KARACHI: Scholar shed light on the achievements of three greats of Urdu literature who are no longer with us — Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi, Dr Jamil Jalibi and Dr Enver Sajjad — at an event held in their honour at Urdu Bagh by the Anjuman Tarraqqi-i-Urdu on Saturday.

Dr Fatema Hassan was the first speaker. She said the programme was being held to pay homage to three personalities who enriched Urdu literature and language with their invaluable work. Yousufi sahib had an association with the Anjuman. Even when he was extremely ill, he came to the Anjuman to take part in an event organised to highlight the life and work of Mushfiq Khwaja. Yousufi sahib was a great writer whose prose had the quality of touching upon important subjects with the help of humour and satire.

Dr Hassan said Dr Jalibi was a highly learned person who wrote on subjects as varied as culture, criticism, literature, translations etc. His four-volume Tareekh-i-Adab Urdu is a qualitative work of research.

She said Dr Sajjad was a ‘multifaceted’ (hama jahat) writer in the true sense of the word. He trailed a blaze for a new kind of narrative style in Urdu fiction. He depicted the issues of his time in an individualistic way which reflected in the collective characteristic of society. She lauded his novel Khushion Ka Bagh for its narrative style and content.

Islamabad-based writer M. Hameed Shahid’s paper on Dr Enver Sajjad was read out by Rukhsana Saba, who also moderated the programme. Mr Shahid titled his paper Zameeni khushion ka mutalashi (the seeker of worldly happiness) and said it was taken from the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch’s artwork ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ which is placed in a museum in Spain. He pointed out that the painting drew his attention towards Dr Sajjad’s work because when his novel Khushion Ka Bagh came out, it was the name of the book that got his attention first. And when he went through the book, its presentation impressed him. Dr Sajjad was influenced by the artwork (unhon ne kahani ki tehreek wahin se pai). The novel that was published in 1981 had the personification of ‘I’ (mein) in an environment affected by religious barbarism, torture inflicted by the state, and the backward Third World societies.

Mr Shahid said Dr Sajjad’s set a different trend in literature by treating [in his distinct way] the mediums of abstraction and symbolism. However, it didn’t happen overnight. This was evident from the collections of his stories such as ‘Pehli Kahanian’, ‘Choraha’ and ‘Aaj’ studying which indicated that he came thus far by remaining entrenched in his creative experiences.

Writer Zaheda Hina, secretary of the Anjuman, spoke on Yousufi sahib and quoted quite a few brilliant, witty and meaningful lines from his books.

She said when his first book Charagh Taley saw the light of day in 1961, each word of it was appreciated [by readers]. He wrote less but whatever he wrote was of high merit. He was a top-notch humorist. After Mirza Azeem Baig Chughtai, Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqui, Shafiqur Rehman, Col Muhammad Khan and Ibn-i-Insha, the world of humour in Urdu was found empty. But Yousufi stepped into it and conquered it.

Dr Jalibi’s son Khawar was supposed to speak on the life and work of his father, but he instead requested Naushaba Siddiqui to do it on his behalf.

She said she learned a great deal from Dr Jalibi, especially the use of language.

The president of the Anjuman, Wajid Jawad, who presided over the event, thanked the guests for turning up at the event. He briefly talked about the Anjuman’s objectives and then about the speakers who paid tribute to the three greats of Urdu literature.—Peerzada Salman

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2019