Archiving Dastak: How One Theatre Troupe Challenged a Dictator in 1980s Karachi
Words by Hasan ul Haq
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Archiving Dastak: How One Theatre Troupe Challenged a Dictator in 1980s Karachi by Hasan ul Haq
The Zia era is often labelled as one of the darkest periods of Pakistan’s history, from radical islamization of the State to the silencing of free thought, to the rise of American fundamentalism and military supremacy. It was this era when the brutalization of Pakistani society truly began. The strict censorship policies enforced by the authoritarian government made it difficult for any form of serious intellectual activity to take place within the State, especially in popular media, such as radio, newspapers and the television. All that was passed through the censor board were pro state narratives that legitimized Zia’s position as the State’s ruler. What further made it difficult for any intellectual activity to brew within the state were the strict punishments imposed by the government for anyone who spoke against the state, this was legitimized through the policies imposed by the regime. This included amendments made by the insecure General to section 499 and 500 of the Pakistan Penal Code that made ‘defamation’ a punishable offence.
With growing resentment against his draconian laws and policies, the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy began on all fronts. From the rise of women’s organizations such as the Women’s Action Forum, to the rise of culturally driven political movements such as the Voices Music Group and political theatre troupes, such as Dastak, Ajoka and Tehrik-I-Niswan. These movements all rose to express their resentment against the state and became platforms for intellectual activity offering narratives which were against the pro dictatorship narratives, popular at that time.
These culturally driven movements, which used theatre as a means to protest against the authoritarian government, gave structure, shape and a direction to the larger political movement. It also became a means of attracting younger people towards the movement and became a more relatable platform to reach across the masses who don’t always identify with sloganeering and loud politics. Dastak was one of the notable cultural groups formed at that time that used theatre as a means to express their resentment against the state. They believed that theatre would be a way to outsmart the censor boards and the oppressive laws of the time by opening the platform for intellectual thought publicly, under the guise of performing plays.