When pygmies acquire prominence in the realm of higher education as is the case in our country, intellectual myopia reigns supreme and universities become academically barren.

In such circumstances, sensitive souls tend to recoil in their own selves. The only other recourse for them is to hark back to the past. When present is devoid of hope, the recollections from the past are often selective, in the sense that pleasant memories are re-kindled, and the pungent ones fade into the inner recesses of the unconscious.

One also takes to lamenting the passing away of a generation that was more grounded into classical scholarly tradition and had insightful perspective on history. That generation is being replaced today by a confused and unsure collective of people devoid of a clear focus and a sense of direction.

Prof Tariq Rahman disagrees with me on this; saying that exigencies of a new epoch have their own demands. All sorts of people exist in every epoch, he suggests, implying thus that I am being unnecessarily pessimistic. I have given serious thought to Prof Rahman’s opinion and done a bit of soul-searching. It didn’t take me long to realise that the reason I was feeling dejected was that I had read some stuff on literary criticism by Ghulam Jilani Asghar (died in 2006), a laureate who was in a league of his own.

The reading set me thinking why such writings were not being produced by the younger generation of academics. Is there anybody who can write with such clarity and profundity on poets like Qayyum Nazar, Mukhtar Siddiqi, Yusaf Zafar and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan? That, too, in such a chaste English that it is indeed a delight to read.

The ready answer to the query that I put to myself was in the negative. The list of poets that Ghulam Jilani Asghar has analysed includes: Majeed Amjid, Meera Ji, Zamir Jafari and Wazir Agha along with Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Noon Meem Rashed. This alone makes the endeavour unique and extraordinary. For scholars interested in post-colonial literature (or comparative literature) that slim volume is a must read. In the second part of the book, the poetry of Ghalib, Iqbal and Waris Shah has been commented upon.

These pieces of literary criticism were originally written for The Pakistan Times many years ago. These pieces were put together by Prof Zahid Munir Amir in a book form On the wings of Poetry. Prof Zahid Munir is heading the Urdu Department at Oriental College, Lahore and is decidedly one of the towering figures in the realm of literature.

Well conversant in Persian, Arabic and English along with Urdu, he is ahead of his contemporaries with a big margin. He is so prolific, that it amazes the likes of me. Besides Nasir Abbas Nayyer, Zahid is probably the only scholar of Urdu literature these days who writes in English, too. I have long held that the scholars of oriental languages and literature must develop competence in English.

In this day and age, limiting oneself to Urdu, Persian or Arabic may not get the scholar substantial recognition. Zahid shares two things with Ghulam Jilani Asghar, a preoccupation with literature and a strong connection with the city of Sargodha. Jilani sahib was the principal of Government College Sargodha in 1970s and Zahid Munir Amir did his bachelor’s degree from the same college but almost a decade later.

In 1970s and ‘80s Sargodha had a vibrant literary scene largely because of three luminaries: Wazir Agha, Khurshid Rizvi and Ghulam Jilani Asghar, the protagonist of this article. Jilani sahib stuck to the soil of Sargodha. Otherwise, given his talent, he could have been one of the top laureates this country has produced since independence. Zahid Munir has furnished a biographical account of Jilani sahib in the foreword of the book from which I am reproducing the gist for the perusal of the readers.

Jilani Sahib hailed from Talagang, in district Chakwal, where he was born on June 1, 1918, in a family engaged in business. The basic education (religious texts and some Persian) was imparted to him by his grandfather. Then he was admitted to school. He never looked back until he got a degree in English Literature from Islamia College, Lahore in 1941.

While at the college he saw literary figures like Akhter Sherani, Mukhtar Siddiqi, Tabish Siddiqi and Zamir Jafferi and was influenced by them. Soon after doing his master’s, he was appointed a lecturer in Zamindara College, Gujrat. In this, he deviated from the family tradition, opting for what he loved the most -- academics.

In 1947, he came to join D’montmorency College, Sargodha where he spent most of his teaching career. Sargodha became his permanent abode. He was the most revered person in that city. Jilani sahib had two poetry books Mayn aur Mayn (published in 1984) and Ik Zara Sham se Pehley (published in 2002). He also wrote a collection of essays entitled, Narm Dam e Guftgu (published in 1996). It is unfortunate that he didn’t write as much as he could have done.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that very few of his contemporaries could match his erudition. His wit, which he deployed in his oratory was a unique feature, making him the finest speaker I have ever seen in my entire life. Zahid has revealed that his letters addressed to Mr Jamil Yusuf have also been published and hold great literary merit, reminding one of the flair that Khatut-i-Ghalib epitomise. I will like to read them because anything coming out of Jilani sahib’s pen must be worth-reading. He was indeed an irreplaceable genius.