“If architecture is how we move through space, furniture is
how we pause inside it”.
Furniture can be viewed as a cultural narrative – a mirror of
personal identities, social interaction and the diverse societies and strata
within them. The layout of interiors determines how we walk, gather and
transition through a space. Furniture is said to be where architecture meets
the body.
Furniture can hold memories: a parent’s or grandparent’s
favourite chair, an heirloom, a childhood memory. Rooms are spaces to welcome others
and create new stories. The way furniture is arranged, and how comfortable it
is, can determines how people interact.
Japanese minimalist interiors are intentionally designed as
quiet sanctuaries that reduce sensory noise reflecting the Samurai code and controlled elegance. The Arab majlis rooms and the more elaborate
Persian diwans traditionally feature wall-aligned floor or low seating around
an open centre. Hand-woven carpets and cushions create a welcoming setting for
large gatherings.
The grand interiors of the Mughal Empire retained traditional
floor-based seating, enriched with luxurious textiles and intricately decorated
architectural elements. Stuart Carey Welch described the Mughals as “Among the
world’s most aesthetically minded rulers”. Fine silk and woolen pile carpets
were not meant for walking on. They defined seating areas for the emperor and
nobles, while allowing unobstructed views of the decorated archways, ceilings,
and exquisitely ornamented floors beyond.
Mughal miniature paintings depict these richly furnished interiors
- the Emperor’s Takht-i-Taus throne, the royal balcony or jharoka or the raised
platform beds of the khwabgah or place for dreaming.
The quiet elegance of the Mughal interior was disrupted by
the introduction of European furniture during colonisation. Chairs forced
people to sit upright, replacing relaxed cross-legged gatherings and communal
floor-sitting. Formal offices with imposing desks, conference tables with chairs
arranged in hierarchies, separated hosts from guests and the elite from
commoners, representing the power dynamics between colonisers and colonised. Desks
placed on carpets established British authority over the Mughals.
British Colonialists issued Kursi Nashin certificates to
loyal elite and landlords, granting them the privilege of sitting on a chair in
the presence of a British officer. In Pakistan, the word kursi (chair) may subsequently
have become a political metaphor for the determination to hold onto political power
at all costs.
The British introduced a very different conception of the
home, one divided into rooms with distinct functions – a drawing room for
guests, a dining room, bedrooms and a study with a desk and bookcases. Urban
Pakistani interiors largely absorbed the European-style furnishings in both
home and offices, while retaining traditional elements such as the jhoola swing
seat, the low piri seating, and the takht.
One of the most enduring pieces of furniture remains the
versatile charpai, said to have a 3000 year old history. The charpai is
multifunctional serving as a bed, a dining space, and for social gatherings. Its
portability has even made it suitable as a cloth-covered backdrop for
travelling puppeteers. Early film goers may remember Munawar Zareef wandering
the streets asking ‘mein manji kithay dhawan?’ - where can I set down my
charpai?. The charpai becomes a symbol of home and belonging.
A bride’s dowry may still include bedroom furniture and a large
sandook chest for her personal possessions- a complex symbol of her
independence as she begins a new life, and an object once passed down through generations.
Sadly, mass produced laminate with its shorter durability, cannot create family
heirlooms. Life is rendered temporary, its stories mere disconnected sentences.
Furniture plays an important role in the story telling of
Pakistani television dramas, cinema and literature. Furniture is never neutral.
Poverty is depicted through charpais, courtyards, and mud architecture, while
the well-to-do inhabit homes with grand staircases, sofa sets and dining rooms.
Author Ismat Chughtai made the quilt or Lihaaf a central
metaphor representing secrecy, intimacy, repression and protection. Manto’s
stories contain recurring objects such as charpais, broken chairs and hotel
beds. In Qurratulain Hyder’s Aag Ka
Darya, furniture represents the political transition from Mughal and Colonial worlds
to the post-partition era. For Intizar Hussain and Abdullah Hussein, furniture
speaks of nostalgia for vanished worlds.
Furniture becomes memory -an intimate conversation, a silent
witness, quietly holding the stories of those who once gathered around it.
Durriya Kazi
August 9,
2026
Karachi
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