By Peerzada Salman

KARACHI: Everything revolves around ‘market’ now and nothing has changed for the better during the last 50 years, said writer, lawyer and political worker Abid Hasan Manto while delivering a lecture on ‘Writers responsibilities in the present social and political scenario’ here on Thursday.

Organised by the Progressive Writers Association Pakistan at the PMA House, the event was presided over by poet and scholar Wahid Bashir, who is also the association’s secretary in Karachi.

As an introduction to Abid Hasan Manto, Dr Mazhar Haider read out a paper in which he pointed out the literary and political aspects of Mr Manto’s life. He bracketed him with the likes of Ehtesham Husain, Akhtar Husain Raipuri, Majnoon Gorakhpuri and Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui.

Abid Hassan Manto began the lecture by claiming that he’s more of a political worker than a writer, and traced back the genesis of his writings to the late 40s when at Company Bagh in Rawalpindi some of the members of the Communist Party urged him to write essays because there were few prose writers at the time. He said that Mazhar Haider referred to one of his essays that he wrote in 1960, which made him think that it’d been 50 years and a great many things hadn’t changed. What did go through the process of change was that now history had taken a backseat and all that’s being taught was the ‘market’, and everything revolved around it.

He said what happened in 50 years was that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, people started saying that the system that Karl Marx talked about failed to deliver annulling the efficacy of the 1917 revolution, and that now the only system that remained workable was that of market economy. They started suggesting that problems could be solved while remaining within the market. This created a crisis of intellect (soch ka buhran).

Manto said after the ‘90s there were no forces to resist or challenge the capitalist forces. They gathered in the form of G-8 or G-7 countries, led by the US and did as they pleased, because the only force which could challenge them was socialism, and it was no more there to resist their hegemony. As a result, there were no less than 1000 US bases in the world. “What is their purpose?” He said the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was formed to counter socialism, and now that the Soviet Union was disintegrated what was Nato doing in Afghanistan. Reason being in order to perpetuate their markets, the capitalists needed powerful defence. The East India Company came to the subcontinent to do business with Indians, but subsequently brought in its army into the region for the same reason, he said.

He said globalisation, among other things, affected culture and civilisation. Today history was dictated by globalisation. The developed countries (France, Japan etc) had preserved their languages but wanted the Third World to be proficient in English and get immersed in technology. Our own languages were suffering. The language of the Internet emerged from their (western) soil, but itÂ’s not part of our culture.

Manto said literature was to do with human beings and was linked to society. In an atmosphere where there’s so much cultural suffocation, how could quality literature be produced? “Are today’s writers highlighting the problems that have remained there for the last 50 years?” He said there was a time when Indian were struggling against British rule and wanted independence. Against this backdrop the 1935 progressive writers manifesto proved relevant and resulted in the creation of quality literature. He said till the late 50s noteworthy literary journals such as Naqoosh, Afkaar and Sang-i-Meel were published from different cities of Pakistan edited by the progressives. He lamented that these days when he listened to poets, all of them sounded the same as there’s a repetition of thoughts. He said not much had changed in the rural areas of the country where there’s no rule of law, where the feudal lords had their private jails and held their jirgas.

Manto said the oil-rich countries were friends with the US and pretend otherwise. He said illiteracy and poverty were not the only reasons for the rampant terrorism and extremism in the region. The leader who ordered an illiterate person to flog a girl was not illiterate himself. He told the audience that 70 acres of land was given to a former Deeniat teacher in Punjab , but no one raised an eyebrow. No one raised a question, because they shared interests. He said these very forces were also astute liars, for they told us that the Mujahideen stopped the Russians from getting to warm waters (garm pani). He said they were there a year prior to the Russian arrival in Afghanistan . Why?

He repeatedly asked the question were contemporary writers highlighting these issues in their literary endeavors, and concluded by saying “I’ll read only those writers who discuss these issues.”

During the question-answer session, Manto said the struggle for national identity and economy was the same, and the Baloch have all the right to have control over their resources.

In the end Wahid Bashir, whose 80th birthday was also celebrated during the event, thanked Abid Hasan Manto for delivering the lecture.

The programme was eloquently conducted by Mr Rahat Saeed.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/21/2010