Post-modernism is in full, steam these days. One of the reasons for this much discussed philosophical trend of our times is that it is the top item on the cultural agenda of globalization.
Post-modernism believes that no core issue of fundamental importance survives today. Peripheral or marginal issues have all of a sudden become important. Issues such as economic inequalities are being considered things of the past. I believe that it is, at best, a highly simplistic view which disregards every issue except the ones it wants to consider important.
One of the offshoots of post-modernism is the belief that all that we write or express is contaminated with the unavoidable imprint of the 'super-structure' which is to be decoded or 'deconstructed' to reach out the real meanings imbedded in lexicans (words) comprising our narration. Deconstruction, some simplistic minds in our topics regard as physical dismantlement. They tend to read a lot more than is implied. 'Deconstruction' simply means the act of unearthing real meanings hidden beneath the meanings given by the 'super-structure'.
The problem, for all of us, is to enquire what globalization portends for us. It tends to believe that the world economy was destined to undergo cycles of depressions and the only way to deal with it is that there ought to be people who ought to cash in on it. This is the way that will demolish the sluggish and dullard and reward the efficient and troubleshooters. No measures of state control could check the changes that will manifest themselves in economy. The changes in economy will effect culture and literature - in fact the very fabric of human life.
When there is a boom period, a new emphasis in popular, democratic enjoyment among the lower and middle classes will be visible. The general surrounding will have to be more decorous than in the depression days. That's why the cult of the body suddenly emerged in the 30s. Lidos were opened in the western capitals. There was a craze for physical fitness. Some sociologists believe the craze for fitness and elegant dress came from a desire to present a better appearance, to be more suitable for employment.
One can surmise why authors like Sidney Sheldon, Harold Robbins and Danielle Steel are popular. They have elevated the cult of sexual permissiveness to take our thoughts off the more serious questions of our life. Social conduct also underwent a steady change.
Isn't it interesting that in post-modern literary milieu the readers are asked to go beneath the expression while in the post-modern economic milieu. This is one way of measuring literary depression, while in its economic counterpart, the cycles of depression can be a period of profit, opportunity, increased purchasing power, maintenance of real capital, better living standards, relaxation and a improved quality of life as Robert Beckman, the well known economist, would like to make us believe.
I believe that our men of letters, particularly those critics who play an important role in setting the right set of values and literary taste for their generation, should keep a watch on the 'economic milieu' of the literary theories they are floating in the air.
Prof. Habibullah Khan Ghazanfar
Today I would like to discuss a scholar who was the last of his kind among us. He is Prof. Habibullah Khan Ghazanfar who devoted his lifetime to writing, editing and compiling scores of books of great importance.
Born in 1902 in Amroha he breathed his last on 15th February, 1973 in Karachi. Being a favourite student of Dr. Abdul Sattar Siddiqui, famous writer and researcher, Prof. Ghazanfar was highly proficient in Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. He was a master-teacher of Prosody, Islamic jurisprudence, logic, mysticism, history, lexicography and linguistics.
Baba-i-Urdu had appointed him a Professor of Urdu, Persian and Arabic in Urdu College in 1950. Perhaps no other professor of his erudition and scholarship could ever wear this mantle. Nowadays we come across Urdu professors who are not even initiated in Persian and Arabic and the Urdu syllabi of our universities has only one section in a paper which deals with the rudiments of basic grammar and composition of Persian and Arabic.
Some passages from Saadi's Gulistan and Bostan are given for translation and some couplets of Hafiz are prescribed for the examination point of view. In fact a student passing M.A. in Urdu, doesn't have to acquire the competence of writing a few sentences in Persian and Arabic.
Prof. Ghazanfar was an 'ocean' as compared with the 'drops' the fresh lecturers symbolize today. Most of them couldn't measure up to the high school leavers with Persian or Arabic as optional subjects in the '30s and '40s. This is a precarious state of affairs and one doesn't know where our present generation of Post-graduate level students in Urdu is leading us. I doubt if the majority of our students could do justice to the degrees they proudly carry on the convocation days of their universities.
The Higher Education Commission would do well to have a look on Humanities, particularly the teaching of Urdu and other Pakistani languages. The day is not far when we won't be having teachers of Ghalib's poetry. Ghalib will have become a Latin or Greek poet for them in due course of time.
I am proud of knowing Prof. Ghazanfar without being his student. In a way he is also my teacher as I have learnt a good deal from his books. The way he taught Abdul Haleem Sharar's 'Guzashta Lucknow' attracted even teachers from far-away colleges. What a wealth of knowledge he had.
He worked for Pakistan Historical Society and quite a good number of translations from Persian and Arabic published by the Society, were done by him. It is quite another story whether these translations carry his name or not.
Among the books which have immortalized him are Maali-ul-Laham (of Junaid Baghdadi), Tanazallat-e-Satta (Maulana Abdul Ali, Behar-ul-Uloom), Hindi Adab, Urdu Urooz, Masnavi-i-Nasikh, Lamaat-i-Jami and many prefaces to Maulvi Abdul Haleem Sharar's books.
It would be in the fitness of things if the Federal Urdu University does something to honor the memory of Prof. Ghazanfar the way Oriental College of Lahore has done for some of its esteemed teachers beginning with Dr. Lietner. The Federal Urdu University should have a library after his name and a complete set of his (Prof. Ghazanfar's) books should be gifted to all the Urdu Departments of country's universities.
His 31st death anniversary was commemorated recently. His sons have done a lot to perpetuate his memory. They have published some of his books under Ghazanfar Academy. Prof. Ghazanfar's students should do a lot more and the Federal Ministry of Education could do even more to honour a great scholar who did a lot to popularize Urdu literature through Urdu College, Karachi.
Let us see when the Federal Urdu University wakes up to do something to take some interest in a Professor who remains till today the best Urdu scholar the Urdu University could justly be proud of.
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