Page Eighteen

THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE

Sunday, March 30, 1958

Modernity and Antiquit


By ROSE PERLBERG hammed Hussain slouches in an extra sparkle into her warm brown
Daily Activities Editor overstuffed chair. His casual posi- eyes. When Viqar talks she speaks
IN THE growing family of Middle tion and rumpled sports clothes with her hands, her expressive
Eastern Nations, there is a pre- indicate a relaxed young man. But face, her whole energetic body.
cocious 10-Year-old child with the Whether it's a vigorous toss of her
Mohammed's dark, alert eyes are long, shiny black braided hair, or
dreams and aspirations of one far constantly shifting; his lean, sup- a gentle graceful hand motion,
older, nd thse determinatio and le fingers nervously tap his Viqar seems endowed with a cer-
perseverance to fulfill them. Its leather-cased slide rule. Even after tain dynamism that is contagious.
name is Pakiuan. months of previous acquaintance,
Eighty per crus of Pkist i's 32 Mohammed is never completely at ESPITE the advances Paki-
million people v;ork tlhe < 80 t ease with me. There is always a stanis have made towards mod-
per cent of tlte. villS tse sme marked reticence, a shyness that ernizing their country in the past
crude implrenss Iet their seums to place a thin, but un- 10 year a tood 65 per cent of its
grandfather's rsdtathes sused. >eisetrahle veil betswecn Mohams-
But there are souse of the youn -.nr -lged and myself. ven after almost population still lives in extreme
generation, the men and wosen four years at an American Uni- poverty, Viqar says. Main cities
vho were children sut adolescen s ersity, he is still on edge when like Viqar's home in West Paki-
-vhen Pakistan eane in lier owl he's alone with American women. stun, its capital, Karachi, and
10 years ago, who -e convinced Viqar (pronounced Veechahr) Dacca, in East Pakistan, home
that their country can rise to con- Quadri provides a good counter- base for Mohammed, are compar-
quer its illiterary problems, can part to Mohammed's mild, tem- able to big Western cities, says
eventually take its place high perate personality. As he is quiet Mohammed. Standing side by side
among the well-developed coun- and withdrawn, she is vivacious with century-old mosques, are
tries of the world. and outgoing. What you first note modern homes and business build-
Sitting with me in the Union about Viqar is her wide, radiant ings. Passing each other on sun-
lounge are two such reformers. smile. It lights up her face, dim- baked streets are horse-drawn
Soft-spoken, slightly-built Mo- ples her full cheeks and puts an carts and modern European cars.
All over are evidences of what
Mohammed terms with a broad
grin, "your push-button civiliza-
tion."
But a few miles out of the cities,
mud huts dot the banks of the
Indus and Ganges Rivers and
their back-country tributaries.
Here in the villages, the life of
the farmer is the same as it's been
for hundreds of years-with the
A few exceptions of American dollar-
s9 purchased mechanization. Here
lie the roots of Pakistan's greatest
problems: poverty and ignorance.
When she speaks of these vil-
lagers, Viqar's cheerful face sud-
denly darkens; her lips drawn
back into a pleasant, white-toothed
smile, press tightly into a deter-
mined straight line. "In the next
two decades," she says softly, but
-ywith intense conviction, "illiteracy
-:will be completely liquidated. The
Y-tractors and your modern tools
will replace everywhere the wood-
en plowing stick and the oxen."

PUSH-BUTTON CIVILIZATION-Vigar Quadri and Mohammed
Hussain admire evidence of the American mechanization which
they hope will soon mark Pakistan's economy.

TODAY, the average farmer lives
in a mud bungalow, usually of
one or two rooms, with a court-
yard and tree, under the shadow
of which women do most of their
work. For it gets unbearably hot
in Pakistan's lowland country.
Viqar comments with a shrug
that 116 degree temperatures with
high humidity are not uncommon
for months at a time everywhere
in Pakistan except for northern
mountain areas. The main street,
a dirt road, pounded smooth by
the bare feet of the people and
the hoofs of their work animals
is flanked by mud walls on one
side and open to the fields on the
other. Huts are grouped together
to make this common wall a safety
measure against bands of robbers
that prowl the countryside and
against the biggest terror of them
all, the river floods.
"Are floods common?" I inter-
rupt Viqar's descriptive narrative.
"Oh yes." She answers soberly.
"The people sitting in their huts

at night feel it throb and when
the throb becomes a roar, they
know it is time to flee."
VERY YEAR, the mighty Indus
churns over its banks and gush-
es over the land. A twisting, rip-
pling blanket of brown-yellow
water, it surges through fields.
demolishes homes and belongings
in a swirl of mud and foam, then
slowly retreats, a greedy, well-fed
monster, satisfied and sluggish,
placated for another year.
In these times of crisis, Viqar
says, the government helps with
evacuation, but peasants must
build their homes again and often
lose many of their meagre belong-
ings.
"Why," I ask, "hasn't the gov-
ernment been able tobuild dams
to hold back the floods?"
Viqar smiles sadly, almost apolo-
getically. "Oh, there are dams,
but they are of mud and they are
always cracking and such. And

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