Lahore-based singer Umar Raees Ahmad is more than a mere fan of Kishore Kumar.
To me he sounds passionate and knowledgeable enough to be appointed 'International Ambassador for Promoting an Appreciation of the Musical Genius of Kishore Kumar' - if such a post existed.
Umar Raees Ahmad told me quite candidly (and has said this more than once in his YouTube chats with his subscribers) that Pakistanis have long been propagandized into viewing Kishore Kumar as someone who was especially pushed forward to dethrone Mohammed Rafi -- (which is why, according to the slanderers, Kishore Kumar was something of a poseur, not deserving the respect due to a 'really great' singer like Mohammed Rafi!)
Anyone who trawls through Pakistan media-scape can find evidence of this bigoted coupling of Kishore with Rafi with malice towards the former.
A manifestation of this kind of propaganda can be found in this (and this) supposedly 'funny' send-up of Kishore Kumar in Khabarnaak, a popular TV show telecast on Geo News.
Mohammed Rafi -- in stark contrast reinforcing Kishore-a-conspiracy-against-
It's difficult not to notice the bigoted coupling of Kishore with Rafi in shows produced and hosted by powerful, Establishment-aligned media bosses like Aftab Iqbal,in which singers are invited to sing film songs, including Indian melodies.
Aftab Iqbal usually has Rafi sung regularly and respectfully, often with Rafi-specialist singers like Khalid Baig; Kishore Kumar songs are few and far between with no specialist singer.
Mubashir Lucman, another Pakistani TV anchor, actually let it slip that Pakistanis "favour" Muhammad Rafi over Kishore Kumar "only because" the former "was a Muslim" despite the fact that "Kishore is so far ahead of Rafi that there is absolutely no comparison between the two".
Islamic supremacism is often the reason behind a lot of Pakistani attitudes.
Everything that can be labelled 'Islamic' or 'Muslim' must be pitted against something comparable that's not 'Islamic' or 'Muslim' -- with the greatest contempt reserved for anything that can be labelled 'Hindu'.
Islamic worldview is a zero sum game: one gets power and glory only by trampling someone else underfoot; there's no other way.
The bigoted coupling of Kishore with Rafi is just one example of the Social Darwinism of sorts that Islam has injected like poison into a society that was torn off the Great Indic Cultural Matrix not very long ago.
More such examples are easily noticeable in Pakistani media, such as journalist Jawed Naqvi's description of actor Rajendra Kumar as "the poor man's Dilip Kumar" in this article published in Dawn on 28th May 2019.
Islam projects Muslims as the Allah's favoured quam, which necessitates the projection of non-Muslims as being on the wrong path, out of Allah's favour, and destined for hell.
It's not easy for a person brought up on a daily dose of such bigotry to reconcile with the fact that talent, art, skill and virtue can be as freely found in a 'Kafir' as in someone who is labelled a 'Muslim'.
Ahmad Sirhindi, the 16th century Indian ‘Sufi’ whom Muslims regard as Mujaddid-e-Alf-e-Sani (the renewer of Islam of the second Islamic millennium), had said: “Anyone who honours infidels (ahl-e-kufr) disgraces Muslims”.
(As cited by New Zealand scholar Arthur Buehler.)
(As cited by New Zealand scholar Arthur Buehler.)
Pakistani writer Jamshed Iqbal gives another real-life example of the contempt that Muslims are made to muster for the Kafir.
In an article in Urdu (whose Devanagari transcript can be read here), Jamshed Iqbal describes how a Maulvi and his cohorts psychologically manipulated Darpan, a bubbly Hindu young man in Punjab (Pakistan), into believing that he would never get any respect from the Muslim majority unless he converted to Islam, which he eventually did.
“Not mingling with non-Muslims and avoiding eating with them has a clear advantage: they would never feel respected unless, of course, they converted,” the Maulvi tells Jamshed Iqbal in a confidential tone.
Extending the “facility” of respect to the non-Muslims before they converted would not make them realize the “benefit” of becoming a Muslim, the Maulvi suggested.
Jamshed Iqbal's article has also been read out in this Lallantop video.
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