Dancing girls, Jihadi boys

By
Harris Bin Munawar
-
29
151

The Dancing Girl of the Indus Valley Civilization was slender, subtle, sensual and naked. Lahore’s popular Nargis is voluptuous, bold, crude, and dressed so loud that her co-actors call her ‘pathano ki cycle’. The Dancing Girl clasps her hand, joining the tips of the thumb and the index finger, to make the traditional Indian dance posture that signifies a lotus bud. Nargis clasps her hand too, but slides the index finger down the thumb, to make a hole that signifies an invitation to copulation. The Dancing Girl is a figurine and cannot speak. Her hair, jewellery and posture are the media that mirror the social life of the Indus Valley Civilization about 4,500 years ago. Nargis is the queen of pun. She speaks loud and always accentuates social and moral dysfunction. Her jokes are the circus mirror of today’s Punjab.
What is common between Nargis and the Dancing Girl of India is their chin-up self assurance. Nargis is perhaps a degenerate form of the temple dancer that has come back to haunt us and avenge her suppression. If that is true, what will happen if we suppress Nargis?
Nargis and the theatre in which she and dancers like her perform is already in a constant state of crisis – as a medium (looming threat of police raids on vulgarity, blackmailing by tax authorities and fear of terrorist attacks) and as a message (miscommunication, broken families, mistaken identities and absurd plots).
Earlier this month, right before Eid-ul-Azha – the three-day feast that earns Lahore’s theatre industry a significant income – Nargis was banned for vulgarity. Vulgarity is considered by many Pakistanis as one of the primary reasons of the society’s failure. There is strong faith that it invites God’s wrath. There is no real logic to why violations involving women have more serious consequences than the rampant corruption in Pakistan involving men. In these politics of gender, Nargis is defenceless. Like many women before her – from the ancient sacrificial virgins to the more recent burnt witches – she is the scapegoat. The term scapegoat was coined by Tyndale in 1530, as a translation of the Latin word caper emissarius, which itself is a translation of the Hebrew ‘azazel’, read as ‘ez ozel’ – the goat that departs.
Eid-ul-Azha is the Eid of the annual ritual slaughtering of goats. A ritual is a re-enactment of a prior event, usually a myth. While a debate on the primacy of ritual or myth remains unresolved, a ritual in itself, as a cultural practice, is nothing but repetition and substitution. Theatrical practice started possibly with the substitution of an animal for a human sacrifice. Eventually there was no bloodshed at all, and only a re-enactment. Theatre artists, like Nargis, are descendants of priests in that sense. An odd kind of descendants of the sacrificial priests are the Jihadi groups involved in the contemporary practice of broadcast beheadings – slaughtering of humans in the name of religion. Most of those beheaded are labelled traitors and spies – impurities that are responsible for social and moral dysfunction.
The practice probably began with the videotaped beheading of American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. It “has grown into a more systematic tool of political expression”, according to one of the most interesting professors I’ve had the opportunity to study with. In his book, Fear of Small Numbers: an essay on the geography of anger, he sees the trend as a return to “the simplest form of religious violence, the sacrifice.” “My father’s Jewish. My mother’s Jewish. I’m Jewish,” Daniel Pearl had said before he was beheaded and his body was cut into 10 pieces. It looks like these boys have gone back full circle. If Nargis is Pakistan’s theatre, terrorist groups are Pakistan’s anti-theatre. In a way, they are two sides of the same coin.

The writer is a media and culture critic and works at The Friday Times. He tweets @paagalinsaan and gets email at [email protected]

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29 COMMENTS

  1. No dancercan compare to mujahids,such typeof dancers not faithfull,has weak character,selfish,moneygreedy but if they work for peace andwork for her country than this will be real heroine as mujahids are.

  2. Original way of looking at our culture. Good read.

    Some would disagree and present a simpler analysis; a substantial number of the apes of the Indus valley have evolved into the present species which though human in appearance, isn't.

  3. Excellent read! A fresh way of enlightening us, but in fact the drawing room chats did indeed raise the same issues. But i am glad you are able to educate or at least put forward your way (including mine and many others if not all) of looking at the grim realities of our 'culture' and 'religion' which have co existed, but have have failed to live in harmony.

    • So was this comment, total absolute waste of my time! Should not have commented I wasted like 10 important seconds of my life reading it. Further your comment disturbed me so much that I was unable to think clearly for about 15 minutes. Finally enlightened and followed your example by wasting even more time by commenting on whatever I found useless so wasted another few precious minutes!

      We have a choice sometimes it is best to exercise our right to waste our times sometimes not, but essentially it remains a personal choice.

  9. FOR GOD SAKE YAR AB KIS KO KIS SAY MILA RAHAY HO.MILITANT GROUPS KO CONDENMED HAMESHA SAY KIA JATA RHA HAI LEKIN AKHIR KIA WAJA HAY K INKA KHATMA NA KIA JA SAKA AUR IN FUTURE IS KI KOI UMEED HAI.waja boht sääf hai pakistan ka aik aam aadmi un say mohabat krta hai aik boht bari taadad hai aisi.last year Pakistan mein flood ki waja say lakhon log aik pal mein bey ghar ho gaye bey yar o madadgar.mein nay khud apni ankhon say dekha flood effected areas mein jamat u dawah,ssp aur iss tarah k aur goups din raat un ki madad mein magan rahay.un k doctors voluntry kam kartey rahay aur kai jaghon pe to army aur navy k sath mil k unho nay kam kia.ye mein nay khud dekha aur majority youth ki the.tasveer ka ye rukh bhai sahib aaj tak kisi nay dikhanay ki zehmat gawara nhi ki.ap ki govt. Apni zimadar pori nhi karti awam ko bey yaro madadgar chor deti hai to yahi log un ka hath thamay nazar aye.to jihadi groups ko ap nay jis tabqay say mila dia hai ye sara sar ziadti hai theek nhi.jihadi groups ko khud hum nay minhaisul qaum support kia hai aur aj kis k isharon pe dehshat ban gaye.

  19. Enticing comparison. As someone said earlier, thank you for enlightening us with such a fresh perspective.

    Ignore the cap-users, they're a waste of effort.
    & oh yes, Imran Khan could've fit in somewhere in the last paragraph. Akhir uski bhi koi fan-following hai tumhare column pe 😛

  20. Well, in the beginning of article, I was just thinking it as "good read stuff" but as it went on and on…I became mesmerized by its intensity…Haris simply outclass and critical…once again thumbs up for you

  21. >Imran Khan could've fit in somewhere in the last paragraph. Akhir uski bhi koi fan-following hai tumhare column pe 😛

    – Right! The last line is "In a way, they are two sides of the same coin." I could add "Speaking of change, Imran Khan isn't bringing any." 🙂

  22. Bushra makes a good point. Personally, however, I was mesmerised by Harris' beauty.
    I would pay to see him dance.

  25. Eid ul Azha should be banned. Pagan ritual of sacrificing innocent animals to Gods should be stopped. Its barbaric. It is different then killing animals for food. Eid ul Azha is about shedding blood only.

    Best thing is that it was Jewish prophet Isaac (Ishaq), son of Ibrahim who he intended to sacrifice. Muslim replaced it with Ismail who was a child born to Ibrahim without wedlock. Old & New Testament just know Isaac. Their is no mention of Ismail anywhere.

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