Conclusion: Future Moves?

As I conclude this book, and contemplate the future moves of the bhānd, I learn that the senior bhānd Hajji Munir Hussain has passed away (2 February 2016). The bhānd mode that animates these pages is from his wisdom, wit and practice. But he left the world quietly, without an obitu- ary, ‘a king without fanfare’, gone the fakir’s way. During our last meet- ing in the summer of 2015, he took me around his house, which had fallen into disarray in the five years since we had last met: bookings were irregular despite the return to power of Munir’s former patron, the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N government. Unclear of what his future held, yet still pulling out stinging repartee on both the government and my research assistant’s fashionable spectacles, Munir reflected upon his elder brother’s death a decade earlier, through which he had worn a smile and put on a performance the very same day. He summarised: ‘what is apparent and what is hidden are different.’ I have respectfully left such personal struggles hidden, to instead foreground struggles and agency in performance. As these performers crack their slapstick at the prevailing injustices, the more we laugh with the bhānd, the more we heal, and the more bhānds triumph over adversity. The adversity is not in the forces of Islamism, as most scholarly accounts of theatre in Pakistan would have us believe. Instead, a body politic plagued by the legacy of colonial moder- nity, military dictatorship, geo-political uncertainty, an unequal economy exacerbated by the miserliness of the rich and cultural domination of the elite. Yet these are the very factors that perpetuate the bhānd’s feisty wit and generate innovative forms.

© The Author(s) 2017 197 C. Pamment, Comic Performance in Pakistan, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56631-7 198 Conclusion: Future Moves?

While Munir’s death is a great loss to the bhānd tradition, the bhand̄ mode continues to live on in different embodiments. This book has mapped these transformations in broad and significant strokes, from wed- ding performances, to popular theatre and contemporary television media. Here I wish to pause for a moment so as to not lose sight of the performers who are carrying this dynamic mode forward. Here I will consider smaller contemporary manoeuvres, performed by bhands̄ on the fringes of my nar- rative, which further gesture to future possibilities of this comic mode. Munir’s son, Waseem Abbas, as he grieves not only the demise of his father, but also the passing of the other half of his bhand̄ act, tells me that everywhere he goes in the neighbourhood, people ask where is Hajji Munir. He responds, ‘I am his ghost’ (Waseem 2016). This ghost is the phantom bhand̄ mode that travels with him, in the rickshaw that he has been driving for the last year to supplement his earnings. He weaves between the pajeros and donkey carts of the city, past the shiny new plazas, and down into the broken pot holes. Behind him, the whitening cream advert with which he has decorated his vehicle, parading the slogan ‘now Pakistan will turn white’ and tattooed with the Punjabi Jatt’s moustache, brings smiles across the hierarchies that divide the landscape, as this bhand̄ takes to the road (Fig. 1). Elsewhere, in Dharmay Wala village on the outskirts of Dipalpur, the bhānd Ustad Achi (Arshad Khan 1954–present), has been acting in the Dipalpur Arts Council’s theatre plays for the last 20 years (an extension of the repertoire mapped in Chap. 5), generating fame that secures his wedding invitations. He states, ‘juggats are our weapon’ in the theatre, the wedding and beyond. He exemplifies the power of his verbal ammuni- tion as he (the bighla) and his partner (the ranga) intercept a passer-by on his way back from the local hospital in the open village grounds. In this improvised interaction, the bhānds identify this prospective patron as an affluent ‘Chaudhry’, and take his presence near the hospital to indicate that his wife may be with a newborn child:

RANGA: I pray to Allah that colours be with you all the time. BIGHLA: You are great people, very tall people, you are having a son. CHAUDHRY: What’s your problem? This is not the first time we’ve got a son […] RANGA: Chaudhry! When your son is born, light comes. When our son is born, rust comes. Give some reward. BIGHLA: It looks like only bhānds’ sons are born because there is no light in the country! Conclusion: Future Moves? 199

Fig. 1 The bhānd Waseem with son, outside his home in Samanabad, next to his rickshaw. Waseem has decorated his vehicle with an advert, which reads ‘now Pakistan will turn white’, and features Zubaida, on whom Waseem has painted the jatt’s moustache (2015). (Photo: Claire Pamment) 200 Conclusion: Future Moves?

CHAUDHRY: Why don’t you do something else? RANGA: This is our ancestral work. What else should we do? CHAUDHRY: Why don’t you cut potatoes? BIGHLA: We have never seen a potato! (Arshad Khan 2009)

The reluctant passer-by provides the bhānds with a ‘high’ counterpart to play off their ‘low’ rusty predicament of electrical load shedding and poverty. While ‘Chaudhry’ tries to get rid of his assailants by urging them into the mundane task of cutting potatoes—this only gives them further ammunition— they suggest that they are so poor that they have never even seen a potato. As they hurl the potato back at the dull gentleman in their punch line, they assert their right to vail (reward), and deliver redress to the dark state of affairs, amidst load shedding and an unequal economy. The opprobrium allied to the bhānd: ‘Why don’t you do some- thing else?’ implies the work of the bhānd to be worthless, and is the social tension upon which Achi bhānd and his partner launch their comic weapons. In the village of Chakral (near Chakwal), Nasar Qureshi, discouraged by such stigma from his community and pressure from his family, has moved on to ‘something else’: a ‘respectable job’. While Achi asserts, ‘This is our ancestral work. What else should we do?’, Nasar has abandoned wedding performances in the face of social scorn. However, the bhand̄ mode lives on in Nasar’s work. Now he sells newspapers in the city, earning his com- mission by making juggats on the latest headlines. Similar to the satellite bhand̄ s of Chap. 6, the journalistic items of his newspapers serve as his ranga, as he explains, commenting on a news report concerning a local politician contesting elections: ‘When General Majid was fighting elec- tions, his election sign was a cycle and I used to shout: General Majid says “I’ve grown too old and I can no longer ride a bicycle”’ (Qureshi 2007). These bhānd practices, in both rural and urban locales, offer a micro- cosm for the extended canvas of larger transformations that this book has mapped, where performers shape-shift themselves through the factors that marginalise them. Pakistan’s bhānd culture far exceeds its often asserted categorisation as a ‘folk form’. The bhānd entails multiple forms. Through precedents in the Brahmin jester and Sufi wise fool, the bhānd works to delineate social hierarchies, while also liberating status distinctions with the humbling demonstrations of the fakir. This religiously affirmed base contributes to the bhānd’s survival. From the Muslim courts to the world of the bazaar, this comic mode has moved through diverse social, cultural Conclusion: Future Moves? 201 and religious contexts, even amidst the more rigid demarcations of British crown rule. The bhānd’s processes explain the perseverance of a dynamic mode, as performers battle with rigid classifications of caste and class, reli- gion and genre and taste distinctions carried over from the colonial period into twenty-first century capitalism. Within the context of these exclusionary frames, irreverent repartee, genealogical prowess, a topsy-turvy play with hierarchies and shape-­ shifting offer powerful tools in destabilising dominant culture’s attempts at regulation. This sees the bhand̄ penetrating a range of contemporary performance contexts. In the wedding, bhands̄ use their marginality in the capitalist structure to locate feudal residues in the elite and upwardly mobile, appearing in high ranks among the company of prime ministers, all the way down to the donkey carts of street performances. In the popular Punjabi theatre, performers respond to their cultural isolation in an ironic response to elite theatre, now populated by bhānd-like pairings such as householders and servants, begums and prostitutes, Euro-American capi- talists and dwarfs, as well as through transgendering practices, especially pronounced during the ban against women’s dance. More recently, bhānds have been drawn into the television media as peripheral items for comic relief, using their outsider status to open the monologic nature of the news and politicians’ rhetoric to public debate. As such, the bhand’s̄ trans- formations do not end here: the satellite bhānd boom is indicative of the bhand’s̄ penetration into politics and of the bhand̄ mode being activated by the public through an increased interest in political juggats in social networking media, through SMS, YouTube uploads and blogging patterns, as people try to bring sense to chaos. In society’s cracks and fissures, we find thebha nd̄ . There are also indications that the other side of the theatre hierarchy is beginning to take note of the bhānd mode’s dynamic potentialities beyond the Punjab. Shehzad Ghias (born 1989), who recently returned from post-­graduate theatre studies in USA, has set up a Karachi-based impro- visation group, named ‘The Bhands’ (2015–present), which draws upon the ranga–bighla pairing, status interactions and the guiding principle that ‘the target of the joke must never be the oppressed class’ (Ghias 2016a). Ghias’s project, with its attraction to the bhānd, signals an exciting break- down of the class/caste divide that has worked to exclude the bhānd from earlier periods of legitimate theatre. He asserts that he is striving ‘to create a new art form which combines the classical bhand with modern improv to create a new local art form, “bhand prov”’. (2016a) While it is too early to say if such appropriations will work, Ghias’s ‘classical’/‘modern’ frame, 202 Conclusion: Future Moves? implies a deferral of the bhānd to the past, much like what Bharucha has described as Indian theatre practitioners’ use of ‘the folk’ as an ‘empty vessel’ to be filled with modern content (1993, p. 198). Although Ghias sees the bhānd tradition in more fluid terms and has aspirations of col- laborating with hereditary bhānd performers, such interactions have not yet happened (Ghias 2016b). Considering the agility of this comic tradition, can anyone adopt the bhand̄ mode? Babbu Baral noted a few years before he passed away: ‘Anybody can become an artist but they cannot become so without learning through mirasis’ (Baral 2009). The bhand̄ -mirasi brings a genealogy, with a per- spectival logic, from the bottom-up, entangled in the marginalisation that generates performers’ wit. This viewpoint rips at the façade of the ‘modern’, and the underlying hierarchical imbalance, as Munir demonstrates:

