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debut Rare
scholar
Literature across cultures
debut The Lahore Literary
Festival is just round the corner. Don’t expect a million people, but
expect a few thousand. Expect the book-lover eyes twinkling in the cool
afternoon; the wife who for years has wanted that cute-looking writer to sign
that certain book. Expect some writer to steal
the show, expect another to bore you to death. Expect the wannabe
publisher, the socialite, the journalist. Expect lovers, friends, enemies,
acquaintances. Expect parents, teachers, students. Expect the aspiring writer
gently cursing under his/her breath at a writer up on stage, mumbling how
he/she can write — actually does write — a thousand times better. The era of literary
festivals has gained ground. Four years of Karachi Literature Festival and
year zero for Lahore Literary Festival. Say LLF — short for Lahore Literary
Festival— and see how it rolls around the tongue. Till the last count (on its
website), LLF has roped in 50 speakers for two days. But it’s not only
writers that the festival is focusing on, LLF is incorporating other artists
as well. If it works, LLF will perhaps become Pakistan’s first Art
festival. “Lahore Literary Festival
has been put together keeping in mind the strong and vibrant cultural
diversity of Lahore, a development that has been welcomed by international
writers who have wondered how come in Kipling’s or Faiz’s city, there
isn’t a global literary festival,” says Razi Ahmed, the CEO of Lahore
Literary Festival. “Many of Pakistan’s,
and indeed the region’s great poets and writers are from Lahore and the
city keeps nurturing new talent. This vast and incredible talent — in
writing, visual arts, and music — must be projected globally for greater
interactions between Pakistani and international artists and writers. Given
the profile of Lahore, LLF will annually bring celebrated international names
in the arts for audiences in Lahore,” says Ahmed. “LLF is not just a
textual festival,” Ahmed adds. “It’s about media aesthetics including
sound and image. We have carefully chosen a programme that is true to a
literary ethos. We have global art historians coming this year including Dr
Amin Jaffer and Dr Dina Bangdel, and plan an even bigger representation of
visual arts in the programme.” LLF surely has some
exciting things planned; one of them is Mohsin Hamid debuting How to Get
Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, his new novel, in Pakistan. “The first readings
I’ll be doing from my new novel will be at KLF and LLF,” says Hamid.
“It means a great deal to me to present the book to the public in Pakistan
before I take it abroad. And I’m thrilled to have a literary festival in
Lahore. I hope it thrives and is the first of many. We should have several
more festivals like this, around the year.” Hamid also had interesting
things to say about KLF and how LLF will be different. “I always enjoy KLF.
It was the first chance I had to meet with and talk to so many readers in
Pakistan, not to mention to get to know and spend time with so many writers.
I think LLF is doing less non-fiction than KLF and is also a bit smaller and
more tightly focused, which I like. It gives the two events a different
flavour.” Another debutant at LLF
will be Shazaf Fatima Haider with her first novel How It Happened. “It’s
a debut experience for both me and LLF, certainly. I’m excited and I hope
everything turns out well. I’ve spent very little time in Lahore and so
I’m so pleased to launch my first novel in this wonderful city with its
rich cultural history.” Haider predicts that LLF
will be a roller coaster “with ups and downs and highs and lows — a
thrilling, hair-raising ride that will leave behind wonderful memories.” Musharraf Ali Farooqi is a
writer who seems to thrive on festivals. I asked him not only about literary
festivals, but also if they are good for the business of writing. “I have
not seen the programmes of the KLF and the LLF as yet so I am not sure about
the content this year. However, the business side of writing could only
matter in a place where the publishing industry exists: it does not exist in
Pakistan. But there is a lot of potential in creating partnerships with
publishers and writers in India, which has a properly developed and growing
publishing industry. It can also help new writers a great deal if they learn
more about literary agents and publishing. There is a lot of useful
information on Wikipedia on both topics. “There is no literary
agency in Pakistan but I think that online literary platforms like the Desi
Writers Lounge (DWL) which publishes a lot of new South Asian writing, and
print publications like Life’s Too Short Literary Review have the potential
to expand to offer literary representation to debut novelists and short-story
writers. I think publishers would be interested in hearing from these
platforms because it means the writing is vetted and is of a certain quality.
