C 15 — Urdu Literature Under Sahitya Akademi
Let me begin by scrutinising the word, “URDU”. ‘Urdu’ is a Turkish word, which literally means ‘camp’. Urdu is considerably one of the most pleasing languages to speak and hear. The language in itself is like a sweet concoction made from the richest languages of the world, namely, Persian, Hindi, and Arabic. Generally, people associate Indian Literature with literary texts pertaining to Hindi and other regional languages, mistakenly excluding Urdu, which actually plays a major role in contributing towards the literary diversity of our country.
Urdu is one of the important languages among the 24 languages under the purview of Sahitya Akademi. Urdu literature has a heavy domination of poetry. It is this domination that has led to the expansion and development of writing style in literature. Few notable names that have been honored with the Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu literature are Kaifi Azmi, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Gyan Chand Jain, Masud Husain Khan, Gulzar, Javed Akhtar. The most recent recipient of this award was Rahman Abbas who wrote a novel named ‘Rohzin’ in 2018.
Ghazals, Nazams, and stories written by Urdu writers encapsulated the dilemmas aroused by the partition of India and Pakistan and contributed a major chunk in building the Progressive Writer’s Movement. This Movement saw the coming together of politics and literature. In Fateh Muhammad Malik’s latest book Anjuman Taraqqi Pasand, he talks about how the Progressive Writers’ Movement began as a solely literary group but later manifested itself as a literary wing of the Congress Party because of political interventions by leaders like Nehru. The Pakistani government recognized the All Pakistan Progressive Writers’ Association as a political party in 1953. The party also made several demands, the chief one being, “full involvement in the international struggle for peace”.
Kaifi Azmi won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his renowned poem “Awara Sajde” in 1975. After going through all available works of Kaifi Azmi, it would not be wrong to label his works “ahead of time”. He was celebrated worldwide for his frankness and avoidance of all artificiality in his expression. His writings showed communist inclination whereas he was even conjectured to be a supporter of Stalin. A year after Azmi, Jan Nisar Akhtar received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his poem “Khak-e-Dil”. The poem “Khak-e-Dil” is extremely soulful and poignant. My eyes filled with tears as I read each constructed sentence decorated in the Nazam. It was written to commemorate his wife whose funeral he could not attend. The grief sorrow and regret are lucidly visible in the text. It was a lament, as well as a yearning for hope. His poetry in general exhibited, like many progressive writers of his generation, elements of freedom, dignity, economic exploitation and other issues gleaming of the leftist leanings.
Malik Ram won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his monumental work Tazkirah-e-Muasireen in 1983. His able contribution to the development of Urdu research is highly acknowledged. He ranks first among the critics and one of his achievements will always be the interest he created in a body of young scholars in research in Urdu. His quarterly “Tahreer” is a must-read wherever Urdu is studied.
A little closer to my heart is the writing of Gulzar who happens to be my favorite writer of all times. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in the year 2002 for his collection of short stories named “Dhuaan”. The prodigy had revealed in an interview after the award ceremony that he feels A handicapped as a writer because the literary circle perceives him as a man from films. He actually had difficulty in getting the approval of the literary masters. Gulzar in my purview shall remain eternally contemporary, without ever following or solidifying a trend. As in his story Ravi Paar, he is known to subtly remind the readers about the harsh consequences of rash political decisions.
Thus according to me, Urdu literature is rich in content and literary vocabulary. It is soulful, soothing, as well as shows a mirror to the harsh reality of daily life.
