The Jaipur Literature Festival — which has grown from a modest literary gathering to one of the world's most star-studded literary extravaganzas — was mired in controversy last week. Its organizers hoped to solidify its position as one of the world's premiere literary destinations by having Oprah Winfrey, among others, as a special guest. But Oprah's attendance was overshadowed by the events surrounding Salman Rushdie, who was forced to cancel his appearance at the Jaipur Lit Fest, as it is often called, when issues of his own safety were raised by police reports suggesting a gang from the Bombay underworld were coming to kill him.
The gangsters were thought to have been empowered by the protests against Rushdie's visit from students of the nearby Darul Uloom Deoband Islamic seminary which had asked the government to not grant the author a visa (incidentally, he didn't need one) as he had allegedly hurt religious sentiments of Muslims with his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses. (In the end the gangsters, it seemed, were a figment of two Rajastani police officers' imagination, who, by choosing the path of least resistance, concocted the story into to frighten Rushdie into not coming.)
Further controversy followed when writers, wanting to express solidarity with Rushdie by reading from The Satanic Verses, were stopped doing so by festival organizers. One of those readers was Ruchir Joshi who has written a thoughtful, candid and angryaccount of his experience at the festival. Joshi suggested that the festival's organizers "were merely keen to get us troublemakers off the premises." Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar have also written accounts of their experience. (Lit fest organizers William Dalyrmple and Sanjoy Roy defend their actions here and here.)
The integrity of the festival — now reckoned to draw 50,000 people — and its long line of corporate sponsors, seemed to some observers of greater priority than both the principle of free expression and the defense of a writer and his book from angry people who in every likelihood have never read Rushdie's novel.
Oprah was also overshadowed by the appearance of Nation Books author Fatima Bhutto, whose discussion on Pakistan with historian and sociologist Ayesha Jalal drew as many, if not more, attendees than Oprah. (Watch the panel, moderated by Karan Thapar, with a cow in an adjacent lot mooing in chorus.)
But it was a panel moderated by Bhutto, "Writing and Resistance," that offered a poignant reminder of what a literary festival — beyond celebrity, beyond gossip, beyond self-congratulation — can and should do. It featured the Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh, Burmese writer Thant Myint-U, and the Kashmiri journalist Iftikhar Gilani — all writers who have in one way or another confronted the brutality of state power — and explored the relationship between writing and activism.
Bhutto began the discussion by invoking these imperishable lines from Ryszard Kapuściński's 1982 book, Shah of Shahs:
All books about all revolutions begin with a chapter that describes the decay of tottering authority or the misery and sufferings of the people. They should begin with a psychological chapter, one that shows how a harassed, terrified man suddenly breaks his terror, stops being afraid. This unusual process, sometimes accomplished in an instant like a shock or a lustration, demands illuminating. Man gets rid of fear and feels free. Without that there would be no revolution.
Bhutto asked her panelists: Is that harassed man a constant in your writing?
The discussion that followed circled back to this question. It also examined these questions: Why is writing regarded as secondary to physical resistance? What kind of fraternity can exist between writers and the space of resistance? What is the role of a writer in a resistance movement (both Gilani and Shehadeh suggested that resistance movements without intellectual guidance can descend in to chaos).
At one moment Bhutto recounted Gilani's experience of having books by EM Forster confiscated by the Indian security forces and then paused and asked the panel, "What is so dangerous about books?" to which Gilani replied, "The danger is never in the book, only in the mind of the security people."
When asked about the similarities between resistance struggles across the world, Shehadeh suggested that it was a privilege for a writer to be involved in struggle because that experience allowed one to emphasize with struggle and suffering elsewhere.
A serious subject for discussion, but the mood was lightened by Gilani's witty accounts of cricket games played inside the Indian jail where he spent eight months in 2002 and his suggestion that all writers, perhaps, should spend some time in prison.
Oprah might have been the big attraction at Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday, but a few metres away a packed house got a glimpse of two famous visitors from across the LoC.