All are beggars—the whole hierarchy. One is gentleman… one is kantel- man… Gentlemen are the children of Tony Blair. Kantelmen are the children of whores: fans of the gentlemen. They are the pseudo fops who pretend to be well read and scoff at the world. If you ask what degree they have, they’ll tell you FCF [First Class Failed]. Overconfident, they’ll wear [skin-tight fashionable] pants and piss next to the wall like you peel a banana. There is nowhere in any culture or civilisation or even religious books the authority on pissing standing and now it has become a fashion. (2007)

In this blunt elemental depiction, Munir offers a dissenting voice against the forces of cultural domination. He reverses linguistic and cultural hier- archy by playing with nonsensical rhyme; the English ‘gentleman’; repli- cates itself in the ‘kantel man’; a First Class degree becomes ‘First Class Failed’. English, the elite language, is here made low by the use of vulgarity and with this the elite stature of these English-speaking ‘kantel’ men is undercut. The elite are characterised as the children of whores, divorced from their culture and religion: ‘mimic men’ of a global order. Does this make the bhand’s̄ play unattainable for the gentlemen and kantelmen on the other side of the class hierarchy? Over the course of my interviews with Munir, my own status shifted from being referred to as the foreign outsider, ‘a daughter of Tony Blair’, to the more familial ‘beti’, Munir’s daughter, as we both tried to dislodge the social fixities. To play with thebha nd̄ , as we have seen in the political and journalist rangas on satellite TV, elites at wed- ding parties and rulers of Empire, means putting aside privilege, engaging in a disempowering process, and turning hierarchies on their head. Conclusion: Future Moves? 203

Not all comedy shares these traits. Emerging out of the cosmopolitan city of Karachi is a young crop of comedians. Aside from the aforementioned Ghias, are Saad Haroon, Danish Ali, and Ali Gul Pir, whose work (mostly in English) has captured the attention of US and/or UK audiences.1 With the increased international interest in Muslim cultures in general, and in Pakistan’s geo-political placement in particular, they are offering new insights about Pakistani culture and politics to an audience otherwise oversaturated by representations of suicide bombers and sectarian killings. The stand-up comedian Saad Haroon is the creator of various improvisation troupes (‘Black Fish’ and ‘Shark’) and the satirical ­television show The Real News, and came into the global spotlight with the music video Burqa Woman (2010). In this satirical remix of Pretty Woman, Haroon makes various attempts to woo a ‘mystery woman’ veiled in niqab, including by ‘practic[ing] flirting with his living-room curtain’, delivering punches at the forces of Islamism. This work has received a divided response, across the liberal/religious polarities of Pakistan, seen variously as a brilliant satire, and to others as an attack upon Islamic values that ‘play to the West’ (see YouTube comments in jpgrumberg 2010). Outside of Pakistan, Saad Haroon, along with Danish Ali, and Ali Gul Pir, have been viewed as an antidote to conservative Islamic Pakistan, with their work touring the US in State Department-funded programmes (Kwok 2012; Haroon n.d.). One wonders if these diplomatic opportunities will ever be open for the bhand̄ . If the English–speaking stand-up artists are presenting a soft face of Pakistani tolerance and liberalism, perhaps the bhand̄ dishes up harder truths that might unsettle the neo-imperial paradigms, as Amanullah suggests, playing a fakir character, and holding a begging bowl, in the popular Punjabi theatre play One Day Ishq (One Day Love, 2012):

POLITICIAN: Is this your election sign? (he asks the fakir who clings to a begging bowl) FAKIR: It is not just an election sign, it is our national sign. If you don’t believe me, go ask America. We are small beggars: ‘give in the name of Allah for the safety of your children’. But in Islamabad, the big beggars sit in aeroplanes! (Hamid khan 2012)

The audience in the theatre applaud loudly as they share the critique of Pakistan’s geo-political predicament at the whims of corrupt government officials in the capital city of Islamabad and their dependence on US finan- cial donors. 204 Conclusion: Future Moves?

Further probing the bhānd’s diplomatic prospects, performance scholar Joel Schechter reflects upon a daring political performance that took place in Afghanistan in 2010. Powerful global leaders met an impostor who said he was Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour (ca. 1968–2016), the Taliban’s powerful leader. After several high level negotiations with NATO, including American representatives, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the alleged Mullah disappeared. Schechter ponders over the possibility of whether this mysterious political actor may have been a shape-shifting bhānd, ‘deploying great acting skills, mastery of costume, movement, religious rhetoric and political jargon, and a superb sense of timing.’ (Schechter 2011, p. 8) While very unlikely, it is not absolutely improbable considering that a bhānd-bahurupiya of Rajasthan managed to fool his raja in thinking he was a crocodile (1986, p. 107); a bha- gat baz in the seventeenth century allured the sheriff into believing that he was a beautiful girl (Ghanimat 1925, p. 20–27); and recent satellite bhānds have appeared on Pakistani television impersonating the highly- protected American Raymond Davis after he had gunned down two boys in the streets of Lahore (Mughal_Thanil_Kamal 2011; see also MacAskill and Walsh 2011). Schechter proceeds to ask, if the Mullah was a bhānd, would the US interlocutors even know? He suggests that knowledge of bhānd practices may better serve the USA’s political and diplomatic rela- tions with Pakistan, increasing cultural understanding by ‘consider[ing] more fully the use of dialogue, rather than war, to resolve differences’ (2011, p. 8) In the context of satellite bhānds’ role as critical negotia- tors on Pakistani television, who bring dialogue to ideological clashes that trouble the nation, and often clarity to confusion, theirs are the voices that help us to understand Pakistan from on-the-ground perspectives. In tracing an important comic mode in the bhānd, I hope to have offered precedents for multiple areas of research beyond Pakistan’s Punjab; in the wider canon of performance in Pakistan and its neighbour- ing regions. Variations may exist, by different names, and through differ- ent tactics, in other provinces of Pakistan: Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or Balochistan, areas even further marginalised—politically and culturally— than the Punjab. The ranga–bighla dynamic criss-crosses over a vast ter- rain, including East Punjab, but also, as I have shown, into many Islamic areas, extending to Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Turkey. There is an abundance of comedy to be looked for in these Muslim worlds, and further work may bring about a much-needed understanding of the social, cultural and political transitions in this geo-politically charged area. To Conclusion: Future Moves? 205 make a conclusion from this journey of the bhand would suggest reaching a terminal destination. As I have illustrated, the bhand mode persistently defies closure, knocking on the doors of our weddings, wandering like the fakir, and streaming across satellite space, demanding that we continually look for its presence in new incarnations.

