Postmodernism In Urdu Fiction

EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCHVol. III, Issue 12/ March 2016Impact Factor: 3.4546 (UIF)DRJI Value: 5.9 (B )ISSN 2286-4822www.euacademic.orgPostmodernism in Urdu FictionDr. SYED AFROZ ASHRAFIAssistant Professor of EnglishPrince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz UniversityKingdom of Saudi ArabiaAbstract:The Paper has explored the application of postmodernisttheories in the context of Urdu fiction. The paper applies the terms likedeconstruction, extension, differance to suggest the postmodernelements in selected Urdu fiction with a concern for alterity as reflectedin the selected novels.Key words: Culture, tradition, transition, shift, meaning, contexts,milieu.POST MODERNISM ANDPARASITE RELATIONSHIPMODERNISM:AHOST-Modernism and Post Modernism have been the two dominanttheories in the last fifty odd years and much of the creativewritings in all literature have been analyzed and reviewedagainst the parameters of the two said literary theories.Modernism though surrendered the initiative under theonslaught unleashed by the votaries of Post Modernism and theeponymous character of the critics in the recent past. Today inretrospect it might be deemed an exercise in construction totake into account some of the novels and short stories writtenin Urdu literature and determine their relevance in terms of12560

Syed Afroz Ashrafi- Postmodernism in Urdu Fictionthe theories of the day. Modernism breathed its last in the lasthalf of the 20th century after serious deliberations on themundane and existential nature of human drama withalienation being its hymn. Altaf Hussain Hali, Sir Syed AhmadKhan and Shibli Nomani, the exponents of Modernism in Urduliterature though the benchmark of their time are relegated tothe background in the context of the time much the same wayas Nietzsche, Marx , Freud and T.S. Eliot have been dislodgedfrom their positions of relative strength as it‟s the unwrittenlaw of literature that nothing is stable, a term that gainedcirculation with the emergence of a new brand of thinkers andcritics generally termed „postmodernist”. But the importantquestion is whether Modernism can be seen in isolation fromPost Modernism or Modernism and Post Modernism has hostparasite relationship? To an extent the argument can be takenthat the main focus of Modernism was the strong sense ofisolation or doom as Prufrock celebrates the dilemma of beingbest illustrated in his hesitant and unwilling involvement withthe culture of his time. Much of T.S. Eliot‟s poetry and dramaticwritings pierce through the arc of existential threats and keepsreminding of serious cultural depravity and decadence. Thecivilized twentieth century English society had dwindled to aculture of hobos, of coots and bandicoots and in essence it lostthe ethos that was its highlighting feature. T.S. Eliot, W.H.Auden, W.B. Yeats, Louis MacNeice, Dylan Thomas, PhillipLarkin, Ted Huges, Geoffrey Hill,, Sylvia Plath, SeamusHeaney, Wallace Stevens, Wyndham Lewis, Leonard Cohen andMartin Amis share the ruling impulse of the time and write intandem the cultural obituary of a society that was debased byits own inhabitants. The second generation of Modern Poetsthough were not as belligerent or scathing as the first for by thetime they converged on the scene T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats hadalready submitted the reports of cultural autopsy to the largeraudience and the poets that followed could barely tamper withthe reports by the master artists. In a way Modernismcastigates the loss of cultural roots and Post Modernism seeksEUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH - Vol. III, Issue 12 / March 201612561

Syed Afroz Ashrafi- Postmodernism in Urdu Fictionthe restoration of the same. The paradigm shift or thefundamental difference in the theoretical statements of the twoliterary theories lies in the manner the issue of culture wasapproached. Modernism cries foul over the cultural decadencewhile Post Modernism rediscovers the lost culture that formsthe basis of its discourse.DECONSTRUCTING URDU FICTIONMy objective here is to analyze the emphasis that PostModernism lays on the issue of culture as the basic source ofthe writings with particular reference to Urdu Short Storywriters and novelists. To say that I would stay focused on thedeconstruction of Modern Urdu fiction and identify the workswhere literature manifests the cultural roots, its significanceand writers‟ awareness of its presence will not be very wrong.Urdu fiction has been as rich as any other form of fiction couldbe and here one of my concerns is to suggest the manifestationof culture in Urdu fiction against the postmodernist theory.Post Modernism is essentially a study of the cultural patternsand the individuality of the society is determined by its culturalidentity. The issue of inter-textuality is one such assumptionthat highlights the importance of the connections between thetexts of the different societies of the world. Michel Foucault,Jacques Derrida, Gramsci, Silvestre de Sacy, Ernest Renan,Roland Barthes and Edward Said have been more of culturalcritics though writing against imperialism does not necessarilymean the study of culture. Edward Said has in his book Cultureand Imperialism studied the authority of imperial power toinfluence the imposition of cultural tendencies. Orientalismemphasizes the importance of a school of interpretationdeduced from a corpus of literature that has influenced allcritical studies of philosophy, Anthropology, History, Geographyand Lexicography. Essentially Post modernism underpins thesignificance of culture and the cultural studies in relation to theglobal tendencies. The Post Modern novels in Urdu testify theEUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH - Vol. III, Issue 12 / March 201612562