Controversial Pakistani author (and Benazir Bhutto's niece) Fatima Bhutto and renowned historian Ayesha Jalal spoke about the complex dynamics of India's ever-turbulent western neighbour at a panel featuring a huge audience - and a very vocal cow.
'A nod of agreement from a cow,' said panel moderator and television talk show host Karan Thapar, after a loud 'moo' interrupted Bhutto's assertion about the immense gulf that separates the powerful and the ordinary in Pakistan. 'That's a very holy thing in India.'
The cow would make itself heard a few more times after the first 'moo,' particularly joining in with the audience's loud applause when Bhutto made clear her distaste over the rise in popularity of another Pakistani who is well-known on this side of the border.
'Is he (Imran Khan) a saviour?' Bhutto asked and answered her rhetorical question, to sustained applause, with a 'No, I don't think so.' She listed a number of strikes against the World Cup-winning playboy cricketer-turned-politician whose anti-establishment message has been gaining tremendous popularity.
'As a woman, I worry very much about Imran's politics. I worry about a person who voted against the Women's Bill in 2006,' Bhutto said, informing the audience about the legislation that attempted to amend - to some extent - a Pakistani law that holds rape victims guilty of adultery.
She questioned Imran's credentials as a genuine alternative to the current political class, saying he didn't seem to be any different from the pro-Army, pro-Islamist characters who dominate Pakistani politics. On a lighter note, she also critiqued the effect the former cricketer is having on the country's punditry.
'We've got this enormous country with so much in it, and we only seem to be able to talk in cricket metaphors,' Bhutto said to laughs. 'It's embarrassing.'
The problem with Pakistan, for Bhutto, is that the political class is too far removed from the issues that affect people on the ground - the lack of food, devastating floods and the conspicuous absence of energy distribution.
Jalal, who teaches South Asian history at Tufts University, agreed. She pointed out that despite Khan's apparently unending support, his party had already began making compromises by accepting politicians who didn't share his outsider status.
'I don't see a major change. What we see is parliamentarians and politicians seeing him (Imran Khan) as the horse to bet on,' Jalal said. 'Which will hurt Imran. It will tie his hands.'
As an alternative, Jalal suggested that Bhutto could get into the political game. 'Fati can join a party. I will join her,' Jalal said, before Bhutto interjected saying she wouldn't do that.
'The difference between Pakistan and India is in terms of structures and institutions,' Jalal said. 'India has institutions that function. In Pakistan, the only institution that functions is the army. What you're witnessing now is that uncertainty because change is in the air. Still, I think that the army will continue to be the final arbiter for years to come.' It was grim thought to carry back home.
Jaipur: Allaying any fear of military coup, Fatima Bhutto said that the days of army rule in Pakistan is over now. “In the eyes of most Pakistanis, army is discredited, especially after the Abbottabad incident where Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed under the nose of the army by American soldiers. Moreover, army support to Americans in Afghanistan has not gone well with the average Pakistanis,” said Bhutto, attending the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday.
Talking to Karan Thapar, another panelist Ayesha Jalal said that Pakistan army will continue to play an important role in the decades to come and it will be the final arbitrator in running the government. On Pakistan army’s need over US, she said that it’s the army which is most dependent on Americans. “But any action against the Haqqani network by Pakistan army is very unlikely,” she stressed.
On the growing popularity of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, Bhutto said that the emergence of Khan has once again demonstrated the personality-based politics in the country. Rubbishing the theory that Khan is the future of country, she said that he could not be a saviour of Pakistan. His coziness with military and his defence of General Zia-ul-Haq’s legacy are well known to every one, added she.
Jalal said that though Khan has been plausibly projected as a good leader, he lacks organisational base.
Thiruvananthapuram. Ms Fatima Bhutto, grand-daughter of former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and niece of slain former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, said trade between India and Pakistan is around USD two billion.
Ms Fatima Bhutto, who is in the city as part of the fourth edition of the Kovalam Literary Festival at Kanakakunnu palace here, said ”out of USD two billion, our volume of trade is a fraction, a single digit of the business that we do with strangers.” ”Described as ‘grim’ ‘unnaturally small’, we account for less than 0.5 per cent of your trade and you account for a little more than one per cent of ours as of 2010,” she said.
