Pakistani people and their cultural traditions

For millennia, the mountain regions, valleys and plains of Pakistan have been a melting pot of different races, cultures and belief systems and have been among the oldest inhabited places on earth.
Settlers in this land included Aryans, Greeks, White Huns, Persians, Arabs, Turks and Mongols who mixed with the original inhabitants, the Dravidians, and established the Indus valley civilization.
Its famed cities of Harappa and Moenjodaro flourished for a thousand years from 2500 to 1500 B.C.  Among the earliest settlements, which date back to 7000 B.C., the ancient village of Mehrgarh in the fertile Indus river valley was one of the world's first farming communities that had learnt to grow wheat and barley and raise cattle.
Pakistan has been a birth place of ideas and rich spiritual traditions. The first book of hymns of Hinduism was compiled along the banks of the Indus as the Aryans started migrating and settling in the South Asian subcontinent nearly four thousand years ago. The rise of the Gandhara civilisation is associated with Taxila becoming the seat of Buddhist learning and spread of Buddhism into China and beyond. In the subcontinent, Pakistan received the full impact of Islam, hence its unique identity.
Pakistan is rich in Sufi traditions. Sufi saints of Punjab and Sindh and their shrines in Lahore, Multan, Sehwan and several other spiritual centres are deeply revered and shape religious orientation of large sections of the population. A linked tradition is of mystical poetry that remains popular to this day and has a unique genre of singing. Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, a renowned Sindhi Sufi poet-saint, founded a new musical tradition called Shah-jo-Rago. Shah Hussain, Sultan Bahu, Bullhe Shah, Madho Lal Hussain and Khwaja Ghulam Farid are the most celebrated among the many mystic Sufi poets of Punjab which is also famous for romantic folk poetry. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khushhal Khan Khattak is the most renowned poet and savant, who lived in the seventeenth century.
Pakistan is inhabited by a mix of migrating populations creating a mosaic of different races and distinct linguistic groups. There are scores of languages and dialects spoken all over Pakistan with seven major languages namely Pushto, Hindko, Punjabi, Siraiki, Brahavi, Sindhi and Balochi. According to some scholars, Brahavi has a Dravidian origin.
All languages are rich in folklore and poetry. The national language Urdu is not linked to any particular region but has developed over one millennium as a blend of Persian, Turkish, Arabic and local languages and as part of the Muslim heritage in the subcontinent. Lahore has remained one of the principal literary centres of Urdu in the region.
Urdu is recognized among the major languages of the world and in the richness of literary traditions, it rivals other significant languages of the orient. The tradition owes to the poetic genius of great luminaries such as Amir Khusro (1253-1325), Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869) and the more contemporary Allama Iqbal (1877 -1938) and Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984).
Mushaira or poetry recitals are common and are organized at national and international levels. Urdu has a developed tradition in prose. Short stories by Saadat Hassan Manto have been internationally recognised.
In Pakistan, the great Urdu literary tradition has been kept alive by a new generation of poets and writers as Ahmed Faraz, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Sufi Tabassum, Mustapha Zaidi, Munir Niazi, Parveen Shakir, Abdullah Hussain, Intizar Hussain, Ashfaq Ahmed, Naseem Hijazi, Shaukat Siddiqui and Mumtaz Mufti. For challenges of translation their works have still remained under recognized. In recent years, however, new Pakistani authors writing in English have established themselves internationally as exponents of contemporary Pakistani fiction.
Pakistan with a population of 180 million people is a vibrant multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society, which is remarkable for its diversity and dynamism that combines tradition with modernity. City dwellers in Pakistan make up more than 40% of its population. A large segment of the population is young and is an important asset for the future. Breaking the traditional mould, women in Pakistan are making impressive strides. They are active in politics, businesses and all professions. In many academic disciplines of higher education, in particular medicine, they often outnumber male students.
