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    LOK VIRSA: RESURRECTING A FORGOTTEN HERITAGE

    Written by: Aiza Azam
    Posted on: May 29, 2013 | | 中文

    Dr. Uxi Mufti

    Walking into Uxi Mufti’s drawing room is akin to being transported to a village deep in the heart of rural Pakistan, where artisans weave magic with their hands and folk legends of lore come to life. Observing a veritable cornucopia of folk craftsmanship, you try to absorb as much as you can before settling down to ask your first question. Interviewing a living legend can be intimidating. And when you’re talking to the man responsible for single-handedly bringing Pakistan’s folk culture to mainstream consciousness, you can be excused for a touch of nervousness. I begin with the basics: when was the Lok Virsa established?

    “The Lok Virsa has a chequered tale,” he says, having taken its first steps over four decades ago.” But the foundation, he relates, was laid a few years earlier in Charles University, Prague, where the young Uxi Mufti was working on a PhD in Philosophy.

    Dr. Mufti with tribal Baluch story-tellers
    Having read a profusion of literature by the most famous Western minds, both ancient stalwarts and contemporary ones, it was a chance encounter that led him to works by some of the greatest names from his own region back home. Names like Bulleh Shah, Khuaja Farid and Shah Hussain. “As I began reading them,” he recalls, “I was struck by the notion that these unlettered poets of the subcontinent were far ahead in their philosophic vision than the biggest names of European philosophy. I remember thinking, ‘Yeh bohat aage pohanche huye hain. They are far ahead of the likes of Nietzsche, Sartre, Hagel or Marx, or even any of the ancient Greeks.’” That encounter marked the beginning of what would be a life-long mission to raise folk culture to its true glory in Pakistan.

    In the early 1970s, having returned to Pakistan, Dr. Mufti was in charge of a program for Pakistan Television by the name of Lok Tamasha, a popular show that brought performances by folk musicians from all over the country to people’s TV screens. It was in this capacity that he went to see Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who was visiting Islamabad to establish the capital’s National Council of the Arts. Introducing himself to Faiz as the son of renowned Urdu writer Mumtaz Mufti, Uxi Mufti asked to lodge a complaint. “Aa bhai, kya shikaayat hai?” asked the great poet. Dr. Mufti said that the PNCAs established all over Pakistan were all geared towards the performing arts and none catered to the folk arts and folklore. When Faiz asked him who would be in charge of setting up such a department, Dr. Mufti declared himself ready to take on the responsibility. “I have an entire proposal that details a plan for establishing a folk art academy of Pakistan, and it would be based on skills and research.” Faiz accepted and forwarded the proposal, and Dr. Mufti was allotted a small house where he established the Folklore Research Center.     

    Allan Faqir
    The institution had humble beginnings. With a marginal staff of three, a monthly programming budget of Rs. 500, and a makeshift studio equipped with an arsenal of tape recorders from his personal collection, Dr. Mufti set about documenting the sounds of Pakistan’s unknown regions. He would have the artists featured on Lok Tamasha conduct their rehearsals at the Center. These included names that, at the time, were not even known regionally, such as Misri Khan Jamali, Allan Faqir, and Malang Charlie. Within a year and a half, he had amassed a huge archive of recordings. Things were progressing despite the constrained circumstances. But when Faiz left his post, the PNCA was reorganized and came under new authority. An uneasy institutional relationship and dwindling support for the Center defined the next few years.

    “I had a madness in me (an analogy he uses several times): to resurrect our folk heritage to its rightful place in our culture; to bring to prominence the tremendously talented but unknown individuals behind it; to bring back to our society an element it had deprived itself of for so long. And this madness would not be denied.”

    Consequently, in 1976, Dr. Mufti held the first Artisans at Work Festival on the premises of the Islamabad Club, under the auspices of his Center, which he had now renamed as Lok Virsa. The idea was to display folk craftsmanship to bring about public awareness, and on a platform that would allow folk art to compete with the various established and recognized brands of performing arts. Why call it a festival, though? “Because the vast majority of our people aren’t really fond of going to museums. Call it a festival, a mela, and they’ll come by the dozens with their families in tow! You see, most people,” he explains, “aren’t able to relate easily to ancient history. Besides, Pakistani culture is a living tradition and needs to be portrayed as such. It’s vibrant, energetic, not dead. It’s not pickles in a jar!”  

    The Festival proved to be a raging success with both locals and foreigners, and with his contacts in TV, he also managed to get solid media backing for the event. But a wrinkle surfaced when the head of the PNCA complained that the Center had organized an event that exceeded its purely research mandate. Abdul Hafiz Peerzada, the Minister of Culture and Education asked to see Dr. Mufti. When he explained his reasons, Minister Peerzada, for whom Dr. Mufti has high praise, saw Dr. Mufti’s work for what it was: a labour of love and a genuine desire to preserve the country’s folk heritage. He asked how the government could facilitate him. Dr. Mufti insisted that in order to be able to do his work properly, he required an independent institution with its own mandate. And so the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage, or the Lok Virsa, came into its own.   

