Assignment

Department of Communication and Media Studies

MA Mass Communication Semester -IV

By
Name:  Aqsa Latif
Roll No:   MCM19E045

Submitted To:  Dr Abdul Rehman Madni

Dated:   3-3-2021
 Basant Festival
Basant festival is celebrated on the onset of spring season every year in Pakistan.

Basant is also known as Jashan-e-Baharan that means festival of spring. To celebrate

Basant people fly kites and welcome the spring season and this festival can be named

as kites’ festival as well. This festival is usually celebrated in the February. Many people

set up their shops of kites and decorate them with colorful lights. Kites are made in

variety of colors, sizes and shapes and different kites are named differently. A special

thread is prepared for the kits that is known as Dorr. This special thread is embedded

with cut glass to make it strong so it could serve to cut the thread of another

competitor’s kite. Lahore is a city that is known for its richness in its culture and

festivals. In Pakistan, Basant festival is mainly celebrated in Lahore especially

in Androon-e-Sheher (inner city of Lahore or Walled city of Lahore). Not just from all

over the Pakistan but people from all over the world visit Lahore city to celebrate this

festival. Other cities where Basant festival is mainly celebrated are Faisalabad,

Gujranwala, Karachi, Multan, Kasur, Sialkot, Jhelum, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Over

the years this festival gained more and more importance that even the celebrities of

India used to visit Pakistan especially Lahore to celebrate it.

Unfortunately, because of some people, this festival became fatal because they used

special kind of thread embedded within crushed glass and metal that caused many

deaths. The government of Pakistan banned this festival main incidents that lead to the

ban on Basant were the use of the metallic and chemical-coated twine. Basant was
officially banned in 2005 when a great deal of people in various cities including

Rawalpindi lost their lives due to metallic or chemical-coated string that cuts instantly

through the flesh like a sharp-edged weapon. According to a static more than 20,000

people died due to the fatal thread used in the festival in last 5 years.

The first reason and the most convincing of all is the use of twine and strings made of

sharp glass and metal. The twine which comes from the addition of sharp glass particles

is no less a deadly weapon than a well-sharpened razor. It can easily cut the throat on

touching the exposed part of the neck. In 2007 when the Mayor of Lahore, Mian Amir

Mehmood, lifted the ban on Basant for two days, a lot of incidents happened. People

who were into kite flying more than a pastime took advantage of these two days and

stacked up a great deal of forbidden twine to be used afterwards. The two days passed

with many accidents, to which, the most prone were bike riders and pedestrians.

The problem with twine made from metal is as deleterious as it is with the twine made

from glass particles. In our country, electricity wires run rampantly through the city and

no care is taken of making another wire in a tower which supports transformer, to be

dumped into the ground, so if by chance someone touches a naked wire, he should

amount to minimum damage. People have died on the spot due to electrocution when

their twines touched the electricity wires. In the many cases, children who were running

after a stray kite to catch it faced the same fate as the string used was made from

metal. Many accidents which resulted in severe bodily injuries and in a few cases even

death was caused when over enthusiastic kite flyers fell off from the rooftop. In Lahore,

a few incidents were reported from rooftops. In a totally different case, a boy opened fire

on his neighbors just because he dared to cut his twine and kite in the air with his own.
To ban an entire festival rather than addressing the root cause of the problem can only

be described as reactionary and foolish, especially at a time when the country is eager

to promote its tourism potential to the world. Basant is not only an indigenous festival,

but a ‘happy’ occasion that is both family- and community-oriented, but precautions

must be in place. Even with the ban, there are reports of people being killed due to

glass-covered strings used to bring down rival kites. Last year, a young motorcyclist

died after his throat was slashed by one such string in Lahore. Earlier, another young

man was killed similarly in Karachi. Instead of banning Basant, the government should

criminalize the manufacture and sale of glass-coated strings used during competitive

kite-flying, and instead, promote cotton threads without the addition of dangerous

material. This will not only mitigate the risks of kite-flying, it will also save many lives —

and perhaps one day the colors will return to the sky