Graffiti: Contributing to a Political, Religious and Social Turmoil

Bangali Baba’s message carved on one of the walls on streets of Karachi began like this:

“Mehboob apke qadmon main……..”

Another hilarious one says:

“Parhey likhey rishton k liye raabta karen: 03*********”

How often have we the educated lot seen these on the streets of Karachi finding them amusing, ignored and later walked away? Do we ever pause and consider how these are leading to a great anti-social turmoil. The impoverished class of our nation easily is falling into a trap created by the poison of these predatory messages.


The age of racing cars, dolls and video games is gone; seems like human mind is the best toy to play with in contemporary times. The knowledge of psychology has been put to use not just by politicians, marketers, and advertisers but also by common people; people who have a motive of breeding their way of thinking and ideologies into the systems of the masses. An extremely inexpensive yet effective in terms of frequency of exposure way of communication like Graffiti has done wonders.

“Only Altaf”
“Bus bohat hogaya……Land mafia……”
“JUI”
“Mohammed k gulaamon ko Amreeka ki gulaami na-manzoor”




I happened to come across these messages supporting political schemes and religious motives a couple of days ago. The influential entities of each political party in Karachi have printed messages about their ideas within the vicinities of their rule. This has contributed to sectarian divide and political unrest in the past few weeks majorly. Also the promotion of so many filthy operations like palm readers, matrimonial services, bangali babas, and future tellers is letting our uneducated populace astray.

Recently when the news broke out that Pakistan will grant India with the status of “Most Favored Nation”, protests from all over the country were well evident in the form of graffiti. Freedom of speech and expression were exercised through this medium. A country where the lower class feels the utter need of a representation becomes very easily convinced by these ideas and indulges into wrong doings.

Even though regulators have tried to put an end to graffiti in the past and various voluntary organizations have painted the walls back to white to remove negative messages, many slums and interior localities still have abominating messages contributing a great deal to the animosity existing in the minds of our generations.

The end note to my discussion: We don’t need a dictator to destroy our state now. Nor is a foreign force required to ruin and dilute our identities. Religious maniacs and political activists dwelling in our state are doing the job subtly yet so well. The time is not far when all we will be is a state full of contaminated religious ideologies, political hatred and individuals with bigoted mindsets.

Stereotyping: A Choice Made

When a painter starts to paint a beautiful painting, he visualizes it a certain way. He adds colors, shapes, geometric designs, and all his creativity to it on the basis of that imagination. During the entire time that he is painting, he feels it will turn out to be exactly what he wants. On completion though, the painting looks dreary and lifeless sometimes. He goes back to change either of the elements to transform it into his desired state. After the morphing process, the painting looks as good as it should. Short sightedness influences his perceptions, but reality is far from different.

We frequently talk about macroeconomic issues, about social issues at a global level. We talk about how they’ve impacted lives. We discuss their humongous affects. But have we ever trickled the issues down to a grass root level? Issues usually commence at the very basic level and later aggravate to generate issues of huge magnitudes. Discrimination is a common practice at all levels, but it breeds from stereotypes at smaller levels.

Often unaware of what we’re doing we tend to stereotype people ourselves. Once, when I asked a friend of mine whose birthday had passed previously for a birthday treat, another friend of mine said that he won’t give one. “Yeh Memon hai yaar, treat dey hee naa dey” (translation: He is a Memon, he won’t give a treat thus).

“All muslims are terrorists”, “Blondes are dumb”, “Women who wear hijaab are religious” are some other common stereotypes that we might have come across. Every day we judge people on the basis of the community, race and religion they belong to, on their appearance, their preferences, their choices and what not. But we don’t consider how hurtful it is until we witness a scenario in which we ourselves are being labeled.



Stereotyping is similar to the “Six Blind Men and the Elephant Story” where they judge the elephant according to what information they have access to. Their relative perspectives are a consequence of factors that are beyond their span of control. But when we stereotype, it is a choice that we make. We choose not to know people first and label them on the basis of pre-conceived notions.

On my first day at my University I saw people entering the class room and immediately after a glimpse I started generalizing and judging them on how they looked or spoke. To this day, none of the first impressions have turned out to be true in any case whatsoever. All those people have proved to be totally different persons when I actually got to know them.

So many countries in contemporary times are participating in exchanges to change perceptions and typical stereotypes that other nationals have about them. Governments in the West are funding exchange programs massively to develop cross cultural understanding. They see it as an investment towards the change they envision.

As mentioned earlier also, stereotypes exist at the extreme basic level. Universities that offer programs in diverse disciplines have students encompassing certain stereotypes about programs that they themselves do not belong to. Identifying this problem, a few students from SZABIST have started a full fledge campaign on spreading awareness about inter-program stereotypes and removing/altering them. The initiative has been named “Paradigm Shift” and has been marketed through different mediums. It will serve as a platform for students to discuss their programs, facilitating the cause and assisting the initiators to achieve their objectives.

It’s time that we the educated lot start bringing about a transformation in the way we see others. If education cannot even change the practice of one group stereotyping the other then all of it goes in the trash. Dumbledore in the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets said "It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

Gandhi vs. Jinnah: Is it even worth debating over?

