Daily Times

Veteran artist, humourist, and writer Anwar Maqsood released the latest episode of his online series to his Youtube channel, titled Anwarnama, on Sunday, which intended to be a satire on Sindhis, a way for him to look at Sindhis in a critical manner and show the Sindhi population the mirror of their grievances and flaws in the context of socio-politics and other contemporary issues.

The video that goes by the name Aik Sindhi Ka Interview, shows Anwar reading a skit featuring him and a ‘common Sindhi’.

In an attempt to be funny, the episode comes off as everything but funny, irking the entire Sindhi population at home as well as abroad, causing a massive online backlash. Although now publicly removed from social media after Anwar made a public apology, the episode merely reinforced the stereotypes about Sindhis that have been consistent and pertinent in Pakistani entertainment and media for years.

The video starts off with Anwar (as the interviewer) asking the Sindhi what he does for a living, to which the latter responds, “Nothing, I don’t need to work because I am Sindhi.” It then goes on to describe how the Sindhi man enjoys living a lavish lifestyle, indulges in various vices, and in theory, dies multiple times for the purposes of avoiding paying off debt. In such a way, Anwar gives the Sindhi population the biggest blow with the lowest common denominator of humour one doesn’t really expect coming from a legend like him.

The Twitter brigade took to the micro-blogging platform a little while later, to term the video as “racist” and a classic “humiliation”.

According to a user on Twitter, Anwar Maqsood is a biased and racist grownup from Sindh, who was educated in Sindh and enjoys all the benefits of the Sindh government but spews hate against Sindhis. “This old, crazy, white-bearded man should read history”.

Another user tweeted, “There is a thin line between racism and stereotyping for the sake of humour. #AnwarMaqsood treaded the line for years, racism was funny back then, people have evolved, racism is not funny anymore.”

“Anwar Maqsood should know the difference between satire & spitting ethnic, linguistic biases against Sindhis who have thousands of years old history of civilisation. His act in the name of satire & humour is condemnable at all levels,” said former Executive Director Owais Tohid on Twitter.

A Twitter user, Barooq went as far as quoting Anwar Maqsood a ‘bhaand‘. He said, “When was Anwar Maqsood not racist? Don’t you remember blackfacing Moin Akhtar to portray Bengali was considered OK? We still laugh at the skit. Comedy is often based on stereotypes and can be racist. Our bhands are always like this. Anwar Maqsood is just an urdu bhand.”

Musharraf A. Farooqi, editor at Urdu Thesaurus said, “To call Anwar Maqsood a bhaand is an insult to the great folk institution of the bhaand. A bhaand never laughs at his own jokes.”

Rabia Anum said, “Anwar maqsood Sb’s skit about sindhis was downright racist, it was sad. But the Good thing is that he has realised and apologised. Let’s move on people, he is a legend who has been entertaining us since forever.”

Pakistani actor Gohar Rasheed voiced his support for Maqsood, saying that “humour” and “satire” is what he has given us, and it is a treasure; therefore, he respects him for his “courage” and “speaking the truth”.

Maqsood in his apology video defended his words and actions, saying that he had lived in Sindh since he came to Pakistan in 1948, and he respected all the greats, even knew some personally. In the video, he can be seen holding a copy of Shah Jo Risalo and apologising to everyone: “It worried me that I hurt people’s sentiments. I don’t belong to any political party and I knew Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari. Sindh is a land of love, where Sachal and Bhittai live.” He added, “I apologise to everyone that my humour hurt my Sindhi brothers’ sentiments.”