Life’s Too Short Literary Review has already had success in this area. “In my experience most
foreign agents and editors are not scouting for new authors at literary
festivals. They attend literary festivals to share information with their
colleagues in the industry or speak on panels to which they are invited.” A festival, any public
event, can also be a place to invent a ‘persona’. We all know that
certain artistes have a larger-than-life persona, regardless of if their work
adds up to the persona or not. But as we know a writer primarily plays with
words; he or she may not be a good oral storyteller as well. I asked both
Farooqi and Hamid about the persona. Both Farooqi and Hamid say that the work
is the ultimate test. “A serious writer will first pay attention to the
work itself, which is writing to the best of one’s ability. Because
publishers expect writers to meet their readers, it is important to be able
to communicate with your audience, but the stunts are best avoided. Just be
yourself,” says Farooqi. “Some writers thrive on
having a big public presence, what you’re referring to as a big
‘persona’,” says Hamid. “Others like to keep more to themselves.
There’s no one correct way to be a writer. The writing has to stand for
itself. That’s what matters.” LLF’s most uplifting
quality seems to be a conscious effort to include new, unpublished writers
and groups that have been active in promoting new writing, online or
otherwise. “Certainly, we want to not just celebrate the past and present,
but facilitate new writings and foster reading among students,” says Razi
Ahmed. In this regard, LLF has
roped in Afia Aslam, the Editor of Desi Writers Lounge (DWL) which is
primarily an online writer community, and Aslam is quite excited. “It’s
certainly the first time DWL is setting up a booth at a literary festival and
we are incredibly excited about taking this step,” says Aslam. “DWL has a loyal
following online that has resulted in several real-life meets and some events
too, e.g. readings, open mics, a magazine launch and book clubs. But LLF will
be the first time that we’ll be formally putting our ‘brand’ out there
to solicit registrations and raise a public interest in what we do,” she
says. Aslam also thinks that
appearing in LLF will certainly help DWL and other writing initiatives like
it. “Call this a coming of age for Desi Writers Lounge. For years we’ve
run this relatively secluded community online, putting in our own money to
sustain it, and have looked inwards for growth. Now — with a membership of
450+, a thriving social media presence, several online issues of Papercuts
magazine, a national blog award and an international writing competition
under our belt, not to mention a surprise announcement to make — we’re
ready to join the party.” Lahore Literary Festival
will be held from Feb 23 to 24, 2013.
Rare
scholar Syed Naseer Shah
passed away on December17, 2012 at the age of 82 in his native town Mianwali,
where he lived like a virtual recluse. In his native town he was regarded as
a legend as he trained a generation of poets and writers, who used to
frequent his home to seek his guidance. Hailing from a religious
background, he got a chance to learn Arabic and Persian, which helped him a
lot in his literary career, as he was able to study from the direct sources.
Poetry came naturally to him as his father used to compose verse in Arabic
and Seraiki. Naseer Shah inherited the literary and religious atmosphere,
which helped him chisel his skills, as he was an avid reader of books. It was his cousin Asghar
Ali Shah who exhorted him to start reading the classic literature, which
opened up new horizons for the young scholar. He started editing a literary
magazine ‘Soz-o-Saz’ from Mianwali in 1958 whose life proved to be short.
Later he edited many other
magazines and newspapers from his city like ‘Azan-e-Haq’, ‘Almujahid,
Mianwali Gazette’ and others. He taught in a school and a college there but
his fickle nature didn’t allow him to carry on the job for too long. After a brief stint in
Jamaat-e-Islami, Shah sahib joined National Awami Party, and later Pakistan
Socialist Party. He remained the general secretary of Pakistan Peoples Party,
Mianwali. On the literary front, he wrote poetry in Urdu as well as Seraiki,
wrote short stories and also translated few religious tomes into Urdu. In 2003, Naseer Shah
started writing for ‘Naya Zamana’, a liberal monthly magazine edited by
Shoaib Adil who was the son of his friend Prof Rafiullah Shahab. That started
a new phase in his life when, his articles and essays reached a larger
audience. “He was my father’s
friend and I requested him to start writing for us. He wrote for us till his
last breath and we published seven of his books. We received tremendous
feedback for his articles. He rarely ventured out of Mianwali and that’s
why not many people knew about him or his works. ‘Naya Zamana’ acquainted
him with a wide section of readers”, says Shoaib Adil, the editor of
‘Naya Zamana’. Naseer Shah’s courageous
attempt to dig out the real Iqbal can be seen in his book ‘Kuch Shamein
Fikre Iqbal Kay Sath’, he took to task all those so-called experts of Iqbal
who tried to give a touch of divinity to Iqbal. In his book Naseer Shah gives
due credit to Iqbal as an outstanding poet but he ridicules those who brand
him as a philosopher. In his view, he was a student of Philosophy and nothing
more than that. He points out many other discrepancies in his poetry as well
as his personal life. Here we see Iqbal made of flesh with all the foibles
men are made of. His deep knowledge of Arabic language and literature helped
him to study the Quran in depth and without any bias. Naseer Shah removed many
myths which were woven by the clerics to restrict the women to their homes.
