Mumtaz Shirin & movement for Pakistani literature

There are no ‘ladies compartments’ in literature. Yet we fail to get rid of the notion of ‘women writers’ and while talking about literary writings by women we tend to classify them separately as though women writers were from Mars.

But female writers such as Mumtaz Shirin proved that any discrimination or notion of inferiority on the basis of gender is not only unfair, it is also flawed, and female writers are equally, or even more, talented than their male counterparts.

It is to her credit as a critic that despite all the hue and cry from the progressive circles Mumtaz Shirin stuck to her point of view and she with Hasan Askari fought for the ideological cause she believed in: the movement for Pakistani literature.

She not only minutely evaluated Manto’s art but appreciated it at a time when almost the entire progressive circle, except for Prof Mumtaz Hussain, had disowned Manto and Ali Sardar Jafri had gone to the extent of calling Manto a sensationalist and sensualist. Mumtaz Hussain in his article on Manto, published in Karachi’s ‘Barg-i-Gul’ in 1953, appreciated Manto and he could see continuity in Manto’s progressivism till the very end. This article was later included in Mumtaz Sahib’s book ‘Adad aur shaoor’.

Apart from him, the leftist circle that had previously appreciated Manto turned its back on him and it was Manto’s own ego and sense of self-respect that saved him from total devastation. Manto’s crime? To migrate to Pakistan and be appreciated by the literary circle headed by Askari Sahib and Mumtaz Shirin.

Mumtaz Shirin and Hasan Askari, too, came under fire from Marxist intellectuals for supporting Manto and the movement for Pakistani literature. The question of a Pakistani or Islamic literature was not the only bone of contention but Askari Sahib and Mumtaz Shirin demanded that the writers be committed to the nascent country — Pakistan, that is — an idea that Marxists could never come to terms with, notwithstanding the fact that they were loyal and committed to an alien country — the former Soviet Union.

Since 1990, Pakistan Academy of Letters has been publishing books in a series aimed at highlighting the lives and works of prominent Pakistani writers. The series is the answer to the prayers of those who bemoaned the lack of any such material that would briefly but compactly introduce prominent personalities that helped shape Pakistani literature. The latest in the series is a book ‘Mumtaz Shirin: shakhsiyet aur fun’ by Dr Tanzeem-ul-Firdous.

Dr Firdous, who teaches Urdu at the University of Karachi, has been quite successful in presenting a research-based account of Mumtaz Shirin’s life and her works.

Her aim in writing the book does not seem to eulogize but analyze Mumtaz Shirin’s fictional and critical writings with the help of different published and unpublished sources. While the entire book makes a good reading and gives a much-needed and balanced outlook on Mumtaz Shirin’s works, I enjoyed more the chapter that deals with her critical writings.

Fully aware of the literary background and the ideological controversies of the era in which Mumtaz Shirin was writing, Dr Firdous discusses the question of Pakistani literature and the commitment of the writers to an insight that underscores the need to re-evaluate the fiction created by some of the big names of our fiction.

She refers, for instance, to Mumtaz Shirin’s argument about the attitude of the writers vis-à-vis the massacre that ensued partition in 1947. Mumtaz Shirin believed that progressive writers had chalked out a formula to depict the massacre and it was ‘blame it on the British who had sowed the seeds of hatred’ and ‘blame it on everyone, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, whosoever’. And, according to Mumtaz Shirin, Marxists intentionally tried to keep the balance between different communities just to prove that they were impartial and unbiased while in fact it were the Muslims who bore the brunt of the savagery during and after partition.

Krishan Chandar is one of the big names of Urdu literature and Mumtaz Shirin thought his famous short story ‘Peshawar Express’ was somewhat better among the stories created to portray the massacre but in this story, too, the formula of striking a balance is very much there and the details of atrocities committed are somewhat dim and faded when the train crosses the Pakistani border into India.

Mumtaz Shirin is one of the foremost critics of Urdu fiction in the post-independence era though she was not a prolific one. Apart from her sundry critical writings, she has only one book, a collection of critical essays, to her credit titled: ‘Meyar’.

But Mumtaz Shirin was a voracious reader and her extensive reading of Urdu, English and French literature had made her so erudite that reading and understanding ‘Meyar’ and even her short stories demand quite a learned background. Her book ‘Manto: noori na nari’ remained unfinished and Asif Farrukhi published it here in 1985.

Born on Sept 12, 1924 at Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh, Mumtaz Shirin was educated at Mysore, where her maternal grandparents lived.

After graduating from Mysore’s Maha Rani College, she married Samad Shaheen in 1943. Shaheen’s not-so-successful law practice at the Mysore High Court casued them to move to Bangalore in search of better opportunities.