Note 1. Ghias works in a multitude of languages, including Sindhi. Ghias’s recent English play American Insecurity, staged at The Bridge Theatre in New York City (February 2016) explores racial tensions in an airport waiting room, in the wake of rising Islamophobia.

Bibliography Baral, B. (2009). Interview with Author, 15.10.2009. Bharucha, R. (1993). Theatre and the World: Performance and the Politics of Culture. London: Routledge. Ghanimat, M. A. (1925). Nairang-e-Ishq [The New Colours of Love]. Lakhna’u: Munshi Nole Kishore. Ghias, S. (2016a). Email Correspondence with Author, 9.2.16. Ghias, S. (2016b). Email Correspondence with Author, 15.2.16. Hamid khan. (2012). Punjabi Stage Drama One Day Ishq 11-12 Sohail Ahmed Amanullah. YouTube, 27.12.12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0v5IV- -0AA&index=11&list=PLLVhltsrF99VOgrXmK_DrykmfumtpYIho. Accessed 29.2.16. Haroon, S. (n.d). Saad Haroon.com, http://saadharoon.com/. Accessed 29.2.16. Hussain, M., & Zulfikar, A. (2007). Performance and Interview with Author, Accessed 27.8.2007. jpgrumberg. (2010). Burka Woman Saad Haroon. YouTube, 25.10.10. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LzOU6ETxI8. Accessed 29.2.16. Khan, A. (2009). Performance and Interview with Mohammad Naveed and Shafqat Ali Khan, video recording, Rawalpindi, National College of Arts Theatre Archive, 15.7.2009. Kwok, J. (2012). Happy Controversy: Danish Ali and Ali Gul Pir on Their First US Comedy Tour. Asian American Writers’ Workshop, 12.12.12. http://aaww. org/happy-controversy-danish-ali-and-ali-gul-pir-on-their-first-us-comedy-­ tour/. Accessed 29.2.16. MacAskill, E., & Walsh, D. (2011). US Gives Fresh Details of CIA Agent Who Killed Two Men in Pakistan Shootout. The Guardian, 21.2.2011. 206 Conclusion: Future Moves?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/21/raymond-davis- pakistan-cia-blackwater. Accessed 29.2.16. Mughal_Thanil_Kamal. (2011). Khabar Naak Raymond Davis a U.S Killer as Guest (Dummy) ! A Comedy Show !!_Fari, 30.6.2011. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=PPeqLoPsxzc. Accessed 29.2.16. Pamment, C. (2015). The bhand̄ Waseem and Son, Outside Their Home, Next to His Rickshaw. The Advert Reads ‘Now You Will Be Fair Pakistan’, and Features Zubaida, on Whom Waseem Has Endowed with a Jatt’s Moustache (Photograph). Qureshi, N. (2007). Interview with Author, 20.10.2007. Schechter, J. (2011). Comment: Mullah Mansour’s Theatrical Triumph, and Our Loss. TDR: The Drama Review, 55(2), 7–8. Waseem, A. (2016). Telephone Interview with Author, 29.2.16.  Appendix

The following is a list of key people interviewed and their brief biogra- phies, organised alphabetically by surname/stage name.

Abbas, Waseem (born 1979). See Munir Hussain.

Ahmed, Samina (born 1947). Samina Ahmed is an actress, director and producer for theatre and television. Her involvement with theatre started with the dramatic club of Home Economics College, Lahore, in the 1960s. She began acting in the plays of the Arts Council in 1968, and served as its deputy director of programmes between 1981 and 2000, founding the Alhamra Puppet Theatre, organising drama festivals, and directing a num- ber of plays. She has acted in, and produced, a vast portfolio of television plays and sitcoms, including the popular Family Front in the 1990s.

Ahmed, Sohail (born 1963). Sohail Ahmed is an actor and director, best known for his comic Punjabi improvisations on stage and screen. He hails from the Punjabi city of Gujranwala and is the grandson of Dr. Faqir Muhammad Faqir, a noted Punjabi scholar and poet. Ahmed entered the popular Punjabi theatre in 1985, performing in, and directing, a countless number of celebrated stage plays including Topi Drama (Hat Tricks), Fika in Amrika (Fika in America) and Kuch na Kaho. He has also acted in film and television dramas, serials and talk shows, including the highly popular Hasb-e-Haal (2008–present), which marked his departure from the stage. In 2010 he was awarded the Government of Pakistan’s Pride of Performance.

© The Author(s) 2017 207 C. Pamment, Comic Performance in Pakistan, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56631-7 208 Appendix

Ali, Zulfikar (born 1979). See Munir Hussain.

Amanullah (n.d.). The comedian Amanullah Khan does not disclose his early biography, but his colleagues claim that he hails from a Lahori family of mirasis. Amanullah began performing in Lahore’s hotels and the Bagh- e-Jinnah Open Air Theatre in 1968, before he made his controversial entrance to the Arts Council in the 1970s. His improvisations and witty Punjabi juggats in the Arts Council’s literary dramas earned him fame and a popular audience but were also met with resistance when, accord- ing to Amanullah, he was banned from the Arts Council in 1977. He is considered to be the father of the popular Punjabi theatre, performing in over 400 dramas, including Beauty Clinic, Catchup and Shartiyya Mithay (Surely Sweet). Just as his fame in the theatre was on the decline, he won a prominent place on the Indian channel, Star One’s The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (2008). He has subsequently become a popular char- acter in the news show Khabarnaak (2010–2014), and Mazaaq Raat (Night of Jokes, 2014–present) and he continues to perform in the theatre.

Hameed, Abdul (n.d.). Abdul Hameed is a bhānd-bahurupiya of the Shadipur Depot in Delhi, and, like many other performers in this col- ony, hails from Rajasthan. Hameed makes his living through extempore ­performances in streets and markets and in earlier times performed in weddings. He claims that his ancestors’ patrons were kings and nobility of the Rajput courts.

Baral, Babbu (1960–2011). The comic actor and singer Babbu Baral is from a family of Gujranwala musicians, whom he proudly denotes as mira- sis. His uncle, Nazir Ali, ‘the king of dhamaal’, was an important music composer of the Pakistani film industry in the 1960s. His family’s engage- ment in the travelling Punjabi theatre facilitated Babbu Baral’s entrance to the local stage in 1982. Babbu Baral made his debut in Lahore’s popular Punjabi theatre in 1986, from where he subsequently enjoyed great acclaim. Notable plays include Shartiyya Mithay, Kuch na Kaho and Hakkay Bakkay (Bewildered). In 2009 he won a prominent place in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, produced by the Indian television channel Star One.

Bodi, Saeen (1957–). See Mohammad Tufail.

Bucha (n.d.) and Dilber (n.d.). The brothers Bucha and Dilber are a bhānd duo who live on the outskirts of the Punjabi city of Faisalabad, and Appendix 209 have been performing together since childhood. As members of Javed’s Music Group they improvise comic sequences in variety shows known as ‘drama parties’, which travel to a network of surrounding villages. They also perform in wedding functions in and around Faisalabad, independent of the group.

