August 22, 2004

A research scholar, while still engaged actively in his work, chooses to write columns and wins the kind of popularity unknown to a scholar. Is it not an anomaly? Mushfiq Khwaja is ranked among the few most distinguished research scholars of Urdu in our times. His latest achievement in this field is the recollection and compilation of Yagana Changezi’s poetic work presented under the title Kulliyat-i-Yagana-Changezi.

Yagana may be seen as a freak in the history of Urdu poetry. With all his achievements in the domain of ghazal, he was a condemned man in his time. The orthodox circles, more particularly in Lucknow, condemned him as a blasphemer and heaped all kinds of insults on him. In the literary circles, he was treated and dismissed as an eccentric, who vehemently rejected all major poets ranging from Ghalib to Faiz. His waywardness did not allow him to present his poetic work in a befitting manner with the result that most of what he wrote remained unpublished and was almost lost. It was left for Mushfiq Khwaja to rise above prevalent prejudices against the poet and take pains to retrieve all his verse lost to us and compile it so as to make an authenticated volume of his collected work.

It was during these very years when he was engaged in his research on Yagana that he turned to column writing. In fact, the weekly Takbeer should be given credit for discovering a columnist in him.

A researcher, while engrossed in his scholarly studies develops a temperament, which is hardly suited to column writing. Mushfiq has the rare gift of combining in himself a researcher and a columnist. Rarer is his sense of humour, a quality not in general compatible with the ways of the scholars. Mushfiq possesses this quality in abundance, enabling him to castigate the writer for his bad writings in a polite way.

Here is a selection of columns written during 1994-1996 collected in two volumes titled as Sukhun dar Sukhun and Sukhunha-i-Naguftani. This selection had been made by Muzaffar Ali Syed, who is no more with us and has been published by Academy Bazyaft, Karachi. This selection by Muzaffar may be seen in continuation of his prior selection which was published under the title, Khama Bagosh Kay Qalam Say.

The columnist has restricted himself solely to the domain of literature. The immediate reference is some recent publication. But what he writes is not a book review. It is rather the review of the writer with particular reference to his recent publication. He has a shrewd eye to catch what is inane and superfluous in the book. That gives him a clue to understand the mind of the writer. He scratches a little and soon the writer stands exposed to us.

But Mushfiq is never harsh and bitter in his comments. He has a deep sense of humour, which doesn’t allow him to be rude. Instead, in the beginning he gives the impression of paying compliments to the author. Only gradually do we come to realize that the poor chap is under scrutiny for what he has written.

Mushfiq Khwaja is happier when dealing with minor writers or those who may be pseudo-writers. They are the ones whose utterances provide enough food for his amusement. And they are the ones who most tempt him to make a caricature of them.

But according to Shamim Hanafi, these columns paint for us a picture of our deteriorating literary culture. He is right. But it is also true that it is this kind of picture of our literary culture, which serves the purposes of Mushfiq’s column better. To be more precise, Dr Aliya Imam and Mazhar Imam of the azad ghazal fame meet the requirements of these columns as compared to writers like Faiz, Raashid, Manto and Ghulam Abbas, who represent the better side of our literary culture.

These columns may also be read as literary criticism written in a lighter vein. Mushfiq’s method of criticism has been explained in a better way by Muzaffar in his foreword. He says that every book is just like a jungle where, in some corner in a hole or under a bush a jackal is crouching and is hidden from our view. Mushfiq’s art of criticism lies in his ability to point out that jackal.