A Tale of Two Cities
Bustling rickshaws and trotting donkey carts engage in and out of dogfights, like rats scrambling for cheese in a dusty maze of narrow streets. My analogy reverts to animals for obvious reasons. This is only one scene, among numerous others that I happened to have witnessed this week when I fought my way through a street in the old city that sells bamboos. Several such dogfights are fought everyday on the notorious yet innocent streets of the old city of Lahore, also known as shehr. One must submit – these heroics qualify for nothing less than a stunt. Here, one rule stands paramount above all others: if you find a gap – fill it.
Although the written word has almost always failed to paint the true picture of such vicious traffic, the fundamental precautions on entering Lahore’s very own ‘urban jungle’ should be made clear for inexperienced drivers: on entering the old city it is wise to remember that road signs are myths; traffic signals are absent or either lost in clouds of dust; the man desperately flapping his arms, almost invisible in the brown haze is a policeman gambling with his life only to somehow give direction to your navigational crisis; the size of your vehicle will measure the level of your safety, where smaller is safer and four eyes are better than two. Welcome to shehr where to jab, cut, pull, push, shove, honk and moan will constitute the order of the day.
Not so far away from the havoc and migraines of traffic another world with contrasting norms has settled in the dust of the old city and presents itself as the true heart of Lahore with little or no allusion to indigenousness of course. It is the less noisy chunk of the city where traffic lights are obeyed and unexpected craters in roads are not as common. The differences are contrasting not only in traffic, but also in cultural, social and economic status. Economically superior and culturally westernized, the modernized side of Lahore caters to a class that finds gratitude in keeping abreast with western trends and culture.
Economic and cultural disparities dissect Lahore into two separate cities; the very idea of two cities within one prompts us to compare the two sides. A glance at our history can help us understand when and how this disparity came. The colonials, on their arrival to India, dismissed Indian culture as secondary to their own and that sentiment of being ‘second-class’ regrettably still lurks in our society. As a result, we have become a people averse to our age-old values and customs. This neglect of culture begets a cultural gap, conveniently filled by foreign elements of fashion, trends and so on. Slowly, the modernization fever spreads across the masses and eventually an entire population looses its sense of identity and morphs into a modern day western colony. Such are the unfortunate mechanics of westernization. Thankfully, foreign influence remains almost negligible in the old parts of Lahore.
But how long will colonial legacies undermine cultural development in Pakistan? How long will we bleach our brown selves to look pretty? Will we ever be proud of our own values and customs, our own identity? I do not know, but a sell-able, viable, if a little hopeful theory I once thought is as follows: the legacies left by the colonials can soon become remnants of a past, mentioned only in anecdotes narrated to history students. How? Well, if notions of inferiority, those that were set in our society by colonials, are replaced by a modern day neo-colonial power, one with progressive ideas of liberty, democracy and freedom, then adopting a foreign culture (euphemism for adopting ‘the American life’) sounds attractive, even though it comes at the cost of your own true culture. It is a little far-fetched for a vision I suppose, but a vision none the less.
A hint of this image can already be seen in Pakistan. As for the colonial legacy, shopkeepers still proudly proclaim “foreign ka maal hai” (this good was made outside Pakistan). At the same time, we see that a child who would have a few years back grown up eating bhutta’s and pani puri’s now has a Big Mac in his hand. The transition seems quite apparent: colonial legacies are soon going to fade and economic prosperity for lower and middle income groups will bridge the gaps created by social hierarchies and notions of a second class culture. Pakistan must capitalize on this mass invasion of modernization and extract those specific elements of western society that drive economic development.
As a society, it is important for us to keep our culture intact while we absorb the positive aspects of western societies, such as gender equality, freedom of speech and basic human rights. Thankfully, western culture has not yet dissipated into the old parts of Lahore which is an attraction, not only for tourists but for Lahoris themselves (those settled on the southern side of the canal).
Although the written word has almost always failed to paint the true picture of such vicious traffic, the fundamental precautions on entering Lahore’s very own ‘urban jungle’ should be made clear for inexperienced drivers: on entering the old city it is wise to remember that road signs are myths; traffic signals are absent or either lost in clouds of dust; the man desperately flapping his arms, almost invisible in the brown haze is a policeman gambling with his life only to somehow give direction to your navigational crisis; the size of your vehicle will measure the level of your safety, where smaller is safer and four eyes are better than two. Welcome to shehr where to jab, cut, pull, push, shove, honk and moan will constitute the order of the day.
Not so far away from the havoc and migraines of traffic another world with contrasting norms has settled in the dust of the old city and presents itself as the true heart of Lahore with little or no allusion to indigenousness of course. It is the less noisy chunk of the city where traffic lights are obeyed and unexpected craters in roads are not as common. The differences are contrasting not only in traffic, but also in cultural, social and economic status. Economically superior and culturally westernized, the modernized side of Lahore caters to a class that finds gratitude in keeping abreast with western trends and culture.
Economic and cultural disparities dissect Lahore into two separate cities; the very idea of two cities within one prompts us to compare the two sides. A glance at our history can help us understand when and how this disparity came. The colonials, on their arrival to India, dismissed Indian culture as secondary to their own and that sentiment of being ‘second-class’ regrettably still lurks in our society. As a result, we have become a people averse to our age-old values and customs. This neglect of culture begets a cultural gap, conveniently filled by foreign elements of fashion, trends and so on. Slowly, the modernization fever spreads across the masses and eventually an entire population looses its sense of identity and morphs into a modern day western colony. Such are the unfortunate mechanics of westernization. Thankfully, foreign influence remains almost negligible in the old parts of Lahore.
But how long will colonial legacies undermine cultural development in Pakistan? How long will we bleach our brown selves to look pretty? Will we ever be proud of our own values and customs, our own identity? I do not know, but a sell-able, viable, if a little hopeful theory I once thought is as follows: the legacies left by the colonials can soon become remnants of a past, mentioned only in anecdotes narrated to history students. How? Well, if notions of inferiority, those that were set in our society by colonials, are replaced by a modern day neo-colonial power, one with progressive ideas of liberty, democracy and freedom, then adopting a foreign culture (euphemism for adopting ‘the American life’) sounds attractive, even though it comes at the cost of your own true culture. It is a little far-fetched for a vision I suppose, but a vision none the less.
A hint of this image can already be seen in Pakistan. As for the colonial legacy, shopkeepers still proudly proclaim “foreign ka maal hai” (this good was made outside Pakistan). At the same time, we see that a child who would have a few years back grown up eating bhutta’s and pani puri’s now has a Big Mac in his hand. The transition seems quite apparent: colonial legacies are soon going to fade and economic prosperity for lower and middle income groups will bridge the gaps created by social hierarchies and notions of a second class culture. Pakistan must capitalize on this mass invasion of modernization and extract those specific elements of western society that drive economic development.
As a society, it is important for us to keep our culture intact while we absorb the positive aspects of western societies, such as gender equality, freedom of speech and basic human rights. Thankfully, western culture has not yet dissipated into the old parts of Lahore which is an attraction, not only for tourists but for Lahoris themselves (those settled on the southern side of the canal).
posted by khiju at 3:01 PM
5 comments