Dar, Khalid Abbas (born 1942). Khalid Abbas Dar’s acting career began with Punjab Radio as a child actor in Sohni Dharti (Beautiful Land) and later in Nizam Din’s Show, through which he became famous for his witty improvisations. At the Arts Council, from the 1960s, he served as an actor, committee member and a writer. A formative actor of the popular Punjabi theatre, he has performed in and directed many plays and served as a producer of the Mehfil Theatre. In the early 2000s, he left the Punjabi theatre, and subsequently began to produce information and educational plays in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. His commitment to radio drama has continued and he has appeared in many popular television programmes from the 1960s including 50–50, The Zia Mohyeuddin Show, and most recently Darling (2010–). In 2007, he was awarded the Sitara-­ I-­Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) by the Pakistani government.

Dilber (n.d.). See Bucha.

Hassan, Sheeba (n.d.). Sheeba Hassan is a Lahore-based actress and comedienne, who hails from a family of musicians, and learnt dance under Maharaj Kathak. Her work as an actor began in the radio programme Mehtab Din di Baithak (Gathering With Mehtab Din) in the 1960s. She joined the theatre in the 1970s, playing a heroine in Twist, but it was her comic acting in Lada Pithi (Spoilt Girl), through which she made her mark. Known as the mahi munda or tomboy of the Punjabi stage for her bold sharp wit, she has performed in hundreds of plays, most famously Hakkay Bakkay. Her work on television is equally extensive. Notable is Sona Chandi (Mister Gold and Miss Silver, 1983). Recently, she has made guest comic appearances as part of the satellite bhānd boom, and is the lead performer in the comic travelogue Sona Chandi ka Pakistan (Pakistan’s Mister Gold and Miss Silver, 2015–present). She left the stage with the rise of the dancer in 2003.

Hussain, Munir (1949–2016). Munir Hussain is a Lahore-based bhānd whose family migrated from Amritsar (East Punjab) during partition. He learnt bhānd practice from his father, accompanying him to functions dur- 210 Appendix ing his childhood, and has subsequently performed professionally with his brothers and, more recently, with his sons, Zulfikar Ali (born 1979) and Waseem Abbas (born 1982). His audiences have included the rich feudal class and politicians such as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in their weddings and other private functions, along with street audiences in his neighbourhood of Samanabad, a lower-middle class district of Lahore. He has performed mostly in Lahore, although work has taken him to other metropolises and villages in Punjab, and the capital territory.

Iqbal, Aftab (born 1961). Aftab Iqbal is a journalist, television anchor, documentary-maker and former Media Advisor (1994–5) to Chief Minister of Punjab. He is famed for his Urdu satirical column Hasb-e-­ Haal (According to the Situation), which he has been writing since the late 1990s for the newspaper, Nawa-i-Waqt. In 2008, he conceived, wrote and anchored the highly popular comedy news talk show Hasb-e-Haal for Dunya News, which he left in 2010 to launch GEO TV’s Khabarnaak, and subsequently Khabardar (Beware, 2015–) for Express News.

Jatt, Fazal (n.d.). Actor, director, writer, singer, and composer, Fazal Jatt is the major living exponent of nautanki in Pakistan, who hails from Kararan in the Punjab and is presently based in Lahore. He was trained by his father Aashiq Jatt (1916–1988) who worked as an actor, composer and singer with the celebrated Ustad Fazal Shah (popularly known as Phaji Shah) and Iqbal Begum in their theatre company Jhankar, which after partition was renamed as Pakistan Theatre. Fazal Jatt has continued the nautanki legacy through new interpretations on stage and screen. His recent work includes the television serial Nautankee (ATV, 2008): a unique star-studded modern musical that revolves around the lives of nau- tanki artists and features classical excerpts from the nautanki repertoire.

Kemmu, Moti Lal (born 1933). Moti Lal Kemmu is an Indian Kashmiri playwright from Srinagar who has made a significant contribution to reviv- ing bhānd pather in Kashmir. Kemmu graduated in theatre from Baroda University, Gujarat in 1964, and wrote a series of dramas in Hindi, inspired variously by bhavai and the theatre of the absurd. Upon return to Srinagar, he was appointed a position in the Cultural Academy of the Jammu and Kashmir government and developed an interest in bhānd pather, which, according to Kemmu, at the time was suffering neglect of patronage. He began studying its form and history, organising and directing troupes to Appendix 211 bring them into mainstream forums, and drawing upon the bhānd tradi- tion in his own playwriting. His play Bhand Duhai was performed by the National School of Drama in 1998 and won him the coveted Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. His research on bhānd pather is published in the Kashmiri-language monograph Bhand Natyam (2001).

Khan, Hajji Sharafat Ali (born 1967), Khalid Mahmood (born 1972) and Iqbal Malik (n.d.). Sharafat Ali Khan, Khalid Mahmood and Iqbal Malik are cousins who learnt bhānd art from Sharafat Ali Khan’s father and have been performing together since childhood. They live in Lahore and often spend several months of the year in Rawalpindi’s lower middle-class district of Pirvadhai. They perform on invitation to weddings in Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Lahore. They also conduct music shows, for television and private functions.

Mahmood, Khalid (born 1972). See Hajji Sharafat Ali Khan (born 1967).

Nargis (Ghazallah Idries) (born ca. 1974). Nargis is a dancer, come- dienne and host. Her father Mohammad Idries was a film sound record- ist, and her mother ran a beauty parlour. She began acting and dancing in films from the early 1990s and entered the popular Punjabi theatre as a dancer shortly afterwards. One of her earliest plays was Jhoote ke Paun (Feet of Lies, 1994). She describes first participating in the theatre’s com- edy in London se Lahore (From London to Lahore), a play dating from the mid 1990s. By 2002, she was the highest-ranking box office star of the popular theatre. From 2008, she has appeared in a number of television shows as a dancer and host, including Nargis and Naughty. In 2013, she announced her withdrawal from show business. In the winter of 2015 Nargis returned to the stage.

Sajjad, Enver (born 1935). Dr. Enver Sajjad, a physician, is best known as a playwright, columnist, short story writer, novelist and essayist. His engagement with theatre began in 1952, when he started acting in the plays of Government College’s Dramatic Society. He has been writ- ing plays for stage, radio, television and feature films since 1958 and penned Pakistan Television’s first play in 1964. He was Chairman of the Arts Council in 1973. Sajjad is the recipient of the President’s Pride of Performance in Literature (1989), and presently heads GEO TV’s script 212 Appendix

­department and teaches playwriting at National Academy of Performing Arts in Karachi.

Sarwar, Sakhi (n.d.). Sakhi Sarwar is the key producer of the popular Punjabi theatre industry across the Punjab, and regularly organises perfor- mances abroad. His career started in income tax and sports leagues, and in 1988 he began to produce plays through strict commercial principles. While in the 1990s all of his investment was in the theatre, by 2007, with the rise of the television industry and DVD culture, he was considering withdrawing from the theatre, converting theatres into wedding halls and investing into other business arenas.

