The incredible dance of Sheema Kermani 

 

As Sheema Kermani graciously swiped the air with her palms and gently touched the floor with her bare feet, I could not help but wonder about the connection of her rhetoric and the problematics of authenticity of one’s culture and identity that we had previously discussed in class.

In this blog I attempt to discuss the relationship between the potential closeness of what is seen as authentic in the construction of one’s identity and the constantly-evolving culture of resistance that Sheema Kermani represents.

 

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Pakistan is a nation that was painfully carved out of the Indian subcontinent on the eve of colonial independence, as Sheema Kermani puts it. In its search for a new identity, an identity that would be different from India and opposed to the Hindu identity, “Pakistan discarded all dance as they were considered Hindu and Indian and thus against the religion of Islam and the identity of Pakistan”, as Sheema Kermani adds. In other words, Pakistan has attempted to construct a paradigm of its own authentic identity by discarding its intimate and highly interwoven ties with anything and anyone that would make such a transition in its journey towards a united nationhood questionable, namely its historical ties with India and Hinduism.

What is Pakistani culture? is a question that has been asked since 1947.

The quest for an identity-inducing discourse was solidified with the rise of General Zia ul-Haq. What resulted, with all its wanted and unwanted consequences, was a very direct, all-encompassing and top-down imposition of values and norms on the people of Pakistan. Dance, along with many other artistic expressions of culture, was squeezed out of the ruling equation. The thought behind it was that Pakistan ought to have a new culture that is authentic as much as it is separate from the Indian one. Or, as Sheema Kermani says it, the state defined the newness paradoxically as not India because Muslim, thus creating the dilemma of sifting through a plural history.

Since every artistic form was mandated to educate the new generation on the basis of Islamic values, the notion of generating identity that is authentic and yet fully invented by the state brought me back to our in-class discussion on the authenticity of identity throughout history. In my understanding, identity and culture are not rigid forms that can be cut like meat. As if they are living organisms, they breathe and inhale people, customs, norms, values, historical events as they walk through history. Their unquestionable authenticity is, therefore, a man-made myth. Identity and culture cannot be put into an indefinitely rigid box where what is outside of the box is surely not a part of it, as opposed to what is inside the box. Lines are blurred as much as historical authenticities are what we make them to be, rather than what they historically were in their original time and place.

This is where a couple of questions that Sheema asks in her essay come as highly relevant. Are we unclear as to what to claim as our cultural heritage? How do we legitimize Pakistan? And, what is the Pakistani authentic culture? In an attempt to answer these questions, the ruling regime in Pakistan not only swallowed popular cultural expressions and forms, but also swallowed women.

Shema Kermani has been acting as a key figure in finding a place of dignity and respect for women in the Pakistani society through artistic forms, including dance.

Sheema Kermani’s opening performance at the NYUAD Arts Center

The arts reflect creative urges of the whole society, as she puts it eloquently. This includes dance, drama and music – all highly subversive forms of art. Any activity that induces people to think has been deemed suspect by the government that, in the construction of the Pakistani identity, could not allow for things to go south and out of their hands. Local traditions, customs and values that have existed among people – those same values that are awaken and addressed with performance – have been outlawed in the creation of a new identity for the nation. This is where Sheema Kermani found her place to act and has stayed ever since to include the community of all kinds into a conversation on what their values are and what they should be, especially in regards to the position of women. She has had equal success among low-income and middle-class audiences, which speaks to an inclusive universality of her message.

Within this, dance has induced complete freedom and expression of thought for her as an activist and an artist who lives her art. In order to change the way the rigid Pakistani identity has been built, she has attempted to deconstruct it and examine and interrogate the bad parts that put the society at an unenviable position. Dance is just one of the tools of conveying a message that makes people think and develop their own agency in the production of an authentic cultural identity.

 

 

 

Sources:

“Confluence”; Sheema Kermani, dancer, activist and advocate of Indo-Pak peace (blog), 2016

Kermani, Sheema; Gender, Politics and Performance in South Asia: “Magical Thirty and One Years”, Oxford University Press, 2015