for several centuries afterwards, “Buddha and Zarathustra cohabit temples and 
monasteries of Greek design” – even the coins of the realm reveal the diversity of 
cultural pressures, depending on which side of the coin one examines (Le Guide 
Pratique 3). The representations of the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas are no less 
diverse, what Pierre Cambon calls “naturalism which makes reference to the world 
[…] a Hellenic Orient,” where a typically Indian Buddha may be dressed in Greek 
or Persian fashion, or even more striking, where Siddharta fasting is the skeletal 
image of a starving man, retaining none of the Buddha’s characteristic ample flesh 
(Connaissance des arts 7). The Guimet exhibit provides a wonderful opportunity to 
see firsthand the life of Buddha in all its diversity, and to become acquainted with 
the multiple faces of the Buddha(s) from Gandhara. 
 Even as the current exhibition draws to a close, the Guimet’s permanent 
collection offers a very complete sampling of the art of Gandhara, thanks primar-
ily to the archaeological missions of Alfred Foucher (1895-97), Louis Barthoux 
(1923) and Paul Pelliot (1906-08; see Connaissance des Arts page 7). And a final 
note: At the moment, the contemporary Pakistani artist Rashid Rana is displaying 
about twenty of his photomontage works under the title “Perpetual Paradox,” here 
and there surprising visitors to the permanent collection with an interesting and 
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Waterman
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Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 2, No. 3 (2010)
112
Waterman
provocative juxtaposition of styles; Rana’s interrogation of the role of images as the 
building blocks of how people think, and ultimately create reality, makes his œuvre 
an example of political art at its finest.  The website warns, “This exhibition con-
tains images that may offend sensitive viewers,” but not to worry. There is nothing 
offensive in Rana’s “Perpetual Paradox,” although viewers may be troubled by the 
realization that we are all part of the big picture, hence each of us shares a bit of the 
responsibility for such dislocations, illusions and paradoxes. 
 Special thanks are due to the exhibition’s Commissaire, Mr. Pierre Cambon, 
as well as to Ms. Hélène Lefèvre, Director of Communication, for their assistance 
and kind permission to reproduce the accompanying images, not to mention the 
helpful staff of the museum who went out of their way to answer numerous ques-
tions during my visit on 17 July 2010.   
Works Consulted:
Aslam, Nadeem. The Wasted Vigil. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. 
Connaissance des arts. Les arts du Gandhara. Pakistan – Terre de rencontre (Ier-
VIe siècles). Paris: Société Française de Promotion Artistique, 2009. ISSN: 
1242-9198.  
Gandhara, ou le visage de Bouddha. Le Guide Pratique de l’Exposition. Paris: 
Paris Match. No other publication data given. 
http://www.guimet.fr/Pakistan-Terre-de-rencontre-Ier   Accessed 3 July 2010.
http://www.guimet.fr/Rashid-Rana-Perpetual-Paradoxe   Accessed 21 July 2010. 
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Pakistan -- Terre de rencontre -- L'art du Gandhara

This article deals with the Pak- US Relations during the time of Ayub Khan, the first military ruler of Pakistan, whose rule lasted from 1958 till 1969.Â

Iqbal, Muhammad

Khalid, Samia

Pakistanâ€™s Relations with the United States During Ayub Khan's  Period

Pakistaniaat Vol 2, No 1 [Urdu Works not included]

Hashmi, Shadab Zeest

Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 2, No. 3 (2010)
When their eyes locked
she saw paper
acres 
of sweet milled paper 
The field had melted
from green to copper 
pulp to gauze
A hush was falling
She bolted from the gaze 
Upset her inkpot
A rich black 
soaked
through the chewed up cane 
stain of cynosure
on the day’s lost wages
A Scribe 
Is Visited by a Jinn 
in a Sugarcane Field
By Shadab Zeest Hashmi
115


