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Friday March 29, 2024

‘Social media revived youth’s interest in Urdu poetry, but not in the best way’

By Bilal Ahmed
November 13, 2022

The advent of social media has helped revive the younger generations’ interest in Urdu poetry. However, the youth have been engaging with Urdu poetry on their own terms.

Most of the poetry gaining popularity on social media is not very deep, and similarly, most of the poets receiving fame on the internet are not necessarily composing verses of high standards.

Journalist and poet Nasira Zuberi made these remarks on Saturday as she spoke on the effects of the internet era on Urdu poetry on the first day of a two-day conference organised by Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu at Urdu Bagh to commemorate the 200 years of Urdu journalism.

Nasira said that some years before the advent of the internet, Ibn-e-Insha had penned the following couplet: “Kuchh Kehne Ka Waqt Nahin Yeh, Kuchh Na Kaho Khamosh Raho / Ae Logo Khamosh Raho, Haan Ae Logo Khamosh Raho [This is not the time to voice one’s thoughts, so better be silent / Keep quiet folks, yes, be quiet].”

Little did Ibn-e-Insha know at that time that soon the era of social media would turn the ethos of quietude upside down, and the new norm would be “Sab Keh Do [Say whatever is there in your heart]”, she added.

She remarked that a positive aspect of social media for Urdu poetry is that it has helped the propagation of poetry, and now poets can easily share their creative output with a large number of readers without any trouble.

She recalled that earlier, mushairas presented by PTV used to be a major source for people to know poets, but political considerations often limited the number of poets who could get on air.

Now, she pointed out, virtual mushairas are being frequently held, especially during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. She remarked that among various social media channels, Facebook is being used the most for the propagation of Urdu poetry.

On the negative side, she said, the young generation does not have the time or the acumen to deal with high-standard poetry, the unfolding of which demands time and energy.

She remarked that similar to the fact that classical music is not for everyone while pop music is for the masses, high-quality poetry is not for everyone while easy-to-comprehend poetry is for the majority.

She, however, named Jaun Elia as an exception, saying that he was a major poet and had gained immense readership after the advent of social media. She also cited websites such as Rekhta that have saved a large corpus of Urdu poetry.

Another negative aspect of social media regarding Urdu poetry that Nasira touched upon was the propagation of fake poetry. She said Ghalib, Iqbal and Ahmed Faraz are the three biggest victims of misinformation in this regard, as substandard verses attributed to them are often being shared on social media.

Remembering an incident from the time when Faraz was still alive, she said the poet had himself clarified in an event that the couplet “In Barishon Se Dosti Achhi Nahin Faraz / Katcha Tera Makan Hai Kuchh To Khayal Kar” had not been penned by him, so it be not shared and attributed to him.

Prose poem

Poet and academic Tanveer Anjum spoke on the evolution and current state of Nasri Nazm (prose poem) in Urdu. She said Nasri Nazm, which was first penned in Urdu in the decade of 1960s, initially drew strong criticism, with many refusing to acknowledge it as poetry because it had neither rhyme nor metre.

She, however, maintained that the debate on if Nasri Nazm is a poetic genre has now ended, as it has been by and large accepted as a form of poetry. According to her, Nasri Nazm and ghazal are currently the two most popular forms in which poetry is being written in Urdu.

Tanveer said that one of the reasons why Nasri Nazm has gained so much popularity is that it easily conveys the spirit of the current age, while the limitations of rhyme and metre imposed by other genres make it difficult for today’s poet to describe today’s world.

She recalled that she and her contemporaries had become familiar with Nasri Nazm in their days of youth when they heard the names of major French poets like Baudelaire and Mallarmé who had championed the genre in their language.

She explained that there is no fixed system or tradition of metaphors in Nasri Nazm, due to which mundane objects like a ball or not-so-poetic things like a rabbit can become a metaphor.

She was of the view that since Nasri Nazm mostly uses the vernacular, the young generation of today, who might find Faiz or Noon Meem Rashid difficult to comprehend, understands and appreciates Nasri Nazm.

Commenting on the evolution of the genre, she said that there were three claimants to being the initiator of Nasri Nazm in Urdu: Qamar Jamil, Mubarak Ahmad and Ahmad Hamesh.

She also named Muhammad Saleemur Rehman, Kishwar Naheed, Zahid Dar, Anis Nagi and Iftikhar Jalib among those who had initially written Nasri Nazm in Urdu.