There was a time in the 1970s and the early 1980s when Saleem Ahmed`s house in Karachi was the city`s biggest literary hub. He was considered an institution unto himself and there was hardly any literary person in the city who did not call on him, a position that was later taken by Mushfiq Khwaja, albeit partially. Calling into question established literary notions and stirring new literary controversies was Saleem Ahmed`s favourite pastime. He enjoyed a difference of opinion and his books caused ripples in the literary circles. His book `Nai nazm aur poora aadmi` (the new poem and the complete man), according to Jamal Panipati, caused tremors that jolted the entire literary world of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. Saleem Ahmed had shaken up the whole literary landscape with his presence. As a critic, he was so influential in his lifetime that only a few Pakistani critics of Urdu could claim to stand beside him. Can such a dynamic person be a thoughtless follower? This is the question that was raised by Jamal Panipati in one of his articles.

“Saleem Ahmed`s spiritual restlessness is as evident from his writings as a reflection in the mirror. The axis on which Saleem Ahmed`s entire critical inquisitiveness and creative anxiety revolved was the quest for the wholesomeness and entirety that our civilisation lost long ago,” wrote Jamal Panipati. One may agree with him. He wrote these words in one of his articles published a couple of years ago in `Mukalma`, a literary magazine published from Karachi. What one may or may not agree to, however, are the lines he wrote in the beginning of that article “In the history of modern Urdu literature, Saleem Ahmed is the only person who influenced most the literary atmosphere of his times both by his creative and his critical writings. Even his mentor Hasan Askari cannot compete with him in this regard.”

Now, Hasan Askari was the one who is rightly credited with giving a new literary theory to Urdu criticism and establishing a new school of thought.

Both Saleem Ahmed and Jamal Panipati were the products of Traditionalist school of thought that Hasan Askari almost single-handedly established. Askari Sahib kept himself abreast with all the new literary theories and movements that were taking shape in the West and as he knew French as well and was a voracious reader of philosophy he was always ahead of his contemporaries. Such was his influence that even those who opposed him could not resist and embraced many of his theories. The interesting part was that Askari Sahib in a while would amend or reject his own notions and propound new ones, leaving his critics cursing in desperation. Some of his thoughts got such currency that they became almost catch phrases and later clichés, `adab par jamood tari hai` (literature has become static), for example. In other words, comparing Saleem Ahmed with Hasan Askari, whom the former considered his mentor, seems a bit out of place.

But what Jamal Panipati actually tried to say in those lines was to emphasise Saleem Ahmed`s dual capacity he was a critic that left his mark and also an equally important poet and that though Askari Sahib too was a critic and a short-story writer, he was not as successful a short story writer as a critic. But some may disagree with Jamal Bhai as far as Saleem Ahmed`s poetry is concerned because Saleem Sahib was not as influential a poet as epoch-making a critic he was. No doubt his contribution towards popularising anti-ghazal and an entirely different diction in ghazal was a significant one and his long poem `Mashriq`, or East, is held in high esteem by many (and which Askari Sahib did not like at all) but he would perhaps not be remembered among a few great poets of our times.

Now an article of Jamal Panipati has been reproduced as a foreword to `Mazameen-e-Saleem Ahmed`, a book Jamal Bhai had compiled before his death in 2005. The book, a collection of Saleem Ahmed`s critical essays, just published by Academy Bazyaft, was to have a preface by Jamal Bhai but he departed for his heavenly abode before he could get a chance to write a preface. In this article Jamal Bhai has raised an interesting question. He asks if Saleem Ahmed had a voice of his own or he was just, as some say, a blind follower, an echo of his mentor Askari Sahib`s critical thoughts. Jamal Panipati, while trying to answer the question, has also quoted Siraj Muneer, another writer and intellectual influenced by the Traditionalist school of thought, who wrote “Saleem Ahmed and Askari Sahib are poles apart. They are each other`s opposite though they complement each other. ... A part of Saleem Ahmed`s personality developed away from Askari`s influences and blossomed according to its own rules of growth. That part of his personality was the one that asked all sorts of questions”.

Jamal Panipati feels that though both Askari and Saleem had borrowed the concept of tradition from Rene Guenon, the application and interpretation of that concept created a big difference of opinions between them. Similarly, modernism was another issue on which Saleem Ahmed had developed his own, individual thinking. After agreeing on modernism`s definition and accusing it of being `adhoori` (half-formed or incomplete), writes Jamal Bhai, both disagree when they apply it to Ghalib and Meer. Jamal Panipati feels that Saleem Ahmed adored Askari Sahib but he had his own, independent thinking and often took the different path, though he owed much to Askari for his guidance.

The book consists of some of Saleem Ahmed`s such essays which were published in various magazines and were not easily available. In addition, it contains some of his books, collection of essays that earned him fame, including `Nai nazm aur poora aadmi`, `Adhoori jadeediyet` and `Adabi aqdaar`. Some of his works have long been out of print and the collection would, of course, cater to the need of readers that want to read or revisit Saleem Ahmed. Some publisher would do a great favour to such readers if they reprint some other books of Saleem Ahmed such as `Ghalib kaun`, `Iqbal aik shaer` and `Muhammad Hasan Askari Insaan ya aadmi`.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com