Tufail, Mohammed (born 1959–) and Saeen Bodi (1957–). The cous- ins Mohammad Tufail and Saeen Bodi are a bhānd duo who perform in weddings in Lahore and surrounding villages, usually without invita- tion. In 1982, they moved from Kot Radaram (village on the outskirts of Lahore) to the urban centre of Lahore for better work prospects where they have been subsequently living in juggi slum dwellings of Subsazhar. Both of their fathers, and their forefathers were bhānds. They have been performing together for over 28 years. Glossary

The following is a list of foreign-language terms, alphabetically arranged. adab: literature aljaf: someone of less than noble birth; used in pre-colonial times to denote converts to Islam as being of inferior social standing to ashraf Muslims a¯mad: unrehearsed; revelatory; inspirational; extempore 'aqil al-majnūn: wise madman artha: the concept of material prosperity, usually through wealth or property; one of the four traditional goals of Hindu life ashraf: someone of noble birth; traditionally used to designate Muslims with direct blood lines to the Prophet asuras: a class of Hindu deities; in post-Vedic literature they are associated with demonic attributes babar sherni: lioness bad-asal: poor imitation bahurupiya: literally, ‘many faces’; a performer who deploys impersonation bandar: monkey baraat: the procession of the bridegroom to the house of the bride bazigar: acrobat baz: suffix for player or performer, e.g.bhagat baz

© The Author(s) 2017 213 C. Pamment, Comic Performance in Pakistan, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56631-7 214 Glossary bhagat: a devotional performer, who traditionally venerates the Hindu deity Krishna; bhagat baz is described as a secular performer; a bhagat refers to the head of contemporary Kashmiri bhānd pather groups bhagavan: spiritual teacher bhai: brother bhāna: a genre of Sanskrit comic monologue plays bhānd pather: a farcical theatre genre, which is enacted by bhānd troupes in Kashmir bhangra: traditionally a Punjabi harvest dance; today bhangra is a hybrid genre of music associated with Punjabi culture bhat: a genealogist bhavai: a popular theatre genre of Rajasthan bighla: the more radical clown of Punjabi bhānd duos boliyon: wordplay and repartee chaudhry: traditionally, a caste of hereditary land lords; a name; used in contemporary contexts to denote someone with power, status and/or property chammota: the leather slapstick used in Punjabi bhānd performance chela: student or disciple dena-lena: give and take devada¯sı¯: literally, ‘god’s servant’; a temple dancer devas: Hindu primordial deities dhamaal: Sufi trance dance dharma: righteousness, duty, ethics and moral conduct; one of the four traditional goals of Hindu life; the concept fea- tures in the Indian religions of Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, with variations dhol: large double-headed drum dholi: drummers dholki: a small variant of the dhol dom: bardic performers, usually Hindu and found in South India; virtually synonymous with the mirasi dua¯: prayer duff: a small one-sided drum fakir: a Muslim mendicant fankar: artist gujar: traditionally herdsmen Glossary 215 hamadst: the slapstick-wielding ‘straight man’ of Afghani Magadi clowning duos husen-e-adab: literary beauty ha¯sya: humour; laughter; merriment hijab: the veil that covers the head and chest; the act of practising hijab is typically considered to be a sign of female modesty in Islam hijav: satirical poetry hijra: a South Asian transgender community (or member of). Since 2011, recognised in Pakistan as khwa- jasara; also known in the Punjab as khusra hojji: a respectable wise man, a character of ruhozi and siyah bazi jagga: a heroic bandit jatis: sub castes; an expansion of the varnas and their hierarchies; a proliferation of endogamous groups, largely characterised by hereditary occupation jatt: occupational farmers who are traditionally associated with warrior feats jhoote: a lie jogi: a Hindu mendicant juggat: a witticism or joke kathak: a genre of classical dance which is thought to have been an ancient storytelling practice that was intro- duced into the Moghul courts, where it became characterised by elaborate footwork, which may have once been performed by bhānd groups kama: desire, pleasure and passion, often of a sensual and sexual nature; one of the four traditional goals of Hindu life karagöz: black eyes; a comic character widely dispersed across puppet theatres in Turkey, Egypt, and beyond kavuklu: the foolish clown character of the Turkish Ortaoyunu theatre khemeih shab bazi: Iranian puppet theatre khusra: the Punjabi designation for hijra/khwajasara khutba: an Islamic congregational sermon khwajasara: literally, ‘lord of the palace’. A historical designation for ‘eunuchs’ employed in the Muslim courts of India; pres- 216 Glossary

ently the official identity forhijras/khusras and trans* peo- ple in Pakistan kiraniya: a devotional performer who traditionally venerates the Hindu deity Krishna kshatriya: a high-status caste in the Vedic varna hierarchy, including ministers, army men, merchants, nobles and princes lohar: blacksmith luddi: a genre of Punjabi dance mahi munda: literally, ‘beloved boy’; a tomboy character in Punjabi popular culture majlis: a gathering; often used synonymously with mehfil ma¯lamatı¯: literally, ‘he who takes the blame’; a school of Sufism that rejects external displays of piety so as to engage in an exis- tential relationship with the Creator malang: a wandering Sufi dervish/Fakir maskharah: clown/buffoon masnavi: long narrative poem mehfil: an intimate gathering of performance; traditionally to a courtly audience mela: a fair or festival mir aalim: literally, ‘a learned man’; a fraternity of singers, musicians, genealogists and bhānds; synonymous with mirasi but often considered a higher status designation mirasen: a female mirasi mirasi: literally, ‘a custodian of heritage’ mirza: nobleman mobarak: a siyah character, of Iranian puppet theatre khemeih shab bazi mujra: an erotic dance genre developed by courtesans of royal patrons nai: barber naqqal: a mimic-storyteller; a performer who practices imitation naql: the practice of imitation and mimicry nat: actor and/or acrobat na¯taka: a genre of Sanskrit drama, based on epic material nautanki: a popular hybrid musical theatre genre in North India/ Pakistan Glossary 217 nautch: a genre of Indian dance; used from the nineteenth century to derogatorily refer to the dances of tawa’ifs (courtesans) and devada¯sı¯s niswar: a type of tobacco used in the northern regions of Pakistan Ortaoyunu: popular commedia-like theatre genre of Turkey pagri: turban Parsi Theatre: popular Indian theatre pioneered by Parsi entrepre- neurs in the nineteenth century pisekâr: the wise clown of the Turkish Ortaoyunu theatre prahasana: a farcical genre of Sanskrit drama prakaran∙ a: a genre of Sanskrit drama based on social material pūrvara¯ga: the prologues of Sanskrit drama qalandar: one of a high spiritual rank in Sufi orders; the leader of dance; a wise pious man qasida: a panegyric; the poetic tradition of praising a patron randi: prostitute rang: colour; festivity ranga: the authoritarian ‘straight man’ who holds the cham- mota in Punjabi bhānd duos; the ranga is a character of swaang and nautanki who functions similarly to the sūtradha¯ra of Sanskrit drama rasa: literally, ‘flavours’; emotional sentiments ruhozi: literally, ‘theatre on the pond’; a popular theatre genre of Iran rup: form or forms sach: truth salaami: literally, ‘greetings’; the preliminaries or prologues of popular traveling theatre in Pakistan sawal- jawab: literally, ‘question–answer’; the repartee of juggats in Punjabi bhand performance sehra: the versified praises sung to wedding couples and their families; a headdress of garlands worn by the groom shadi: wedding; a feast arranged by the bride’s family, prior to her departure from her own kin to the groom’s house shair: a poet in Urdu; a minstrel in Kashmiri shalwar kameez: a loose pyjama and long shirt; the national dress of Pakistan shari’at: Islamic jurisprudence 218 Glossary sher: tiger siyah: literally, ‘black’; the black-faced clown character of Iranian theatre’s ru-hozi and siyah bazi siyah bazi: literally, ‘black play’; a clowning genre of Iran śṛṅga¯ra: love; the erotic śūdras: the lowest caste in the Vedic varna hierarchy sūtradha¯ra: master, director, manager, prompter and narrator of Sanskrit theatre swaang: a popular theatre genre of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, which is thought to incorporate bhānd practices tabla: a pair of hand drums tala: percussion beats tawa’if: courtesans of royal patrons in the Moghul era unisha: elongation of the head; a symbol of Buddhist enlightenment vail: the practice of financial reward being given to dependent clients such as bhānds and mirasis vaishya: a caste in the Vedic varna hierarchy; their work includes agriculture, commerce and cow-protection varna: the caste classification of ancientV edic tradition, which organises Hindus into four social groups and prescribes specific duties for each, in strict hierarchy vartan bhanji: the reciprocal system of gift exchange of Punjabi village culture vidusaka: a comic character in Sanskrit drama; a clown and jester vinaya: literally, ‘discipline’; the code of conduct for Buddhist monks vı¯ra: heroism vit¯a: the multiple role-playing character of the bhana plays; a character who occasionally appears in other genres of Sanskrit drama waleema: a feast organized by the groom’s family to celebrate the arrival of the bride to her new home wallah: suffix for a person engaged in occupational activity zaat: sub-caste; derived from Persian-Arabic ‘tribe’; an expan- sion of the varna and its hierarchies, entailing a prolif- eration of endogamous groups, largely characterised by hereditary occupation Glossary 219 zamindar: an hereditary aristocrat zarafat-e-asal: literally, ‘real humour’ zata¯l: crassness Zill-e-Ilahi’: literally, ‘God’s shadow on earth’; a title for kings, emperors and caliphs Index

