New and promising young people in the realm of literary criticism are hard to find. In the subcontinent, it is mostly a few old guards who are doing some constructive work in the field of criticism. Young people who write dissertations as a degree requirement do so with tediousness. Only a few dare to get their theses published, as that puts them under the scrutiny of critics and general readers.
A lecturer of Urdu at a college of Lahore, Ahtisham Ali has taken a giant leap by inviting his contemporaries to evaluate his critical strength. Enamoured of Urdu poem (nazm), he has written a full-fledged thesis on Nazm that traces how the modern nazm fared in portraying the sensibility of that era. Jadeed Urdu Nazm Mein Asri Hissiat came out to fulfil the academic requirements but the author seems to have studied the subject comprehensively.
The book is divided into five detailed chapters. The author builds the thesis by dilating on the definition of sensibility and hence a brief chapter on that for the uninitiated. Once he makes sure the definition of the topic is understood, he lands in the era of Iqbal and analysis his poetry thoroughly. Iqbal comes out unscathed as he was the one who introduced new topics into the realm of Nazm and also gave it a new diction.
Here special mention for his classic poem Masjid-e-Qurtaba in which the poet rues that nothing is beyond the clutches of death and disintegration. The author rejects those critics who try to put Josh Malihabadi on a high pedestal. He thinks despite his raucous ‘ahang’, he could not be highly rated as his poems fell in the realm of sloganeering. About Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s nazms, he concludes they were the outcome of a versatile artist and contained a classical sensibility and that is why they are still recited and admired.
He scans the poetry of three greats: Noon Meem Rashed, Meera Ji and Majeed Amjad. They injected a new tone with multiple subjects and themes that widened the scope of Urdu Nazm.
He pays ultimate tribute to Meera Ji whose bohemian and unconventional personal life eclipsed his creative persona. Deeply soaked in the sensibility of his times, Meera Ji mocked, ridiculed and satirised the pundits of Urdu who dismissed him without giving him the attention that he deserved. The author takes all those to task who didn’t gave him due credit by saying that many poems of Meera Ji need to be properly analysed and understood to date. Tagging him as an uncouth drunkard would not solve the problem and it will be also a great disservice to modern Urdu Nazm.
He portrays a clear picture regarding Nazm after 1947 and comes down to the present times by quoting many references here and there to lend credence to his views. In the chapter on contemporary Nazm, we come face to face with many poets who wrote nazms that were soundly entrenched in the spirit of times. Among the many poets, he seems to be in awe of Abdul Rashid, Afzal Ahmad Syed and Sarwat Hussain. Their poems, he says, are a class apart. He shares with the readers vignettes from the poetry of the author while analysing his contribution.
Ahtisham Ali has tried his best to remain neutral while giving opinion on any poet under study, yet at times it seems to get carried away with the tide. On the whole, he has been quite disciplined in his approach. The subject was intractable but he made a concerted effort to get to the bottom.
One sincerely hopes the book will be discussed among the literati. One also hopes that more young and energetic people follow the less travelled path of literary criticism and enlighten the readers.