SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS IMPACT ON KALASHA CULTURE
Kalash are one of the Indigenous communities in Pakistan. These tribes are residing in the district Chitral lower Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Famous for their culture rituals and traditions throughout the world. In this article I explained about kalasha clan history, religion, economic system, duties, Music ,kalasha religious festivals. The factors that led this culture towards decline. The Role of social media and tourism on Kalash culture and religion. As an active member of the Kalash community and custodian my main aim is to protect my culture and religion. Tourism and social media have become serious issues with this culture. These two factors not only impacted the culture but also became the reasons for declining this culture. If the role of social media and tourism continues like this, very soon this colorful culture and people will decline very quickly. If we want to see this beautiful colorful culture and clan in future we have to take steps to preserve this culture and this religion. If social media and tourism are controlled, this culture can be preserved to a great extent. Apart from this there are many reasons of declining this culture.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND TOURISM IMPACTS ON KALASHA CULTURE:
It is fact that nothings is static , everything is dynamic in nature. Some kalasha culture has also changed due to modernization and Islamization. Being modern is not a bad thing but staying within the confines of your culture is a good thing. The kalash religion have been effected by modernization and what are the means of modernization which not only change the culture but also threaten the religion as well as culture. As we know kalash valleys are attractive tourism spot. Thousands of tourists come here on every festival to see the kalash culture and tribe. Now we will see what effects this tourists and tourism has had on the culture. Either they are positive or negative. Tourism it self is good things its create employments and revenue for that era. Tourism promotes diversity and awareness but it not so in the kalash culture. But the important thing is that if some thing effects your identity and freedom is not good to so the sooner you avoid it, the better. Same like tourism is effecting this culture and well as religion. Due to tourism, the social media came to this area and thus the social media became a real threat to declining this culture. Now here i will discus the the impacts of besides tourism what is the main factor that is contributing to the decline of kalash culture. It is fact and we admit it that tourism has developed this area. But it have become a big threat to this culture. An informal survey was conducted by local people that how much they are favor of tourism in this area. The majority of people are against tourism and they say that it threatens their culture as well as religion. Before the tourism the culture was in genuine structure, when tourism came to this area they not only changed the culture also the behaviors of kalash people. When the tourist visit in kalash valleys the tease the local. They take pictures of women without permission and enter their houses. Kalash people are open minded and very hospitable. For their this simplicity and kindness they tourist take negative benefits. For this reason, the practice of veiling is growing rapidly among the kalash people. During the festival time they mostly kalash girls does not attend the festival due to the rush of crowd. Tourism has not only effected the culture it also effecting the climate of this area due to the traffic and public rush. The real threat to this culture is the role of social media beside tourism. Tourism have been effecting this culture but the social media has stigmatized this culture. If social media and tourism went parallel these both are the important industries of the world. And when these two become the distraction of something so it is better to avoid them. For the Many countries, tourism is one of the most significant and effective channels of revenue.
It is fact that tourism is culture industry but it is same for everywhere ( ). Before the tourism their was a time when kalash celebrate the festival with full of zeal but most of female does not celebrate because of the tourists behavior. There was a time when in kalash only we could see foreigners a huge portion because their visit to kalash was to know about this religion and it is history. But today the foreigner are not visit so much as they came before. Now a days the only Local tourist are in visit here , they do not go to see the culture, they visit here to see kalash women. When tourism came here it brings social media with itself. Tourists visit here and enjoy the festivals. But when social media came these areas it promoted kalash culture nationally as well as internationally. Everything has advantages and disadvantages. If something is deliberately promotes negative news for their own sake it is the real threat. In this way, social media is also promoting wrong information about this culture, not the culture. There are many social media platforms that are using this culture to their advantage. Negative information about this culture is being conveyed to people through social media. And so due to these wrong thoughts they visit these areas. Which they have heard on various social media channels like YouTube, Facebook etc. There have many you Tube channel’s in the name of Kalash. They use kalash girl’s pictures and Video for prostitution. During festival time they make Video of this girl’s while performing their religion festival and upload. And so they write wrong captions and upload videos and pictures to attract viewers. Which is not only the violation of personal rights. Due to this social media many younger girl’s does not attend the festival. During the festival, thousands of people take videos and pictures with cameras and smart phones in their hands. For this reason they did not face the camera and thus they does not perform their festivals, because of this social media. Because they knew that they will make their videos and upload them in various means of social media sources not for the purpose of culture promotion but in the purpose of viewers.
In conclusion , it can be surmised that social media and tourism has resulted to decline of the kalash culture. Social media is the one of best platform to promote anything and same like tourism brings positive growth. But due to social media and tourism the culture is stigmatized . Social media spreading misinformation about kalash culture , their is not even a single channel which is promoting kasha culture. There are many news channels and they interview young girls regarding culture but their actual purpose is for their viewers. So far none of the news channels have interviewed the boys because they know it will reduce the viewership. From this we can infer that social media is not promoting the culture but increasing its viewers and there are so much videos regarding kalash people which are completely false. But after listening to these videos, they visit the valleys, the purpose is not to see their culture, but the videos they have seen on social media, they go here to visit with the same thought and after coming here, they come to know the truth. Goes If tourism is benefiting the people of this area. But culture is influenced by it. Even young girls don’t come to attend theirs religious festivals because fear of social media and tourist. Because the festival they come to attend is not the festival they think. These are religious festivals of Kalash which are celebrated by both men and women. If tourism continues to benefit the people of this area. But the culture is being affected by it. If something gives you temporary advantages and harms your identity, then it is better to avoid that thing. Due to social media and tourism, the same is the case in the Kalash Valley. If the situation continues like this, the time is not far when we will find these people only in the history books.
Author can be reach at shermajam00@gmail.com
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