Pakistan has been trending these days. Not because it has secured friendships with superpowers like the US, China and Russia or has managed to gain an equal status to that of India at the international level, but because it has, in a surprise move, presented a side people on this side of the boundary never imagined existed—that of religious tolerance and cultural integration.

Recently, a Pakistani theatre group, Mauj, enacted the Urdu adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana at the Arts Council of Pakistan in Karachi, where Muslim actors performed the lead roles of Rama, Sita, Hanuman, and Ravan.

More interesting is the fact that the response from the audiences, including critics, was overwhelming. As Omair Alavi, a prominent critic, says, “The Ramayana is a narrative........

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