Syed Afroz Ashrafi- Postmodernism in Urdu Fictionrelevance of such speculations and reflect the concerns on thepart of the fiction writers to portray the society the way it is orit has been to discern a pattern of commonality in the textualdesigns irrespective of the time, a point, underpinned byFoucault.Writes Edward Said:Yet unlike Michel Foucault, to whose work I am greatlyindebted, I do believe in the determining imprint of individualwriters upon the otherwise anonymous collective body of textsconstituting a discursive formation like orientalism. The unityof the large ensemble of texts I realize is due in part to thefact that they frequently refer to each other. Orientalism, p23Edward Said raised some disturbing questions with regard tothe imperialist politics and its connection to the evolution of anew culture which is akin to the cultural invasion as theimperialism was not political rather it was geographicalannihilation with nefarious cultural intent. Said refers to theissue of inter-textuality and makes the point loud and clearthat no text ever is independent of any affiliation and whateverone finds in a particular text is an extension of thoughtsexpressed in some form somewhere. If I buy this argument thenit will be supportive of the contention that boils down to theidea that African and Urdu fiction also share the same concernreflected through their literature, for example, the fiction of theApartheid and partition literature in Urdu and Hindi.In the last ten to twelve years Post Modernism in Urduliterature has gained currency. The harbingers of this literarytheory are Prof. Gopichand Narang, Shamsur RehmanFarooqui and Wahab Ashrafi.Prof. Gopichand Naranginaugurated the postmodernist theory in his bookSaakhtiyaat,Pase Sakhtiyaat aur Mashraqi Sheryat wherein hediscussed at length the finer aspects of Structuralism and PostStructuralism followed by Jadeediyat Ke Baad. Wahab AshrafiEUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH - Vol. III, Issue 12 / March 201612563

Syed Afroz Ashrafi- Postmodernism in Urdu Fictionextended the boundaries of the same critical doctrine in hisbook Maabaade-Jadeediyat, Mumkinaat-o-Muzmiraat.Wahab Ashrafi observes:Modernism came about as a reaction in the west to theRomantic Movement and melancholy ruled it. One of themajor problem lines of modern literature is alienation. It isfirmly rooted into existential angst. It was a disconnectbetween the man and the society where as Post Modernismcelebrates life and discusses the possibilities of humanhappiness and reasserts the importance of relationshipbetween man and the society. One of the major postulates ofPost Modernism is that a person is never alone and his/herrelationship with the society is indispensable. Deconstructionis a common phrase though it focuses on the gaps within aparticular text. With the advent of Post Modernism as aserious and ideological doctrine the relevance of author took abackseat and the reality of text alone remained the focal pointof concern. This is also a disdainful dismissal of thebiographical criticism.trans. from Mabaad-e-Jadeedyiat,Muzmira MumkinaatIt‟s worth noting that Wahab Ashrafi categorically points outthe fundamental principle that governs and guides the PostModern literary Theory, is the reality of the text and its myriadinterpretations. Urdu fiction since the partition of the countryhas been rueing assiduously not the loss of the geographicalareas but the culture and the local habitation dislodged by themindless guzzling of the human conscience though engineeredby the ill-conceived wisdom of the votaries of politics. From AzizAhmad to Nayyar Masood, the novels and Short Stories haveremained clung to the shattered Muslim psyche. PostModernism probes the genesis of such tendencies. Aisi BulandiAisi Pasti, Kaali Raat, Adhe Ghante ka Khoda, Ek Gadhe KiSarghusazst, Godan, Anandi, Tetwal Ka Kutta,Mere BhiSanam Khane and Pital Ka Ghanta, conform to thepostmodernist principles of critical judgments. Post Modernismstresses the importance of culture as any rite, ritual; tradition,EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH - Vol. III, Issue 12 / March 201612564

Syed Afroz Ashrafi- Postmodernism in Urdu Fictioncustom etc form its very basis. Post Modernism argues that anyliterature is a manifestation of its own culture having localodour and determines its own boundaries. Today literatureappears to be universal and transcendental it cannot be refutedthat literature does reflect a specific milieu of a particularsociety. The writers around the globe insist that no literaturecan be seen in isolation from the culture and its roots arereflected in some form or the other.SYED MOHAMMADNEELAASHRAF’SNAMBARDARKAAgainst this background if we analyze the history of Urdufiction we would be convinced that a novel is not a document ofa particular culture rather its genesis lies in the odour of thelocal land, for example the novella of Syed Mohammad Ashraf‟sNambardar Ka Neela is based on exploitation in diverse formsand at the same time discusses the possibilities of life ondifferent levels. In this novel he unleashes a scathing attack onthe capitalist forces in a highly symbolic way.It was a winter sky and generally the winter‟s sky is blue. Itwas such a season where cold picks up rage. They were allsitting under a Bunyan tree for the house was too small for ahuge Panchayat. All Thakurs were silent because they knewthe silence at times speaks better than speech. Their headswere down for they knew this kind of pose has its ownadvantages. All of a sudden the silence fell and a hiss engulfedall. When Odal Singh realized that the silence is too deep, agentle stir can rip through the reigning silence, he regroupedhimself, in a resolute and decisive style stated, „I still believethat service to animal is my religion but if you people permitme, I can shoot the animal‟. He held on, cried out, Ramdhin,get me the gun, four cartridges of LG also. The wholePanchayat shuddered. The members of the panchayat pushedtheir heads into their laps. Before thesilence could gripfurther the quietness, a voice studded with terror erupted,“Fools, will you endure the curse of Cow-slaughter?”EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH - Vol. III, Issue 12 / March 201612565