Postmodernism is believed to be the culmination of 3000 years of philosophical speculation. Yet, it is fundamentally different from all previous trends, theories and schools of thought in the history of philosophy.

Where the energies of the past philosophers were focused to find one “grand theory” to solve all kinds of intellectual, psychological, social, political and economic problems, postmodern theorists are determined to undermine the very project of establishing one “grand theory” to explain all.

In fact, they go one step further and attack the basis of forming any “grand theory”; they’ve brought the formation of a “grand narrative” that leads to constructing a “grand theory” under the linguistic and semiotic critique.

Whether postmodernism is revealing the true nature of human inquiry or it’s a reaction to the failure of the modernity project still remains to be decided. The jury is still out. The problem with societies like Pakistan is that they are not part of this ‘jury’. In fact, they are not even part of the audience in the ‘court room’.

The authors of Ma Baad Jadeediyat: Nazri Mubahas and Ma Baad Jadeediyat ka Doosra Rukh, are trying to introduce postmodern theory and its application to Pakistan.

Nazri Mubahas is a collection of essays, compiled by Nasir Abbas Nayyar, that try to explain the theoretical framework of postmodernism. It is quite exhaustive in the sense that it includes essays introducing postmodernism to the general audience of philosophy and literature.

Some essays successfully compare and contrast postmodernism with modernism and structuralism. Most importantly, several important postmodern writers are introduced in various essays and their theories are described in accessible language. And finally, some important terminology of postmodernism is explained separately. In short, the book contains significant information to make readers familiar and acquainted with the philosophy and the debates prevalent in it.

Meanwhile, Doosra Rukh is an application of postmodern critique on Urdu literature. Authored by Zameer Ali Badayuni, a renowned scholar and critic, the book tries to bring postmodern debates in the realm of Urdu criticism. However, these theories are applied on writers like Mirza Abdulqadir Baidal, Iqbal, Muhammad Hasan Askari, and Qamar Jameel. Almost all of them write in the modernist tradition. Their writings are devoid of the kind of ‘linguistic games’ and primacy of the interpretation of the reader over the intentions of the writer, which are hallmarks of any piece of postmodern literature. But that is because there are very few contemporary Urdu writers who use postmodern themes in their writings.

Badayuni has provided Urdu criticism with a precious new trend. It is now the responsibility of contemporary writers to bring postmodern themes and ideas into their writings like Mirza Athar Baig has tried in his stupendous novel Ghulam Bagh and several other writings. Only then can Urdu criticism fully embrace the trends in postmodern critique.

The problem, though, is that the Pakistani society has not even gone through the complete transition from a feudal to a modern society. In such circumstances, postmodern ideas are difficult to comprehend for many and thus difficult to be accepted widely. But, that is how all theories and ideologies start; from a handful of creative thinkers.

Postmodernism is against any kind of creating a “whole” and letting it have hegemony over other ideas. In a society that opposes multi-culturalism, a philosophy which entails multiple discourses being treated equally and critiqued on equal grounds can help in starting to create a level of tolerance required for a meaningful debate.

How well these ideas are accepted depends upon the work of writers, scholars and the academia. As for the present, it is still to be seen how a nation that is in search of definite answers receives a philosophy which precludes definite answers.