Grounded in erudition

Sharif Husain Qasmi and Saleem Akhtar, the recipients of this year’s Majlis-e-Farogh-e-Urdu award, look at the poets through the prism of psychoanalysis and search for Urdu works beyond the pale of colonial rule.

November 20, 2014 06:08 pm | Updated 06:08 pm IST

Saleem Akhtar, the recipients of this year’s Majlis-e-Farogh-e-Urdu award

Saleem Akhtar, the recipients of this year’s Majlis-e-Farogh-e-Urdu award

Literature can only survive in the soap-opera driven post modern world only if it offers a window into a world shaped by felt cultural heritage. The longed-for world, if not completely lost, has been rapidly fading away from view. Poetry does narrate the tale of snapped ties that leaves people teary-eyed but prose writing firmly grounded in scholarship, tradition and cultural sensitivity remains unsung and prose writers except novelists hardly get recognition.

To supplement what has been left out, a reputed literary organization of Qatar, Majlis-e-Farogh-e-Urdu initiated awards that are given annually to prose writers one each from India and Pakistan.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs.1.50 lakh and a gold trophy. As many as 36 great exponents of prose both from India and Pakistan have so far received the awards.

“The prowess of prose rooted in cultural and historical sensibility provides a shield from the scourge of cultural homogeneity and the contemporary internet and mobile driven society leaves no stone unturned to trounce the written word and that is why our organization goes beyond poetic symposiums and honours eminent scholars,” says Mohammad Atiq, Chairman, Board of patrons of Majlis-e-Farogh-e-Urdu Adam (organization for promotion of Urdu Literature), Doha.

This year two eminent scholars and critics Professor Sharif Husain Qasmi (Delhi) and Professor Saleem Akhtar (Lahore) have received awards.

Having authored more than six dozen books in various genres, Saleem Akhtar, blazed a new trail in Urdu literature by zeroing in on the deepest recesses of the human consciousness. His focused appraisal of Iqbal, Ghalib, Manto and Josh set psycho and analytical criticism in motion in Urdu.

Analysing the letters of Ghalib from the backdrop of psychoanalysis, Akhtar observes that Ghalib’s much admired poetry betrays a marked narcissism but his letters reveal blatant sycophancy and a sickening longing for the mundane. Helplessness, a deep rooted sense of insecurity and death wish provide the scaffolding of his prose but his letters do indicate narrative trickery.

Ghalib’s masterstroke of self parody is fully reflected in his prose. Akhtar has written extensively on Iqbal, Ghalib and has also produced six collections of short stories, one novel, two biographies, autobiography and two travelogues.

An internationally recognised scholar of Indo-Persian literature, Qasmi writes in English, Urdu and Persian with equal case. His perceptive writings are braced for acquainting us with what has not been told by the colonial historians. Hardly any detailed account is available in Urdu about what was written prior to the colonial rule.

The cultural and literary history related to 8th Century to the Mughal empire that reveals a very strong bond of cultural unity is almost neglected and Qasmi’s writing urges us to look beyond the history of colonialism.

His pellucid prose backed with historical evidences invites the readers to merge with the page of historical narrative that is abound with innumerable literary exposition of felt heritage.

Selected by an independent and highly respected jury headed by Professor Gopi Chand Narang, former President National Academy of Letters, India and Intizar Husain, eminent fiction writers (Pakistan), the writing of this year's awardees make it clear that cultural unity hold the key to peace in the sub continent and it could only be provided by the Urdu literature.

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