Lahore Literary Festival: The good, the bad, the beautiful

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While on paper the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) is a privately organised event, it has captured the public’s imagination as a platform which showcases our best selves as well as the literary and cultural heritage of our nation. As the event enters the public consciousness, it will inevitably raise expectation as well as its inseparable handmaiden – the disappointment.

The Lahore Litfest, it appears, forgot a very basic thing: Punjabi. The event was being held in Lahore and yet Punjabi remained absent from the two-day programme. This fact was noted by poets and intellectuals who attended the festival. They said that even Urdu was largely neglected in the festival, as there were only seven sessions in Urdu, among some 50 sessions over two days. The critics also lamented that the Urdu language writers remained largely absent from the spotlight.

“As the Taliban use the name of Islam to carry on their notorious agenda, on the same fashion these pseudo ‘so-called’ art lovers use the name of literature to present themselves as more liberal and moderate,” said Idris Babur, the editor of the Literary and Poetry section at Urdu Point, while talking to Pakistan Today.

He was of the view that the visitors at LLF do not have any interest in literature and they only come to have a ‘selfie’ with some noted writers and poets. He lamented that the organisers were just selling the names of some of the all-time classics to attract the crowd.

“How can you talk about Mir Taqi Mir or Iqbal in just a session of one hour?” he questioned. Babur, himself a noted poet said that the organisers are not serving literature or art by arranging hollow and fake festivals.

“Can the organisers explain why the axe fell on only the Lahore-oriented sessions when the festival was cut down by one day?”

Talking about the importance of such programmes, Lahore Litfest’s CEO and founder Razi Ahmed said “it’s important to reflect to the wider world that we’re not a country which is closing its doors, but we’re opening space that is going to allow us avenues for free thought and critical inquiry.”

Nusrat Jamil, a member of the LLF advisory board, told Pakistan Today that the festival received an overwhelming response by the public as people came in droves to attend the two-day festival.

“Punjabi was excluded from the festival because the schedule was shortened from three to two days due to security reasons. Our foreign dignitaries had already started to arrive and we could not refuse them participation in the sessions for which they had been engaged. We decided to cancel some sessions of Urdu and Punjabi with the consent of legendary Urdu poet Zehra Nigah Appa and historian Arfa Syeda,” she said.

She said that the event was being organised out of pocket and the organisers had not received a single penny from the government.

“The holding of LLF in such grave circumstances when it came close to being cancelled is a great achievement and it must be appreciated,” she said.

It merits a mention here that the Lahore Litfest is wholly funded by a prominent energy tycoon of the country every year.

Jamil also ruled out the notion that particular persons had an overwhelming presence in several sessions.

“Ahmed Rashid and Zehra Nigah participated in four sessions each so it would not be fair to accuse any particular individual of being on stage more than once,” she concluded.

2 COMMENTS

  1. The efforts of the organizers should not be undermined – pulling off such a huge event under circumstances is phenomenal. It is constructive to identify gaps, however that should be addressed not merely to the extent of words but by coming up with a solution i.e. organize similar events for different segments, and it may focus more on Punjabi/Urdu work. I hope we get to see more LLFs.

    • Exactly what was so phenomenal about it, may you us tell, sir? Empty bbok-stalls? Half-empty sessions, albeit with limited seating arrangement? Cancelled shows? Fake interviews? Disengaged audience? Now, please do not start blaming ''the poor ignorant public'' for it, because when was it anybody saw public inside quarter-to-four-stars hotel even!

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