Points of Entry: Encounters at the Origin Sites of Pakistan by Paracha Nadeem Farooq

Author:Paracha, Nadeem Farooq [Paracha, Nadeem Farooq]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Tranquebar Press
Published: 2018-06-17T16:00:00+00:00

11

A Band’s End

About a quarter of the population of Goa, a state in present-day India, is Christian.1 A majority from this large Christian community in the state are the descendants of Hindus who converted (or were converted) to Christianity by the Portuguese who had set up a permanent settlement in Goa in 1510 CE. These South Asian Christians now also include descendants of ‘Luso-Indians’ or people of mixed Portuguese and Indian heritage.2 By the end of the nineteenth century, almost fifty per cent of the population of Goa was Christian (largely Roman Catholic).3 However, from 1900 onwards, a large number of Goan Christians began to migrate to other cities of India after the state’s economy began to decline. It was during this period that many Goan Christians and other Luso-Indians also started to arrive and settle in Karachi because at the time Karachi had begun to expand as an important port city of British India.4

When in August 1947, Karachi became part of the newly-born Pakistan, the Goan Christians stayed on in the city. In fact, many Goan Christians living in Karachi had actually supported the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, when he had campaigned for a separate Muslim-majority country.5 Till the late 1970s, the Goan Christians of Karachi were involved in the running of well-reputed educational institutions or worked in various white-collar jobs, especially in the service industry. Some of these men and women also married Muslims (often converting to Islam for this purpose). Another profession in which they were heavily involved in was the music scene at the city’s popular nightclubs and hotels. Many Christian men and women were regularly hired to sing and play various types of Western music at these places. It was these Goan bands playing in Karachi’s many clubs and hotels who first popularised music genres such as jazz and rock ‘n’ roll among the city’s youth. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were over twenty well-known rock, pop and jazz bands playing at the various clubs, bars and hotels of Karachi.6 Almost all of them were made up of young Goan Christian men and women, even though a few young Muslims had begun joining them as well.

In April 1977, the left-leaning and populist government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was confronted by a violent protest movement driven by a right-wing alliance of anti-Bhutto parties. Among their demands was the closing down of the nightclubs and a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages. In a bid to placate the demonstrators, Bhutto agreed and the ban came into effect. The ban on alcohol only applied to the Muslims of Pakistan. Non-Muslim Pakistanis were now required to procure a special permit from the government to buy liquor from ‘wine shops’ licensed to sell only to non-Muslims.7 Bhutto was eventually toppled in a reactionary military coup in July 1977 and the military regime which replaced his government turned the ban on clubs and alcohol (which had originally been only a temporary measure taken under pressure) into law in 1979.

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