Abstract
In the Introduction section (Chapters 1–32) of the book, Comic Performance in Pakistan: The Bhānd, Claire Pamment defines the character of a bhānd as a folk character who belongs to the urban theatre of Punjab. She emphasises their cultural discrimination and their struggle for legitimacy and authenticity while also challenging the social and economic hierarchies. Pamment also traces the historical origins of bhānds through Indian Punjab, Delhi, Kashmir and Pakistan. She debates that bhānds belong to Muslim religion and often cross ethnic boundaries by being part of the political gatherings and weddings in the disguise of faqirs and Sufis or bahrupiya, mirasi and naqli.
In Part I of this book, she traces the genealogies of bhānds. She identifies bhānds learning from the oral tradition of Mirasis as they perform in high and low statuses. The ancestors of the present-day bhānds, according to Pamment, entered India through the Muslim courts of Persia. In this respect, there are definite Arbo-Persian influences on these characters. In her view, their strength lies in being aware of histories, and when ill-treated by the higher class, they tend to disclose these histories through their performances (p. 8).
Identifying the ‘bhānd mode’, Pamment suggests that these characters shift from ‘jester like appearances in the company of Kings and Emporers’, being the official court entertainers, to pleasing the noblemen and empowered figures to street performers and comic theatre figures. Their characters can shift from being Sufi wise men to wedding performers from an urban wedding or Punjabi theatre to characters performing on satellite television (pp. 19–20).
Performing within the bhānd mode, the duo of bhangla and rangla are both key Punjabi performers. bhānds, in Pamment’s view, can be identified through the characters of rangla (connoting all performers on the stage of world), who could be a qalandar (a pious man); or a bhigla, the ambiguous black and white character or a crooked character. The performers play contradictory roles within their respective environments. Both challenge the binary structures of the society; they shift roles and are wanderers. They can be ‘melancholic householders and hungry clowns in Sanskrit drama’, ‘kings and fools in Sufi narratives’ and also khusras or transgenders in the contemporary popular theatre, or comedians on the modern TV shows.
In Chapter 3, she discusses Mula Naseerudin as a Sufi wise fool. She also identifies Birbal as a symbol of Indo-Mulsim jestering and Brahmin tradition Tenali Rama. In her view, Norba and Naseer reflect Hindu and Sufi traditions, while also mocking the religious rhetoric and norms.
In Part II of the book, Pamment discusses the contemporary performances of the bhānds. She explores this character through Pakistani theatre and satellite television—the bhānds in the satellite industry and introduced in the talk show format in the PPP era. Yet their objective remains the same of using their outsider status to challenge the power structures and hierarchies. Even in the contemporary performance culture, Pamment finds that bhānds are recreated through different characters, while they still continue to carry the tradition of challenging the power structures and maintaining the fluidity of their characters. While remaining at the periphery of society, they challenge the dominant structures, negotiate and balance their identities by shifting between the feudal and urban orders. She also observes bhānds following the legacy of colonial tradition, entering the theatre of Lahore, like Alhamra in the 1970s, while also shifting the bhānds mode to female performers (as reflected in her case studies).
She concludes the book by analysing the stand-up comedians who travel abroad and represent Pakistan in a way acting as the diplomats as modern bhānds. Overall, her book defends the marginalisation of the bhānds’ characters as cultural representatives. Earlier, in the book, she strongly critiques Ahmed Dehlvi’s projection of the racial abhorrence of these characters. She also challenges a well-acknowledged Urdu critic, Muhammad Hussain Azad (1830–1910) for his abhorrence towards these characters. She interrogates his stance of associating bhānds with amorality, lies and crassness and interrogates their art as a literary humour (p. 18).
Hence, the crux of Pamment’s argument is that bhānds were marginalised in the precolonial, colonial and postcolonial eras. Her entire effort in this book has been voicing the trauma of such characters through historical evidence and cultural analysis. In other words, she makes a focused effort towards empowering such characters and acknowledging them as an important part of South Asian cultural tradition. Thus Pamment makes a major attempt towards preserving the history of these characters while also sharing it with the wider readership. It was, however, necessary to discuss how colonial structures—while acknowledging this tradition—have also carried their influences with them after the Partition of India and incorporated or excluded them within the Western theatrical or cultural traditions. While being included in the ‘Comedy Series’, the book effectively addresses the grim history of the social and political marginalisation of bhānds in South Asia, which paradoxically defies the comic side of their characters. Pamment sensitively accentuates their identity of the characters of bhānds who are socially perceived as comic performers and entertainers. The inhuman treatment that the bhānds receive from society in the past and present is an issue that has rarely been addressed through academic discourse.
This book is an important contribution and an indispensable resource for the academics interested in exploring South Asian cultural traditions through performing histories, popular culture and ethnography.