A Arabic comedy, 2, 17, 21, 23, 26, Abbas, Waseem. See Hussain, Munir 32n24, 32n25, 74–80, 87–8, 95, Abbasid courts, 74–7, 79. See also 99n13, 110. See also Ash’ab; Baghdad Bahlul Afghanistan, 30n9, 157, 204. See also army. See military Magadi clowns Arts Council, 4, 17–18, 27–8, Ahmad, Nazir, 17, 57–9, 61, 65n17 133–44, 166–7n2, 167n3, Ahmed, Samina, 141–2, 144, 167n5, 167n4, 167n6, 167n7. See also 207 drawing-room comedy; Urdu Ahmed, Sohail, 135, 142, 145, theatre 151–60, 165, 168n13, 173, Ash’ab, 27, 75–6, 81, 87 176–92, 193n5, 207 Ashraf, Raja Pervaiz, 190–1 Akbar, 1, 27, 42–5, 83–7, 89, 91–2, Aurangzeb, 43, 48, 49, 50, 85 96, 98n10, 99n13 Awadh. See Lucknow Alhamra. See Arts Council Awan, Firdaus, 175–6, 185 ‘Allami, Abul Fazl, 43, 63n2, 84–5, Azad, Muhammad Hussain, 18, 56–7 87, 98n10, 99n10, 99n12. See also Akbar Amanullah, 17, 135, 138, 140–4, B 164–6, 167n4, 167n5, 174, 203, Bada’uni, ʿAbd-ul-Qadi, 84–7, 92, 208 98n10 America. See USA Baghdad, 74–7, 88, 94 animal imagery/enactments, 18, 20, Bahlul, 27, 76–81, 94–5, 98n7 22, 43, 49, 56, 75, 78, 81, 91–3, bahurupiya, 3, 7, 14, 26, 43, 50–4, 96, 110, 204 185, 204, 208

© The Author(s) 2017 221 C. Pamment, Comic Performance in Pakistan, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56631-7 222 INDEX

Bakhtin. See carnivalesque Buddhism, 97n2, 121 Bangladesh, vii. See also Bengali bhands̄ burlesque. See dance Baral, Babbu, 28, 141, 143, 149–54, 165, 168n15, 174–5, 202, 208 Barani, Ziā-ud-din, 18, 42–4, 50 C bazaar, 42–4, 55, 61, 200. See also capitalism, 4–5, 12, 107–10, 129–30, street performances; village bhands̄ 201 Bengali bhands̄ , 47, 50, 54. See also carnivalesque, 22–3, 27, 73, 75, 156, Gopal Bhānd 177, 180 bhagat, bhagatiya, bhagatbaz, 20, caste/class, caste definitions, 7–8, 18, 43–7, 49, 55, 204. See also bhand̄ 26–7, 29n8, 30n8, 30n11, 41, pather 43. See also Brahmin jesters; bhanā , 71–4, 97n2, 98n3. See also mirasi/mir aalam Sanskrit drama castes and tribes (see castes and tribes) bhand̄ mode, definition of, 5–6, caste conflation with class, 7–8, 19–26, 197–204 18–19, 30n11 (see also castes bhand̄ pather, 14–15, 31n19, 32n23, and tribes) 210–11. See also bhagat class divides in Pakistani theatre, Bharatanatyam, 31. See also nautch 4–5, 11, 16–19, 21–3, 28 (see Bharucha, Rustom, 13–14, 202. See also Arts Council; English also folk theatre) bhat, 7, 8, 52–6, 84, 108–9. See also in Muslim courts (see Barani, censorship; colonialism; Ziā-ud-din; bazaar) genealogical work castes and tribes, 7, 18, 26–7, 50. See bhavai, 16, 21, 29n4, 210 also colonialism, classifications Bhutto, Benazir, 175 Caturbhanı̄̄. See bhanā Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali, 113, 115–20, censorship. See also nautch; dance; 124, 138, 164, 210 erotic bighla. See pairings contemporary theatre, 3–4, 28, Billo, Billi aur Baali, 28, 133, 134, 133–4 (see also Arts Council) 145, 150, 160–4 colonial regulations, 53–4 Birbal, 1, 27, 69, 74, 82–94, 96, Central Asia, 21, 63n5, 76–8, 204 98–9n10, 99n11–13 chammota, 3, 6, 10, 22, 29n5, 59, Brahmin. See also caste 135, 141, 152 bhand̄ impersonations of, 47, 52 chaudhrys, 22, 108, 123, 129, 134, Brahmin characters in Sanskrit 151, 186. See also feudalism; drama, 70–4 Hussain, Chaudhry Shujjat Brahmin jesters, 27, 61, 69–74 (see class. See caste also Birbal; Tenali Rama) colonialism. See also orientalism; Urdu British Raj. See colonialism classifications, 50–6 (see also Crooke, Brooks, Albert, Looking for Comedy in William; Ibbetson, Denzil; the Muslim World, 1 Lawrence, Walter) INDEX 223

colonial legacies in the theatre, Darling, 173, 180, 209 17–18, 27–8, 136–43, 148–9 Darshan, Abdul Ghaffur, 4, 15, 29n5, (see also censorship; dance, 29n7, 32n22, 52, 63n6 colonial regulation of; drawing-­ Delhi, 1 room comedy) contemporary bhand/s̄ in, 6, 26 East India Company rule, 46–7, 50, Delhi bhands̄ during British 57, 63n7, 64n7, 64n9 colonization, 50, 56–62 performers critique of, 47–8 Delhi Sultanate, 42–5, 49–50, 61–2 commercial theatre. See popular (see also Barani, Ziā-ud-din) Punjabi theatre Moghul rule, 43–5, 49–50, 61–2 courtesans. See dance; nautch dena-lena. See vartan bhanji court jesters. See Arabic comedy; Birbal; devadasī. See dance, colonial regulation of Moghul; Persian jesters; Sanskrit dom, 7. See also mirasi/mir aalam drama; Sufi wise fool; Tenali Rama Dopiaza, 85, 99n13 Criminal Tribes Act, 53–4. See also drawing-room comedy, 17–18, 28, castes and tribes 133, 134, 136–8, 141–3, 150–4, Crooke, William, 7, 50, 52, 54–5, 164. See also Arts Council; 64n9. See also castes and tribes colonialism, colonial legacies in cross-dressing. See female the theatre impersonation; mahi munda

