16th Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) contemplates national identity on opening day

Author and art historian F.S. Aijazuddin introduced the 16th Karachi Literature Festival on Friday evening at the Beach Luxury Hotel, with an enlightening anecdote about the “phenomenon of Pakistaniyat” and the united narrative of Pakistan.

The theme of this year’s festival is ‘Narratives from the Soil’, and in his keynote address Aijazuddin pressed audience members to analyze identity and the connection that “Pakistaniyat,” national identity, has brought a nation half a century later.

“It is a defensive ethnicity, a claim to identity and a need to remember what we were before. Before we became the other,” he claimed at the start of his speech.

He reminded guests of KLF that this event brings together Pakistanis at home and those across the diaspora, as well as readers, writers, and speakers across the divided South Asian subcontinent as well.

Aijazuddin poetically shared, “We are like distant divorcees, able to meet everywhere except in each other’s homes.”

Writer and Urdu poet Asghar Nadeem Syed was also a keynote speaker on Friday evening with chief guest Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah concluding.

Foreign dignitaries and special guests in attendance included Ambassador of France HE Nicolas Galey, U.S. Consul General Karachi Scott Urbom and Head of British Deputy High Commission Karachi Martin Dawson.

16th Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) set to begin on Friday

Aijazuddin continued, adding that he hoped that writing is a means of bringing together divided nations, and that the KLF session on Bangladesh-Pakistan relations – scheduled for Sunday morning – is an overdue reminder.

“We were once siblings. All of us, were Indian by origin before. And In 1971, we became residual Pakistanis and unshackled Bangladeshis,” Aijazuddin reflected.

As a result of Britain’s colonization of Pakistan, its writers, authors, government, education, to name a few, have quickly adopted the English language. He said that this is the reality of countries that have been conquered, but it can have dire consequences too.

The art historian noted that mastery of the English language is “a ladder into the attic of the upper classes” and associated with success.

“Britain taught us English and also to look down on other tongues,” he said.

Pakistani writers continue to use English as their medium of messaging, but they are “conversing in a minority,” he added. This, he said, is troubling for the effectiveness of ensuring a united narrative.

“Over 200 million of us cannot read or understand what we have to say about us. So what about them? In another 25 years there will be 380 million of us,” Aijazuddin said in concern.

But, he argued, Pakistan does have a collective narrative. He surmised that as a literary community, the country and the authors and writers who developed from it have produced notable and radical work.“

“The English language may be the only adhesive holding us together,” Aijazuddin stated.

There is an immense potential for readership, whether in English or Urdu, provided that people can read.

KLF is free to attend and will host sessions at the Beach Luxury Hotel on Saturday and Sunday with a closing ceremony featuring keynote speeches from Urdu language expert Arfa Sayeda Zehra and journalist Mishal Husain.

Senator Sherry Rehman, author Kamila Shamsie and writer Omar Shahid Hamid are some of the speakers scheduled to attend.