Sultans of Swing? Pak-Ind Cricket

The Pakistan-India cricket game is the greatest sporting event in all of South Asia. Last week I glimpsed something similar to what I would experience back home, here in EC. The T20 World Cup is underway these days in Sri Lanka and the Aggie Intercultural club here in EC is screening the games at the Student Centre. It is always interesting to watch your country’s team on the big screen but what makes it even more special is the presence of your opposing team’s fans in the same room. This screening event's inception came about through the South Asian Student Association almost two years ago and has been popular ever since amongst the desi community here in EC. It was no different than last year, except there were more fans present to cheer on their teams (due to larger number of incoming freshmen). The students painted their faces green and white if they supported Pakistan and blue if they were to cheer on India. They also brought along huge sized flags, which they tied around themselves whenever a boundary (4 runs) was scored. After tying the flag around themselves, a group of fans would pick them up and move the person around the room-imitating superman. You must be wondering what was so special about this event. First, it is very rare to see an Indian and Pakistani audience in the same room, watching the same game. This kind of interaction does take place in the cricket stadium but developing that kind of atmosphere here in Doha, is an idea unheard of. The element of rarity comes in when we consider the long history of war and violence between the two countries. Over the course of history, India and Pakistan just have not gotten along. This might be a consequence of globalization that a culture that is localised to South Asia has transcended and found its way into a Middle Eastern country. The increasing communications technology access is in turn affecting societies in different ways and this could be an evidence of that. This phenomenon, however, cannot be the direct offshoot of only globalization. There are many more processes at work. People moving to new place and taking their culture with them has been a dominant theme in diaspora

studies Haenfler, however, mentions the emergence of neo-tribes. He defines them as a very fluid group sharing a set of values. This is a wide definition and should not be applied just for the sake of application. A sub-cultural theme does develop in the practices of these fans of cricket. It is not resistant or deviant in any way but based on common interests of the participants, and the uniqueness lies in them following cricket away from home just as if they were at home. Second, it was interesting to note not only the confluence of the cultures and various political standpoints but the mixed gender environment. Pakistan is a conservative country by many standards and one of them is religion. One would not witness this kind of an interaction or even a kind of space (except the cricket stadium of course, where there are separate stands for 'Family' and others for 'Men') in Pakistan where cricket fans of both genders are present and cheering for the team. But there is not all positivity in this scenario. Just like people bringing their culture with them they also take with them their moral and ethical values. Haifa Jawad points out just that by commenting on the Diasporic communities unable to provide gender segregated activities for women who wish to involve themselves in. This is a paradox of it own kind. At the same time forces of liberation and modernity are being brought forward clashing with the ideas of tradition and modesty. These are deeper issues than they seem and cannot be addressed in a blog post in their entirety. The Pakistan versus India game, in any case, is special. They bring about so many different talking points besides the game that one will only exhaust oneself talking about them.

Coke Studio

Coke Studio has not only revived the Pakistani music industry but has given the cultural aspect of the music in the country a relatively new twist. Coke Studio is a Pakistani music television series sponsored by the Coca- Cola Company under the able watch of the renowned producer Rohail Hyatt (former member of the legendary pop act, Vital Signs). The show has developed some amazing pieces of fusion music over the course of its past five seasons.

Fusion music, in my opinion, is not a new concept. Fusion of various genres, for example, the Western contemporary rock with Eastern classical has been experimented by the likes of the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brooks. Then what is Coke Studio doing differently that these previous tries in the art of fusion did not accomplish?

First, Coke Studio’s name itself is a self-fulfilling prophecy of success. The partnership or support, if you may by a global brand like Coke is a definite marker of a comfortable jump-start by the musical venture. Throughout history Coke has come up with some of the most innovative and stylish ads.

Coke in Pakistan has always endorsed the strongest forms of material culture, that have been found to be relevant throughout generations, for example, the use of the sport of cricket in many of their advertisements. This provides a great marketing strategy for Coke, which uses the undying passion (non-material culture) for cricket (material culture) in Pakistan to spearhead their product in the market. As suggested in the first reading for the class (Youth Cultures in the Middle East), there is no denying that there is a relationship or overlap between the material and non-material cultures.

So swinging back to Coke Studio, such a partnership with Coke (who are always coming up with new advertising strategies) coupled with talented artists (ranging from the greatly revered performers like Atif Aslam, who have enjoyed immense success in Bollywood and folk singers such as Ata-Ullah Khan, who bring to life the ancient poetry of the Indus) from across the board in Pakistan is the pointer for Coke Studio’s success in Pakistan.

Second, as much as I have mentioned that fusion music is not a new concept, it does need its recognition as one of the core ingredients of Coke Studio’s success. Fusion music used by Coke Studio can be classified under the umbrella of glocalization and cultural hybridity. Robertson recognizes glocalization as ‘recontextualization of global phenomenon with respect to local cultures’. This is exactly what Coke Studio is doing. It merges the Western Pop/rock with the Eastern folk/classical to form this novel genre that reminisces somewhat of the psychedelic rock movement in the 1960s. This is not to say that the fusion music developed by Coke Studio is rip off of the psychedelic music but it is to put Coke Studio in a greater framework of glocalization and cultural hybridity which hints towards borrowing various aspects of foreign cultures. One example of such a musical piece from Coke Studio I find worth mentioning is:

This song incorporates various elements of Eastern folk and soul in the form of Qawwali combined with dominant use of Western instruments (electric guitar on WaWa pedal effect).

Third, Coke Studio has somewhat blurred the boundaries between the highbrow and the lowbrow culture. I am delivering this idea from my own observations and I have witnessed that music from Coke Studio has been played in low-key music stores in relatively low-income neighbourhoods on a high volume and I have also seen it being played during family gatherings of the upper class in some of the expensive hotels in Lahore. Qawwali in the Indian subcontinent is considered as the music of the people or the lower strata of the society. Rock music on the other hand is a relatively newer concept in Pakistan and is the music of the youth and the privileged half of the society. Coke Studio has developed a ‘common culture’ in the sense that both forms of music are not only accessible but also liked by the different social classes in Pakistan.

I think there are so many sociological and communications (media theory) layers to this cultural phenomenon in Pakistan that they cannot all be covered in a limited space. I leave you with some of the remarkable pieces produced by Coke Studio over the years so that you can get a taste of what this is all about: