Culture‘The Lahore Project’Discussion Forum Meeting

By Kamil Khan MumtazDated: Nov.14th 2012

Culture

Definition & scope Cultural Heritage Sub-sectors

Analysis History Present conditions, issues: assets, deficiencies

Proposals Objectives/Goals Policies Strategies Plans

CultureDefinition & Scope

“Culture is the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize a society or group. It includes not only arts and letters, but also modes of life, the fundamental rights of the human being, value systems, traditions and beliefs”

World Conference on Cultural Policies (MONDIACULT), Mexico, 1982

Cultural Heritage

o Heritage is everything received from the past. But everything received from the past is a pile of junk, a treasure trove; a historic document or a symbol with which we identify ourselves and the ‘other’.

o What we decide to conserve will depend on what we value and why.

Cultural Heritage

Traditionally: “the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize a society”

For Modernism: document validating its own evolution, progress and development. But the destruction of value systems, traditions and beliefs is collateral damage, the inevitable price of progress and development.

For Post-Modernism: investment opportunity and economic potential.

For Supremacists: signifier of the enemy. It must therefore be destroyed to make way for their own triumphal march.

Sub-sectors

o Historyo Geographyo Demographyo Florao Faunao Environment/ecologyo Economyo Transport

• Governance• Architecture• Arts• Food• Apparel• Entertainment• Religions• festivals

Analysis

History

o Hierarchic society presided over by a normative spiritual order. o Villains, rogues and scoundrels do raid and plunder the territories and

properties of others, and do scheme and conspire for power. But these are aberrations.

o The norm is “socio-economic peace, cultural diversity, interfaith harmony” premised on a shared world view.

o A diversity of artifacts in the homes and in the bazaars: beautiful buildings, exquisite metal ware, ornaments, armaments and astrolabes, illuminated manuscripts, carpets.

o But there is no “Art”. There are artisans and artificers, but no “artists”, no one who claims to be creative and original.

Present conditions, issues: assets, deficiencies

Things Fall Aparto British pull down outer walls of the city, moat filled up and made

into a garden. Southern wall of Fort replaced by esplanade opening onto the city. Eastern wall of Badshahi Mosque dismantled.

o Census found the diversity of its Muslim, Hindu and Sikh population reflected in the diversity of its educational institutions including schools, colleges and “universities”, and a literacy rate of 70 to 90 percent.

o By the time they left the diversity had been reduced to a single religious community and the literacy rate to less than 15 per cent.

the production of Arto But they left behind a School of Art where none

had existed before. The school produced a special kind of person – the artist – who arrogated to himself the prerogative of “creativity” and indulged in a special kind of activity called Art whose sole function was the production of Art. But something vital had deserted the streets and bazaars of the city.

transition from Tradition to Modernity.

o The encounter with the British Raj was not just another in the series of imperialist conquests. It was the replacement of one world view by another, a paradigm change, the transition from tradition to modernity.

“Post-colonial cultural discontinuity”

o In the resulting encounter between modernity and tradition in colonial and post-colonial societies, art was identified with the west, with modernity, progress, and development, while the crafts and tradition were associated with the past, the orient, primitiveness and backwardness.

civilizing mission of Colonialism

o Art and art writing were used to justify and give a moral gloss to the civilizing mission of colonialism, and continue to serve global capital’s neo-imperialist mission of bringing civilization, freedom and liberalism, to the people living under the tyranny of cruel, suffocating, barbaric traditions.

o This mission was adopted by the post-colonial state, for whom modernization was the route to economic prosperity, and by the ruling elites who were quick to align themselves with the colonial masters.

Icons of Domination & Resistance

The European bourgeoisie’s struggle against the established power of the feudal aristocracy and the church was a confrontation between modernity and tradition. Thus in the European context, the elitist icons signified tradition. But in the context of “post-colonial cultural discontinuity”, it is the trappings and accoutrements of modernism, along with western dress, western languages, western education, and values etc. that have become the elitist icons of wealth, power, domination and control, while tradition has become an icon of resistance to domination and control.

Proposals

Objectives/Goalso Conservation of our humanity and our environment

Policieso Any policy on culture must be related to the objectives of human

development as defined by a given society.o The modern and traditional definitions of development and what it means

to be human reflect two different world views. While the traditional world view has defined our humanity and sustained our environment for millennia past, the modern development paradigm has brought all mankind and life on this planet as we know it to the brink of disaster.

o We propose a cultural policy that is rooted in our traditions, is an integral part of a strategy for sustainable economy that takes into account our natural and human resources and the present global realities.

A National Strategy

“Cheap and Dirty” Economyo For the last sixty five years in Pakistan we have pursued the goals of

modernization, that is, economic prosperity through industrialization. o The result has been economic and social collapse.o In the technologically advanced countries industry has moved on to

very high levels of technology. At the same time, the green lobbies in these countries have prevailed upon their governments and industries to clean up their acts. One of the results of these developments has been that these economies are looking for markets /buyers/takers on whom they can dump their obsolete technologies. Another aspect of the “globalization” of capital has been that the rich are becoming richer, raking in super profits, by exploiting the vast pools of cheep labor in the less developed poor economies of the Third World.

o For countries like Pakistan this is the road to a “cheap and dirty” future.

