LITERARY NOTES: International Urdu Conference

The Third International Conference, hosted by the Arts Council of Pakistan, was a success. Its special feature was the commemoration of Mir Taqi Mir's 200th birthday anniversary. Mir Taqi Mir is, truly, the greatest poet of Urdu in terms of the four yardsticks- The canvas, the diction peculiar to the language of the heart, the idiom of the space-time specificity and his power of imaginative internalisation of the external conflicts and turmoils.
However, no substantial output was offered by the participants because the eminent Mir scholars didn't participate, Shams-ur-Rahman Faruqi, an Indian scholar couldn't come to Karachi due to pressing engagements. There is no doubt that he could be the difference had he been present. However, his views on Mir are predictable and he is known for talking at length on the Bahr-i-Mir, instead of Mir's reflection on his times. Faruqi doesn't pay much heed to the poet's mindset, instead he would talk on the meter, diction and illogicality in their expressions because socio-political thought is a bane for him. Isn't it a bit interesting that Iqbal should be worth-talking about the first stanza of Jawab-i-Shikwa wherein Iqbal's plaintive vote "Pierces the Sky" as it was for Faruqi more important than Iqbal's vision of dynamic Islam expressed in his lectures published in the Reconstruction of Islamic Thought?
If Dr Raziuddin Siddiqui discusses Iqbal's views on the theory of relativity and Dr Ali Shariati writes 600 page long book "Ma Wo Iqbal" hailing him as the greatest Muslim philosopher after Ghazali or this scribe discusses Iqbal's denunciation of imperialism - another name for neo-liberalism of President Reagan or today's post-modernism, it would be termed as an irrelevant way of discussing Iqbal. Only the subjective beauties of Iqbal's imaginative strides deserve to do justice to Iqbal as it is the "poet" Iqbal who merits discussion and not the philosopher and politician Iqbal. Perhaps Faruqi thinks that poetry could only be interpreted the way he has chosen for his way of appreciation.
Faruqi is a genuine scholar but he has been limiting Mir Taqi Mir, Ghalib and Iqbal to only setting aside the major area of Iqbal's interest which couldn't be earmarked as "the Forbidden Area or No man's Land" while talking about Iqbal's poetry.
Anyhow that's what Faruqi's thinking has driven away majority of modern Urdu poets to the point of deriding inter-disciplinary approach of critical appreciation. It has resulted in their opting out of their political milieu. The sessions on fiction, mass media and criticism were productive. The philosophy of undermining the text - and throwing out writer from his creation was termed a post-modern refrain and not an acceptable school in the developing countries because their social development needed a socially accountable literature.
The Arts Council of Pakistan has been doing a great deal of service to literature in general and Urdu literature in particular, by holding the Annual Conferences. The way Sindh Government has welcomed the conference and promised to solve winters' problems is a welcome sign. The Sindh Government has also constituted Josh and Shaikh Ayaz Awards for Sindhi and Urdu writers respectively to promote cultural affinity between Sindhi and Urdu speaking populations of the province. We don't see any such effort for Pashtu-Hindku, Punjabi-Seraiki and Baluchi-Pashtu affinity in Khyber PakhtunKhwa, Punjab and Balochistan.
Voices of Sanity Zaman Khan is a writer with a strong Human Rights activist background. He has a penchant for interviewing celebrities. His book "Voices of Sanity: Harbingers of Peace" is a beautifully produced book of interviews of luminaries, of the persons interviewed by him are:
Kuldip Nayyar, Kartar Singh Duggal, Dr Namwar Singh, Professor Bipan Chandra, Dr S. S Noor, Justice A. M Ahmadi, Satya Pal, Dr Vanita, Dr Kamlash Mohan, Dr Ashok Mitra, Dr Fatima Hussain, Sharen Makkar, Aditya Mukherjee, Rita Bangla Joshi, Professor Romila Thapar, Prakash Karat, Kamla Bashad, AK Hangal, Dr Ranbir Singh, Dr Jaspal Singh and Urvashi Butalia etc-etc.
Each of the interviewees is a well-known personality with a specific field which has made him or her important. Most of the interviews were done during Zaman Khan's visit to India. One wishes that he goes overseas more often so that we come to know more about persons who are busy disseminating their charms as intellectuals and social activists. It has been seen that the world is often made more interesting and worth living just because of the fact that some persons are busy doing their errands for the love of the humanity around them. This is how societies develop due to steady interaction of scholars belonging to different disciplines. The clash of ideas among scholars makes the intellectual base of a society flexible and steadily widening.
It is a pity that Pakistan's share in intellectual resource capital of its society is much lower than Egypt, Turkey and Iran. Hence it is through assimilation of intellectual capital of other countries that we could develop our own base. We should have by now many books on the thoughts of international luminaries on areas of our interests for example our appetite for learning about the strong points of the representative intellectuals of Third World Countries needs more space. We have to reach a stage of devouring the success stories of outstanding intellectuals of the Third-World and Developed Countries.