A Scribe is Visited by a Jinn in a Sugarcane Field

Manion-Fischer, Deirdre

Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 1, No. 1 (2009)
Hyder, Qurratulain. River of Fire. New York: New Directions Books, 1998. 428 
pages, ISBN: 978-0-8112-1533-6.
 Though written about half a century ago and “transcreated” into English 
from the Urdu in 1998, Qurratulain Hyder’s Aag Ka Daria (River of Fire) provides 
new challenges to students from North American universities. The novel tells the 
story of the personal quests of four main characters across two millennia of Indian 
history. Gautam, Kamal, Cyril, and Champa appear as different people throughout 
history. The second half of the novel takes place in the present day, the time of 
writing, within a decade of Partition, and represents its psychological impact on the 
characters.  
 What do North American students know about the history of India? They 
know Gandhi’s life story, perhaps from the 1982 filmstarring Ben Kingsley. And 
thus they know of India’s independence from Britain along with Partition and the 
violent conflicts between Hindus and Muslims. The latter they hear of in the news. 
They probably saw Slumdog Millionaire, which portrays a riot scene. They may 
have heard of sati, the custom of widow immolation allegedly ended by the mor-
ally upright Europeans. The sources of knowledge, then, for the averagely informed 
North American student, include movies, television, and if they are lucky, univer-
sity courses.  
 Hyder’s novel provides little context to the story that would inform readers 
unfamiliar with the cultural history of India. They must approach it from a posi-
tion of at least some background knowledge. The novel thus encourages students 
to further research the history of India, in order to better understand the story. The 
novel becomes even more complicated because it subverts previous knowledge of 
India such students may posses. In the mainstream media, over and over, narratives 
of economic strife and the lingering effects of colonialism are buried in favor of 
philosophical, religious or ethnic differences, guiltless explanations of conflicts. 
The story of post-partition violence between Hindus and Muslims might be familiar 
to students in the United States, but an earlier history is less so. Students familiar 
Reading River of Fire as a North-American Student
Reviewed by Deirdre Manion-Fischer
51
Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 1, No. 1 (2009)
with the Western cultural tradition of grand narratives extending from the history 
of Ancient Greeks and Romans through the sweep of European history, up through 
basic American and British literature have not been much exposed to the histories 
of other nations. However, just from reading the novel, students  learn that other 
cultural histories exist, as complicated and contradictory as their own, which are 
equally important in shaping the present situations of other parts of the world. 
 North American students can more easily relate to other aspects of the nov-
el. Though the timescale of the novel spans two millennia, much beyond a human 
lifetime, anyone can relate to each of the characters’ personal quests and emotion-
al attachments. Relationships between the four main characters, Gautam, Kamal, 
Champa, and Cyril change throughout the course of the novel. Their changing re-
lationships stand in for the progress of the course of history, the river of fire. Much 
that happens in history is doomed to be forgotten, leaving only fragments. For ex-
ample, Hyder represents certain details that are picked up later, like the statue of 
Champa that Gautam created around 400 BC during the time of power struggles of 
various Mughal emperors, which is then seen in a museum by the characters in the 
present time. For many of the characters, art, music and learning were important. 
They concerned themselves with unrequited love, their economic security, and their 
sense of identity as it related to their nationality, their religion, and ethnic group. 
The characters possess certain traits that carry through their various iterations: Gau-
tam, an artist; Cyril, a representation of the conflicted colonizer, Champa, a proud 
yet displaced woman, the object of love who comes into her own by the end; and 
Kamal, a misfit and a Muslim. 
 In the course of history and for the characters, Hyder represented Partition 
as one trauma in a series of traumas. Partition happens in the space between chap-
ters, as if the author considered her audience already familiar with the events. In 
the second half of the novel, which deals with the “present time” of writing, a few 
more characters appear. Hyder’s contemporaries criticized her for focusing on the 
upper middle classes and leaving out the physical violence of Partition. However, 
this aspect of Partition had already been adequately captured and described by oth-
ers. Instead, Hyder chooses to represent the psychological impact on her characters. 
She wrote from her own experience, of being in her early twenties at the time of 
Partition. One of the characters, the journalist Talat, interviewed Oscar Wilde’s 
granddaughter, the Queen’s beautician, as did Hyder, while working as a journalist 
in London. Another strong female character, Champa Ahmed, longed to --yet never 
did -- fit in among the other main female characters because of her lower class. She 
couldn’t hide her disdain for them. Near the end of the novel, when some members 
of the group of friends begin to relocate to Pakistan, while she remains behind in 
London, Champa wanders to different places she used to hang around, such as a 
52
Manion-Fischer
coffee house and the BBC Canteen, announcing her name. No one knows who she 
is, and this upsets her, though she knows her actions seem ridiculous. 
 The emotional center, or climax of the novel, occurs when Kamal, as a Mus-
lim in India, realizes he has become “stateless.” He must confront the fact that his 
connection to his own country, India, has been  literally severed. What else could 
define his relationship to the country of his birth? Kamal feels he has nothing left. 
In Pakistan too, he fears the mistrust of those more “at home” than he. Anyone 
could recognize his anguish, even  those who have not endured  something similar. 
My own experience of growing up in Quebec during the referendum in 1995, the 
only serious discussion of secession in North America since the American Civil 
War, seems barely comparable. As an Anglophone born in Montreal to American 
parents who spent part of her time in Ohio, I had somewhat more than the usual 
difficulty with national identity. If Quebec had separated from Canada, I would 
have felt as Kamal did, a stranger in the land of my birth. It seems crazy to imagine 
such things happening here and now in the West, which Kamal and his friends went 
through and which exist in living memory for many  in India and Pakistan. Ameri-
can students know the bloody history of their country’s Civil War, but that belongs 
to a far-off time. Hyder’s book makes history present, not in the actual memories of 
her characters, but in their collective cultural memory, which they cannot quite for-
get. Histories are not merely composed of grand narratives. Ordinary people must 
live their lives and establish their identities in times when such narratives become 
unstable.  
53


