IT was primarily a condolence meeting. But at the same time it was more than that, inviting us to take notice seriously of the new linguistic phenomenon as expressed in the newly-emerged literary centres of Urdu in distant lands far away from the borders of Pakistan and India.
Glowing tributes were paid to Malik Museburrahman for his devotion to the cause of Urdu literature and its writers. The man seemed to have devoted himself solely to this cause. When asked about the reason for not marrying, he, as said here, replied promptly “I am wedded to Urdu.” Settled in Doha he founded a literary association under the name Majlis-e-Farogh-e-Urdu Adab.
Museburahman, when engaged in organising this association, discovered in the person of Mr Muhammad Atiq, a distinguished Pakistani banker, a soul sympathetic to this cause. He was right in his perception. Mr Atiq gave full support to him in this literary venture. Now he had come to Lahore from Doha to pay homage to the deceased man, to whom he had provided a precious companionship in his struggle to make Majlis a meaningful literary forum.
Museeburrahman in this struggle soon went beyond the usual popular activity of holding mushairas and instituted a literary award. This award has a history of its own.
Frankly speaking, the literary groups of the settlers in the different cities of the East and the West could, with their limited literary vision, hardly conceive of a literary activity other than of holding a mushaira. Off and on they invited a poet and arranged in his honour a grand function calling it a ‘Jashn’ of the poet. The poets were so happy to have their ‘jashns’ celebrated in Dubai, Toronto, New York and such other cities. But a prose writer who had the honour to be celebrated in this way reacted differently.
He was Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi. When honoured in Doha in this way, he had a piece of advice for the organisers. He impressed upon them that this sort of celebrations are just a waste of money. Why not do something meaningful instead.
Encouraged by what Yusufi Sahib said, Museeburrahman thought sincerely that his Majlis should have some better programme for promoting and patronising genuine literary works. So a literary award was instituted on the part of the Majlis. But Yusufi Sahib had something more to suggest. Enough of poets. Better reserve this award for prose writers, those prose-writers in particular who have lifelong creative work to their credit. With this programme, this literary body distinguished itself from all the mushaira-holding groups of the settlers and gained a prestige unknown to others. Its award too carried with it a distinctive character. Writers in Pakistan have been in the habit of expecting rewards for their literary work from the governments alone. It was for the first time that we had a literary award with no official strings and with no bureaucratic intrusion, and, what more, with no reference to any ideology, political or otherwise.
It had the prestige of being a purely literary award. And that it had the distinction to be the first Indo-Pak literary award divided equally into two, one for Pakistan and the other for India’s Urdu writers. And hence two separate committees of judges, the one for Pakistan headed by Mushtaq Yusufi, the other for India headed by Dr Gopi Chand Narang.
So Malik Museeburrahman with his Majlis-e-Farogh-e-Urdu Adab stands unrivalled in the Urdu world, enjoying a prestige reserved for him alone. In addition, we find Doha occupying a distinctive position among the newly-emerged literary centres of Urdu in the foreign lands away from South Asia.
But is it not a strange linguistic phenomenon, more particularly when seen in the background of the doubts expressed about the future of Urdu. We have among us intellectuals who seem very much worried about the future of this language, which appears to them bleak, eventually ending in its death. In case of India, they are so sure that it will soon be wiped out from the linguistic map of that land. Our partition-based perception of India demands from us that we should readily believe in this prophesy. With reference to Pakistan, we have of late found out a new hostile factor, which guarantees its sure death. That factor is globalisation.
But how strange that notwithstanding these prophesies, Urdu is engaged in discovering new lands for its expansion. How wonderful that this linguistic expansion goes hand in hand with the prophesies of death of this language. I am reminded here of a seminar arranged by Sahitya Academy of India under the title Urdu ki Nai Abadian.
At least one fact comes up very clear in consequence of this phenomenon. That rise and fall of languages hardly cares for the concerns of the well-wishers and ill-wishers of these languages. The linguistic process is in no way subservient to the policies of the governments or to the dictates of political groups. It has its own rules and regulations. Official patronage matters little in this respect. Official indifference too can be dismissed as something irrelevant.
IT was primarily a condolence meeting. But at the same time it was more than that, inviting us to take notice seriously of the new linguistic phenomenon as expressed in the newly-emerged literary centres of Urdu in distant lands far away from the borders of Pakistan and India.
