PWA's Platinum Jubilee celebrations were held enthusiastically on 31 December - the last day of 2011. Inspite of the fact that the city was almost paralysed due to CNG dealers' strike, the change of venue from the Arts Council of Pakistan to Jinnah Medical College University was necessitated by the decision of the Karachi chapter of the PWA to stick to the year 2011 for the observance of its 75th year birthday.
The two-day conference (December 31 and January 1) ran through from sessions - the inaugural session in the evening of December 31 and the other two sessions on January 1.
The PWA founded in Lucknow in 1936 as a follow-up of its 1935 London meeting in which its founders, Syed Sajjad Zaheer, Deen Muhammad, Taseer and Mulkraj Anand and others had resolved to organize Indian writers in the world-wide fight of democracy against Hitlers Nazism and Franco's fascism. The fight against Fascism saw a brigade of writers fighting against Franco's forces. It had Pablo Neruda, Federico Garcia Lorca, Stephen Sperider fighting against a system which violated all democratic norms.
The presidium of the first session comprised Sobho Gianchandani, Abid Hassan Manto, Zohra Nigah and Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqui. The keynote speaker was Manto. He discussed the present day international political and economic situation, which called for all conscientious writers to keep themselves abreast of the emerging corporate imperialism after the Cold War. The world didn't have the Soviet Union to intervene on behalf of the Third World countries after 1991. There is no denying the fact that the Canadian visionary Marshall McLuhan's coinage of the term 'global village' in 1962 has blossomed into Globalization today wherein the writ of the hegemonic unipolar world has to reign supreme. The structural reforms of the IMF are essentially meant to pave the way for the rich-countries concept of the market-economy. No consideration is given to the plight of even the Rich world's poor people, so there is no reason why the Third World have very little chance to be the master of their resources and the concept of sovereignty for this bloc of countries has become a mirage.
Manto's keynote address began with an apology that he was not delivering the keynote address but it turned out to be more than a keynote address. He said that literature was an important tool for the social change which cannot be wished away. The way the feudal mentality is at work in the country has made the question of the size of the land holdings irrelevant. It is the exploitative feudal class and feudal mentality which has blighted the future of democracy, as we understand it. The freedom to think and freedom to research are necessary conditions to speed up industrialisation. He said that the life of the peasants and workers has been made miserable.
How can literature remain unconcerned with this state of affairs, which the post-modernists term to be a subject note worthy of discussion as it has forfeited the status of the core issue, how ridiculous an intellectual position it is to escape from the stark reality of life.
Manto's message was loud and clear. The progressive writers couldn't abdicate their role to remain a meaningful catalytic agent to see whether they were working for the change. There is no doubt that they are helping the change. Even Franz Kafka's introverism helps us to measure what kind of the exterior he had to live in. Veteran writer Sobho Gianchandani said in his brief speech that the struggle for a just social order has to go on.
Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqui said that the writers should learn from the fate of those writers who have proved that they were ventilating the 'bourgeoise writers' views, even substantially copying their works, to oppose the genuine indigenous literary trends.
The other member of the presidium, Zohra Nigah, drew applause for a very perceptive selective reading of Sauda's poetry. Sauda in his selected couplets sounded a progressive contemporary.
Najamul Hasan Ata also read out a well-researched paper. The second day's session was on 'Tributes to the Pioneers of the Movement and Contemporary Challenges'. Kawish Rizvi's collection of poetry 'Surkh Dhammal' was also inaugurated in this session.
Among the speakers Anwar Ahsan Siddiqui couldn't attend due to his indisposition and hence paper was read out by Saba Ikram. Mr Siddiqui, in his paper, said that the PWA was founded 75 years ago and it has grown with the passage of time and if we study the mood of politics today we will have to conclude that all political parties have imbibed a progressive thought in their manifesto partly or wholly.
Dr Jamal Naqvi read out a chapter from his book 'Taraqi Pasand Tehrik Ka Tashkili Pas Manzar'. He started with the Paris meeting of Stalwarts, in 1935 and discussed PWA's 1936 conference in Lucknow. From then onwards he discussed the main features of subsequent conferences down to the Multan conference in 2007 where an elected body of the PWA came into being after a long time with. Hameed Akhtar as its Secretary General. The Provincial bodies also came into being.
From the presidium Wahid Bashir, Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqui and Hamra Khaliq spoke. Wahid Bashir said the future of the PWA was as bright as its past. He said that the ideological wedge between the progressive and non-progressive writers and poets cannot be bridged until the class conflict is a fact of contemporary life.
Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqui discussed the role of the pioneers. He said that the contribution of Khwaja Manzoor Hussain, Baba-i-Urdu, Maulana Hasrat Mohani, Majnoon Gorakhpuri, Akhtar Husain Raipur, Dr Rasheed Jahan, Professor Ahmed Ali, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi, Ali Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi, Krishan Chandar, Manto and Asmat Chughtai couldn't be forgotten.
He also said that the year 2011 saw big reputation of some non-progressive writers fall apart and the trend was not going to end because the Occupy Wall Street Movement has proved that the movement enjoyed the international support. Sattar Pirzada, a Sindhi language writer known for his translation of Shaikh Ayaz's stories and selected prose articles into Urdu, also spoke on the progress of Progressive Movement in Sindh and said that Shah Latif's poetry had raised protest against the Portuguese inroads and he was one of the first writers of the sub-continent who had reflected his people's class struggle and used the flora and fauna of his region in his poetry.
Najmul Hasan Rizvi also spoke about the progressive writers' efforts to popularise progressive thought in the Gulf. The topic of the concluding session was 'Contemporary Conditions and the Progressive Movement'. The Presidium comprised Dr Badruddin Ujjan, well-known Sindhi writer and critic, Rahat Saeed, Acting Secretary General of the PWA and A. R. Arif, a well-known progressive intellectual.
In this session Dr H. R. Ahmed of the Jinnah Medical College, representing Dr Tariq Sohail, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Trust which manages the Jinnah Medical College University, gave a brilliant presentation on the Ideal Education under a democratic dispensation. It is only in conditions of freedom of enquiry and an ideal environment that an ideal education can be imparted. The presentation was based on the philosophy of Bertrand Russell.
Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed's paper was a thought-provoking work. He said that unless preconditions for the growth of progressive ideas were met it was difficult to have a well-rounded growth. Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqui, in his paper, thought that the progressive movement had a great future. The movement has pervaded various platforms of diverse socio-politico economic and gender-based organisations. The PWA appears to be an ill organised body because its message has been widely imbibed and absorbed by sub-PWA organisations.
He said the way the non-progressive icons are falling one by one is itself a proof that they couldn't help going down because of their anti-people mercenary ideas. Dr Badruddin Ujjan said that massive Faiz centenary celebrations throughout the world prove that the message of Faiz has been widely acclaimed. Rahat Saeed also spoke. He thought the PWA had a bright future. A.R. Arif said that the PWA writers who touched the chords of the oppressed sections of society would always enjoy the respect and gratitude of readers.