The Gurmani Centre at LUMS organised a panel discussion to recognise and explore the literary contributions of Dr. Khalid Jawed, a distinguished Indian fiction writer. Dr. Jawed currently serves as a professor at the Department of Urdu, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), where he has accumulated over 20 years of valuable experience. Jawed specialises in literary criticism and modern fiction, with three books on criticism and creative writing and numerous research articles to his credit.
He has also published three collections of short stories and highly acclaimed novels such as Maut ki Kitab, Nemat-Khana, and Aakhri Dawat. His novel Nemat-Khana, translated as The Paradise of Food, is the winner of the 2022 JCB Prize for Literature, and Aakhri Dawat is included in the curriculum of Princeton University. His short story titled Koobar is also part of the Banaras University curriculum. His literary works have been translated into multiple languages. Dr. Khalid Jawed joined the session from Delhi, India via Zoom, while Dr. Nasir Abbas Nayyar moderated the session. The discussants included Dr. Aurangzeb Niazi and Shanawar Ishaq. Dr. Nasir Abbas Nayyar opened the discussion by introducing Khalid Jawed and his work of fiction and criticism in detail. He explained that fiction is of two types: one is consumable literature, in which mediocrity is dominant and it is subservient to hegemony, and the other is fiction with the spirit of inventiveness. Dr. Nayyar further stated that this session is not only with and about a personality but also an attempt to comprehend the significance of serious fiction of which Khalid Jawed is a representative. He mentioned Jaweds four famous novels: Mout ki Kitab, Ek Khanjar Pani Mein, Nematkhana, Arsalan aur Behzaad. He also mentioned his nonfiction book of criticism, Kahani, Mout aur Aakhri Bidesi Zubaan, which is not discussed frequently due to his fiction work being more popular. Dr. Nayyar said that the major concerns of his fiction are death and language, elaborating on how Khalid Jawed’s fiction dwells in the special category of fiction, i.e., the zone of silences. While further discussing the thematic concerns of Khalid Jawed’s fiction, he explained the philosophical dimensions of his work, highlighting how the aesthetics at work are anti sublime. Further elaborating on the theme of death, he explained that the above-mentioned four novels are also termed as the books of death. Dr. Nayyar also read a remarkable excerpt from his critical essay written on Jawed’s fourth book of death: Arsalan aur Bahazad. He explained how Jawed deals with death not in despair or as something which is antilife but understands it as the medium to explore the potential of life. While exploring the theme of language, Dr. Nayyar quoted Dr. Jawed where he said, I am not convinced to represent the world and worldly belongings with language. For me, this world is only a frame of reference and I, instead of using language as a medium of representation, make failing attempts to explore and construct an alternate world.
From this point onwards, he further connected the dots with the initially mentioned types of fiction and explained how the former one is fiction with the spirit of representation and is comprehensible to the larger audience while the latter is one with the spirit of inventiveness that has limited but serious readership. Dr. Nayyar also explored the paradoxes existing in Jawed’s works, and their coexistence in the whole phenomenon of human experience. Dr. Aurangzeb Niazi presented the environmental criticism of Khalid Jawed’s fiction. He explained that his fiction at times encompasses the thematic concerns of anti-aesthetics.
