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interview By Sarwat Ali Quiet Diplomacy By Jamshed Marker Oxford University Press, 2010 Pages 448 Price Rs 795 There is a hardly any mention of cricket in the recently published Quiet Diplomacy by Jamshed Marker. For an urban generation that grew up savouring the early days of cricket in Pakistan, Jamshed Marker was a household name. He formed a formidable duo with Omar Kureishi and both were perceived to be more mindful of Pakistan's stature on and off the field than the cricketers themselves. To an ordinary radio commentary listener, the fate of Pakistani cricket lay in their hands. A word about letters
If a critic doesn't have a good opinion about a writer, it doesn't mean the skies are going to fall" By Altaf Hussain Asad Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqui continues to broaden the scope of
Urdu criticism, which otherwise, is mostly manned by men of average intellect
these days. A progressive and liberal, he has not exhibited any bias towards
the writers who don't belong to his school of thought. A distinguished critic
and erudite scholar, Siddiqui is the only member of Association of
International Literary Critics (AICL) from the subcontinent. Besides
authoring 16 books, he has taught at University of Karachi, worked as a
journalist and also remained the Director of Quaid-e-Azam Academy. He has
been to many leading universities of the world, where he lectured on
Pakistani literature. In an interview with TNS in Islamabad, he takes an
analytical look at Urdu literature and few other issues pertaining to it. The News on Sunday: You oppose theories like post-modernism, structuralism, and deconstruction. Why? Muhammad Ali Siddiqui: To oppose a trend or a philosophy is one thing and to differ with it is another. I regard structuralism as a method of tracing back primordial influences in the meanings of available text as explained by Claude Levi Strauss. I think it could yield some new avenues of knowledge, but the way structuralism has been talked about in Pakistan is not helpful in so far as the real intentions of structuralism are concerned. We have taken it as a study of the syntax devoid of any reference to ideological viewpoint. Deconstruction, as a method of reaching out to the meanings of the text, has also been discussed by many of its protagonists without understanding Derrida's method and real intentions. I think these two trends have not been fully apprehended by some critics and hence there is no applied example of structuralism and deconstructionist in Pakistan to justify any of these trends understanding. Post-modernism is, to say the least, a belief in pluralism as it does not believe in the validity of anyone's individual thought. It opposes ideology and historical viewpoint and is the main plank of imperialistic agenda of globalisation in the domain of literature of culture. TNS: You are the only member of AICL from the subcontinent. How did you become a member of this prestigious body? MAS: Yes, it is true that I am the only member of the Paris-based AICL. They have their own criteria and it is their privilege to offer membership to anyone whom they regard as worthy of their organisation. TNS: Josh Malihabadi is close to you as you wrote a splendid book on him. But, the Urdu world has ignored his poetry, though his autobiography took the world by storm. How would you evaluate Josh? MAS: Josh has been hailed by progressive writers for the reason that his contribution to the subcontinent's freedom is immense. He was adored by the freedom-fighters and there is no doubt that he is adored for his stimulating poetry. It is but natural that he was a bit hard on clerics and one cannot expect that they will ever like him. He was also opposing the version of modernism which didn't like any socio-politico allusions in literature. My advocacy for Josh is because of my opinion: that politics is the destiny of mankind and no creative artist could escape from the imprint of his/her times. TNS: It is said that the best fiction and poetry is produced in tormenting and suffocating conditions, but why have we failed to produce quality fiction or poetry in these chaotic times? MAS: You're right that best Persian poetry was written after the plunder by the Huns in the 12th and 13th century. Best Urdu poetry likewise was written during the decline of Mughal dynasty. This is typical of Eastern literature. In contemporary times, the best Urdu fiction was written after the Partition of the subcontinent and during the days of our struggle against imperialism and its stooges after freedom. However, quite valuable literature has been written against the dictatorship in Pakistan, which