KARACHI: The first formal session of the 7th International Urdu Conference at the Arts Council, presided over by Intizar Husain, was on the general state of language, literature and culture.

Dr Pirzada Qasim pointed out three factors. First, he said, every era had its priorities. The times we were living in, and therefore literature and culture, had changed. Today literature and language were not on top of society’s priority list. If the trend continued, there would be rapid decline in intellectual pursuits, something that writers and thinkers should guard against.

Secondly, the world was rapidly moving towards a global culture. Finally, as history would endorse, the culture of the majority always made the culture of the minority diminish into oblivion. However, if the minority’s culture had something inherently extraordinary in it, it could be saved from getting merged into a bigger stream. Therefore the Urdu-speaking community living in different parts of the world (not just in the subcontinent) should come up with a strategy how not to get merged.

Indian scholar Qazi Afzal Husain said human beings had a dialectical relationship with language. Lang-uage was man’s both societal and creative need. We not only expressed ourselves through language but language also defined us. On a collective level it helped us communicate with one another and on an individual level it fulfilled our urge to create or be creative.

Mr Afzal argued that since independence there were signs that our creative language had evolved as we read novels written by the likes of Intizar Husain and ghazals penned by poets such as Ahmed Mushtaq and Munir Niazi. If on the one hand the language of newspapers sensationalised things, on the other hand, the language used by creative people spoke of a different reality. However, in India he said the situation in terms of quality writers was less encouraging than in Pakistan. He, quoting Foucault, articulated that the issue was not whether times had changed; the issue was that today’s man was no more the creature we were familiar with.

Writer Intizar Husain lauded the organisers of the conference for arranging the moot seven years in a row. He said people in other parts of the country had followed suit as there were now conferences and festivals in Lahore and Islamabad. He stressed that whatever the circumstances, those who were doing the deed must keep the torch burning.

Earlier, Arts Council secretary Ahmed Shah welcomed the guests and said the conference was an academic event and a cultural congregation.

Huma Mir conducted the session.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2014