Shafqat Amanat thinks borders are good for an atlas, not art

Numerous artists have said it before him, but singer Shafqat Amanat Ali thought this bears repeating: The ongoing tensions between Pakistan and India has been fostered by governments, not the people. There is no reason for art to get involved.

He expands his point of view in an open letter on Indian Express, in which the Pakistani singer asked a simple question:

"Can we in Pakistan give up Kabir, Ghalib, Momin, Daag, Firaq and Rabindranath Tagore, or Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Pt Omkarnath Thakur, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Gangubai Hangal and Ajoy Chakrabarty just because they live across a line drawn on an atlas? And can anyone in India say that he will give up on Baba Farid, Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, Waris Shah, Sultan Bahu or Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Faraz and Intizar Hussain?"

"Lines on an atlas can only demarcate political boundaries. Music, art, culture, language, costumes, food habits and mutual love of a people stemming from the same civilisation can neither be demarcated nor divided," he had also written.

In the letter, Shafqat writes that a lot of efforts goes into fostering cross-border exchanges — efforts that have been undone by the hate-mongering taking place on social media and news channels. He says this has been detrimental to the spirit of the subcontinent.

"I believe art and artistes play the role of uplifting the collective consciousness of people, as they have always done over centuries and across the globe. We never think of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, R D Burman, S D Burman as Indian singers or artistes “from the other side”. We consider them our artistes and similarly, Pakistani artistes such as Farida Khanum, Abida Parveen, Noor Jehan and Mehdi Hassan have been loved by Indians as their own. This is evidence that art bridges gaps."

Warning of the consequences of stopping cross-border cultural exchanges, he ends his letter with a poetic plea: “Ek shajar aisa mohabbat ka lagaya jaye/ Jiska humsaye ke aangan mein bhi saya jaye (Plant a tree of love in your courtyard/ Which will lend its shade to your neighbour’s courtyard).”