I HAVE just returned from Karachi after attending its sixth literary festival, the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF). Growing gradually year by year, the event has now come to stay as a big literary show upholding humanistic values in the heart of violence-ridden Karachi. Who could have foreseen it developing in such a marvelous way in the midst of targetted killings and suicidal bomb blasts?

In fact, it was a bold venture on the part of Ameena Saiyid, the Oxford University Press (OUP) managing director. She was assisted in this venture by the well-known writer Asif Farrukhi, who has now come out as a literary activist. It goes to the credit of their foresight that what had initially started as an exclusively English literary show speedily developed into an inclusive cultural gathering attracting attention and co-operation of writers belonging to different linguistic traditions; artists belonging to diverse arts such as dance, music and theatrical groups; and scholars and intellectuals of different varieties. In accordance to this diversity, the audience kept increasing. As recorded by the OUP, the festival attendance rose from roughly “5,000 in 2010 to 10,000 in 2011, to 15,000 in 2012, to 50,000 in 2013, to 70,000 in 2014”. We see here a unique phenomenon of unity in diversity.

Writers, scholars, and intellectuals are invited not only from different corners of Pakistan, but also from abroad. Among the invitees have been distinguished Indians, who have come as chief guests and delivered key addresses at inaugural sessions. The first to come as chief guest was the renowned Urdu scholar Dr Shamsur Rehman Farooqi. Along with his major research and critical work, he has also emerged as a fiction writer with a remarkable novel to his credit.

Last year Rajmohan Gandhi was the chief guest who carried with him not only the status of a historian but also the glamour of being the grandson of Gandhiji. This year’s keynote address was delivered by Nayantara Sahgal who along with her personal merit was seen carrying a bit of the glamour associated with the Nehru family.

While speaking, she thought fit to explain her linguistic situation to us. She said that her language is Hindi, while her father’s tongue was Urdu. But what was her mother tongue? She did not care to tell us about it. However, her maternal uncle Pandit Nehru was reported to have said on one occasion that his mother’s tongue was Urdu. The occasion was a discussion in Indian Parliament on Indian languages. Their cases were being considered to be approved as valid languages of the country. When the case of Urdu was presented for consideration, objections were raised. Questioning the validity of Urdu, certain members asked ‘whose language is this?’ All the members thought fit to keep silent. Then, as reported by reliable sources, Pandit Nehru chose to commit that Urdu was the language of his mother, meaning thereby that Urdu was his mother tongue.

As for his father, Pandit Moti Lal Nehru, he is said to have been a great admirer of Hafiz, so much so that he liked to have the Diwan-i-Hafiz by his bedside. On the other side, we see Allama Iqbal in Javaid Nama engaged in a dialogue with Bhartari Hari and Rishi Vishvamitra. That was the kind of acculturation known to us as Ganga-Jumni culture. How unfortunate that it all paled into insignificance under the pressure of politics.

But what about the guests from other countries? I should at least mention one esteemed guest from Russia. That was Anna Suvorova, professor of Indo-Islamic Culture. Her research work includes a book on Lahore titled, Lahore: Topophilia of Space and Place. In it, she has traced the history of the city till the times of our Coffee House and Pak Tea House. Unfortunately, those years too have receded into the vast past of this city.

Let me end by saying that the literature festival is no longer confined within the bounds of Karachi. It has travelled to other cities as well; to Islamabad and Lahore. The Lahore Arts Council is also holding its yearly festival with a new zeal for literature and culture. The universities in Bahawalpur, Gujrat and Faisalabad have also started organising literature festivals. It seems these festivals have transformed into a movement, upholding human values under the banner of literature, and confronting the dehumanisation that stands as a danger to this country.