what is Pakistani literature?
The Pakistani literature is one of those bodies of writing that are hard to cut from other bodies of writing and that also require a careful internal dissection. There is a constant debate on where it begins and where it ends; certainly, it would be very reductive to say that Pakistani literature starts with the birth of Pakistan, in 1947. It is also a typical case of multilingual literature, written in Urdu, in English, sometimes in Persian, and in many other languages, such as Pushto, and Punjabi, and Seraiki, and Balochi, and who knows what else. Sindhi, this is what they call it. It is also written in Sindhi.
Especially in historical perspective, the literature of Pakistan should be probably broken down into all those components. Kashmiri literature should be addressed as a separate entity, quite diverse from Urdu literature or Sindhi literature. That would be the professional way of speaking of it. Even like this, the stories result quite complex, shifting geographically over great distances. The best example is Urdu, a language and a literary tradition that is typically associated with Pakistan, and that is nonetheless born in the Sultanate of Delhi, in North India, some time around the 14th century. It is an amalgamation of Sanskrit (or rather Prakrit) and Arabo-Persian vocabulary of the new ruling elite. If it emerged in the 14th century in quite another region, so it is certainly not the oldest literary tradition of Pakistan. The oldest, undoubtedly, is the illustrious Sanskrit-speaking tradition of Kashmiri letters. The Punjabi literature is relatively old, for it was there already in the 12th/13th century, with Sufi poetry of Fariduddin Ganjshakar. Pashto literature may claim to be older, if we admit it started in the 7th century with the warrior poet Amir Kror Suri, but he may as well be only a legendary figure. The literary things started on serious among the Pashtuns only with Pir Roshan, another Sufi poet, in the 16th century. As a local version of Arabo-Persian culture, Sindhi literature seemed well established already in the 11th century, with its own tradition of Sindhi qasida and its romantic stories. Finally, Saraiki literature in Punjab is out of the competition, as it can only bring about some folk tales and 18th-c. poetry. As we can see, whatever the literature of Pakistan might be, it seems to admit and develop the languages and traditions of various conquerors. So it does with English, the language of the British colonial rule. It has its own local dialect and its own strands of poetry, short story and novel, just as proper and typical for the country as a Sindhi qasida.
Especially in historical perspective, the literature of Pakistan should be probably broken down into all those components. Kashmiri literature should be addressed as a separate entity, quite diverse from Urdu literature or Sindhi literature. That would be the professional way of speaking of it. Even like this, the stories result quite complex, shifting geographically over great distances. The best example is Urdu, a language and a literary tradition that is typically associated with Pakistan, and that is nonetheless born in the Sultanate of Delhi, in North India, some time around the 14th century. It is an amalgamation of Sanskrit (or rather Prakrit) and Arabo-Persian vocabulary of the new ruling elite. If it emerged in the 14th century in quite another region, so it is certainly not the oldest literary tradition of Pakistan. The oldest, undoubtedly, is the illustrious Sanskrit-speaking tradition of Kashmiri letters. The Punjabi literature is relatively old, for it was there already in the 12th/13th century, with Sufi poetry of Fariduddin Ganjshakar. Pashto literature may claim to be older, if we admit it started in the 7th century with the warrior poet Amir Kror Suri, but he may as well be only a legendary figure. The literary things started on serious among the Pashtuns only with Pir Roshan, another Sufi poet, in the 16th century. As a local version of Arabo-Persian culture, Sindhi literature seemed well established already in the 11th century, with its own tradition of Sindhi qasida and its romantic stories. Finally, Saraiki literature in Punjab is out of the competition, as it can only bring about some folk tales and 18th-c. poetry. As we can see, whatever the literature of Pakistan might be, it seems to admit and develop the languages and traditions of various conquerors. So it does with English, the language of the British colonial rule. It has its own local dialect and its own strands of poetry, short story and novel, just as proper and typical for the country as a Sindhi qasida.
I have readKhushal Khan Khattak, The Book of Falconry (1674)
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I have written... nothing ...
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the love of hawksCertainly, there is little Pashtun literature commonly read in the world, although Pashto is a major language spoken by some 50 million people. I have in my collection a rarity once brought from the Emirates: an English translation of The Book of Falconry, written in 1674 by Khushal Khan Khattak, a poet from Akora Khattak in modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Khushal Khan Khattak (1613-1689) is usually considered as a major author of the Mughal period, writing both in Pashto and in Persian; his Pashto baaz nama, or falconry treatise, is in verse, although he also mentions having written a similar treatise in Persian prose (a text that seems to be lost today). For the rest, he was a chieftain of the Khattak tribe appointed by Shah Jahan, the same who built the Taj Mahal. After the advent of the Shah's son, Aurangzeb, Khushal fell out of favour, was imprisoned, and re-emerged, several years later, as a leader of the resistance fighting against the Mughal hegemony in the Pashtun belt. As he proudly mentions in the introduction to his Falconry book, “It's been four five years / Since the start of the strife / As the Mughals are bleeding / By the Pashtun knife”. Exiled, he roams the mountains as an ibex, but war cannot detain him from his hunting passion: “Even in this state / You'll find me undeterred // Small or great, there are still / New tidings in store / The love of hawks lured me / To the Swat Valley floor” (p. 2-3). The treatise, in spite of being written in mathnavi verse (two-line couplets rhyming the endings of both lines), is very precise as a way of transmission of falconry lore. The first part is dedicated to the usual basis of the falconry practice, describing all aspects of taming and training; the second, sort of advanced one, deals with diseases and specialised treatments for birds. Khushal Khan Khattak, The Book of Falconry, trans. By Sami Ur Rahman, Islamabad, PanGraphics, 2014. |
