The disappearing bookshops

A bigger loss than we can imagine

Last week, I came across a feature on an international broadcaster’s website titled “As Peshawar’s bookstore closes, isolation grows”. Reading through the feature, I experienced a certain hollowness in my heart and a strange nippiness in my bones. On the face of it, such developments seldom make the headlines in our country and are usually shrugged off as just another business failure while the whole country is going through a tumultuous economic period. But, for a person like me, for whom books have been a lifelong passion, the closure of bookshops sends chills down my spine.

With the shutters coming down on the third major bookshop of Peshawar within a time span of two years the fear of deprivation, ignorance, isolation and obscurantism sets in. Let me add that this is not supposed to be a tirade aimed at totting up the pessimism around us but then again we have little to cheer about on the literary front. There is a reason to be apprehensive. These are the times when words fail even us pen-pushers.

With every disappearing bookshop, the citizens of Peshawar are not only deprived of the wealth of anecdote, literature and progressive thinking but the already marred city takes yet another step down the darkest of roads. Whereas the need of the hour was to fill up otherwise fallow intellectual places, the city seems to be losing the battle against the rising tide of obscurantism which could only have been tackled with an alternative discourse (which literature is a great way of promoting). Alas, only a handful of people fathom the social ramifications the absence of these bookshops will have.

In my opinion, it is books that have kept the little bit of sanity that remains within our society that otherwise has made its peace with being intolerant and bigoted. Everyday our news channels telecast a running account of the social chaos that has seeped into our social fabric but they fail to shed any light on the reason behind it. Ah, the vagaries of sensationalism that so bedevils our media.

The absence of philosophy, art and literature will create a vacuum which will either be filled by the toxic textbooks that are in the bondage of a certain ideology or by hate literature which is distributed free in every nook and cranny of the country every Friday. We remain unmindful of the disaster of bringing up a swarming mass of bewildered youth who would also happen to be our next generation on a diet of conspiracy theories, twisted facts and muddled history.

Martha Nussbaum in her book “Not for Profit: why democracies need the humanities” states, “Nations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticise tradition and understand the significance of another person’s sufferings and achievements.” In our case, we won’t just be making machines out of our citizenry but Frankensteins and the current uptick in extremist outfits is a harsh reminder of the follies we had assiduously pursued in the past.

For a long time, we as a society have been rotting from the top. Our so called leaders, who enjoy positions of authority, themselves, lack true knowledge of human culture and philosophy. Has any one every wondered what kind of wealth do they posses in terms of knowledge and wisdom? They might be literate but are they educated enough to make wise decision that will ultimately trickle down to affect us?

If we as a nation take a dispassionate long hard look at our national institutions and our society we will find ourselves severely wanting. The breakdown of authority that we are witnessing these days is caused by a ferment of ideas. Ideas come from knowledge and knowledge some how stems from books. In a society where the scope and appreciation of creativity are fast fading, one can only wonder why anybody would care if a bookshop or two closes down. This portrays the real measure of this affliction.

In order to reverse the tide of obscurantism that is washing over our society, we have to inculcate one of the greatest antidotes to all this suffering and that is reading. Books are a remedy for those who are prone to despair; As Maugham said, “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from nearly all the miseries of mankind.” It is about time we unlock the intellectual potential of our citizens and invest in the nurturing of minds that will pave the way for establishing a pluralistic society.

As for the city of Peshawar, it has always remained a contested ground. But every time the city has come out stronger in preserving its intellectual space, which is but one of the city’s redeeming qualities. If the citizens in the past had not done what they did to keep the literary spirit of the city, the depth of the tragedies faced by the city would have been greater.

It is time that the literary circles of the city take a realistic view of the storm they are caught in and the fast approaching deluge.