E D East India Company. See colonialism Daily Show, The, 177, 183 Eik Tera Sanum Khana, 4–5, 28, 133, dance. See also nautch 134, 149, 150, 154–60, 164, association with prostitution, 53–4, 169n18 168n10 Emigh, John and Ulrike, 3, 14, colonial regulation of, 31n16, 53–4, 31n19, 63n1, 63n6, 70, 90, 65n14 94. See also bahurupiya; historical bhands̄ ’ association with, Rajasthan/i 44–6, 49, 52–4, 58–9, 63n1, English language. See also colonialism; 63n5, 65n13 (see also language politics transgendering) in bhand̄ performance, 26, 47–8, women dance/rs in the popular 60, 202 Punjabi theatre (and regulation Pakistani stand-up comedy, 28, of), 3–5, 29n1, 133–6, 201–3 144–50, 155–65, 167–8n9, theatre, 4, 137, 143, 149–54, 156, 168n10, 168n12, 168n13, 166n2, 167n2 168n15, 169n19, 201, 209, erotic. See also censorship; dance; 211 (see also Nargis) female impersonation Dar, Khalid Abbas, 135, 137–43, 145, bhand̄ , accusation of, 44–5, 49, 164, 165, 167n8, 180, 209 53–4 224 INDEX

F Hassan, Sheeba, 138, 143, 144, fairs, 6, 9, 53 146, 165, 209 female impersonation, 5, 44–5, 53–4, healing, ix, 20, 23–4, 28, 119, 74, 133, 149, 154–60. See also 191, 197 transgendering hijav, 22, 32n25, 112, 144, 158. See festivals. See fairs; wedding also qasida; satire performances hijra. See khwajasara; transgendering feudalism, 4–5, 27, 30n11, 107–11, Hum Sab Umeed Se Hain, 175–7, 113–19, 123, 127–31, 134–5, 192n1 141, 151–2, 154–9, 179–81, Hussain, Chaudhry Shujjat, 178–9, 186–90, 198–9. See also caste 186–90 financial remuneration.See also vail Hussain, Munir, 7–9, 11, 23–7, bhand̄ economy, 129–30, 29n5, 29n6, 107, 109, 110, 198–200 112–22, 125–6, 130, 165, popular theatre, 146 181–2, 191, 197–8, folk, 3–5, 12–19, 26, 30–1n15, 41, 202, 209–10 156, 167n9, 200–2

I G Ibbetson, Denzil, 7, 50, 52–4, 64n11. gender. See also female impersonations; See also castes and tribes mahi munda; transgendering; improvisation, 4, 11, 15–20, 50, 59, women 110, 134–6, 138–42, 164, femininities, 154, 156, 159, 160, 166n1, 175, 179, 198, 201, 202, 162, 163, 184–9 207–9. See also juggat masculinities, 29n1, 44, 60, 63n1, Iqbal, Aftab. See Hasb-e-Haal 124, 133, 146, 154–60 Iran’s comic performance genres. See genealogical work, 8, 27, 52–3, 56, also Persian jesters; 108–11, 118, 123, 127, 131, Sufi wise fool 153–4. See also bhat khemeih shab bazi, 21 Ghanimat, Kashmiri, 44–5, 50, 204 ruhozi, 9, 21, 77 globalisation, 4, 128, 183, 202–4 siyah bazi, 21 Gopal Bhānd, 82, 86, 99n14 Islam. See also Sufism Ahmadiyya, 193n4 and comedy, 1–3, 16–17 (see also H Sufi wise fool) Harun al-Rashid, 79, 98n4. See also Islamicisation, 3, 16 (see also Bahlul Zia-ul-Haq) Hasb-e-Haal, 28, 173, 176–9, post-9/11 comedy, 182–92, 193n5, 193n6, 2, 202–3 207, 210 Wahhabism, 2 Haq. See Zia-ul-Haq Islamophobia, 1–2, 205 INDEX 225

J Abbas, Waseem, 7, 21, Jatt, Fazal. 16, 31n21, 210 23–5, 29n5, 29n6, Jatti, Baali, 32n21, 161–2 113–17, 122, 181–2, 198–9, jesters. See court jesters 207, 210 juggat, definition of, 4–6, 9–11, 20–2. Ali, Zulfikar, 29n5, 29n6, 113, See also Moghul; popular Punjabi 119–22, 208, 210 theatre; television; Urdu; wedding Bodi, Saeen, 21, 29n6, 128–30, bhands̄ 208, 212 Juha/Juhi. See Nasruddin Hussain, Munir, 7–9, 11, 23–7, 29n5, 29n6, 107, 109, 110, 112–22, 125–6, 130, 165, 181–2, 191, K 197–8, 202, 209–10 Kamā Sūtra, 70 Khan, Hajji Sharafat Ali, Karagöz, 21. See also Arabic comedy 10–11, 29n6, 111, 123–7, Kashmir/i, 6, 14–15, 31n19, 44, 46, 130, 211 50, 55, 64n9, 117, 210–11. See Mahmood, Khalid, 10, 29n6, 112, also Lawrence, Walter 123–7, 211 bhand̄ pather, 14–15, 31n19, Malik, Iqbal, 29n6, 123, 211 32n23, 210–11 Tufail, Mohammed, 29n6, 111, kathak, 52, 65n13, 136, 163. See also 127–30, 208, 212 dance language politics, 11, 18, 30n14, Kemmu, Moti Lal, 14–15, 31n19, 47–8, 56–7, 65n15, 135, 143, 32n23, 70, 210–11. See also 149–51, 152, 177, 201–2. See also Kashmir/i, bhand̄ pather Urdu Khabarnaak, 173, 174, 179, 193n5, Lawrence, Walter, 50, 55 204, 208, 210 Little Clay Cart. See Sanskrit drama Khan, Ayub, 137 Looking for Comedy in the Muslim Khan, Durgah Quli, 45 World, 1 khusra. See khwajasara; transgendering Lucknow Khusrau, Amir, 47 ‘Allay Wallay Bhand̄ , 47 khwajasara, 4–5, 53–4, 134, 145–6, Asaf-ud-Daula, 46, 63–4n7 158–9, 185. See also Hasan, Mir, 46 transgendering Karela Bhand̄ , 61–2 Kuch na Kaho, 28, 133, 134, 148–54, Nasir-ud-din Haider, 46–7, 64n9 164, 168n16, 207, 208 Noora Bhand̄ , 46, 47, 64n7 Shah, Wajid Ali, 47–9, 69

L Lahore Arts Council. See Arts M Council; drawing-room comedy; Magadi clowns, 8, 21, 77 Urdu mahi munda, 134, 144, 146–7, 150, Lahori wedding bhands̄ 160–4, 167–8n9, 209. 226 INDEX