In 1944, from Bangalore they launched ‘Naya Daur’, a literary Urdu journal that left its mark on the literary scene. After migrating to Pakistan in 1947, Samad Shaheen and Mumtaz Shirin published ‘Naya Daur’ from Karachi till 1952 when it was no more possible to continue its publication. But this rare husband-wife team in Urdu literary journalism and their magazine was the envy of many.

In 1954, she had a chance to visit Holland and England and at Oxford she took a summer course in modern English literature.

With her husband she stayed for quite some time in Thailand and Turkey. This exposure broadened her mental horizon and aside from Urdu, English, Hindi, Persian and Kannada, she learned French and Turkish. After returning from Turkey in 1967, they settled in Islamabad where she died of cancer on March 11, 1973.

Her other books include collections of short stories ‘Megh Malhar’ and ‘Apni Nagariya’. She translated John Steinbeck’s ‘The Pearl’, which was published under the title ‘Durr-i-Shehwar’. Her selection of short stories by different writers on post-independence riots ‘Zulmat-i-Neem Roze’ was also published by Asif Farrukhi in 1989.

Her English short stories were collected and published by Dr Tanzeem-ul-Firdous, also in Karachi, in 2006 under the title ‘Footfalls Echo’.

According to Dr Firdous, Mumtaz Shirin has left behind many unfinished manuscripts that include books on Boris Pasternak and Emily Bronte and an Urdu travelogue.

‘Doomsday clock’ is ticking in Nowshera town

NO ONE knows when the world will end. But majority of the people living in Akbarpura, a town between Peshawar and Nowshera, believe that they can calculate when the doomsday will come. They claim to have a parameter for gauging the exact time in the shape of their sinking mosque.

Built about 400 years ago, ‘Pokh Jumaat (stone mosque)’ of Akbarpura has sunk more than four feet since its establishment. Its main hall now requires four steps down for someone to enter. “The mosque is subsiding at a rate equivalent to the size of a wheat grain (3mm) per year,” says Shah Faisal, 33, a resident of the area.

Elderly residents of the town tell with great respect how the founder of the mosque, Akhund Panjoo Baba, a famous Sufi saint, told his disciples and pupils that when the mosque would sink completely, it will be the doomsday.

“We consider it a miracle of Akhund Panjoo Baba. We can easily calculate how many years are left for the world to end,” says Shoaib, 75, and hastens to add that thousands of Hindus and non-believers embraced Islam on the hand of Baba. He said his grandfather and some other elders told him about the myth. “We believe it because Baba was a great saint,” he adds.

A local faith-healer Syed Shamshad Ali Shah, 50, says that the stairs have been increased to four from three, which means that the mosque is sinking at a constant rate. There is no drainage system in the mosque but you will never see a drop of water in its courtyard as the earth absorbs all the rainwater, he adds.

Contrary to other educated youths, some of whom now question the authenticity of the myth, Mr Shah’s son Obaidullah also accepts the version of his father and other elders about the sinking mosque. “There must appear some cracks in the mosque or the whole area should sink if it is not the miracle of the great saint,” Obaid, 19, says and a group of young bearded-men sitting in the mosque nod.

However, Shah Faisal has a different view. He says that there must be some scientific explanation for the phenomenon and only geologists can elaborate it. “In past I myself believed it, but now after getting education I think that geological factors are responsible for the subsidence of the mosque,” he opines. He says that the area was hit by water logging some 500 years ago before the establishment of the town. The subsidence of the mosque may have a link with the water logging, he says.

Rejecting his views, Farman Khan, 65, says if something is wrong with earth then the whole town or at least few neighbouring streets should also sink. There can be no explanation for the miracles of saints, he says firmly.

Giving the scientific explanation, Dr Mohammad Iqbal, deputy chief geologist Pakistan Petroleum Limited, says that the mosque is slowly sinking due to the depletion of the water level beneath it. Giant aquifers that serve as water reservoirs are being emptied faster than they can be refilled, causing the earth to sink, he says, adding it seems that it is built on layers of clay and highly permeable sand and gravel that easily compress when fluid is withdrawn.

He says that it is a local phenomenon and downing of water table is its main reason. “The sinking of earth at a larger scale is called regional phenomenon like that of Mexico City. But when it subsides at a specific point, it is called local phenomenon,” Dr Iqbal says.

He adds that there are some other ‘sinking places’ in Dir and Swat but geologists didn’t inspect them properly to ascertain the reasons for their sinking. But less than half of the Akbarpura residents, majority of them youths, are agreed to accept this explanation as elders of the area prefer to believe the myth.