Jagan Nath Azad - a fighter for Urdu

Prof Jagan Nath Azad, who passed away the other day at the age of 87, belonged to the generation of Urdu poets who were beginning to come into prominence at the time of partition, which made him a junior contemporary of poets like Faiz, Rashid and Taaseer.

The record of the Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq mentions Azad as one of the young poets who regularly participated in its weekly sittings in Lahore. On partition, he migrated with his father, Pandit Trilok Chandr Mehroom, to Delhi and for the rest of his life carried in his heart, but without any bitterness, the painful memories of the heinous events which marked the dawn of independence and the experience of mass migration.

Azad was a simple, sincere person, deeply attached to the moral and cultural values which marked the days of his youth. The eminent poet and scholar, Raghupati Sahai Firaq Gorakhpuri, who contributed the foreword to Azad's maiden collection of poetry, Be-Karan (1949), has specially noted that Azad's personal attachment to his humanitarian values are fully reflected in his poetry. He was truly the great son of a great father, a source of pride to his times.

Azad's poetical work consists of almost every form of poetry - ghazals, lyrical compositions, quatrains, descriptive long poems et al and each form was enriched by his abiding depth of feeling.

He had a perfect command over the art of prosody and poetic diction. To quote Firaq once again, the love that Azad carried in his heart for his ancestral homeland in Mianwali, in western Punjab, bestowed a mellowed sense of sadness on his style.

His poetry embodied the culture which he had inherited from his upbringing under a benign, noble father. Azad had imbibed knowledge from both Western and oriental sources and the diction of his Urdu poetry was particularly marked by the sophistication of Persian literary tradition, which is inherent in Urdu language.

On migration to India after partition, Jagan Nath Azad served for some time in a government department. Later he joined the teaching faculty of the University of Kashmir and lived in Srinagar for long years.

On retirement he was made a Professor Emeritus. His life-long ambition was to serve as a bridge between India and Pakistan and he never lost an opportunity to visit Pakistan, where he had a large circle of friends and admirers.

Azad's father had the privilege of belonging to the close circle of acquaintances of Iqbal. Both father and son felt privileged in the affection and concern showered upon the family by the poet-philosopher.

Azad's own prose writing was mostly devoted to creating a proper awareness and understanding of Iqbal's profound comprehension of both Western and Eastern cultures and philosophies, as a catalyst for the emancipation and ennoblement of human soul and mind.

After his retirement from the teaching profession, Jagan Nath Azad dedicated himself to the cause of Urdu in India. He served as chairman of the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu (Hind) and used his influence in the higher echelons of the Indian government to generate resources for the expansion of the Anjuman's activities and considerable publication programme.

The distinguished Pakistani scholar and author, Dr Farman Fatehpuri, while talking to this writer, specially stressed that Azad had served the cause of Urdu to his last breath. He sincerely believes that Urdu, perhaps more than the other manifestations of the Sub-continent's culture, serves as the strongest link between India and Pakistan.

Science fiction; a new genre for Urdu readers

Aadam Nayee Dunya Mein is a short story, which, along with four other stories on social themes, belonging to the genre of science fiction, rare in Urdu, is part of a collection published under the same title, and launched at the Pakistan Arts Council on Saturday.

The author, Rafi Ahmad Fidai, a journalist and versatile writer, died in Karachi around two decades back, leaving behind a lot of unpublished material. His son, Mohammad Humayun Zafar, also a journalist, published some of his father's manuscript out of his meagre means. The book is Fidai's fourth collection of creative works.

Born in Bihar, Fidai matriculated from the Kolkata University in 1944 and soon after started his career as a writer. He had learnt Bangla and Persian and also attained a working knowledge of English.

He joined the Evening Star newspaper in Kolkata in 1947, and also worked for some Urdu dailies of those times like Asr-i-Jadeed and Azad. He showed his translation skills in Bangla, English and Urdu. He also compose verses as well when the editor of an Urdu paper wanted a satirical poem on a given situation.

After independence, Fidai went to the former East Pakistan and joined an Urdu daily, Hamari Awaz, there. Later he worked with Pasbaan, the most influential Urdu paper of the province at that time, and became its editor. His editorials and columns, the latter carrying a touch of humour, were much popular among his readers.

Fidai's earlier three published books are: Asasa-i-Hayat (poetry), Scienci Afsaney (fiction) and Sheesha vo Tesha (newspaper columns). Jamiluddin Aali, who presided over the launch, found science fiction an entirely new genre for Urdu literature.

In English literature, Mr Aali said, it was a popular and powerful theme, but in Pakistani society, where the level of education was low, science fiction could not strike roots. Mr Aali urged Mr Zafar to delve into family records and find more such stories for the benefit of readers.

Fatima Surayya Bajya said the writer was an amiable, honest, and dedicated person who suffered the pain of two migrations but never lost his faith in the future of the country.

Others who admired the stories on social themes included Mujahid Barelvi, Shakil Adilzada and Khalid Fatemi. Akhtar Saeede and Nisar Ahmad Dehlavi paid their complements in verse.

In Karachi, there exists a literary body engaged in the promotion of what it calls 'Scienci Adab' at the Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui Centre, Gulshan-i-Iqbal. Some writers may take up the task of translating and adopting English-language science fiction works in Urdu to popularize science fiction among the people.

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We have just gone through a happy 'Muzaffer Hanafi Week.' On Friday (July 23), the noted Urdu writer from India was the guest at the Karachi University and enjoyed his meeting with students. The next day, he was invited by Dr Farman Fatehpuri at the Urdu Dictionary Board, and was on the same day a guest at the Mohibban-i-Bhopal reception.

Dr Fatehpuri at the UDB briefed the guests about the compilation of the Urdu Lughat (the 19th volume has already been published), which contained not only the meaning of words but also their roots and usage at different times, with references from the old masters' works.

Dr Hanafi said there was no separate official body to compile a comprehensive Urdu dictionary in India. However, there were many admirable, though individual, efforts in this regard, Mr Hanafi said, adding that Yaqoob Mirza Mujtahedi from the South was one such linguist who compiled an Urdu lughat.

Dr Hanafi lauded the role of Urdu academies, both in the promotion of the language and bringing languages closer, like the publication of a Hindi-Urdu lughat, a Gujrati-Urdu lughat and a Bangali-Urdu lughat. The last one could have been more useful had it been written in a neutral script like the Roman, Dr Hanafi said.

At the reception held by the Mohibban-i-Bhopal at the cafe within the precincts of the Arts Council, there was much talk about Bhopal, its old ruling elite, and the role played by it in the promotion of Urdu language and the Muslim cause.

Here too, Dr Fatehpuri was in the chair, and M Ahmad Sabzwari, Dr Hanif Fauq and Federal Minister Mohammad Safwanullah were among the speakers. As the management of the cafe is not allowed to use a loudspeaker, the speeches delivered by the learned guests could hardly reach the second row of the audience due to the humming and chattering within the confines of the small cafe hall.

Mr Sabzwari said he had left Bhopal 50 years ago and never gone back there. Dr Hanafi, Dr Fauq and Dr Fatehpuri could only recall their short stay in the "great Muslim state in India." The president of the forum proudly announced his ancestral links with Lucknow. Bhopal must be a wonderful place to have so many 'mohibban.'

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A confused and frustrated crowd was witnessed at the Arts Council on Saturday evening at a book launch, to be held at 5pm. Till 6.30pm, the dignitary who was supposed to preside over the function was still on his way to the council. Eight speakers were expected at the launch, out of which only three arrived by the time the function ended.