    In institutionalizing the promotion of Pakistan’s folk craftsmen, Dr. Mufti felt it was key to remove the middle man, the cottage industry corporations that would buy the craftwork from their creators at nominal prices and then sell them at enormous profits, none of which made their way back to the originator. The platform he envisioned for them, what would come to be known as the annual Lok Mela, did not involve a mere kiosk to sell their product, but a craft workshop where they could give live demonstrations of their work. He saw it as part of a larger process of bringing ancestral traditions and delicately complex tradecraft to modern society and times. Not only would it bring it to the attention of swathes of the public that was unlikely to venture into it otherwise, but it also had the potential of attracting the commercial sector and providing the artisans financial benefit. “And so the wheels would begin to turn.”

    Artisans demonstrating their craft at the Lok Mela

    As Director of the festival, Dr. Mufti conceptualized an entire framework defined by certain principles.

    The craftsmen and craftswomen for the Mela were brought in by means of a rigid selection process: only qualified master artisans – who could prove it by giving a direct demonstration of their skill - were permitted to have a stall, which meant that craft dealers of all levels were strictly excluded. This stringent editing brought down criticism and immense pressure to bear from several sectors, but Dr. Mufti held fast. “I knew that allowing any commercial elements into it would change the color of the festival and it would lose its essence. That couldn’t be permitted and I refused to make any accommodation on this account.”  Then, participants were not made to pay an iota of money for attendance.  Their transportation to and stay in the capital for the duration of the festival was free; they were exempt from sales tax and they kept every paisa of the money they earned from the event.  In addition, Dr. Mufti insisted that the entire venture be non-profit, the only concession to which he made at a later date, on government prodding, with the introduction of a Rs. 10 entry fee.  

    For the duration of Dr. Mufti’s tenure at the Lok Virsa, these rules were adhered to. In 2002, he left the reins of Directorship at the institution he had built from a cornerstone and assumed the mantle of Project Director for the National Heritage Museum and the National Monument Museum.

    How does he feel about his legacy?

    “The thirty years of work and passion I invested in this institution were not only about bringing the neglected rural arts back into the mainstream, but were also part of a greater cause: to instill pride in Pakistanis in their own self, to remind them of where they come from. We must be rooted in our past, mindful of our ancestral heritage and confident of our identity if we are to establish ourselves successfully and earn respect in the modern world. I wonder if I have succeeded, because I still see us suffering from a lapse of memory, whether by default or by design.

    “Tell me,” he asks, “how many of the young generation would be able to recite a lori if I asked them to? I breathe heavily at seven decades of life, because I see the country I love with a passion suffering from an erosion of values and ideals. I have lived here and I intend to die here, but it is impossible to deny what we are doing to ourselves. We are losing our legends, our anecdotes, our lorian, in the chasm that defines the urban-rural split. And then we make it worse by neglecting to learn from and cherish those of our number who rank as pioneers, and have a lifetime’s worth of knowledge and talent to share. Whether it’s an ordinary man with the knowledge of cultivating indigo for dye - a lost art dating from the Harappa civilization - or it's Ustaad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who had to be recognized by foreign countries before we could accord him his due worth. Quo Vadis, Pakistan? (Where are you going, Pakistan?)”


    As the new year begins, let us also start anew. I’m delighted to extend, on behalf of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and in my own name, new year’s greeting and sincere wishes to YOULIN magazine’s staff and readers.

    Only in hard times can courage and perseverance be manifested. Only with courage can we live to the fullest. 2020 was an extraordinary year. Confronted by the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Pakistan supported each other and took on the challenge in solidarity. The ironclad China-Pakistan friendship grew stronger as time went by. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor projects advanced steadily in difficult times, become a standard-bearer project of the Belt and Road Initiative in balancing pandemic prevention and project achievement. The handling capacity of the Gwadar Port has continued to rise and Afghanistan transit trade through the port has officially been launched. The Karakoram Highway Phase II upgrade project is fully open to traffic. The Lahore Orange Line project has been put into operation. The construction of Matiari-Lahore HVDC project was fully completed. A batch of green and clean energy projects, such as the Kohala and Azad Pattan hydropower plants have been substantially promoted. Development agreement for the Rashakai SEZ has been signed. The China-Pakistan Community of Shared Future has become closer and closer.

    Reviewing the past and looking to the future, we are confident to write a brilliant new chapter. The year 2021 is the 100th birthday of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. The 100-year journey of CPC surges forward with great momentum and China-Pakistan relationship has flourished in the past 70 years. Standing at a new historic point, China is willing to work together with Pakistan to further implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, connect the CPEC cooperation with the vision of the “Naya Pakistan”, promote the long-term development of the China-Pakistan All-weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership with love, dedication and commitment. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan said, “We are going through fire. The sunshine has yet to come.” Yes, Pakistan’s best days are ahead, China will stand with Pakistan firmly all the way.

    YOULIN magazine is dedicated to promoting cultural exchanges between China and Pakistan and is a window for Pakistani friends to learn about China, especially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is hoped that with the joint efforts of China and Pakistan, YOULIN can listen more to the voices of readers in China and Pakistan, better play its role as a bridge to promote more effectively people-to-people bond.

    Last but not least, I would like to wish all the staff and readers of YOULIN a warm and prosper year in 2021.

    Nong Rong Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
    The People’s Republic of China to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
    January 2021