Pakistan’s Radioactive Decade: An informal cultural history of the 1970s

2019

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Editors: Niilofur Farrukh,
Amin Gulgee and John McCarry

Pakistan’s Radioactive Decade: An informal cultural history of the 1970s

2019

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Editors: Niilofur Farrukh,
Amin Gulgee and John McCarry

The process of investigating layers of personal and public memory of the enigmatic decade , the 1970s with almost 50 artists and as many writers in the last two years – has slowly shifted the project from an act of rekindling memory to one of discovering the complex phenomenon of memory association and re-emergence of historical images in the consciousness of several generations.
The 70s birthed a group of diehard idealists who became the conscience of the nation and authors of the counter narrative…they are children of this waterhead moment of conviction and an unfailing belief in autonomy.

watch Book launch
of pakistan’s
radioactive decade

Date: March 3rd 2019

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pakistan’s radioactive decade

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EDITORS: NiilofuR Farukh, Amin
Gulgee, and John McCarry

Hard Cover
448 Pages
Published by Oxford University Press

Amir Habib, 2016

performance by SARA PAGGANWALA, 2016

70’s Film Poster

IZDEYAR SETNA, 2016

Amir Habib, 2016

performance by SARA PAGGANWALA, 2016

70’s Film Poster

IZDEYAR SETNA, 2016

ESSAY

A Memory That Cannot Find Rest

By Niilofur Farrukh

The Seventies, which took place almost half a century ago, has an unexplainable holdon the public imagination. Yet there is no easy way to remember the 1970s as it packs so much political and social change. Two history-altering events shook the foundations of the country: a civil war that midwifed Bangladesh and the 1977 military coup that de-seated Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a popular prime minister who was marched to the gallows. Between these two tragedies, we find a fleeting spring of false hope when optimism in the air unleashed unprecedented creativity that awakened a sense of nationhood. It is also difficult to forget this heady era because it saw no closure. When it abruptly ended with the ‘midnight knock’, the nation was left shell-shocked and confused; they saw all that symbolized the spirit of the Seventies buried under the Martial Law orders of General Ziaul Haq. Since then, Pakistanis have returned to the memories of the era for unanswered questions. It has become a memory that cannot find rest.

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