KARACHI: A book titled Urdu Adab ki tashkeel-i-jadeed by Nasir Abbas Nayyar was launched in one of the pre-lunch sessions on the last day of the 7th Karachi Literature Festival at the Beach Luxury Hotel on Sunday.

Nayyar said his earlier book was a critical analysis of the literature and language written in colonial times, and the one that’s being launched went further on from there. Replying to a question put to him by moderator Aqeel Abbas Jafri on whether Muslims’ ruling tenure in the subcontinent could also be categorised as colonial rule, Nayyar said in his first book he had written a detailed thesis on the difference between European and Muslim cultures. He said the term could be employed for Muslims as well. However, he clarified, that the basic intent of his latest book was to focus on literature and language in the light of colonial experience and the topic touched upon by the moderator had more to do with history.

Still, Nayyar said, there were certain differences between Muslim and British tenures. He said the feudal system that existed in the subcontinent was different from what was in place in Europe. Taxes were being levied on farmers but they weren’t being exploited, he said. But when the British arrived in India, they were not that compassionate, he said. To back up his argument he gave the example of the Mughal Emperor Akbar who was generous with a poet, whereas in British rule someone like Ghalib suffered and found it hard to get his pension from the concerned authorities. The aim of capitalism, he said, was to multiply capital, which was why it exploited the working class.

Nayyar made an interesting point. He said when Muslims ruled the subcontinent very little incidents of communal or sectarian riots took place. Yes, there were differences on the basis of religion, but very few communal riots were witnessed, he said.

Nayyar said in Urdu adab ki tashkeel-i-jadeed the first essay was on Muslims’ influence on the language and literature of the subcontinent. In that regard, he said, he had written about Hali’s nationalist poetry (qaumi shaeri). He said there were no national poets before Hali, but the idea was not his own, as it was done under the influence of the Anjuman-i-Punjab. He was of the view that even before Hali’s association with the Aligarh Movement, he had taken the nationalist concept from Punjab when he worked in Lahore for a while.

Then, he said, the book homed in on Deputy Nazir Ahmed. He attached great importance to his novel Taubat-un-Nusoh. He said the description of the main family in the story was the description of a state. He said the two protagonists in the book could be likened to the two competing forces in our contemporary society, one of whom tried to impose his thoughts on others, while other wanted to analyse things on his own.

Answering a question about his assertion on an ‘alternative narrative’ Nayyar said books written in English did not mention the work that was done in Urdu and regional languages. He said Manto, Qurutulain Hyder and Intizar Husain had expressed their post-colonial experiences through a process of decolonisation in fiction, something which was not mentioned by English critics. He said a lot happened after 1947 as writers experimented with narratives. Responding to a question on the health of the Urdu language asked by an audience member, he said, “A language is alive as long as it’s spoken.”

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2016