Obsession, repression The rock band Junoon (Obsession) has been accused of committing "treason" and spreading "subversive Indian propaganda" over its criticisms of nuclear testing on the sub-continent. Arif Azad The group has been at the receiving end of state intimidation since 1997 when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif banned all young musicians "in jeans and with long hair" from the country's air waves.
In the 1990s a number of pop groups emerged winning a huge and devoted following among youth suffocated by decades of religious zealotry and restraints on freedom of expression. These artists and their music are the offspring of a raw blend of globalised MTV music culture and localised subA tradition of repression
Official displeasure at this trend can be explained by the innate conservatism of the political establishment which associates this new with 'western' lifestyle choices. The establishment is also outraged over the politically charged themes in the lyrics of some of these groups especially Junoon.
In clamping down on this kind of music, Nawaz Sharif, who leads the nominally secular Muslim League, was tailing the agenda of the Islamic fundamentalist Jamaat-iIslami and following in the footsteps of his mentor, military dictator General Zia ul-Haq (1977-1988). Zia made strenuous efforts to control the musical agenda through promotion of religious and apolitical music-most of it of only limited appeal to the public.
Junoon is a reaction against these efforts from a generation of middle class youth innocent of political convictions but cosmopolitan and secular in inclination. Touching the taboos
So far the group's biography reads like a running battle with the high priests of censorship. In 1996 it achieved notoriety when its hit song Ehtassab (accountability) about corrupt politicians was ordered off the airwaves on the grounds that it could "destabilise" the country
The music video accompanying the track was daring in its inclusion of a scene featuring a horse dining at a five star hotel-a swipe at the polo-loving and multi-millionaire husband of then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The group's disfavour at the hands of the establishment has grown commensurably with popular adulation within Pakistan and diasporic communities abroad
The band's eclectic mix of musical schools: qawwali which draws on Sufi poetry and mysticism, subcontinental folk traditions, western rhythms and instruments is anathema to the reactionary bloc at the centre of the Pakistani State.
Junoon's 1997 album Azadi (Freedom) boosted the appeal of the band across the border in neighbouring India. Sayone, the leading track in the album topped the charts in India and Pakistan alike.
But then the group came under attack by religious leaders for shooting the music video against the backdrop of shrines in the historic city of Multan. Once again the band was accused of "belittling shrines" and "bringing mysticism into disrepute."
ness) was dubbed by the ruling Muslim League as an insult to the great poet. The political party that had appropriated lqbal for its own miserable ends could not stand to see an anti-establishment rock group recuperating his radicalism. Both sides of the frontier
In March 1998, Junoon was invited to India to sing at the Zee-Tv Cine award ceremony. Its visit was a great success and the print and broadcast media in India lionised the group. This set off alarm bells in the overheated imagination of Pakistan's misnamed Ministry of Information, which prefers to censor news, and disseminate anti-indian propaganda.
The group was touring India in May 1998, when India followed by Pakistan detonated several nuclear devices. To the delight of the huge crowds of young people at their concerts, the band made clear its opposition to the tests and the arms race it would encourage. Many fans chanted "cultural fusion—not nuclear fusion! "
In September Junoon was summoned to the Ministry of Culture where they were charged with disagreeing with "national opinion regarding the nuclear explosion" and of "hoping for the reunification of India and Pakistan."
Lead singer and guitarist Salman Ahmad pointed out that the group also denounced the Indian tests and "ambassadors of peace, not as subversive traitors to our motherland." Ahmad refuses to buckle under the pressure to recant. "In Pakistan we do not have clean water, health or employment. How can we afford a nuclear race?" * * A slightly different version of this article appears in the forthcoming *Index On Censorship" 2/99. 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9BR, Great Britain. tel: (+44 171] 278 2313; fax: [171] 278 1878; e-mail <contact@indexoncensorship.org>
International Viewpoint #311 May 1999 21