HERE is a letter from Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi written in response to my column in which I had discussed his book Mairey Hamsafar. In his letter, he has clarified his position in relation to Noon Meem Rashed.
While discussing the book, I had in particular referred to his portrayal of Rashed. The man as seen by Qasmi hardly gives the impression of a lovable personality. Now in his letter he has explained to us that his opinion about his personality should not be seen as reflective of his opinion about his poetry. He has drawn my attention to what he has written about his verse at the end of the article. He expects me to quote his words for the benefit of my readers. So here is what he has written:
“I have always found myself much impressed by Rashed’s poetry. I don’t think anyone from among his contemporaries can be deemed equal to him. He was truly a great poet.”
And he has written in his letter that he holds this opinion knowing full well that poets like Faiz, Miraji, and Majid Amjad were among his contemporaries.
From this we can well conclude that Qasmi thinks differently from those, who so often confuse the man with the poet. So if they are impressed by the personality of the poet, they automatically develop an admiration for his verse, too. In case they don’t like the poet as a man or have turned hostile to him for some personal reasons, they in consequence develop a dismissive attitude towards his poetry. With them the rejection of the man leads to the rejection of the poet. As opposed to them, Qasmi believes in differentiating between the man and the poet. He will not allow his literary opinion to be influenced by his personal prejudices for, or against the person of the poet. This is what he has demonstrated by holding Rashed, the poet in high esteem in spite of the fact that he has a poor opinion about Rashed, the man. In fact, he has an aversion for the man.
Who in our times cares to make such a fine distinction between the man and the poet and who believes in the kind of literary honesty, which demands from a reader of literature to rise above all kinds of personal prejudices and considerations for the sake of understanding and appreciating literature? Only a genuine reader of literature can afford this kind of objective approach.
Here I may refer to an article in the newly published collection of Qasmi’s articles titled, Pas-i-Alfaz. Here Qasmi is seen censuring those men of letters, who judge writers and their writings not on their literary merit, but under the dictates of their personal or their party’s prejudices or some kind of personal interests. In trying to judge the situation in an impartial way, he has cited two examples from the camp of the progressives to which he himself belonged. He has censured Syed Sajjad Zaheer and Ali Sardar Jafri for being parochial in their selections of progressive writings. He wonders that most of the lucky ones, who won compliments for their literary achievements from Sajjad Zaheer in his articles are now seen nowhere in the literary world. Those promising stars celebrated by Bannay Bhai faded out so soon without leaving behind any trace in literature. But to be fair to Sajjad Zaheer, why should he be singled out to be condemned for this act of omission and commission as other progressive critics, too, were seen doing during those years the same kind of job.
The other example of this nature cited by Qasmi Sahib is the resolution of the boycott of the so-called reactionary writers passed by Progressive Writers Association in those years. Qasmi calls it “a dirty example of narrow mindedness.”
I remember asking humbly Syed Sibt-i-Hasan about this resolution. He showed the moral courage to take on himself the whole responsibility of passing this resolution. And he had a confession to offer for this. “Revolution,” he said, “had taken place in China. We grew optimistic. We were not expecting it in Pakistan. A false sense of triumph encouraged us to pass this resolution.” He paused and added, “After all, we were human beings and so were susceptible to errors.”
And Qasmi Sahib tells us that the progressive, too, stooped at times to narrow mindedness. But they had the good sense to be self-critical. Soon they realized their mistake and publicly confessed it in a PWA’s session held in 1956.
All this is now history. But the articles included in Pas-i-Alfaz will be found replete with such references to our literary history. In fact, Mansoora Ahmad has taken upon herself to sort out old papers of Qasmi Sahib and compile them in a series of volumes. The volume under discussion is the first of the series published by Asateer, Lahore.
HERE is a letter from Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi written in response to my column in which I had discussed his book Mairey Hamsafar. In his letter, he has clarified his position in relation to Noon Meem Rashed.