is called the "literature of resistance." I don't think that much of it will survive, due to the conscious effort of the dictators to promote apolitical interests such as sports and entertainment. The dictatorial regimes alienated readers from literature and as a result we don't find many lasting works in this period. TNS: You have met people like Faiz, Sibte Hasan, Akhtar Hussain Raipuri etc. Have you ever planned to write pen sketches of these luminaries? MAS:I have a plan for writing pen-portraits of some important writers of my time. I have been very close to the writers you have mentioned. TNS: Is the future of Urdu bright? MAS: I think it is bright, though it has not replaced English as a state language and it is a great obstacle in the future. TNS: The discipline of Urdu criticism seems to be on the decline as there is a dearth of new and promising critics. Are there any genuine critics among us now? MAS: The discipline of Urdu criticism demands a practitioner to do his work as an interdisciplinary scholar. I think very few critics appear to qualify as such. I think Dr. Anwar Ahmed, Dr. Zia-ul-Hasan, Dr. Irtiza Kareem and Dr. Ali Ahmed Fatimi are doing well in criticism today. TNS: Which are your favourite writers and poets? MAS: My favourite writers in Pakistan are Mansha Yad, Rasheed Amjad, Khalida Hussain and Muhammad Ilyas. My favourite poets are quite a few but a strange thing about them is that they are sometimes uneven. John Elia and Ahmed Faraz's deaths have impoverished modern Urdu poetry. TNS: Iqbal is considered to be our greatest poet, but he vehemently advocated Pan Islamism in his poetry. How would you evaluate Iqbal? MAS: Iqbal advocated Pan-Islamism at a time when the Muslim Ummah was facing its gravest threat from the West. While in Europe, he could see turmoil in Bosnia and a wave of unrest, inspired by the western countries, among the Balkan states within the first year of his arrival in India in 1908. Bosnia fell to Austria in 1909 and within four or five years the Balkan war began. In India, the situation was no less grim and in the Middle East, Arab nationalism was being pampered by Britain and France. "The great game" was on. It was against this background that Iqbal became a Pan-Islamist, because he thought that the Muslim nations were under threat of imperialism. He saw in Pan-Islamism an opportunity for Muslim unity and there was every reason to help Muslim nations to preserve their sovereignty. In fact, Pan-Islamism in the second decade of the 20th century was anti-imperialist in character. Iqbal in his first collection of poetry, Asrar-i-Khudi, traced the Muslim decline to the mindset peculiar to Iranian mysticism exhorting world weirdness and self-resignation. I believe that he was one of the greatest poets of Urdu, because he has used poetry as a vehicle of instilling hope and optimism. He was for accepting materialism of the West along with the spiritualism of the East. TNS: Are you satisfied with your contribution to Urdu criticism? MAS: I think I have to cover a great deal of ground before being satisfied with my contribution to Urdu criticism. TNS: What are you planning to write these days? MAS: I am presently trying to bring a compilation of articles on the Urdu short story with an analytical preface and also planning to write my reminiscences. I am a bit fortunate to know all the important writers of the first half of the 20th century and also the important modern writers. My 45 years of column-writing in Dawn and Business Recorder under the pen-name of Ariel is going to help me. I think my columns have some interesting things about Pakistani literature and society, and social scientists will be interested to know about the literary scene from someone who has been an ardent believer in modernity. I believe that unless our society makes itself compatible with modernity and restricts religion to the domain of private affairs we will keep wallowing in the mire of uncertainty and insecurity. TNS: Our critics form their own lobbies. Do you think a critic can change the perception about a writer with his criticism? MAS: No. If a critic doesn't have a good opinion about a writer, the skies are not going to fall. The writer, if worthy, will be appreciated as worthwhile in due course of time. TNS: Share with us your all time favourite books. MAS: The list is quite long. My favourite books in mythology are Greek mythology, Roman mythology and Indian mythology. In fiction, Swift, Dickens, Maupassant, Proust, Manto, Krishan Chandar, Quratulain Haider, Bapsi Sidhwa, Mohsin Hameed and Hanif Qureshi are my favourite writers. Each one has produced at least one important book and that's good enough harvest for a reader.
