Neighbouring phobia
By Amar Jalil
The blindfolded wizards within the government have off and on clamped ban on Indian TV channels.
(Strained neighbours do not sleep peacefully - a sufi saying).
More than 40 years ago, the wizards within the then Government of Pakistan clamped a complete ban on the exhibition of Indian films in Pakistan. The wizards did not foresee the devastating effect the politically motivated act would have on Pakistan.
Their modus operandi was that the Pakistan film industry required to be protected from competition for development. Has the Pakistan film industry developed during the last 40 years? What kind of stuff our film industry has dished out to the entertainment-starved people of Pakistan in the name of movies?
It is not within the purview of this essay to discuss the chemistry of Indian phobia among certain political and nonpolitical lobbies in Pakistan. We will not discuss whether the aversion and dislike for India is genuine. Or is it fabricated, made up, or propagated for some other motives? Someday, we would thoroughly examine the politics of India phobia and Pakistan phobia, that have ruined the faith of four generations in peace, harmony and everlasting friendship between the two next-door countries. No one can nurture healthy children on hate-syndrome.
Of various elements that interact in a society for social, cultural, economic and political development, two most-important elements are the masses and the politicians. Incidentally, the masses in multitude in both the countries constitute the lowest strata, and the politicians constitute the upper-most strata of the society in India and Pakistan. There can’t be anything common between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. The exploited and the exploiters do not dine from the same dish. As an identical phenomenon in the two estranged neighbouring countries, the poor keep on becoming poorer, and the rich keep on becoming richer.
There is nothing uncommon between the deprived masses in the two countries except that the Indian masses are politically responsive and mature, whereas four martial laws have plunged the Pakistani masses into abysmal disillusion. They do not react to any kind of political change in Pakistan. They are least bothered who rules them, and why! Pushed deep into poverty, they strive from dawn to dusk in search of food and shelter. On the political scenario in the two countries, efficiency and competence constitute glaring difference between Indian and Pakistani politicians. As compared to Indian politicians, filthy rich Pakistani politicians, baring a few, are proven incompetent and nincompoops. Thus, Pakistan has endured four martial laws in five decades.
When the wizards within the Government of Pakistan banned showing of Indian movies in Pakistan in 1962, there were about 2,000 cinema houses operative in the country. In Karachi alone, 80 cinema houses ran three shows daily, and four shows on Sundays and holidays. In Saddar, we had a number of high-class cinema houses, namely Palace, Rex, Rio, Mayfair, Capital and Paradise. Such cinema houses entertained Karachiites with excellent English films such as Viva Zapata, Ben-Hur, Samson and Delilah, One-Eyed Jacks, Lawrence of Arabia, Night of the Generals, Bridge on the River Kwai and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
The cinema houses are not merely auditoriums for showing films. A cinema house provides employment to a large number of persons. They include the machine operators, gatekeepers, ticket vendors, a team of managers, sweepers, painters, telephone operators, clerks, office assistants, accountants and chaiwala boys. The cinema houses in 1962 were the source of bread and butter for thousands of families all over the country.
A cinema house is like a shop. To remain functional it constantly requires merchandise. Movies are merchandise for cinema houses. The wizards did not take into account the number of films produced annually by our film industry. In 1962, perhaps 20 (maybe less) films were made in a year in Pakistan. How could you have kept operative 2,000 cinema houses in the country with the 20 films produced annually by our film industry? The ban on Indian films in Pakistan triggered the total collapse of booming cinema business in the country.
In no time, cinema-culture withered from Pakistan. The cinema houses gradually closed down. Thousands of employees in the cinema business were rendered jobless. Their families plunged into poverty. The wizards did not feel pushed. They kept justifying banning of Indian movies in Pakistan. When questioned by the press, they conveniently silenced the fault-finders with an obsolete cliche, “Old order changes, giving place to new.” Thereby, they meant that television had replaced films in the country. It was a totally absurd and ridiculous explanation. Far more films are being produced in the world now than were produced before the advent of television. The well-planned television systems in India have not put a slightest dent in the Indian film industry. On the contrary, television systems in India thrive on the 1,200 films produced annually by the Indian film industry.
The blindfolded wizards within the Government of Pakistan now in power have off and on clamped ban on Indian TV channels, specially when serious efforts are made to bring India and Pakistan closer to each other in a fold of friendship. What are they aiming at? Are they contemplating on showing us cheap, vulgar and obscene alien channels stuffed with nudity, sex and violence? You can’t falsify history. Aren’t Pakistan and India culturally more close to each other than any other country? Why do the wizards compel Pakistani families to watch the culturally diverse Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and American channels?
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