KARACHI: “Ma baad jadeediat,” a book on the literary theory of Postmodernism written by critic and story writer Rauf Niazi was launched on Thursday at Mumtaz Mirza Auditorium.
Gul Mohammad Umrani, secretory culture and tourism, was the chief guest on the occasion.
Professor Dr Manzoor Ahmad, in his lively presidential discourse, said that the theory of Postmodernism was being discussed in the West, and its arrival in our own literary world was just in time.
He pointed out that the philosophers and literary theorists mentioned in Mr Niazi’s book were alive today and their ideas were being evaluated by intellectuals.
Postmodernism, he said, emerged in reaction to Modernism, with the commanding message that now the world belonged to it and the people would now have to live only on its terms. “Think of American president George Bush, Postmodernism personified,” he said.
The professor, however, advised writers to first study the theory, and only then apply it in literature. He admired Mr Niazi for writing a book that demanded immense intellectual labour. not commonly understood.
We, the people of Pakistan, are at present the only fortunate nation in the world living in our dreams, and when we come out of slumber, we see the multi-coloured mirror image of our own making with amazement; our history moving on the same pattern and despots coming in succession one after the other, with no prospect of change,” the doctor said to illustrate his point on the subject.
The meeting, richly attended by intellectuals and writers, was addressed by Firasat Rizvi, Salman Siddiqui, Taj Baloch, Jazib Qureshi and noted Sindhi language story writer and critic, Mumtaz Meher.
While the author Rauf Niazi pressed his point that most writers in Pakistan did not care to learn about new critical theories, and at times rejected them with disdain without reading about them. He, therefore, thought it proper to write on a controversial topic. He had opened the door to dialogue, now “let others give their opinion.”
But Gul Mohammad Imrani had another point to discuss; perhaps more relevant to our time. Philosophy, he said, was the mother of all knowledge, but no philosophy in Sindh, other than sufism could ever survive in our feudal soil. He said we were lacking in originality because we had closed minds, locked in the ‘darbari’ culture of sufism.
Then, he raised a question: Is Marxism dead? And after briefly describing the plight of the common people, Imrani concluded that, “for the Third World, Marxism is more relevant than ever.”
Mumtaz Meher did not write his article specifically on the book, but his essay was close to the issues discussed by others. He translated the Sindhi text in Urdu.
He thought that Modernism had strengthened the cord of human relationship and brought peoples of different continents closer. He observed that Sindh had also benefited from the modern thought, and thus inhuman practices like karo kari were losing ground.
He slammed fundamentalism as a product of the closed mind because “fundamentalist don’t believe in dialogue and are intolerant to differences of opinion.”
He suggested that those at the helm of affairs at the Pakistan Arts Council should also invite Sindhi language writers to their programmes.
Taj Baloch, in his speech, said the Progressive Movement was very much alive, and Modernism is the new form of progressive thought. Mr Akber Leghari did the compering.—HA