See also Hassan, Sheeba; Jatti, N Baali; Nargis; transgendering naql, 22, 26, 47–9, 59, 64n7, 173, maskhara/ maskharah/ maskharahboz, 178–9, 184–5, 192n2 21, 32n23 naqqal, 7, 14–16, 29n4, 45, 52, 60, mehfil, 6, 9, 18, 42–4, 49, 50, 92, 63n5 108, 113. See also wedding Nargis, 136, 144, 146–50, 160–5, performances 168n9, 168n11, 168n14, melas. See fairs 169n19, 211 military (Pakistani), 6, 10–11, 107, Nasruddin, 27, 80–1, 88–96, 98n8, 119–21, 123–5, 129, 137, 98n9 143–4, 184, 197. See also nat, 7, 43, 53, 63n2 politicians Nātasáṣ ̄tra, 70, 73, 98n3. See also mirasi/mir aalam, 7, 8, 17, 30n9, Sanskrit drama 30n10, 52–4, 109, 123, 134, nautanki, 15–17, 20, 29n4, 31n17, 138, 140, 141, 143, 150–4, 31n21, 111, 136, 138, 167n9, 180–1, 201, 208. See also caste; 210. See also Jatt, Fazal castes and tribes nautch, 31n16, 53–4, 65n14, 168n10. Mir, Safdar, 17–18, 137 See also dance Mı̄rzanā mā , 43–5, 50 Nu’aymān, 75 misogyny, 49, 135, 145, 148, 162, 164, 176, 185. See also dance modernity/ies, 12, 27, 41, 54–6, O 60, 69, 107, 109, 142, One Day Ishq, 203 154, 197. See also capitalism; orientalism, 2 colonialism Moghul Courts. See Akbar; ‘Allami, Abul Fazl; Aurangzeb; Birbal; P Ghanimat, Kashmiri; Khan, pairings Durgah Quli; Lucknow; mehfil; bandar and qalandar, 20, 29n5, Mı̄rzānāma; Shah, Mohammad 32n22 mujra. See dance bighla and ranga (definitions of), 6, mukhannath, 75. See also female 9–11, 20–2, 29n5, 32n22 impersonation; transgendering in popular Punjabi theatre, 4, 21–2, multinationals, 4, 22, 134, 149, 134–5, 201 155–7, 160, 178. See also in regional variants, 21 capitalism in Sanskrit theatre, 72–4 Musharraf, Pervez, 6, 10–11, 22, in television, 28, 173, 176–7, 28, 107, 119–21, 124–6, 179–89, 201 129–30, 147–9, 157, in weddings, examples of, 107–31 168–9n17, 175, 177, 178, Pakistan Arts Council. See Arts 184, 190 Council INDEX 227

Pakistan Television (PTV), 175, puppetry. See Iran’s comic performance 192n1, 211. See also television genres; karagöz parallel theatre, 3, 4, 17, 144–5 Parsi theatre, 13, 15, 31n17, 136, 166n1 Q Persian jesters, 14, 69–75, 98n4, qasida, 9, 22, 32n25, 46, 111, 144, 99n13. See also Iran; Moghul; 158 Nasruddin; Sufism; Sufi wise fool; Zakani, Ubayd-i politicians (Pakistani). See Ashraf, Raja R Pervaiz; Awan, Firdaus; Bhutto, Raja ki Aye Gee Baraat, 149 Benazir; Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali; Rajasthan/i Hussain, Chaudhry Shujjat; Khan, bhands̄ , 3, 6, 14, 26, 46, 50–1, Ayub; Musharraf, Pervez; Sharif, 63n1, 63n6, 64n12, 93–4, 203, Nawaz; Sharif, Shehbaz; Tariq, 208 (see also bahurupiya) Kashmala; Zia-ul-Haq bhats, 8, 108 popular Punjabi theatre. See also Arts bhavai, 16 Council; censorship; dance randi, 58–9. See also prostitution history, 136–50, 160 ranga. See pairings performance style, 134–6 rasa. See Sanskrit drama plays (see Billo, Billi aur Baali; Eik repartee. See juggat Tera Sanum Khana; Kuch na Kaho; One Day Ishq; Raja ki Aye Gee Baraat; Sayyan Chor S Kay Na Ja) Sajjad, Enver, 17–18, 138, 141, practitioners, 143–4 (see also 167n6, 211 Ahmed, Sohail; Amanullah; Sanskrit drama. See also Nātyasáṣ ̄tra Baral, Babbu; Dar, Khalid bhāna plays, 71–4, 97n2 Abbas; Hassan, Sheeba; Little Clay Cart, 70–1, 98n3 Nargis) vidusaka, 71–4 Prophet Mohammad, 1–2, 58–9, vita, 70–4, 98n3 74–6, 96–7 Sarwar, Sakhi, 142, 146, 212 prostitution (accusations of), 54, 58, satellite television. See television 73, 128, 134, 136, 148–9, satire, 20, 22–4, 60, 64n12, 72–4, 168n10, 175, 185, 201. See also 96–7, 173, 175–82, 185–6, 191. Billo, Billi aur Baali See also hijav Punjab (East), 6, 14, 21, 45, Saudi Arabia, 120–1, 128 204, 209 Sayyan Chor Kay Na Ja, 146 Punjabi language. See language politics Shah, Mohammad (Rangeela), 42, 45, Punjabi stage drama. See popular 61, 62 Punjabi theatre Shah, Wajid Ali, 47–9, 69 228 INDEX

Shaivism, 14–15 Timur. See Nasruddin Sharif, Nawaz, 24–6, 112–16, 118–21, transgendering, 5, 14, 28, 54, 133, 124, 178, 184, 188, 194n8, 197, 149, 201. See also Eik Tera Sanum 210 Khana; female impersonation; Sharif, Shehbaz, 118–21, 183–7, khwajasara; mahi munda; 194n8 mukhannath Sikh patronage, 25, 45, 63n6, 64n11, Turkey, 21, 88, 204. See also Sufi wise 112 fool Singh, Ranjit. See Sikh patronage ortaoyunu, 21 slapstick, 75. See also chammota stand-up comedy, 2, 28, 141, 192n2, 202–3 U street performances, 6, 19, 24–5, UK. See also Islamophobia; 30n13, 54, 84, 120–2, 128, multinationals 198–200, 208, 210 Pakistani performers, touring in, Sufism.See also Sufi Wise fool 201–3 ‘Atṭạ̄r, 76, 78–9, 98n5 performances about, 120, 202 contemporary performers’ religious urban bhands̄ . See Lahori wedding beliefs, 6–7, 14–15, 23–4, 29n7 bhands̄ ; popular Punjabi theatre fakir(s), 7, 23–4, 61, 97, 134, 163, Urdu. See also language politics 165, 197, 200, 203–4 bhand̄ revivals in literature, mālamatı̄s, 7, 78–9 18, 27, 41, 46, 56–62, Rumi, 80–1 65n16, 84 Sufi wise fool. See Ash’ab; Bahlul; theatre, 15–18, 31 Nasruddin USA. See also Daily Show (The); swaang, 16, 20, 21, 29n4, 31n21, 45, Islamophobia; Looking for Comedy 111, 136 in the Muslim World; multinationals Pakistani performers, touring in, T 201–3 Tariq, Kashmala, 175–6 performances about, 128, 135, 183, tawa’if. See nautch 187, 203, 204 television. See also Daily Show (The); politics, 168n17, 169n17, 180–1, Darling; Hasb-e-Haal; Hum Sab 193n3 Umeed Se Hain; Khabarnaak; post-9/11 comedy, 2 (see also Pakistan Television; Wah Wah stand-up comedy) satellite television, 147–8, 174–6 Tenali Rama, 27, 69, 82–3, 87–8, 93, 94, 96 V theatre. See bhavai; English language vail, 11, 12, 23–5, 96–7, 110, theatre; parallel theatre; Parsi 112–14, 198–9 theatre; popular Punjabi theatre; vartan bhanji, 24–6, 112. See also swaang vail INDEX 229 vidusaka. See Sanskrit drama wedding performances, 8–12, 21–4, village bhands̄ . See also Lahori wedding 27, 30n9, 30n13, 50, 52, 54, bhands̄ 107–13. See also bhand̄ mode; Ali, Mohammad Ryasat, 129, 130 Lahori wedding bhands̄ Khan, Arshad, 198–9 women. See also dance; female Qureshi, Nasar, 200 impersonations; mahi munda; Rifaqat, Mohammad, 129, 130 transgendering vita. See Sanskrit drama comediennes, 144 (see also Hassan, vulgarity, accusations of, Sheeba; Nargis) 3–4, 17–18, 146–9. See also jokes about (see misogyny) censorship

Z W Zakani, Ubayd-i, 79, 96–7, Wah Wah, 173, 180–1 98n7 wedding bhands̄ , 7, 107–31, Zeno. See Mir, Safdar 135, 201. See also Lahori Zia-ul-Haq, 3, 119, 124, 142–4 wedding bhands̄ Zulfikar Ali.See Hussain, Munir