”This wasn’t always the case – in 1948-49, 70 per cent of our transactions were with you and 63 per cent of your exports were to us,” he added.
”Lazy economists casually float that trade could rise to USD ten billion in five years, or may be six. Or really may be 15 years. That’s just not fast enough. Especially if you consider that studies have shown potential for formal trade is 20 times greater than what we have – we should be hitting 40 billion. You don’t fight when 40-42 billion is in the way,” she observed.
”Our destinies are inexorably linked, just as our pasts were, and as they were largely peacefully. It is this that we must insist upon that for the course of our future. Justice is not outside ours border, it is within them collectively, we have to find a way to bring it out and guard it, protectively, fiercely. Our generations depend on it,” she noted. Agency
Source: http://jaipur.co/trade-between-india-pak-around-usd-2-billion-bhutto/
Fatima Bhutto, a Pakistani poet and granddaughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, will be the star attraction of the fourth Deccan Chronicle-Kovalam Literary Festival to be held at the Kanakakunnu Palace here on October 1 and 2.
Fatima will deliver the sixth annual K.C. John Memorial Lecture and will also read from her latest book ‘Songs of Blood and Sword,’ which narrates the trouble-torn history of the Bhutto family.
Apart from her, a heady mix of writers from India and outside is taking part in the festival which will be inaugurated by the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah.
“This is the first time Fatima is visiting Kerala,” said Binoo K. John, author and founder director of KLF. “We also have two major Israeli writers, Metti Lerner and Savyon Liebrecht, taking part in the festival.”
Further, noted writer David Davidar will read from his latest book ‘Ithacca’ and will interact with the audience.
Lovers of literature will also get to hear Anuradha Roy reading from ‘A Folded Earth,’ Ashwin Sanghi from ‘Chanakya’s Chant’ and Shehan Karunatileke from ‘Chinaman’.
Mohammed Hanif, the Pakistani writer who attracted much attention in the last instalment of the KLF, will present his latest work ‘Our lady of Alice Bhatti’ and Basharat Peer will draw the attention of the audience to the sorrows of Kashmir by reading from his ‘Curfew’d Night’.
Other writers slated to attend the festival are Kanika Dhill, poet Meena Kandasamy, Palash Mehrotra, and Suresh Menon.
THE NAMES MARCH DOWN the book’s cover in bold white print: “Granddaughter to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, executed 1979. Niece to Shahnawaz Bhutto, murdered 1985. Daughter of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, assassinated 1996. Niece to Benazir Bhutto, assassinated 2007.”
But when Fatima Bhutto took the stage at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, casual in jeans and a loose white blouse, she seemed determined to resist that introduction. “It’s not on my business card, actually, who I’m related to,” she joked. “You could just say Writer.”
It’s a fitting contrast. Fatima’s memoir Songs of Blood and Sword is a political history of the Bhutto dynasty in Pakistan, but it is also an expression of grief and an act of political defiance. In promoting the book, she is attempting to tear down the myths and deceptions that have defined her family for the last four decades.
The book recounts the history of the Bhuttos’ rise to power, summarising the wars with India over Kashmir, the development of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, the election of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as prime minister, the military coup by General Zia ul-Haq and the aftermath of Zulfikar’s execution.
Family documents and interviews with political colleagues shine new light on the power struggles between Zulfikar’s children after his death, as Murtaza and Shahnawaz plotted armed resistance against General Zia from Afghanistan and Benazir declared herself the political heir to the Bhutto legacy. Fatima doesn’t hesitate to accuse Benazir and her widower President Zardari of orchestrating Murtaza’s assassination, which she remembers in gut-wrenching detail in the opening and closing chapters.
At the same time, Fatima retraces her journey to gather up the scattered memories of her father’s life. The book chronicles the four years she spent studying old diaries and newspaper clippings, writing letters, collecting photographs, and travelling through Pakistan, Europe and America to speak with old friends and lovers. Writing Murtaza’s story allowed her to reconnect with the father she lost and discover the idealistic young man he once was.
