Copyright by Gwendolyn Sarah Kirk 2016 The Dissertation committee for Gwendolyn Sarah Kirk certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Uncivilized language and aesthetic exclusion: Language, power and film production in Pakistan Committee: _____________________________ Craig Campbell, Co-Supervisor _____________________________ Elizabeth Keating, Co-Supervisor _____________________________ Kamran Ali _____________________________ Patience Epps _____________________________ Ali Khan _____________________________ Kathleen Stewart _____________________________ Anthony Webster Uncivilized language and aesthetic exclusion: Language, power and film production in Pakistan by Gwendolyn Sarah Kirk, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2016 To my parents Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible first and foremost without the kindness and generosity of the filmmakers I worked with at Evernew Studio. Parvez Rana, Hassan Askari, Z.A. Zulfi, Pappu Samrat, Syed Noor, Babar Butt, and literally everyone else I met in the film industry were welcoming and hospitable beyond what I ever could have hoped or imagined. The cast and crew of Sharabi, in particular, went above and beyond to facilitate my research and make sure I was at all times comfortable and safe and had answers to whatever stupid questions I was asking that day! Along with their kindness, I was privileged to witness their industry, creativity, and perseverance, and I will be eternally inspired by and grateful to them. My committee might seem large at seven members, but all of them have been incredibly helpful and supportive throughout my time in graduate school, and each of them have helped develop different dimensions of this work. I would like to particularly thank my co-supervisors, Craig Campbell and Elizabeth Keating, for their continual guidance, encouragement, and feedback in this particular project and throughout my graduate career. Kamran Ali also deserves a great deal of credit not just for encouraging me to work in Pakistan in the first place, but for supporting my project throughout the years and helping facilitate my research every step of the way; I owe a great deal to his kindness and generosity. Katie Stewart, Anthony Webster, Pattie Epps, and Ali Khan have all helped shape this research, and their varied interests and backgrounds have enriched it immeasurably. Other scholars and mentors v at UT Austin who have contributed to the development of this research include Kathryn Hansen, John Hartigan, Heather Hindman, Carla Petievich, Martha Selby, Nora England, Akbar Hyder, James Brow, Joel Sherzer, and the late, great Brian Stross, and if I could I probably would have added all of them to my committee too. I also could not have completed this research without an incredibly wise and kind group of student colleagues. Senior graduate students such as Maria Garcia, Simeon Floyd, Noman Baig, Danny Law (who definitely knows everything), Amber O’Connor, Abdulhaq Chang, Jenny Carlson, Mubbashir Rizvi, Nedra Lee, Hilaria Cruz, Emiliana Cruz, Raja Swamy, Isabel Huacuja, Hafeez Jamali, and Ryan Sullivant—acted as friends and mentors, playing perhaps an even greater role than my committee in shaping my approach to theory and research, and generally developing my anthropologist habitus. I am continually inspired as I watch them out in the “real world” accomplishing great things. This is not to belittle the contributions of my own 2009 cohort, who by chance or by the grace of some higher power proved to be maybe the most incredible bunch of budding anthropologists ever put together. Elizabeth Lewis, Sade Anderson, Sarah Ihmoud, Elizabeth Velasquez, Eshe Cole, Ernest Alba, Omer Ozcan, and Tathagatan Ravindran all helped show me how exciting, vital, and multifaceted anthropology can be. Perhaps none of these were as important as Chelsi West, who deserves special recognition for many late nights at Monkey Nest and Bennu and Flightpath and the “call center” in SAC, for last minute proofreads and peptalks, and of course for overall brilliance and greatness as a human being. Finally, Aimee Hosemann, Deina Rabie, Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Vasilina Orlova, Claudia Chavez, Robyn Dodge, Ayana Flewellyn, Julie Conquest, Ece Saltan, Maya Berry, Drea Brown, Susan Quesal, Elizabeth Bolton, and others have acted as vi soundboards, given feedback, and provided inspiration by sharing the variety and complexity of their own work. This research was largely funded by the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, and I want to acknowledge here not only AIPS’ financial contribution but also the importance their institutional support in Pakistan. Without