Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan's book "Azadi Ke Baad Urdu Novel" is a noteworthy addition to the mass of critical writings on Urdu novel. Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan taught English in government colleges in Karachi and in the interior of Sindh up to his retirement in 2006.
His doctoral thesis was completed in 1987 under Dr Abul Lais Siddiqui and was published in 1997. It was an academic work dealing with the march of Urdu novel after the partition. Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan doesn't believe in taking sides on ideological basis. He has tried to do justice to all schools of thought. Any serious academic who follows this course is generally considered quite objective and hence doesn't invite controversy. Therefore he neither earned much support nor disagreement for his work. However, it could be said that Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan's serious studies on Urdu novel have generally been appreciated. He dealt with the Urdu novel after the partition. It included discussion of 'form' and 'content' besides style, technique and language.
Starting from "Aisi Bulandi Aisi Pasti" Dr Khan moves on to Shabnam, Sham-i-Oudh, Sangam, Mere bhi Sanam Khane, Safina-i-Gham-i-Dil and Aag ka Darya etc. Aag ka Darya is a turning point in the development of Urdu novel. Nothing like it had ever been attempted before.
Dr Khan kept on updating his 1987 thesis upto 2007. Quite an uphill task because the number of Urdu novels written after 1987 was much more than the number of Urdu novels up to 1987. In fact most fiction writers gave most of their time and energy to this genre due to the relatively more social and economic stability in the 80s than before.
Dr Khan's revised edition got a good press as it tried to break a tradition. Generally academics seldom visit their works once they are published and hence they see their works outdated in their own life. Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan didn't like it. Perhaps it was his stint at the Anjuman which also made it possible. He has been editing Monthly Qaumi Zaban for six years and has done a lot to make it a regular journal. The Anjuman's quarterly 'Urdu' has been also become his responsibility.
Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan was not content with his revised edition of Azadi Ke Baad Urdu Novel which had covered all novels up to 2007. The novels covered were under the headings Asaleeb and Ruhjanat (Styles and Trends). The trends in all Urdu novels have been exhaustively discussed by the author - even the non-fiction narratives have not been omitted. After all who could forget Qurratulain's 'Kar-i-Jahan Daraz Hai'. The first volume of this work is a highly successful narrative. The second volume is however, is a bit drab, though not without some readable parts.
Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan didn't sit idle after his first work on Urdu novel. His second work Urdu Novel Ke Hamagir Sarokar takes up another important theme to discuss in detail. Perhaps he thought that his Ph.D dissertation couldn't discuss the period-wise themes of Urdu novel because of his emphasis on styles and trends of novels. It is one thing to discuss an individual novel as we discuss an individual but quite another proposition to discuss the elan vitale of the age in which it was written.
I was surprised to see that Dr Mumtaz Khan has discussed John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress for its realism but didn't share with the readers that its Urdu translation in the third decade of the 19th century under the title of "Ek Masihi Ka Safar" has escaped his attention. I believe that it was the model alligory which Deputy Nazir Ahmed had followed in his novels Miratul Uroos, Tubut-ul-Nasooh and Ibnul Waqte. In the first half of the 19th century, the Christian missions had published numerous allegories to popularise Christ's Kingdom of God and the salvation it guaranteed. Hope, Despair, Hell and Paradise were presented as allegorical characters to drive the point home that Christainity was the only healing and redeeming faith.
The word "Sarokar" in the title of the second book came as a surprise. It is quite a popular word in India and is used for the landscape and its main characteristics. I believe that Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan's had this in mind - if I might say so, this omission in the earlier book. He has discussed Kai Chand They Sar-i-Aasman, Ghulam Bagh, Kaghzi Ghat, Al-Asifa, Par Pare, Qurbat-i-Marg Mein Muhabbat, Qila-i-Jang, Mitti Adam Khaati Hai & Jannat Ki Talash.
I hope that Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan should continue updating his work on Urdu novel by taking up all important novels as he has achieved the position of a modern chronicler of Urdu novel.
Apart from Dr Khan's work discussed so far he has two more books to his credit, Urdu Novel Ke Badalte Tanazur (1993) and Wafaqi Urdu University (history) 2005. I think that the Urdu novel was being written these days in an unending flow. I am sure Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan will keep on updating his work in the future as well.
ON HAFEEZ JALLUNDHARI: Syeda Nasira's thesis on Hafeez Jallundhari, the writer of Pakistan's National Anthem, was supervised by late Dr Syed Abdullah and has now been published. In view of the general standard of MA theses being produced by our university, the thesis of Syeda Nasira is of exceptional merit. It enjoys the standard of an MPhil thesis.
It begins with a well-arranged chapter on the family background of Hafeez and his career as a poet. His meteoric rise as a writer of Shahnama-i-Islam along with his status as an important lyric poet sounds a bit strange but Hafeez proved that even his Shahnama-i-Islam could be taken as a lyrical composition.
Hafeez Jallundhari also wrote short stories. Isn't it strange that well before Hafeez's composition of Pakistan's national anthem first national anthem of Pakistan was composed by poet Jagan Nath Azad. It was only after his composition of the Pakistan's National Anthem that he migrated to India. Hafeez Jallundhari's national anthem has a highly Personalised diction and there is a strong lobby which thinks that it couldn't be understood by the majority of Pakistanis.
Syeda Nasira's work on Hafeez Jallundhari is highly commendable and should be appreciated by all serious readers who would like to know the neglected aspects of Hafeez Jallundhari's career - his role in World War II's publicity campaign, lyrical poetry and finally enjoying the coveted honor of being the writer of Pakistan's national anthem. He will also be known as a very hostile adversary of Josh Malihabadi. However history has made it an insignificant footnote in his career. Josh Malihabadi has survived as a towering figure of Urdu literature today.
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