Centurion Pashto literature stagnant: researcher

K-P culture dept celebrates writers, poets

PESHAWAR: With 100 years passing since the first fiction piece of Pashto literature was published, literature in the language has yet to make any real progress when compared to other languages in the region.

This was stated by speakers at a day-long event held to mark the anniversary of Kunda Jeenay (widowed girl) being published. Written by Rahat Zakheli and published 1917, the tale of a young widow caught in a vicious circle of society, and negative customs and practices are widely regarded as the first published fiction work in the Pashto language.

To mark the occasion, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Culture Directorate organised a day-long event at the Nishtar Hall in Peshawar on Wednesday. The event saw a host of writers, poets and intellectuals participate.

Suleiman Kamil, a Pashto language researcher said that story writing and telling have existed for eons before the first fiction was published. But the reasons for that, Kamil explained, were lack of publishing resources leading to a loss of precious Pashto literary heritage.

The researcher added that Pashto fiction writers have always highlighted core issues of the society such as the class system, the cruelty wrought by the British Raj, negative social customs and traditions.

But there came a time when Pashto literature stagnated. As a case in point, he pointed towards how after Partition in 1947, Urdu fiction writers focused on the horrible stories of partition but Pashto writers have done little work in that area – primarily because the region was not directly affected by it.

At the moment, fiction writers currently focuses on topics of peace, social evils and the sufferings of the wars which are being fought in the region.

“Our fiction is now 100 years old but it has grown little when compared with other languages,” said Kamil.

Noorul Amin Yousafzai, another fiction writer, reasoned that Pashto fiction had been crippled by an acute lack of constructive criticism and critics which was key for literature to progress.

However, Pashto writer Badrul Hakim Hakimzai was of the view that writers have a strong code of ethics, which distinguished Pashto writing from that in other languages.

Critically, he pointed out how Zakheli’s story about women struggling for their rights 100 years ago was still struggling for these rights.

Hakimzai added that people of the region were passing through a very difficult time when they have been rendered homeless, their houses have been destroyed, their social and economic lives shattered.

“Now a fiction writer is one who highlights these issues and raises voice for their nation otherwise, their stories will have little impact,” Hakimzai said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2017.