Jamshed Marker was one of the most respected diplomats on the international circuit and his autobiography is not all show and tell By Sarwat Ali Quiet Diplomacy By Jamshed Marker Oxford University Press, 2010 Pages 448 Price Rs 795 There is a hardly any mention of cricket in the recently published Quiet Diplomacy by Jamshed Marker. For an urban generation that grew up savouring the early days of cricket in Pakistan, Jamshed Marker was a household name. He formed a formidable duo with Omar Kureishi and both were perceived to be more mindful of Pakistan's stature on and off the field than the cricketers themselves. To an ordinary radio commentary listener, the fate of Pakistani cricket lay in their hands. They also carved the mysterious passage that led to the magic of the game. Most people glued to the radio did not understand a word of English yet they followed the game because they were familiar with the terminology. Often on kiosks and khokas boys managing the scoreboards, updating it with every run being scored did not know English at all, but hardly erred. It was also the first information to the cricket starved school boys who on returning from school would stop and take a look at the way the days proceedings had gone. Those were honeymoon days for Pakistani cricket. The team did very well for beginners to international cricket, but the expectations were higher. The cynicism had not yet crept in and the cricketers played for either personal honour or country -- the rash stroke or dropped catches were more the consequence of carelessness or sleepless night frolicking, rather than something more sinister like match fixing. The men in white struggled, toiled or sailed through the whole day, scoring just a hundred and fifty odd runs but it did not matter to the thirty/ forty thousand crowd that spent the entire five days ratcheting the mood of festivity. The cricket match evoked responses in the extremes -- there was no middle ground of reasonable reaction. It was either very good or very bad -- it was either the best team in the world or a pack of reckless cavaliers. The local boys were cat called by their favourite names and sobriquets. The quality of cricket commentary was very high, surely higher than what one heard on the All India Radio and one was not yet exposed to the likes of Rex Alston, John Arlott, Brian Jonston, Alan Gibson, Bob Hudson and Christopher Martin Jenkins, the Test Match Special magicians who had laid the foundation of ball by ball cricket commentary and then built upon it to make it a definitive broadcasting item. But then, Jamshed Marker mysteriously disappeared and never returned to the commentary box, except on some ceremonious occasion. Omar Kureishi too made his appearance less frequent and newer, younger members started to occupy more of the time on the microphone and one wondered why Jamshed Marker had ditched his followers for anonymity. For anything that was not related to cricket was anonymity and one did not want to know that Jamshed Marker had been offered a diplomatic assignment which he accepted for a number of reasons, the biggest being his wish to be part of public service. Though he was not a career diplomat, he held the highest praise for the career diplomat who were inducted into the service after qualifying the civil service exam and then had to work their way upwards through the hierarchy. All this Jamshed Marker did not have to do, because he was offered an ambassadorial position from the word go and so successful and respected was he that he spent the rest of his life occupying some of the most important diplomatic assignments throughout the world. But nothing on cricket, as the book is about diplomacy, and as it should be, quiet diplomacy. He was more cut in the image of a traditional diplomat who works his way silently and quietly, unobtrusively changing minds and actions without being even noticed. But Jamshed Marker was otherwise noticed in the contribution to diplomacy that he made. He was one of the most respected diplomats on the international circuit, and despite representing a country that figured very low in international ratings, he earned a much higher proportion of respect in the host country and of the foes ungrudgingly. He was chosen by Aziz Ahmed to be part of the diplomatic corps; from an unassuming first posting of choice to Ghana he went on to be posted in the most important destinations like Washington, Moscow, Paris, New York(U.N), Tokyo, Geneva and Germany. Those were difficult days for Pakistan, especially with the dismemberment of the country in 1971 and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The book is an account as it should be, written by a seasoned diplomat, staid in discussing dispassionately the various foreign policy decisions taken by the government and its senior officials on the basis of prudence. Thankfully, he has not got into the imbroglio of conspiracy theories about Indian and Zionist designs backed by United States, but has remained on an even course analysing the weaknesses of the policies and its relationship with domestic conditions. He has not involved himself in proving his greater wisdom on a posting as compared to the policy makers at home. It is a book written in good taste and shies away from the sensational stuff that most of the politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats indulge in after quitting their high positions. The book has very little of the "I told you so" syndrome. It does not trail blaze a course charged with zealotry and does not blow the trumpet of righteousness in furthering god's mission. A good read that tells of the structural problems that the Pakistani nation faces and its fallout on foreign policy. It is also quite revealing about the inner workings -- the worth of access of diplomats to the host country's leadership and the relationship with the top leadership of one's own country for effective diplomacy.
