Since December last, there has been a pleasant, surprising revival of interest in renowned author of crime-and-detection and science fiction, Ibne Safi. The interest was triggered by "The House of Fear and Shootout at the Rocks" translated in English by Bilal Tanweer and published in India by Random House.
The revival of interest was pleasing because it took many of us down memory lane. The surprising part was wonderment that Ibne Safi had a market in English in this day and age. In Urdu there was no other author who enjoyed such popularity among young, old and elderly readers through the 1950s, 60s and 70s, when people used to queue near Regal Chowk to get their copy of the latest Jasoosi Duniya novel hot off the press and sold out before tea time, sometimes even before lunch time.
Young readers who could not afford to purchase a copy would queue outside their favourite booklender's rickety shack dignified by being called a "library"; clutching their quarter rupee and hoping to be among the fortunate few who would get the first chance to read.
School boys in those days played hockey from school for two things, either to see a movie or to get their copy of the latest Ibne Safi novel from the booklender. There were dozens of lending libraries down Burns Road, or so I am informed by a former Burns Road resident or "Burnsrodiya", as such persons are generally called. The most popular borrowed books were those by Ibne Safi.
My own introduction to Ibne Safi's memorable crime busters Inspector Faridi and Ali Imran was when I visited the house of my grandmother's brother. In the afternoon all the females of the family would lie down for a siesta on the cool floor while one of my 'aunts' read from the detective novel.
While discussing the revival of interest in Ibne Safi novels, I mentioned how I used to listen to the story being read out. Others mentioned similar instances from their own past. This was the trend in most Muslim homes. The significance of it is that novel reading by females was discouraged as having a corrupting influence on young female minds, except for novels by Ibne Safi.
Great Urdu prose literature was to be had in the early half of the twentieth century, but I can understand why the elders of families would forbid the reading of, say, Manto's "kali Shalwaar" or "Thanda Gosht." Ibne Safi, on the other hand, even though he included romance, flirtation and humour along with the mystery theme but written in a pleasant and socially acceptable style.
Nevertheless, critics have called Ibne Safi a mere popular writher and his fiction pulp. It was obviously a case of sour grapes or the inability to recognise the real worth of light literature written to entertain. Ibne Safi laughed at such criticism and in an article published in Alami Digest in 1970, commented that to entertain tired and fatigued minds was also a sacred duty.
It was the same in the case of crime fiction written in English. Critics underrated their significance as a potent instrument for creating social awareness especially among the masses who would not, in fact would never read the highbrow works of serious authors anyway. Mystery writer Raymond Chandler wrote a bitter critique about critics in a famous article "The Simple Art of Murder". His argument was that crime stories are not cut off from reality, they are not what in critic's jargon is called escapist literature; in fact they are just fictionalised versions of real crime scene prevailing in the author's day. In Chandler's time his American world was ruled by gangsters, racketeers and corrupt politicians. Ibne Safi also portrays Pakistani society (relevant to India too, where Safi's heroes Faridi and Ali Imran become Vinod and Rajesh in the Hindi versions) taking shape especially in Karachi.
The English versions of Ibne Safi novels by Random House were soon followed by translations of four novels published by Blaft publications by Shamsur Rehman Faruqui, while Harper Collins bring out new editions in Hindi, using the original names of Ibne Safi's heroes instead of Vinod and Rajesh.
There was a time a decade ago when one could not find a single copy of Imran series or any other Jasoosi Duniya novel in the book market. Today old and new book salesmen invariably thrust an English translation of the Jasoosi Duniya novels at the customer. I ask them what is the use of reading a translation if one can read the original Urdu novels. In reply I am always told: But madam, these translations are selling well.
So who is buying them, I want to know. Nobody has a reason for the phenomena, so my conclusion is that English readers are probably looking for some answers to how and why Karachi has evolved socially the way it has and the only source of such information is Ibne Safi. Another conclusion is that Ibne Safi was always popular in India where few read Urdu now. So they want to read these novels in English. No wonder the translations were published across the border even though the translators happen to be Pakistanis.
The headmistress of a school asked for book donation for her school's library. I sent her all the Agatha Christies. My theory is that children love to read mysteries and these novels also introduce them to such things as respect for the law, make them aware that crime does not pay and also teach them many social values and etiquette. It is a fun way of character-building. I wish I had a collection of the Jasoosi Duniya novels to send as well.