19 February 2004	Thursday	27 Zilhaj 1424

ISLAMABAD, Feb 18: Poet and playwright Amjad Islam Amjad holds feudalism responsible for Pakistan's backwardness. The oppressive influence of the culture that it generated was holding back Pakistan from marching ahead with other countries of the region.

It was a way of thinking that considered progress, in general, and of the common people, in particular, as opposed to its class interests. He said the feudal class had increased its power over the years by aligning itself with other dominant groups.

Amjad Islam was speaking at the "Dialogue on art" programme of the Pakistan National Council of Arts here on Wednesday. Aptly quoting 'Chaudhry Hashmat', the protagonist of his famous play, Waris, who thought the common people were like trees who needed pruning to check them from rising above their apportioned height and growing to their natural stature, he recited a verse of Meer Taqi Meer's who years before Karl Marx had stated that the source of people's poverty was the rich man's wealth.

Amjad Islam Amjad said the writer's job was to communicate. That was the purpose of writing. It was desirable that he reached the widest audience. A literature that addressed only a select group displayed the writer's lack of trust in people.

He seemed to suggest that this kind of exclusivity was also a feature of the feudal attitude and possibly some inherent weakness of the writer. He traced his interest in drama to the dramatic element that he found in Urdu poetry. But it was Athar Shah Khan who prompted him to write plays.

He said the present disinterest in literature was due to the one-sided emphasis of education on preparing students for lucrative careers, absence of libraries and the disappearance of writers' haunts like Lahore's Pak Tea House from the scene where a certain ambience seemed to nourish a taste for the finer things of life.

Amjad Islam spoke with ease and authority on subjects he knew best and being the accomplished man that he is, it was a treat to hear him talk about his life and work.