Dear Neighbour

December 28, 2022 12:31 PM

Salaams from India and namastes from Pakistan dominate these comment sections of music and dance videos, in what sometimes feels like the simplest place on the South Asian internet. The heights of this fraternalism are on display in the fandom for Coke Studio Pakistan, which recently completed its 14th season. On their channel, Indian fans feel free to be wistful, hysterical and often envious about the show's music. "But this is unsurprising, really," said Rohail Hyatt, who spearheaded the show in 2008. "Nation-states are much younger than the histories of music that are woven all across South Asia. Of course, they take on different meanings to listeners, as is documented in the comments. But shared histories just exist. They always have. No one, in no position of power, can counter that."

By Sharanya Deepak (previously).

posted by smcg (4 comments total)

(An essay on cross-border Indian/Pakistani music fandom. The head summary:

Bans. Danger. Polarisation. The cross-border harmonies of Indian and Pakistani pop culture have been imperilled over the last few years. But fandom, and cultural memory, survives against increasing odds.)
posted by zamboni at 12:48 PM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Institute where I used to teach had an annual International Students Day. Each country represented in the student body got a table, a flag and a display board; courtesy of the management. The students supplied the food, music and funny hats. One year I stopped at the India table to ask why they had two display boards. They pointed to one of the lads behind the table, mussed up his hair and said "He's Pakistan and all his mates are swatting exams." I was quite affected by this casual statement because people have been killed in Indo-Pakistani conflicts in 1947, 1965, 1971, 1999 with stand-offs and shape-throwing in 1986, 1987, 2001 and 2008, not to mention the perpetual simmering aggro over Kashmir. I quipped that the (articulate, sunny and intelligent) young man would be the next-President-but-three back home in Pakistan. It's not impossible to imagine that an Indian friendship forged in Ireland 3 decades before would open up the dialogue to avert a nuclear meltdown on the subcontinent in 2052. But on a mundane level, from a distance of 7,000 km these young men found how much they had in common.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:01 PM on December 28, 2022 [5 favorites]

@BobTheScientist that’s just cool!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 4:58 PM on December 28, 2022

Previous FPP on the most recent CS season with song recs
posted by cendawanita at 9:42 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]