Despite frowns on the fanatic's face, 14th February Valentine's Day is now an annual festivity in Pakistan. The Day was introduced almost a decade ago and was a success from the first time it was celebrated.
The reason for the success was that the young and young at heart liked the idea, and it was also good for a number of mostly small businesses, such as of the baker, the flower and balloon sellers, the sweet and chocolate shop, sellers of greeting cards and those selling trinkets and costume jewellery in heart shape and newspapers posting Valentine messages.
Valentine's Day is as universal as New Year's Day and celebrated throughout the modern world. Both celebrations have their origin in Christian culture of the west, but the religious context is no longer relevant. There are many other festive Days originating in western culture that have become universal, for example Mother's Day and Father's Day, but none can beat the popularity of Valentine's Day among the recently introduced festivities.
The first time it was celebrated in Karachi it was popular immediately, but it was not yet commercialised. Even Valentine cards were in short supply and the flower sellers were taken by surprise when they managed to sell so many bunches and wondered what was the reason for the sudden demand, especially of red roses.
Now the city is well prepared. Heart shaped balloons and buntings decorate shops and bakeries, the balloon seller abandons the round shapes for balloons in red pink and white heart shapes. Wrapping paper, chocolates in heart shape, sweets ditto, and even the cloth sellers put forward prints with colourful hearts in every shade. Pencils and sharpeners, note books and handbags, in fact wherever a heart design can be introduced it is.
I find this take-over of the city with artificial hearts quite irksome. It is not because I have never received a Valentine greeting or a red rose or Valentine chocolates. It is the commercialisation that irks. It is just a personal irritation. For the rest of the people and for the small businesses, I am very happy. Far be it from me to condemn the Day; it would put me in league with the fanatics. I have sworn a solemn oath to do nothing that will be approved by the narrow-minded, doomsday merchants, thankyou. Hence, despite my personal disgust at the commercialisation of a tender emotion, I am great champion of the Day and defend the people's right to celebrate it.
The Day is condemned not only by the fanatics but even otherwise quite rational preachers. The reason is that they condemn any celebration which originated in the West, which they dub to be Christian culture and therefore alien to Muslim way of life. Even such Days as Women's Day and Children's Day that originate in the United Nations are seen to be sly attempts to infilterate western ideology.
Conservative interpretation of Muslim culture has become so ridiculous that they even condemn the dining table and cutlery, claiming that the true Muslim way is to sit on the floor and eat with the fingers. It is actually the mindlessness of such criticism that has caused a revolt against what is dubbed mullahism, by the modernists.
Celebrating Valentine's Day is done with the same attitude as celebrating New Year's Day. It is an act of defiance. A way of saying "In your face!" to the conservative brigades. Unlike New Year Valentine is not a public celebration. It is an occasion with a very personal touch and an exchange of gifts and greeting between a pair of people who love each other. But because of the attitude of defiance it has been given a public image, too. This is apparent, of course in the commercial display of Valentine items and shop decor. But when a person buys a balloon seller's entire stock of pink and white heart shaped balloons to decorate his car it is nothing but an act of defiance against conservatism.
The conservative do not merely criticise celebrations like Valentine's Day or eating at table, they declare these are acts of adulatory and those who favour such acts are not Muslims. This outright indictment of modern Muslims to a state of faithlessness is largely behind blatant display of western way of life. It is a revolt.
Not everything that is done in the name of modernism is good, but little do the conservative brigade realise that they are the cause of many unsavoury things people do claiming it is the modern way of life. Blind modernism is a revolt against religiosity.
Conservatism was not the hallmark of religion in the sub-continent. There was tolerance. Everything that would lead to Muslim progress was adopted, such as English medium education, or practicle as well as attractive western style clothes. People did not drop everything of Muslim culture to adopt an alien culture. Neither is it the norm in modernised Muslim families today. The Islamic rules of decency, kindness, care and help to the wretched, as well as upholding the rites and rituals of religion are in place in every Muslim household. Why is it condemned as not true Muslimness?
One is alarmed to see ever increasing numbers of bearded men and burqa-clad women. Yet this outward show of religiosity is not, and cannot swamp the ethos of Pakistanis. One must see beards and burqas as merely a return to a way of life these people used to have in pre-Partition days. It ought not to be seen as evidence of the rise of fanaticism.
The truth is that conservatism does not have intellectual appeal and is being rejected by rational Muslims. The fanatical brand of conservatism is losing out. Today it does not seem so, especially when one notes the number of religion-based programmes and channels in the electronic media. But how long can they survive without financial support? There are no advertisement revenues; the programmes will peter out. Practically nothing is done in the world unless it is financially profitable. Without finance nothing survives. A good thing can die as easily as a bad thing if it has no funds.