“Bedtime stories were also about exile; they were also about dictatorships. I knew words like ‘junta’ in the first grade.”
At the festival, Fatima talked with Treasa Dunworth about her memories of Murtaza when they were living in Damascus. “He was a wonderful parent because it wasn’t just fun and games,” she said. “He also taught me about where I was and what had happened to Pakistan. Bedtime stories were also about exile; they were also about dictatorships. I knew words like ‘junta’ in the first grade, and I thought other children knew them but they didn’t.”
Growing up, her political awareness was heavily influenced by the populist ideals of her grandfather Zulfikar. “He was a part of the great promise for the country,” she said, acknowledging that he strayed from many of those ideals when he became prime minister. (Treasa suggested a parallel with President Obama, drawing a short laugh from Fatima.)
“The Bhuttos started politically as being very leftist and very socialist, about endogenous economic development and bilateral foreign relations, all these things that make young nations proud. And then somewhere along the line they went the other way and became sort of corporate and almost right-wing about where money went and how it was used, if in fact it was ever used.”
Her opinions of her family and of Pakistan have only been reinforced by her liberal education and the geopolitical events of the last decade. “I was in my second year of university in New York when 9/11 happened, and I was about to start work on my Master’s dissertation in London when 7/7 happened,” she remarked. “It’s amazing they let me through airports.”
Though she seems to rule out a career as a politician, Fatima is an outspoken critic of President Zardari and his exploitation of the Bhutto name. She explained that this one of the reasons she wrote such a revealing book. “We’re still living in their shadows in Pakistan; we still live based on how people think of them. The last elections that happened, I did a lot of door-to-door work. This woman said to me, ‘I’m voting for Benazir.’ And I said, ‘But she’s gone, she’s not here anymore.’ She said ‘Yes, you’re right, but I always voted for Bhutto.’ I said ‘Why?’ and she said ‘I don’t know. I just always did.’”
Fatima is also relentless in her censure of the United States for their interference in Pakistani politics since the Cold War, whether through defence agreements like SEATO and CENTO or developmental aid packages like the Kerry-Lugar Act of 2009, which provides $7.5 billion to Pakistan over five years.
“The list of conditions of what Pakistan has to do to get this money is humiliating to the extreme,” she said. “Richard Holbrooke, when he was still with us, used to come to Pakistan every three to six weeks just to check in on us and make sure we were doing what we were supposed to be doing. When the Kerry-Lugar bill started to become public, Pakistanis were very upset: ‘How can you impose these conditions on us to give us money? We don’t want it.’ He said, ‘Those who speak against this bill are against democracy.’ It sounded so… Bushian, if that can be a word.”
“Richard Holbrooke said, ‘Those who speak against this bill are against democracy.’ It sounded so… Bushian, if that can be a word.”
Less than two weeks after Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, the discussion seemed especially relevant. During the Q&A session, Fatima pointed out that the mainstream press were largely ignoring the fact that America is allowed to launch kill and capture operations on Pakistani soil whenever it likes. “Instead of talking about that,” she said, “we can’t turn around for stories of what Osama kept in his bedside table and what kind of videos he watched online and how many cricket balls were lost over the wall of his compound.”
It’s the latest in a long list of conflicting narratives that she grapples with in her political writing. There is the corrupt, paranoid government from the recent headlines of the War on Terror; and then there is Fatima’s Pakistan, a young nation fighting for true democracy. There is Benazir Bhutto the tragic icon, honoured and mourned as the first woman elected to lead a Muslim country; and then there is the power-hungry Benazir who colluded with Western powers and wore a hijab to curry favour with religious extremists.
The tension between the different roles Fatima plays—family member, witness, activist, journalist, historian—is the most compelling thing about Songs of Blood and Sword. Her powerful storytelling can make her life seem like a cross between a legend and a political thriller, but she leaves no illusions about the violence that tore her family apart. It gives her a perspective that can be challenged but must be considered.
Source: http://lumiere.net.nz/index.php/an-hour-with-fatima-bhutto/
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