Zubair Qureshi
During the last twenty years, excellent Urdu novels have been written in Pakistan and our literature is no less than the literature of any language in the world.
These views were expressed by Nausheen Javaid Amjad, Federal Secretary, National Heritage and Culture Division, as a guest of honor at an online discussion on “Freedom and the Narrative of Urdu Novel” organized by the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) in connection with the week-long Independence Day celebrations.
Urdu can be compared to any other language in the world but, unfortunately, we have a certain kind of inferiority complex, said she.
The British ruled over us for almost a hundred years, so everything from the West has become important to us and our attitude toward literature is similar, she further said.
The programme was presided over by Asghar Nadeem Syed while the noted guests were Nasir Abbas Nayyar and Khalid Mahmood Sanjarani.
Participants Dr Tahira Iqbal, Dr. Qazi Abid, Rafaqat Hayat, Muhammad Asim Butt, Dr. Aurangzeb Niazi, Dr. Sefer Haider and others also expressed their views on the occasion. Dr. Yousuf khushk, Chairman PAL presented an introductory note. Dr. Muhammad Naeem moderated the discussion.
Nausheen Javaid Amjad said when translations come to us from English or any other language of the world we are immediately attracted to them. That is why our new generation knows Paulo Coelho but they have no knowledge of the writers like Qaratul Ain Haider, Abdullah Hussain who has now become classics in Urdu, she said.
The only reason for this is that we have considered English as the standard of knowledge. We have assumed that the man who will write in English, or who will be translated into English, will be a great writer. This misconception needs to be dispelled, she said.
Federal Secretary, National Heritage and Culture Division said it was necessary to inculcate in the minds of the new generation that literature does not grow big or small because of any language.
It has to look at how it presents a human situation. Many literary masterpieces still exist, but their languages are extinct.
As far as the Urdu novel is concerned, the novel came to us much later, but it is not that very little has been written. The PAL has recently published a two-volume novel number of its quarterly Urdu journal “Adabiyat”. The second volume of this special issue covers only 21st-century novels, which suggests that we have written some very good novels in Urdu in the last twenty years. Dr. Yousuf Khushk said that the novel is currently the most popular genre in the world. It is an ancient genre, as can be seen from the Nobel Prize-winning writers of the literature of the last fifty years. The novel has also emerged as a popular genre in Urdu.
