Fiction is reflective of socio-political and cultural realities while history is made up of distorted and exaggerated facts from the powerful confined to a certain era’s anecdotes and events.

The subcontinent has produced the three greatest fiction writers who impacted Urdu literature and history and became the collective memory of millions.

This was the crux of a discussion on Urdu Main Tareekhi Fiction Nigari: Qurratulain Hyder, Abdullah Hussein, Intizar Hussain.

Noted educationist and professor emeritus at Forman Christian College University Lahore Arfa Sayeda Zehra, award-winning Urdu fiction writer and critic Mohammad Hameed Shahid, short story writer and screenplay writer Irfan Ahmed Urfi and scholar, author and short story writer Nasir Abbas Nayyar were on the panel. The session was moderated by poet Dr Najeeba Arif.

The panellists at the outset of the discussion questioned the theme of the session, arguing that there is no such term as “historical fiction writing”.

They analysed the work, style and idiom of the three novelists and deconstructed the idea that fiction is based on figments of imagination and is unrealistic, while history is based on real events.

The three giants have written about larger socio-political, civilisational and social identities and class contradictions, they said.

The panellists said history is in fact based on exaggerated and distorted events written on the dictation of rulers and dictators while fiction portrays real issues, human feelings and agonies in historical perspective and with all possibilities for the future. If history cannot impact the collective consciousness of a society it loses its currency and utility, said Dr Zehra.

The three novelists have masterly depicted the catastrophic events of partition, migration and rootlessness encompassing ancient civilisations and contemporary issues.

Fiction helps us rediscover the past, narrate contemporary issues and predict the future, she said.

History, according to Dr Zehra, is propaganda of the aggressors and victors. There is no mention of those who resisted the oppressors. This was also echoed by Hameed Shahid, who blamed the media for propagating distorted history.

“Now misleading history and narratives are propagated through media by portraying the oppressed as oppressor and the oppressor and invader as messiah and oppressed,” he said.

Nasir Abbas spoke about the two binaries of facts and fiction.

He said although in fiction characters are created, the story woven around them helps us understand the contradictions in the world and the meaning of human existence.

“Hence fiction is written as an alternative history which records not only human feelings, contradictions and knowledge but also those facts which have been missed out by history books,” he said.

They discussed Qurratulain Hyder’s epic novel Aag Ka Darya and Abdullah Hussain’s Udaas Naslein, saying their immense scope impacted the memories of generations for decades.

Dr Arfa and Mr Shahid allayed the impression that Intezar Husain was nostalgic about pre-partition Muslim society and said his canvas of storytelling was very vast. He has written about Muslim, Aryan and other ancient civilisations.

The concept and treatment of civilisation in the stories of Qurratulain Hyder and Intezar Hussain were different, Dr Zehra said.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2019