By Kazy Javed Literary journey Some of the characters Dr Younis Javed created for his TV
plays have refused to fade out of our memories. They are remembered,
discussed and even "seen" in everyday life. The power of his
imagination seems to have given these characters, like "Direct hawaldar"
from the drama serial Andhera Ujala, a permanent existence. Javed has also
written scripts for feature films, short stories and novels. He once told me
he wrote a novel and handed it over to a publisher before he passed the
matriculation examination. Javed is a scholar too. He earned his doctorate in literature from Punjab University, for his research on the history and evolution of the Halqa-e-Arbab-e-Zauq, which has now been published as a book. He also edited and annotated the works of Imam Bukhsh Nasikh, a Lucknow-based classical Urdu poet of the 18th century. He is now a visiting professor at the National College of Arts. Earlier, he served the Board for the Advancement of Literature for some three decades. Javed says Mirza Adeeb is the writer who greatly influenced him and created his interest in literature. Adeeb's Sehraa Navard Key Khatoot was very popular with the young generation of Urdu readers during the 1950 and Javed got the opportunity to go through it when he was 10. Impressed by the book, he made up his mind to be a writer. He also mentions his grandfather who used to tell him stories. The current issue of the literary monthly Takhleeq has
brought a special section on Younas Javed. The section carries an
introductory note, two of his short stories -- Beymehar Bashartain and Duty
Is Duty -- as well as two poems titled Muhabat and Inkar say Inqilab Tak. In addition to the these pieces, the 27-page section also includes Professor Ghulam Hussain Sajid's review on Javed's latest collection of short stories, Main Aik Zinda Aurat Hoon and Azhar Javed's write-up on Younas Javed. Sajid says that after forty years of hard work, Javed has attained the position of a master writer. Azhar Javed adds Javed will continue to be read by future generations. Outside the room The Room is the play that brought Harold Pinter initial recognition. It was his first play and was performed at Bristol University in 1957. The "room," which is the centre and poetic image of the play has been described by Martin Esslin, historian of the Absurd theatre, as one of the recurring motifs of Pinter's work. Pinter has been quoted as saying: "I am dealing a great deal of the time with this image of two people in a room. The curtain goes up on the stage and I see it as a very potent question: What is going to happen to these two people in the room? Is someone going to open the door and come in?" When asked by a critic what his two people in the room are afraid of, Pinter replied, "Obviously they are scared of what is outside the room. Outside, there is a world bearing upon them which is frightening. I am sure it is frightening to you and me as well." Antonia Fraser, Pinter's widow and a noted historical biographer, has now come up with a book on the memories of "33 very happy years of my life" she spent with the playwright and poet who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005. Titled Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter, the book brings him out as a man who was never "scared of what is outside the room." The book throws light on the background of many of Pinter's plays and also carries interesting anecdotes about him and many other celebrity writers.
Shahzad Ahmad is our only poet who has authored as well as translated books on philosophy, psychology, physics and biology. Ahmad has now come up with the 18th collection of his poetry. It is titled Miti Jaisay Log and has been published by the Multi Media Affairs of Lahore. The collection contains ghazals and nazms composed in 2004 and 2005. The latest offering of Dr Tahseen Firaque, scholar and literary critic, is a valuable addition to Urdu literature. His book Fikryat carries Urdu translations of ten articles written by some of the leading orientalists including Annemarie Schimmel, Rene Guenon, Edward Said, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Ali Azraf. The book has been published by the Board for the Advancement of Literature, Lahore. The second collection of Mohammad Asim Butt's short stories has hit the bookstalls under the title Dastak which contains 18 pieces and a brief introduction by Mansha Yaad. Butt employs a realist descriptive method to fictionalise characters that we found around us in daily life. He knows the art of writing and a reader finds it hard to stop reading once he starts going through the book. |
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