Skip to main content

 

Changing the Narrative

Every person has a narrative. Most are inherited narratives of family, tribe, or nationhood, some related from generation to generation, some reflected publicly in surnames indicating a trade or a place of origin.

The Arabic tradition of Kunyat, rather than referencing an ancestor, is forward looking, honouring the next generation, adding Abu (father of) or umm (mother of) a first-born son or daughter.  It can also be a characteristic associated with the person, such as Abu Hurayra -“father of the kitten” who was known for his love of cats.  

Nicknames or pet names are given as a mark of affection or sometimes to distinguish between two persons of the same name such as Saghir Lamba or Saghir mota. Many of us grew up going to langray ke dukan, or had a relative called gori phuppo.

Aliases may be used to disguise one’s true identity. The Victorian novelist, Mary Ann Evans,  wrote books under the name of George Eliot to break into a male dominated literary world. Blues singers and Jazz musicians may be called Fats Domino or Blind Lemon Jefferson. The criminal world is filled with colourful names like Baby Face Nelson, the American bank robber, or Karachi’s own Kalu Current.

On a more grandiose scale, Tipu Sultan became the Tiger of Mysore, William I became William the Conqueror, and Prince Salim became Emperor Jahangir.

However, the difficulty arises when one wants to change the narrative. This can be either because one has out grown the previous identity, or want to dissociate from a group or even an ancestry. Detractors of Pakistan’s first President, Iskander Mirza, referred to his descendancy from the infamous Mir Jafar.

For an individual, creating a new narrative may take time, but it is in their own control to a large extent. Many migrants to USA anglicized names for greater acceptance. The actor Kirk Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch. Magician Harry Houdini was Erich Weisz and TV host Jon Stewart, simplified his name from Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz.

For countries to change an imposed narrative is far more complex.  Many African countries changed the names that were imposed during the colonial period. French Sudan became Mali, British East Africa became three countries - Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It has taken a genocide for Palestinian identity to be acknowledged.

Allen Ginsberg said “whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.” The broad sweep of calling countries developed or under-developed, first, second or third world, global north or global south, ignores the narrative of individual countries. Identifying USSR or now Russia, China, or Muslim nations as the bad boys of the world, is a controlled narrative.

Some countries have created their own successful narratives such as Japan and Singapore. Japan erased its image as a defeated nation of World War II to become a global economic power, Singapore from a trading post of the East India company to a global financial hub.

One of the most enduring ways to change the narrative of a country is through sharing its culture, and its art and literature. Cold War proponents would have us associate Russia with Lenin and Stalin, while it is really its writers, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, the music of Rimsky Korsakov and the Bolshoi ballet, artists Kandinsky, Malevich and Rodchenko that have inspired the world. Is Chile, its rulers, Pinochet and Allende, or the poet Pablo Neruda ? Is Columbia drug cartels or the novelist, Gabriel Garcia Márquez?   Are Latin American countries politically unstable, or the home of cha-cha-cha, rumba, samba, jive and salsa? Is Mexico a nation of would-be immigrants or artists like Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera?  No matter how often Modi violates human rights, India is seen as the land of Bollywood, ashrams and yogis. USA would have us believe the Cosa Nostra mafia of New York has been contained, but it has simply gone underground. Instead, Milton Glaser’s famous I love NY poster and Frank Sinatra’s song New York New York represent the city’s appeal. Europe has redefined itself as the champion of human rights, erasing its colonial past from school text books, and filling its cities with museums and performing arts.

Pakistan remains a globally diffident country, easy prey for believing the worst that is said of it. The suffix ‘-stan’, part of the name of seven countries including Pakistan, is used mockingly in fiction with names like Berzerkistan.  We laugh good naturedly at ourselves and add Guppistan to the list.

The words of Manto, Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Habib Jalib, N.M Rashid, Bulleh Shah and the many love stories of every province in Pakistan, remain largely unheard in the world, which sees Pakistan as a debt ridden, politically dysfunctional country that harbours terrorists. Is it not time to take back the authorship? Is Pakistan ready to share its rich tapestry of crafts, music, literature and art with the world?  

 

Durriya Kazi

January 13, 2025

Karachi

durriyakazi1918@gmail.com  

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

https://theconversation.com/at-once-silent-and-eloquent-a-glimpse-of-pakistani-visual-poetry-70544 ‘At once silent and eloquent’: a glimpse of Pakistani visual poetry February 13, 2017 6.55pm AEDT Author Durriya Kazi Head of department Visual Studies, University of Karachi Disclosure statement Durriya Kazi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above. Partners View all partners Republish this article Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under Creative Commons licence. Rickshaw poetry in Pakistan.  D.Kazi ,  CC BY-NC-ND   Email   Twitter 33   Facebook 239   LinkedIn 1  Print Whose mischief created a world of beseechers? Each petitioner is seen wearing a garment of paper This line from the famous Mughul poet  Ghalib ...
    Hidden Influencers   Socializing the young to uphold collective values and behaviour was once the responsibility of a family or tribe . While some communities still preserve traditional customs, such as the Pashtunwali code of hospitality in Afghanistan and North Pakistan, today that mantle has been wrested by the machinery of public communication – newspapers, television, cinema and social media. Our personal memories and impressions are interrupted by external influencers who tell us what to think and how to behave. In a consumer driven society, with its dizzying messages, it is easier to be told what to think as we silence our individuality with social inertia.   While history is full of individuals such as Abdullah  ibn Saba ' and Peter the Hermit,   who managed single handedly to create revolts or lead nations to war, today s ophisticated specialist organizations have stepped in. They manipulate our desires and fears using algorithms and ...

Decorated Trucks of Pakistan

International Institute for Asian Studies / Association for Asian Studies / Asia Committee, European Science Foundation First International Convention of Asia Scholars Leeuenhorst Conference Centre, Noordwijkerhout , Netherlands , 25-28 June, 1998 Panel: “ Shaking the Tree: New Approaches to Asian Art” / Session: Decorated Transport Decorated Trucks of Pakistan Durriya Kazi June 1998. Karachi Meaning is always in process, what has been called “a momentary stop in a continuing flow of interpretations of interpretations”. This paper pauses at some facts and some observations about decorated trucks of Pakistan , a subject that has elicited tantalisingly few studies. Pakistan is often presented geographically and thus historically as the corridor of land between the mountain passes that separated the near East from the plains of India . Less mentioned and more significant is its identity as the valley of the River Indus which has historically ...