Topic: ‘What are the problems of Pakistani Identity’?

Subject: Pakistan Literature

Submitted to: Mam Humaira

Submitted by: Rida Talat

Roll no: 15125

Semester: M.A 3rd

 As the title recommends that this essay is all about Pakistani identity according to writers.

As Intizar Hussain mentioned that Pakistan is completing years but still there is problem of

identity. He starts his writing by calling his feelings as feelings of jealously because Pakistan and

India both born at same day than why Pakistani writers are still facing the problem of identity?

After the partition, while the writers on both side were writing about the miseries of

people. A few writers in Pakistan were astonished when they found the same attitude of writing

on the other hand.Dr.Taseer, Muhammad Hassan Askari and Mumtaz shrin were those first

writers who passionately argued that the Pakistani literature should be distinct from literature of

India and their reaction led to theory of Pakistani Adab.

While on the other side some writers argued that the domain of literature is

indivisible.Ahmad Riaz was one of those writers; he wrote “Kun karsakta hai Taqseem Adab Ki

Jagir” This sharp reaction gave birth to a controversy that how we will define Pakistani literature

as a distinct one. Although Faiz was giving lecture on the problems of culture in Azad Kashmir

argued that are we a new nation born on 14 AUG 1947 or an old one? If we are an old one than

should we trace our history from the day when Muhammad bin Qasim entered his land or from

the times of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. And does our culture originate from Islam or from our

land.

Hassan Askari once said” if we forget the aspect of oldness of Pakistan, we will not be

able to keep East Pakistan within one state for long”. While Faiz is seeking a middle position,

according to him there is one more version of Pakistani culture drawing its substance from

Muslim history in the sub-continent.Jameel Jabil calls its indo-Muslim culture.

 Intizar Hussain is dare asking that why this “identity” becomes controversial immediately

after the birth of Pakistan. Quaid e Azam, while living in a common culture worked for a

separate identity but Faiz has pointed out that nobody cared to raise a question about this

common culture. We indefinitely inter locked in hate-love relation with Hindus. We fought many

battles and we lived together for centuries. Such was our identity but with the sudden elimination

of Indian context, we lost our cultural balance and now our identity is blurred. And the nation

called Indian Muslims who created this homeland itself underwent the process of partition and

thus the nation secure in Pakistan develop the feeling of newly born nation.

After the separation of East Pakistan our poets did not care about the cultural links that

took birth in the Muslims periods throughout India. He said that frontiers of cultures are not

synonymous with the culture of land. And once he argued that Dehli, Agra, Mir and Galib are

part of our culture. But poets took no longer time to change his statement and said that we might

have link with these places and personalities but they are not our property. Mohenjo-Daro is our

property and sehwan shrif, Lahore. Multan and Khyber also.Dr Wazir Agha argues that only the

name of Samarqand and Bukhara motioned here but the real intention is to strike out red fort and

Taj Mehal from the cultural heritage of Pakistan.

It is the cultural anarchy we are living in. we consider Faiz as most sensible person
between us. He says there is different fragmentation of culture around us and we have to come
up with our identity. Eliot said, then you must start painfully again, and you cannot put on a new
culture readymade. You must paddle grass to grow to feed the sheep to give the wool out of
which your new coat will be made. You must pass through many centuries of barbarism”.

So the prescription made by Faiz is fine, we have to wait for grass to grow.