There have been times when certain individuals have risen up to the deceitful religious dogmas, bigoted maniacs, societal injustices and opposed the wrongdoings. Rising up against conformist ideologies is sometimes possible but there are times when these acts turn to a massive turmoil and a mass opposition. The individuals who bring about these reforms are sometimes termed deviants and sometimes praised. But they all should be presented with the title of a “Leader”.

Here I would like to take my discussion to the phenomenal qualities of two such leaders of whom the world knows about; the two leaders from this side of the world that the entire globe is particularly interested in. Mahatma Gandhi and Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah: the two people who beautifully carved their names in the books of the history of subcontinent. These were the men who rose up to the challenging situations of their times and gave their followers refuge from external rule.

I would like to highlight some major similarities between the two leaders. Both Gandhi and Jinnah had similar leadership styles. They made people believe in their vision and carried such a strong charisma that dictated the moves of their followers. They bestowed their nations with eternal freedom. True that Gandhi was a people oriented person and had a very non violent self stimulating type of style, Jinnah had to act all strong and stern. They molded their personalities according to the need of the day and made relative sacrifices.

Why is then Gandhi considered to be a better leader? Why are the two even compared? Just because they both supported and led opposite sides of the independence war doesn’t make them comparable. The situations that shaped and transformed the decisions of both were different. Their ideologies were different. Their approaches were different yet it is concluded that Gandhi was a better leader by the West. During my exchange year I encountered with so many people who asked me this: Do you think Gandhi was a better leader or Jinnah? The meaning of Mahatma has been explained well as the great one but people in the West aren’t aware that Quaid-e-Azam also has similar meaning.

Yes this perception owes to the fact that Indian film cinema has uplifted Gandhi’s image through its pro-Gandhi films but until and unless all facts are properly analyzed of the pre-independence era, vague statements like Gandhi was a better leader shouldn’t be passed. Also the perception that Pakistanis hate Gandhi and Indians hate Jinnah as leaders is not correct. Despite being a Pakistani, I absolutely adore Gandhi as a leader and quote his example whenever relevant and know Indians who loved Jinnah’s brilliant moves to give Muslims what they required. Both are exemplary leaders and both should be appreciated for their contributions.

One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind

According to a recent research conducted by environmentalists, the rate at which the once abundant resources are being consumed is analogous to or even faster than the half lives of radioactive elements.
The rate at which the world population is growing is tremendous and as forecasted the upcoming generations will suffer massively due to certain practices if continued. Leading industries and corporations and also common people like us need to start economizing on the resources that are going in such paucity now. Taking the utilitarian approach, a few practices that I believe have benefits beyond imagination can do wonders if incorporated in our daily lives. These have been highlighted as per my understanding into categories below:

Industrial Practices:

1)Waste management department can prove to be extremely useful and ethical. A team of experts should be formed to come up with ways that can turn the by-products into useful end products. Also recycling can ensure utility of resources properly.


2)Disposal of harmful gases can be very hazardous and pose a threat to the health of laborers and workers and later to the macro environment on a whole. A system that consumes such gases and decompose them would be advisable.


Practices for the Common People:


1)Considering that water is going scarce in most of the continents at present and people don’t have purified water to even drink, ways to conserve water should be adopted. There are many ways in which this goal can be achieved like keeping the tap turned off while shampooing and washing face, using as little water as required etc.



2)Use of air conditioners should be minimized considering that it gives off CFCs in the environment which is leading to the depletion of ozone layer. Else the entire human race will suffer the consequences.

Accusations? Why only Media?

Do we backbite more about people in parties or discuss how someone has transformed into a better person? Are we more curious about finding whether someone has gone bankrupt or whether someone witnessed an increase in sales last month? We see two news stories when we glance at the paper in the morning. One of the headlines reads “two Christians killed in target killing” and the other reads “0.6% growth in GDP”. Which one becomes our choice to be read first?

Psychology clearly explains that we the human beings are more interested in what troublesome incidents are occurring in people’s lives rather than what positive incidents are shaping them. It also shows that we shun diversity and see differences more than the similarities that exist between us.


Every business opens up to make profits and like seeing constant increments in figures on their balance sheets. Same is the case with media. Considering how businesses are becoming more customer centered now to make profits, how can we expect media channels and newspapers to show positive news when a clear insight into human behavior reveals that such an approach will not work in any circumstances whatsoever?

Forget ethics. If we take up a business like perspective on this issue, it would not be wrong to say that media channels are operating on the demand of their customers which are us, the common people. Businesses run on the mere principle of creating profits, not just in the short run but also in the long run for their sustainability. Why are media channels always subjected to mockery by everyone? Just because their practices are so transparent and in front of our eyes? What about the other organizations that are huge and indulge into practices that pose greater threats to the survival of human beings? For instance, take an industry that spills its waste materials into the environment and hence polluting it on a whole. Why don’t we judge their actions equally the way we do with media channels? Just because they are functioning at the back of the stage doesn’t mean they should not be pointed fingers at.

We should remember that the same media is covering the entire transmissions of coke studio, the spirit of cricket and the emotional attachment to it, our great heroes and legends etc. Why? Because that’s what we want to see. We should not forget that no channel can manipulate or sensationalize us unless we allow them to do so.

In a nut shell, if we want media to cover the positive aspects of our culture, should we not change our outlooks on issues pertaining to our culture and individuality?