21st century events left marks on Urdu fiction

Writers, critics say 9/11, APC attack, extremism had an influence on creative works

KARACHI:

Well-known novelist Zahida Hina has said that world events at the beginning of the 21st century influenced Urdu fiction.

Like the progressive movement, in the last twenty-two years too, very good and inspiring stories have been written, in which our life, environment and domestic affairs have been made the subject, she said while presiding a session on Urdu Fiction in the 21st Century on the second day of the 15th Aalmi Urdu Conference at the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi.

On this occasion, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Farhat Parveen, Akhtar Raza Salimi, Hameed Shahid, Akhlaq Ahmed and Muhammad Hafeez Khan also expressed their views and expressed their views on the situation of Urdu fiction in the 21st century.

Prominent critic Hameed Shahid said Urdu fiction changed its direction in tandem with changing global trends. The start of the 21st century saw the tragic events of 9/11, followed by suicide bombings and religious extremism that created social divisions. The Urdu story became an essay in the path of terror.

New trends in Naat and Marsia

Hamd, Naat and Marsia are attributes of poetry and will remain, said renowned poet and intellectual Iftikhar Arif while speaking on the topic of "21st Saddi main Taqdeesi Adab" or Literature of Reverence in 21st Century.

Dr Alia Imam presided over the session. Other speakers included Rizwan Hussain, Muhammad Tahir Qureshi, Aqeel Abbas Jafari, Farast Rizvi and Dr. Aziz Ahsan while Azizuddin Khaki hosted the session. Iftikhar Arif further said that thousands of poets of Hamdiya, Natiya and Marsia poetry of 20th century ended the criticism of the West that religious poetry is not poetry.

He said it is very important for poetry to come down to the standard of literature first. Whoever writes poetry and does not meet the aesthetics, I do not consider him a poet. He said that thousands of obituaries have been written in just fifty years, which genre has so much creativity, so the poetry of Hamd, Naats and Marsia will live forever.

Urdu Promotion Organization and President of Urdu Dictionary Board Rauf Parekh on Friday chaired a session on "Urdu Ka Nizam Arooz, Zarori Ghair Zarori".

Parekh said that the new generation is far away from the arooz and does not feel the need to understand this system.

Poet Aftab Mutzhar, a PhD in pronunciation, said poetry comes first when discussing unnecessary and necessary ropositions. He said that the meaning of arooz is the name of spreading poetry like a canvas of painting.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2022.