Literature has always promoted the message of peace, love and humanity, but unfortunately in the post-partition era the literary writers on both side of the borders has not written a single poem, ghazal, short story or novel on the issue of hatred that exists between the two countries. Professor Gopi Chand Narang, eminent Indian Urdu scholar, critic and linguist, expressed these views while addressing a press conference here on Thursday.
Other members of an Indian delegation of literary persons accompanied him, who was here to attend a book fair in Lahore and also to participate in International Urdu Conference in Islamabad.
The delegation included Dr A. M. K. Shahryar, eminent Urdu poet and retired chairman of department of Urdu Aligarh Muslim University, Professor Qamar Rais, Dr S. S. Noor, Professor K Satchidanandan, Dr Giriraj Kishore, Sri Sheen Kaaf Nizam, Dr Tarannum Riyaz, Professor U. R. Anantha Murthy and Sri R. K. Sharma, Deputy Secretary Sahitya Academy. Prominent Urdu poet Ahmed Faraz and World Punjabi Congress Chairman Fakhar Zaman were also present on the occasion.
Narang further said that Lahore International Book Fair 2005 would serve the mission of creating peace in the whole region. "We pay tributes to Publishers Association Pakistan and Publishers Association India for organising the fair," he added.
He was of the view that literature had always played a vital role in spreading the message of peace among the literary communities in the region, and moreover writers of both sides should work together to develop good relations between the two neighbouring countries. Sahitya Academy India was already doing this in this connection that had published more than 300 books on Indo-Pak in 24 different languages, while it had arranged more than 200 literary programmes and seminars, he added.
Professor Satchidanandan believed that both the Pakistanis and Indians could compel their respective governments to cut defence budgets and divert the resources for peace and social activities.
While addressing the press conference, Fakhar Zaman highlighted the fact that for the last 20 years Indo-Pak literary persons were making efforts to create a peaceful environment in the region. He said that the Pakistanis and Indians were deprived of rich Indo-Pak literature due to the language problem. Keeping this in view, Indo-Pak writers were endeavouring to translate the whole literature in all local and traditional languages, including Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Telgu, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujrati, Marathi, Pashto, Balochi and Saraiki.
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