When Benazir Bhutto became the prime minister for the first time, all the
clerics started spewing out fatwas against a woman becoming the head of
state. Naseer Shah wrote a short book titled ‘Aurat Kee Sarbarahi Aur
Islam’ and forcefully proved by quoting Quran and Hadith that a woman can
head a state as per Islam and the verses of Quran. Recently, he wrote a book
castigating the terrorists and proved that suicide bombing and terrorism is
not endorsed in Islam in his book ‘Islam Aur Dehshatgardi’, which is
being translated into English also. He was writing a series of
articles on Jinnah and the Freedom Movement in which he busted many myths and
official lies. He took Jinnah to task for fomenting religious frenzy to
garner the Muslims under the banner of Muslim League. He was of the view that
to win the elections of 1946 the Muslim League resorted to a religious frenzy
to win the elections. Those who came after Jinnah picked up this stratagem
and thus the newly born country started degenerating. Ajmal Kamal the editor of
prestigious literary magazine ‘Aaj’ met him in 2009 in Mianwali. “I
liked his articles in Naya Zamana on Pakistan history and Iqbal. I didn’t
know him before. I went to his town to meet him. He was no doubt a rare
scholar.” With the death of Syed
Naseer Shah we have lost a rational scholar and a voice of sanity that
continued to vouch for liberal and enlightened values till his last breath.
Literature
across cultures We have a serious
problem with the way Literature is taught in our universities and colleges
— the curriculums of Urdu and English and the way of teaching at these
departments has produced multitudes of half-lettered human beings drained of
creativity. The alumni of our
literature departments know neither Urdu nor English or anything that lies
in-between. Thousands of English graduates who passed their exams and the
rest who failed were never touched by what they read or heard or wrote as
students of literature. But they did get jobs in the Civil Services and
Newspapers. The students who opted for Urdu literature, passed out without a
clue as to what was going on around them, and therefore did not qualify them
for any job other than teaching. Of course there are
glorious exceptions, which only prove my proposition. While researching the
curriculums for teaching and research at various international literature
departments, I visited the website of the University of Cambridge’s Faculty
of English, where they promise the students wishing to enrol for the
Cambridge English Tripos that “Graduates from the Faculty have an
exceptionally good record in achieving employment in a wide range of areas…
in arts management or information management, or in academia and
teaching...and are valued by employers in many professions, such as law, the
civil service, management, industry, accountancy and social work.” Can we
say the same, or anything near to this, for graduates of our Urdu or English
departments? There may be several causes
for the barrenness of our literature departments, but one major reason is the
absence of a subject called Comparative Literature. Briefly described, this
is the study of literature across boundaries — whether of genres, cultures,
countries, languages or art forms. I suggest that introduction of this
subject will help revive literature as a meaningful field of study that can
equip students with the skills of critical thinking, close reading and good
communication. Only by ‘elevating’ the
study of Urdu literature to the ‘cultural’ level of English literature,
and ‘downgrading’ the study of English literature to the social level of
Urdu literature, won’t solve the problem. The exercise actually is about
‘right-sizing’ the subject of literature in Pakistan, where teaching of
Urdu literature takes us into the world that existed 150 years ago, and
English literature denudes us of our creativity. What our students of
literature experience is really “half life”. Dr. M.D. Taseer
(1902-1950), the first Hindustani to earn a doctorate in English from
Cambridge University in 1936 wrote an article in 1933 titled ‘Bazm-e-
Farogh-e-Urdu’ where he confessed, “I have been feeing for a long time
that the result of defective teaching at our universities is that the
majority of our students remain ignorant of English literature and the
literary traditions of our own languages”. This “Bazm”, he added, was
founded not just for promotion of Urdu, but to give our youth a correct
understanding of English literature. Mohammed Hassan Askari
(1919-1978) taught English literature first at Delhi College, and after
independence, at Islamia College, Karachi. He wrote copiously on several
aspects of “Comparative Literature”. His interests ranged from French
literature and criticism and painting, Urdu and English literary studies,
Arab metaphysics, European Philosophy, Marxism, Islam in the West etc. In 1944, he wrote an