Cricket is the most popular sport in the country. Pakistan has produced some of the greatest names of the game and has won many international cricket events, including the World Cup in 1992. The national sport is field hockey. Pakistan has won three gold medals at the Olympics (1960, 1968, 1984), the most number of Asian gold medals and the Hockey World Cup four times (1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994). Squash is another popular game in which Pakistanis have distinguished themselves internationally, winning the Squash World Open 17 times and the British Open 12 times, the highest by any country. Pakistan's Jahangir Khan, considered by many to be the greatest player in the history of squash, won the World Open six times and the British Open a record ten times. Between 1981 and 1986, he won hundreds of matches consecutively remaining unbeaten in competitive play for five years. This was the longest winning streak in squash history. It was also one of the longest unbeaten records by any athlete in top level professional sports. Jahangir Khan is serving as the President of the World Squash Federation since 2002.
All other international sports including winter and water sports, equestrian sports and indoor games are played in Pakistan. Soccer, badminton, table tennis, volleyball and card games are quite popular. The traditional sports in Pakistan include polo, Kabaddi, Malh/Kushti (a local style of wrestling), tent pegging, horse and camel racing. The Shandur polo tournament, played at the world's highest polo ground (3740 M above sea level) every summer, is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Chitral and Gilgit in northern Pakistan.
The rich tradition of painting that Pakistan inherited was characterized by naturalism and vibrant colour. At the time of independence, the two most eminent artists in the country were Abdur Rehman Chughtai and Ustad Allah Bux. While the formative influence on both was miniature painting, their themes and styles were dramatically different. Chughtai, the more celebrated of the two, was known for his pastel hued and innovative interpretations of the Mughal female archetype. Bux depicted fold myths and rural life.
The story of Pakistani art is also one of embracing new forms. Within an incredibly short period there was a diversity of master abstract painters, many of whom enjoyed international renown. Most notable amongst these are Shakir Ali and Sadequain who were radically different stylistically and highly influential. The works of an enigmatic female painter, Zubaida Agha, were among the first abstractions to be exhibited in the country. Gulgee, Jamil Naqsh, Ahmed Parvez, Bashir Mirza, Zahoor ul Akhlaque, Shemza, Iqbal Hussain and more recently Qudus Mirza and Tasadaq Sohail as well as Shahid Sajjad in sculpture are other important modernists.
Pakistani Calligraphers practice a range of forms in calligraphy; important exponents include Abdul Majd Parveen Raqam, Rashid Butt and Khurshed Alam Gohar Raqam for classical and Gulgee and Ahmed Khan for abstract styles.
Between the traditionalism of miniature and the advent of modernity and abstraction, the contemporary Pakistani artists have an immense variety of influences behind them. Pakistan is perhaps unique amongst nations formed in the 20th century in having arrived at an artistic style that is at once incredibly diverse, instantly recognizable, and globally relevant.
Women have contributed and played a critical role in the development of Pakistani art; many of them have exhibited their works abroad winning accolades from art critics.
The cultural vista of Pakistan is colourful and there is a range of religious and spiritual festivals, celebrations of spring and urban and rural fairs called Melas as well as local exhibitions of livestock with dancing horses, tent pegging and other local sports. The Eid festivals are celebrated with great fervour and enthusiasm throughout the country. Weddings are special family occasions for reunions, feasts and rejoicing.
Among spiritual festivals are the annual Urs linked to shrines of important saints. The Urs at Sehwan in Sindh and at shrines in Multan, Lahore and Rawalpindi attract devotees from all over the country and abroad.
Basant, a spring festival, is one of the most colourful. The focus of the celebration is Lahore, especially the inner walled city that adorns a festive look in mid-February with skies filled with kites. On two days of Basant, people organize parties and feasts on rooftops, enjoying kite-flying and kite fighting competitions with musical revelry. All wear saffron clothes to match the colours of mustard fields that flower during that period, turning the landscape into vibrant hues of yellow.