Susan Sontag’s perceptive observation about the writer “someone who is interested in everything” holds true for languages as well. In a world that has been inching towards monolingualism, languages cannot survive merely on chewing the cud of the creative dexterity of its great exponents. They have to be fully alive to the dominant theoretical discourse. Languages ought to understand and measure up to the contours of contemporary ideological frame work that shapes the world we live in. Urdu is no exception; though not much has been known about the sustained efforts of its authors who strive for getting themselves fully acquainted with new theoretical debate and ideas and apply them in the backdrop of their cultural and literary ethos.
Occasionally books, thoroughly grounded in both western and eastern aesthetics pertaining to literature, culture and poetics, deflate the myth that Urdu still garners wide spread attention only for its highly evocative and sensuous poetry. Nasir Abbas Nayyar’s recent book “Post Colonialism in the Backdrop of Urdu”, published by Oxford University Press, Karachi, is braced for proffering a live debate on various aspects of post colonialism.
It is the first full length book in Urdu that impeccably traces the history of colonialism in the subcontinent and perceptively unravels many hidden layers embedded in social, educational and literary movements from 18th Century onwards. With the careful sifting of textual evidences, Nasir Abbas arrives at certain conclusions that seem perfunctory if discussed in isolation.
He rightly points out that art history is nothing but a human construct that draws its sustenance from power structure. Powers that-be create new power centres and draw strategies to perpetuate the cultural and intellectual hegemony. He fashions a gripping historical narrative by asserting if a community or section fails to create new power structures it loses its identity and has virtually no role in shaping its destiny.
Divided into eight equally cogently argued and fleshed out chapters, the book explicates the dominant theme – subjugation-running through the lives of Indians. How does colonial power throttle language, literature and cultural aspiration of the native and how does it create an allusion of enlightenment, and empowerment? This book provides a detailed answer without rhetorical flourish.
In the first chapter, Nasir spells out distinctive features and limitation of post-colonialism and here the author does not seem to be carried away by the dominant discourse of our time-post-colonial studies and he makes it clear that this sort of study is also fraught with several pitfalls. Unlike the protagonists of the post-colonial studies, Nasir does not mock at the efforts of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and his associates. By referring to several texts of the 19th Century, the author makes it clear that Sir Syed did not hold brief for the British and he was truly an emancipator though he faltered on several counts.
Nasir analysed academic and other advancements of Europe from the stand point of the much touted grand narrative of emancipation. It was all pervasive and was intended to make both Hindus and Muslims realise that their religion did not spell out a spiritual system that could absolve man from impurities or answer basic questions related to human existence. The author discusses a plethora of oppressive intellectual practices of Europe to project Indian cultural ethos as dormant and muted form. The colonial perspective of language has also come in for a focused critical gaze and here the author discusses all what the book is gunning for with remarkable thoroughness.
William Jones and John Gilchrist’s intellectual input to further the interest of the British has also been well documented. There is no denying of the fact that with the tacit support of the British many societies for the diffusion of useful knowledge were set up in several parts of the country and the author has zeroed in on the activities of such organisations set up in Punjab that created an illusion of intellectual awakening .
