The Khajistan Collection of Pakistani Popular Culture

Founded by filmmaker and collector Saad Khan, Khajistan is an organization committed to the preservation of cultural production from the Islamicate world, particularly censored and overlooked materials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. As stated in their mission, Khajistan strives to “save and cherish the unwanted, the unnecessary, the unusual, the unsavory” as an intentional form of resistance. The Penn Libraries has been collaborating with Khajistan since 2021 to acquire and archive this at-risk content that might otherwise be lost to time. 

So far, the materials we’ve acquired from Khajistan fall into four general categories: film-related ephemera, 20th century cultural magazines, rare books, and propaganda leaflets. 

Film Ephemera

Khajistan focused its early efforts on film-related ephemeral content, particularly items from Lollywood (the Pakistani film industry). The materials acquired by Penn Libraries include more than 750 Pakistani film posters from the 1980s and 1990s, nearly 300 Lollywood film booklets, approximately 50 historical Lollywood promotional photographs, and a collection of documents related to film production and distribution in Pakistan and India in the latter half of the 20th century. 

Cultural Magazines

Our Khajistan acquisitions also include more than 500 issues of numerous magazines from South Asia, covering popular arts, culture, and society ranging from the 1940s to 1990s. The eclectic Urdu magazine Shama comprises nearly half this content, along with other literary and film magazines as well as magazines addressing sex and relationships that were later censored or discontinued in the wake of conservative political shifts in the 1980s. 

Propaganda Leaflets

This collection of American propaganda leaflets from the 1990s and 2000s were dropped by the U.S. military over Iraq during the Gulf War in 1990-91 and when the Iraq War started in 2003, as well as over Afghanistan following 9/11 and throughout the subsequent invasion. Produced locally in Pashto, Dari, and Arabic, the leaflets were intended to malign the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan, to encourage alliance with U.S. forces, and to call for peaceful unity. 

Rare Books

The bulk of the books the Penn Libraries has acquired from Khajistan so far include approximately 150 Urdu mystery digests from mid-20th century Pakistan. This emerging genre of popular literature placed new forms of thriller and spy narratives within the cultural context of a newly independent country, resulting in a unique set of stories about honor, justice, and suspense. About 50 other rare books in Sindhi, Pashto, and Urdu focus on topics of sexuality, revolution, and religion.  

Nearly all of the materials we’ve acquired from Khajistan are still in the process of being cataloged. If interested in any parts of this collection, please be in touch with Jef Pierce. As content is processed and added to the catalog, items can be requested in Aeon and viewed in the Kislak Reading Room.