Devastated Social Infrastructureo The modernization of the past sixty years has devastated our

social infrastructure to the point that “catching up with the west” on their terms is simply out of the question. We do not have the necessary infrastructure of education, power, communications, efficient state institutions and systems of justice, law enforcement, revenue collection, and governance. Even if we decide seriously today to put things right, it would require three or four generations just to rehabilitate our health and education sectors. Neither do we have the cash. Continuing to chase after capital from international funding agencies and investors will only drag us further into the debt quagmire.

A National Strategy

Sustainable Economyo Get real. Look to our real strengths, and the realities

of the global marketplace. o What has really sustained this country over these

past fifty years has been our agriculture and small and medium sized enterprises based largely on skilled labor and low-tech processes of manufacture.

o Our strength is our land and its people. This is what we have to build on.

A National Strategy

Sustainable Economyo as life in the technologically advanced countries becomes more and more

industrialized, and mechanized, there is, and will continue to be a growing market niche for hand-crafted products and organic agriculture.

o This is a niche we are well placed to exploit. We have the basic resources: land, sun, water and the traditional agricultural and craft skills. But ultimately, our greatest asset may be our “under-development”.

o Despite our best efforts we have not been thoroughly “developed” or “modernized”. As a result, we have retained vast reservoirs of traditional knowledge, practices and skills. These are the threads that link us with the deep wellsprings of traditional wisdom that have survived, interwoven into the tattered fabric of our “collective sub-conscious”, informing every aspect of our cultures, especially the arts - poetry, literature, music, dance, calligraphy, popular graphic arts, popular architecture and the decorative crafts.

A National Strategy

Sustainable Economyo Traditional manufacture of consumer products relies on natural, indigenous

materials and human resources, and simple technologies that employ animate and other renewable sources of energy. These technologies are therefore environment friendly and low cost (in the less developed economies of the Third World). But to capitalize on these advantages in the global marketplace our agronomists and framers will have to improve quality while re-introducing traditional methods of fertilizers, pest control and seed selection etc. Better animal husbandry, livestock and forestry will also be necessary to improve the quality of raw materials required for manufacturing hand crafted consumer products. Our scientists and materials technologists will need to improve the quality of raw materials such as cotton, wool, and wood, and standards of traditional skills, by tapping the wealth of traditional wisdom and re-introducing traditional materials and techniques.

A National Strategy

Intangible Heritageo It can be argued that while tangible heritage – the visual arts,

architecture and consumer products – represents the outer manifestation, the body of a given culture, but it is the intangible heritage – the performing arts, literature (including oral histories, myths and folk lore) and philosophy – that represents the core, the fountainhead from which flow the waters that nurture and nourish the body, while the water itself is the wisdom, the knowledge, the “science of the Real” that provides answers to the big questions (What is real? What is man essentially? What does it mean to be human? What is the relationship of Man to the Real? What is Man's function in this universe?).

A National Strategy

A Plan of Action

Critical Discourseo the prerequisite for any cultural renaissance is a

climate of free and open intellectual discourse, critical debate and spirit of enquiry. This may be initiated by a program of, symposia, seminars, debates, research projects, publications etc at the highest academic and professional levels through think tanks and universities;

A Plan of Action

Linkage of policies on culture, education and economy within a common framework at

the national and provincial levels; Network of centers

to provide supports for the promotion of traditional arts at the town level;

o research, documentation, analyses and conservation of indigenous cultures, including initial compilation of inventories;

o Provision of spaces and fora for intellectual discourse and critical debate with the participation of local institutions of higher learning;

o Dissemination of discourse through print and electronic media including establishment of culture (TV) channel;

o Maintenance of database inventories on master artistes and craftspeople

Raising of standardsat the professional level;

o workshops with practicing professionals;o recognition and monitory rewards for excellence;o Development and re-orientation of art education

curricula for professional colleges based on theoretical principles and practice of traditional arts;

A Plan of Action

Critical awareness at the popular level;o Integration of cultural awareness and practices into educational

programs and curricula at all levels from primary to post-graduate;

o Promotion through print and electronic media, including a culture channel;

o Promotion of live performances and participatory events such as festivals, fairs and special audiences;

o Exhibitionso Seminars and lectures for specific audiences: e.g. schools,

designers, users and consumers etc.

A Plan of Action

Utilitarian/applied Arts: Develop appropriate designs based on traditional

principles but applicable to contemporary needs of users and consumers;

o Scientific research and development to improve quality of relevant materials and appropriate technologies

o Marketing of consumer products: assist in connecting producers with consumers, traders, wholesalers, retailers, and end users, and advising on appropriate packaging and presentation;

A Plan of Action

Inventory of Cultural Heritage The basic inventories of cultural heritage should be

compiled at the town level;o Entries may be submitted by any citizen/resident of

Lahoreo The aggregate of Town Inventories will form the Lahore

Inventory o Inventories should be digitized and posted on an

interactive net portal or siteo Data should be linked to geographic location through GIS

mapping

A Plan of Action

‘The Lahore Project’Discussion Forum Meeting

PresentedBy Kamil Khan Mumtaz

Dated: Nov.14th 2012