We have gathered here not to mourn the demise of Intizar Hussain but to celebrate his works as if he is still among us. This was stated by writer and journalist Masood Ashar in a session “The World of Intizar Hussain” on the first day of the Lahore Literary Festival here on Saturday.

He added Intizar Hussain was the last representative of Ganga-Yamuna civilsation. The civilisation of this region didn’t start with the Muhammad Bin Qasim but it was 5,000 years old, he added.

Poet Kishwar Nahid shared her memories of Intizar Hussain, spanning over 50 years, saying he never initiated a talk with any woman. She added that people objected that there was no woman in Intizar Hussain’s fiction but in one of his book there was a woman character constantly urging her husband to sell his house. “This woman was his (Intizar’s) wife,” she said.

Kishwar said the government had announced an award for Intizar Sahib, however, there was possibility that Attaulaq Qasmi might start writing novels and keep that award for himself.

Critic and fiction writer Asif Farrukhi said. “Lahore is incomplete without Intizar Hussain. There should be some memorial dedicated to him or museum where his books and other possession might be displayed for future generations.”

Critic Nasir Abbas Nayyar termed Intizar Hussain the writer of the century from Pakistan, saying he had addressed the big questions of the post-colonial period. He had witnessed both the colonial and post-colonial eras. “Intizar Sahib debunked the concept of the East that the westerners had constructed and his East is expanded from the Hindi world up to Israel,” Nayyar said, adding that the late novelist was never a reactionary. He did not reject the fiction coming from the West but used the techniques later employed by Latin American and African novelists.

Eruj Mubarak also shared his memories of the late writer.

QURATULAIN HYDER: Arfa Syeda Zehra says freedom of an individual means the freedom of society and if the individual is not free, it means society also is not free.

Speaking in a session on Quratulain Hyder’s magnum opus Aag Ka Darya, she said the novel started from prehistoric times and ended in the present world and the biggest question it raised was of freedom.

Asif Farrukhi said after publication of the novel, a campaign was engineered against Quratulain to malign her, objecting to her wearing sleeveless shirts and visiting clubs. He said those who launched the campaign included the ‘lovers’ rejected by her.

“She was an independent woman and Pakistani society never forgave her for that. That’s why she had to leave the country,” he said. Another object was raised by the Urdu critics was that Quratulain’s experience of life was incomplete because she did not marry.

“She did not like when I replied to such critics through a write-up and told me that she never paid attention to three Ms which stood for Male, Muslim and Middle Class.”

He said Aag Ka Darya influenced every novelist and even Intizar Hussain’s Basti and Abdullah Hussain’s Udaas Naslain showed its impact. At this point, Zehra Nigah quipped that even Shamsur Rehman Faruqi’s Kai Chand Thay Sar-i-Aasman also looked influenced by Aag Ka Darya.

Ms Nigah said not contracting a marriage was Aini Aapa’s own decision as she (Zehra) herself knew at least three or four people who wanted to marry her.

Ameena Saiyed of the Oxford University Press, being a niece of Quratulain Hyder, shared her memories of her. Masood Ashar also spoke on the novel.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2016