Why are our poets and writers reluctant to support Kashmir’s freedom movement?

Prof Fateh Muhammad Malik in preface to his book Tehreek-e-Azadi-e-Kashmir: Urdu Adab Ke Aaine Mein’ (Kashmir Freedom Movement as Reflected in the Mirror of Urdu Literature) (Sang-e-Meel, 2001) has given the answer to the question, briefly but lucidly: most of them have always fought for the cause of Kashmir but only with their pens and are afraid of playing any practical or political role to help Kashmiri people throw off the shackles of slavery.

Explaining the so-called ‘hard choice’ for some of the writers and poets of Urdu who are reluctant to even write on Kashmir issue, let alone take part in their struggle practically, Prof Malik has taken a cue from a short story by eminent writer Ashfaq Ahmed. In one of his short stories, titled ‘Shazia Ki Rukhsati’, Ashfaq Sahib narrates the tale of a Kashmiri girl who has been raped by two soldiers and a civilian. She goes to many renowned Indian poets and writers of Urdu, one after another, and presents the case of Kashmiri Muslims — suffering from human rights violations at the hands of occupying Indian forces. But all of them simply refuse to raise their voice to protest on atrocities committed against Kashmiri people. Each of them had his own pretexts and excuses: someone says ‘my line of action is humanity not politics’; another one says ‘it’s not my field, I am a student of grammar and structuralism’.

The Kashmiri girl goes to even well-known filmmakers such as Satyajit Roy and Gulzar and asks them to highlight the case of Kashmiris, but they ignore her. Finally, she looks Ashfaq Sahib in the eye and says “Are you afraid that if you write something in support of the oppressed Kashmiris or the wretched Afghan people you would be considered a religionist and your entry to ‘enlightened’ circles would be banned for being narrow-minded, short-sighted, orthodox and fundamentalist? ‘High-minded trend-setters’ would brand you retrogressive and you would be deprived of your literary legacy?” What Ashfaq Ahmed said in tongue-in-cheek style is that many writers and poets can write poems and articles on Kashmir and the plight of its people but they will not. They all have their own interests to safeguard. Their humanity goes only as far as their own interests allow.

Then Malik says it is a fact that our writers are indifferent to the human tragedy, which has been taking place in the occupied Kashmir for the last half-a-century, or even more, just because they fear their impartiality and progressivism would be compromised in case they support Kashmiris’ struggle for freedom.

But there are some who have some ideological commitments. Quoting from an article by Dr Aftab Ahmed, Malik says, in 1948 some writers of Pakistan had prepared a declaration on Kashmir but the progressive writers — except for Faiz Ahmed Faiz — simply refused to sign it. Though some progressives had blamed M.D. Taseer for hatching a plot to malign progressives, the fact is prior to these Pakistani writers’ declaration some Indian writers, including some Muslims, had published a statement favouring the Indian government’s point of view on Kashmir. Muhammad Hasan Askari, Ghulam Abbas, M.D. Taseer and some other intellectuals thought Pakistani intellectuals should not keep mum on the issue and it was decided that a statement on Kashmir from our side must be issued. Taseer, Pitras Bukhari, Soofi Tabassum and Faiz Ahmed Faiz helped write and translate a statement which was later released to the press. As put by Malik Sahib, if it was a conspiracy against the progressives, Faiz Sahib, the greatest of all progressives, was very much part of it.

It is a fact that the indifference shown by our intellectuals was painful for many including M.D. Taseer and he and Askari Sahib were the only writers who began raising questions about Kashmir, its people and Pakistani writers’ point of view on Kashmir, even before the Independence in 1947. Both were concerned about what would be or should be our stance on Kashmir and other national issues related to our identity, culture and literature.

In this book Prof Malik has included some select literary pieces, both in prose and poem, written in Urdu, against the backdrop of Kashmir issue. Aside from his own articles and one by Ghulam Nabi Khayal, highlighting the historical and cultural background of Kashmir issue and its disputed status, some remarkable pieces from Urdu literature have been reproduced. These include works by Allama Iqbal, Safdar Mir, Qurratul Ain Hyder, Qudratullah Shahab, Mahmood Hashmi, Syed Muhammad Jafri, Sa’adat Hasan Manto, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rasheed Amjad, Atiya Syed, Josh Maleehabadi, Hafeez Jallandhari, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Majeed Amjad, Ahmed Faraz, Habib Jalib, Shanul Haq Haqqee, Naeem Siddiqi, Jafer Tahir, Anjum Rumani, Zaheer Kashmiri, Amjad Islam Amjad, and many more.

Malik Sahib has it right when he laments, like Kashmiri girl Shazia, that our writers do not practically do something for Kashmiris. The pen has become weaker than the sword — perhaps because of vested interests.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2021