KARACHI: Although there are writers today who are writing with sincerity, ever since the concept of commercialisation has entered the world of literature, it has caused it harm.

This was said by distinguished Islamabad-based critic and poet Dr Najiba Arif while answering a question put to her by Dr Asif Farrukhi at an event held in her honour at the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu on Saturday afternoon.

The event was supposed to be a discussion between the two scholars but since Dr Farrukhi was a bit late to reach the venue, Dr Arif was requested by the Anjuman’s Fatema Hassan to recite some of her poems from her book to formally start the programme. She obliged, for almost an hour. She began with a nazm ‘Huzoor’ and followed it up with more than a dozen other nazms, including prose poems. She also read out one of her ghazals the first two lines of which were:

Uss ki baaton ke ghubarey ur rahey thay ru ba ru

Dil kisi bachey sa bhaga phir raha tha chaar su

[His thoughts were flying around like balloons And my heart was flitting from one place to another]

The first question that Dr Farrukhi asked Dr Arif was about the different genres of literature that she dabbles in. She replied poetry was her first love. However, she said, she did to poetry what often people did to their first loves: she forgot about it. She conceded that it was a couplet that she wrote as a young girl first. She said when she was in class VII or VIII she penned her first story which was published in a women’s monthly magazine and for which she earned a prize of Rs200. And yet, it was writing criticism that initially became her claim to fame, she said. She clarified whatever genre she tried her hand at it was not an issue of identity, but a process of self-discovery.

Since Dr Arif is a teacher as well, responding to the query about the apparent decline in the standard of education and especially with reference to Urdu, she said she studied at a school in Khushab where whatever the teachers taught her had stayed with her. She pointed out the complaint was to do with the general state of society (majmuee samaj ka manzarnama). “If society is on a decline, then education is going down,” she remarked. Giving a historic perspective on the subject, she said Maulana Haali had a role in damaging the culture (tehzeeb) which produced the likes of him. She said the thoughts that he espoused resulted in the culture that we had today. She wished that the culture that produced Maulana Haali had remained and we had gone through its evolution.

Commenting on Dr Farrukhi’s point on the rather dismal contemporary literary landscape in terms of having big names, Dr Arif said it’s not that there were not good writers around. She said there were individuals who were writing with sincerity (khuloos) but ever since the concept of commercialisation had entered the literary domain, it had caused it harm.

On the problem of Urdu, Dr Arif said these days no one wanted to study Urdu. She said in Islamabad where she teaches, those who didn’t get admission to any other department of an educational institution opted for Urdu. She lamented the Urdu language was not being taught properly. She said the linguistic dimension of (Urdu) content was being ignored, and only comprehension was being taught.

Speaking on how to teach literature, she said modern literature had a lot to do with the subject of philosophy, something which needed attention here. She said those who taught literature should have a holistic, inter-disciplinary approach to the subject.

After the discussion the floor was opened for a question-answer session.

Published in Dawn September 25th, 2016