article titled “Angrezy zuban (aur) nisaab-e-taleem”, where he started
with the premise that “the mind of our youth is not being properly
fashioned, especially when it comes to literature. They know nothing about
any other literary tradition of the world; our way of teaching of English
literature is mere waste of time, and 95 percent of students who follow this
degree, based on antiquated curriculums, end up knowing nothing of English
literature.” This was the assessment
made decades ago. Today, by the principle of ‘half-life’, we hardly hear
a voice of revolt against our teaching of literature. We have become the
by-products of this culturally bankrupt system of teaching that occupy nearly
all the academic posts. These dullards approve curricula, write (or
prescribe) texts, teach classes, set examination papers and then mark them
and produce results. There is no research worth mentioning. The term “Comparative
Literature” was first heard in France in the first quarter of the 19th
century, an age of national struggles in the late 19th century Europe, when
national boundaries were being erected and the whole question of national
culture and national identity was being hotly debated throughout Europe and
the expanding USA. Nations engaged in struggle
for independence were also engaged in a struggle for cultural roots, for a
national culture and for a past. Emergent nations have had to establish a
tradition and canon. The idea of a cultural heritage that sprang from the
people from the “genuine” “authentic” voices of the collective, upon
which the nation was based, was a very powerful one in the age when
revolutions swept away Empires to give birth to territory-based loyalties and
cultures. The subject involves the
study of texts across cultures; it is interdisciplinary, and, it is concerned
with patterns of connections in literatures across both time and space. In
Comparative Literature we do not divide literature up according to where it
was written or what language it was written in, as you would if you were
studying English or Urdu literature. Instead we divide literature in other
ways, such as by its genre, or the period in which it was written, or by
themes. The term seems to have been derived from a methodological process
applicable to the sciences in which comparing (or contrasting) served as a
means of confirming a hypothesis. In my scheme of things, a
course in Comparative Literature would initially involve teaching of the
literary histories of both the Urdu and English tradition, major poets,
novelists, prose writers and playwrights both of Urdu and English plus
thematic comparisons. Because study of foreign languages is one of the major
focuses of this subject, later course can be added to include Persian,
Arabic, Hindi, French, German, North American and South American literatures,
and possibly Chinese and Japanese too. These days there is a
debate going on in our media whether ‘Pakistani Literature in Urdu
exists’ (see Intizar Hussain’s column in Dawn’s Books and Authors
January 6, 20012). This question properly belongs to “Comparative
Literature”. Recalling what Jinnah said about India-Pakistan relations that
they should be modelled on US-Canadian paradigm, let’s take a look at what
Linda Hutcheon, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at University
of Toronto has to say on the subject; this may throw some light on our
discussion on the subject of Pakistani Literature: “I live in a country
that shares a contrarian identity with the discipline I study. Like
comparative literature, Canada is intensely self-reflective — another way
of saying that it has a persistent identity crisis, or at least persistent
doubts how to talk about itself. It too is founded historically upon exile,
immigration, and displacement. It too has worries about separation, that is,
about its ‘intactness’: Quebec, with its recurrent
sovereignty-or-separation aspirations, may be to Canada what cultural studies
(or area studies, or ethnic and postcolonial studies) are to comparative
literature. Both my country and my discipline are deeply concerned about
things they feel are central to their identity that are threatened today:
health care policy, on the one hand, linguistic polyglottism, on the other.
Both fear engulfment by economically politically more powerful entities: for
Canada, it is the United States; for comparative literature is the national
literature departments. Each has experienced what Haun Saussy calls “a
discontinuous history in which it is not always the protagonist”. Like
Canadians, comparatists often have difficulty explaining themselves in other
than negative terms — as what we are not”. Introducing a new subject
would require great effort on the part of academics and writers, and poets,
and deep commitment on the part of our university leaders under the expert
guidance of the Higher Education Commission. |
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