Reading River of Fire as a North-American Student

Turner, Mehnaz

Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 1, No. 1 (2009)
1. 
I ask my mother about Apa’s painting 
in English, she answers in Urdu, then it’s 
my turn to speak, but there at the crosswalk 
between Lahore and Los Angeles, I pledge 
allegiance to nothing though sometimes
I mix the two languages, even throw in a little
high school French, or the Arabic I learned
reading the Quran, my nine-year old head draped
in a scarf pulled from my mother’s dresser.
I peer up at the canvas: ocean waves thrash
an archipelago of rocks.  My mother tells me
Apa painted it before I knew how to say 
fish or pani or Pakistan, before I became
this chest of torn up maps.  In my body the Pacific
edges into Islamabad, Hollywood’s lodged
in the throat of the Punjab.  My grandmother’s
painting lives in this garage in Woodland Hills, 
propped up against a box of fashion magazines.
The image speaks in twelve shades of blue, 
like a storm of languages without a tongue.
The sight engulfs me, unpledged.
The coastline shadowed–no words, no light. 
2. 
The coastline shadowed–no words, no light.
The sight engulfs me, unpledged.
The image speaks in twelve shades of blue,
Apa’s Painting
By Mehnaz Turner
63
Turner
like a storm of languages without a tongue.
My grandmother’s painting lives in this garage 
in Woodland Hills, propped up against a box 
of fashion magazines. In my body the Pacific 
edges into Islamabad, Hollywood’s lodged 
in the throat of the Punjab.  My mother 
tells me Apa painted it before I knew 
how to say fish or pani or Pakistan, before 
I became this chest of torn up maps.  I peer 
up at the canvas:  ocean waves thrash an archipelago 
of rocks.  I ask my mother about Apa’s painting 
in English, she answers in Urdu, then it’s my turn 
to speak, but there at the crosswalk between Lahore 
and Los Angeles, I pledge allegiance to nothing 
though sometimes I mix the two languages, even 
throw in a little high school French, or the Arabic 
I learned reading the Quran, my nine-year old head 
draped in a scarf pulled from my mother’s dresser. 
64


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Contributors to this Issue

The Mystic dancers of Punjab

Review, Rococo and Other Worlds by Afzal Ahmed Syed

Pakistan -- Terre de rencontre -- L'art du Gandhara

Pakistanâ€™s Relations with the United States During Ayub Khan's Period

Pakistaniaat Vol 2, No 1 [Urdu Works not included]

Contributors to this Issue

A Scribe is Visited by a Jinn in a Sugarcane Field

Reading River of Fire as a North-American Student

Apa's Painting

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