Of Qawwals and Qawwalis

By Helpline Trust
The Helpline Trust Building
DHA, Karachi


Some weeks back, Ayaz Amir had described good qawwali as: “Sung well, qawwali is great and inspiring and the first step on the road to the mystical highlands, whereas as bad qawwali is a tickler, near-cousin to outright farce, with the master qawwal belting out a verse and the junior qawwals repeating the same, to the sound of clapping”.

What Ayaz was referring to is how our educated, enlightened and graduate politicians in Islamabad, like the qawwals, have joined, one by one, some of the lead qawwals of His Master’s Voice, in a full throated chorus, clapping, urging and pleading our enlightened President not to take off his uniform. Whether this is out of modesty, to preserve the purity of our beloved country or just to protect their jobs, only time will tell.

NGOs and other civil society organizations also have their fair share of qawwals and qawwalis, but we call t qawwals and qawwalis, but we call them conferences and seminars, with the usual lead qawwal, who is the Chief Guest, supported by a string of junior qawwals, the speakers.

But the difference here is that a dark suit and a fat Hawaiian cigar replace the glittering waistcoat and the pan. And “Whereas good qawwali is the first step on the road to the mystical highlands”, these conferences and seminars are supposed to be the steps to democracy, good governance and the rule of law and towards the mystical light at the end of the tunnel.

Having being actively involved in these qawwalis since 1994, unfortunately, the light at the end of the tunnel has always turned out to be another onrushing train and good governance, the rule of law, etc., still remain a mystical dream.
Without being disrespectful to the fine ladies and gentlemen, the subject and speakers at these programs are usually the same, with different lyrics and the audiences that normally attend, are the usual 50 to 100 diehards of the NGO fraternity, who refuse to throw in the towel.

Most of these programs are usually held at five star hotels and the first choice of speakers is serving governors, ministers, judges, senior bureaucrats and heads of civic agencies, followed by former governors, etc.

The risk in inviting serving VIPs is that though they do accept the invitations, the chances are they will arrive late, leave immediately after their speech and at times fail to show up at all, without an apology or an explanation. But all the fine ladies and gentlemen speak on democracy, good governance and the above issues with passion and authority.

Serving VIPs usually sing the praise of the performance of the present government, while former VIPs usually sing a sad ballad and criticize the government for its failures and shortcomings. And there are the smart ones, who play safe, by praising both past and present governments.

Yet they seem to conveniently forget that they too were part of the government at one time and except for a few, who refused to compromise their integrity and resigned in protest, rode the gravy train right to the end and enjoyed the perks of the job and failed to change the corrupt system, which has been passed on from one government to another.

The silent majority does not attach much importance to these qawwalis and feel that they are a waste of time. However, once in awhile, when there is a qawwal from abroad, especially from India, t they do wake up from their deep slumber and dress up in their Sunday best and turn up in large numbers to show their concern.
Let us hope that one day, the mystical light at the end of the tunnel will be the beacon of light to democracy.


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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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