the AIPS facilitating this research it would certainly have been poorer, and likely would not have been possible at all; with that in mind I’d like to especially thank Kamran Ali, Mark Kenoyer, Nadeem Akbar, Ghulam Rasool, and my wonderful traveling companion Amjad Farooq. Other friends and colleagues in Lahore have also contributed immeasurably to this dissertation. Conversations with Umar Anjum, Ali Nobil Ahmad, Ali Usman Qasmi, Muntasir Sattar, Najm Hosain Syed, Tariq Rahman, Zareen Suleiman, Sher Ali Khan, Ammar Ali Jan, Julie Flowerday, Grace Clark, and Nida Kirmani were invaluable in all stages of the research, from the earliest development, to its methodological hurdles, to the writing phase. Furrukh Khan deserves a very special mention as he is the one who introduced me to Maula Jatt so many years ago, and who has continued to encourage my research on Punjabi language and cinema. I also want to thank Saeed Bhutta for giving so generously of his time and resources to work with me on Punjabi language materials. I doubtless would have quit long ago if not for the support of my family: my parents Martha and Guy, my brothers Andrew and Alex, and the grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles who have unceasingly supported and encouraged me along the way, and mostly refrained from asking me whether I’m done with school yet. Friends like Evan Monez, Ashley Jones, Laurie Duncan, Chelsi West, Liz Lewis, Walter Smith, Faiza Saleem, Claire Hansen, Nida Kirmani, and too many others to vii name, kept me balanced and sane throughout these years. And although all of the previous acknowledgements were in no particular order, I have of course saved the dearest for last: innumerable thanks to my husband and partner Abdul Aijaz, who is patient, kind, and steadfast, who encourages and believes in me, and who waters my soul when it is dry. viii Uncivilized language and aesthetic exclusion: Language, power and film production in Pakistan by Gwendolyn Sarah Kirk, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2016 CO-SUPERVISORS: Craig Campbell, Elizabeth Keating This study investigates language ideologies and aesthetics in Pakistan through an ethnographic study of the Punjabi film industry, known popularly as “Lollywood.” Punjabi is the mother tongue of about 45 percent of the Pakistani population and the most widely-spoken language in the most politically and economically powerful province, yet it has long been relegated to a subordinate position by hegemonic political and cultural apparati, which give preference to Urdu and English. Punjabi films, like the language, are heavily denigrated by the cultural elites (particularly the English-speaking upper class) as crude and vulgar. While most studies on film and language are textual in nature, this research hopes to join a burgeoning body of ethnographic work on cinema in finding new approaches to understanding film production, film culture, and the relationship of cinema to language politics. This dissertation asks how an ethnographic study of film—and specifically cinematic production—might contribute to a broader understanding of both cultural ix and linguistic practices. Specifically, I seek to explore the connections that emerge from and inhere in the relationships between the Punjabi language and the aesthetics, representations, solidarities, and social commentaries found in Punjabi popular cinema. Moreover, I argue that an examination of the particular kind of language used in film, the register I call Filmi Punjabi, is key to understanding how these issues are connected. Finally, I seek to explore what happens to a community of analog filmmakers in a rapidly digitizing world; how do they navigate the concurrent technological and aesthetic shifts that often seem to threaten not just their economic opportunities but also their filmmaking praxis and community networks? This project takes the cinema industry as a lens through which to investigate the relationships between issues such as class, ethnicity, and gender, aesthetic and moral hegemonies, and linguistic and cultural practices in contemporary Pakistani Punjab. x Table of Contents List of Tables xii List of Charts xiii List of Illustrations xiv List of Maps xv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Nostalgia, technology, and aesthetic exclusion 44 Chapter 3: Linguist on the film set 97 Chapter 4: Language ideologies and verbal art: the Punjabi barḥak 135 Chapter 5: Performative dialect leveling and the ideal cinematic Punjab 175 Chapter 6: Conclusion 212 Appendices Appendix A: Transliteration Scheme 218 Appendix B: Glossary 222 Appendix C: Cited verbal paradigms in original transliteration 224 Appendix D: Interlinear gloss