Literary Notes: Faiz Ahmad Faiz dominates the show

The city has been in the enthusiastic grip of Faiz Ahmad Faiz fervour in the month of November. This could be called the ending note of the year long celebrations all over the world never before taken on this grand scale for any Urdu poet so far.
I have seen and participated in Ghalib and Iqbal centenaries - in the case of Ghalib it was centennial death commemoration and then in the case of Iqbal it became centennial birthday celebrations.
The first Faiz Ahmad Faiz centennial celebrations were announced by the PWA's central committee to mark the end of its year long celebration followed by the Sindh Government's Cultural Department's announcement that it will also hold centennial celebrations. It was generally thought that the two celebrations will be hosted by the respective hosts, and then all of a sudden it was learnt that the PWA & the Sindh's Cultural Department host it together
Hence it was a surprise that Sindh's Cultural Department supported the PWA's cultural programme to the extent that on Sindh's Cultural Day on 18th November it appeared that the Department was in the driving seat of the Faiz centennial celebrations and its national conductor of the whole programme was Mr Taj Haider. After all Faiz Ahmad Faiz was a progressive poet of Urdu and even the presidency hosted a Faiz seminar in which President Zardari spoke about the comfort which Faiz's poetry had provided him during his nine years long life in prison. I also remember Faiz's sojourn in Karachi during his Principalship of Abdullah Haroon College, Layar. He has also served as Vice-President of the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi long before becoming Chairman of the PNCA in Bhutto era. Faiz has also composed some memorable poems in Hyderabad jail.
Anyhow Karachi's 3 day Faiz Mela (November 18,19,20) will be known more for its musical nights in City's posh area. The Mushaira and seminar programme couldn't be called productive. It is quite strange that Faiz'a centennial celebrations have hardly produced any substantial material worth studying. Only a few original books appeared during the centennial year. And not more than five or six really excellent research papers appeared about Faiz. One wonders who has caused this paucity of good works. Perhaps our system of education doesn't enjoy any support of classical languages upto the college level of education whereas it was not possible during colonial days to ignore Persian and Arabic in the 14 years of school and college education.
Hence all of our writers were well beefed up by the classical learning. Nowadays it is the opposite. Therefore, we have in our midst some writers whose communication skills were not strong. The seminar of the Sindh's Cultural Deptt and PWA Faiz Mela could hardly be called a success because no speaker had ample time-even 5 minute to speak. Finally the time was restricted to 3 minutes per speaker. One can imagine what can be done in 3 minutes except to narrate a few anecdotes of Faiz and give way to another speaker.
However, the musical programmes at Bin Qasim Bagh were successful.
Arts Council Urdu Conference
However, the proceedings of the 4th International Urdu Conference hosted by the Pakistan Council of Arts, Karachi had no such problem. All events took place in the premises of the Arts Council. However the schedule outlined by the Arts Council couldn't be faithfully followed in letter and spirit. It had to undergo many variations.
The Annual 4th International Conference had its inaugural session in the evening of 22nd November. Apart from genre-wise sessions the focus of the conference was on Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib, Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmad Faiz.
The presidium of the inaugural session had Dr Aslam Farukhi, Lutfullah Khan, Dr Jamil Jalib, Jamiluddin, Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, Professor Shamim Hanafi, Professor Qazi Afzal Husain, Iftikhar Arif, Raza Ali Abedi, Syed Fayyaz Ansari and this writer besides the Arts Council's office bearers Sehar Ansari, Muhammad Ahmad Shah and Aijaz Ahmad Faruqi.
The keynote addresses were read out by Sehar Ansari, Dr Peerzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui and Professor Sharmin Hanafi. The second day sessions were on Mir Taqi Mir, Urdu fiction in 21st century and Faiz Ahmad Faiz (memories). The third day sessions were devoted to the book launching ceremonies of two books, Najmul Hasan Rizvi's novel "Marvi and Majina", Liaquat Ali Asim collection "Dil Kharashi". All proceedings went on orderly.
The authors of the books enjoyed the satisfaction that their books were discussed seriously. The fourth day's programme was devoted to Mass Communications and Allama Iqbal. Zia Mohiyuddin recited some poems of Allama Iqbal. His renderings were simply marvellous. Possibly this art is now on the brink of extinction.
Scores of speakers spoke in there sessions and all that can be said that some speakers specially Professor Qazi Afzal Husain, Professor Shamim Hanafi, Masood Ashar, Iftikhar Arif, Raza Ali Abedi, Dr Qasim Raza Siddiqui did some justice to their topics but each one of them suffered from time constraint and we can only surmise that they could share the "gist" of their papers. Some spoke extempore because they didn't have adequate time to write out their papers.
However, I think that the Fourth International Conference provided some food for thought in the sessions on Mir, Ghalib, Faiz and Iqbal. The session on N. M Rashid and Majaz was quite productive. The speakers did justice to their topics.
If I am asked to describe who among the major poets discussed in this conference dominated the proceedings I would describe Faiz Ahmad Faiz as the one who, in the inaugural session, 'Badalta Alami Tanazur and Faiz ki Shaeri' and in a separate session devoted to his memories got more time and hence more limelight. The session on memories, undoubtedly, allowed speakers to share some insights which couldn't be shared in papers on Faiz's life and thought.
I think that Faiz Ahmad Faiz has emerged as an icon particularly in the present era when "Occupy the Wall Street" campaign has revived interest in Faiz's ideology. All those writers who thought that Faiz's view point has met its Waterloo due to the demise of USSR should note that there were nowadays more protests in the Developed West about the tyranny of the IMF and World Bank than in the East.
Some publications of India's underprivileged classes about the increase in poverty levels due to the implementation of the Structural Reforms dished out by the World Bank and IMF are quite revealing. Pakistan has suffered no less severely. The third world countries are left with no other choice but to come to the inevitable conclusion that the IMF prescriptions for the economic recovery of their countries have ended up in the rise of the poverty levels of their societies.