Renowed educationist and Oriental College Urdu Department head Professor Dr Fakharul Haq Noori said on Sunday that literature could be used as a tool for making the world peaceful, devoid of war and hatred. He said that the theory and practice of literature was a key to counter violence and war and it should be a top priority in peace research today. “It has become evident that conflicts and wars were caused not only by territorial claims, but also have a lingual, cultural and ethnic basis,” Dr Noori said. He said that, while teaching at different forums, he had realised the importance of literature and peace culture, including not only the creative works by poets, writers, playwrights and movie script writers, but also that of peace-literature researchers and literary critics.
“Literature, through research and analysis of creative works and art, deals with the various themes of peace and the condemnation of violence and warfare,” Dr Noori added. He emphasised that teachers, with the writers and artists dealing with the themes of non-violence and peace, could make a crucial contribution for the creation and promotion of a global cultural climate of harmony and peace. He said short-term happiness may rise and fall like the economic cycles, “but the atoms of the story – of language and literature – are, overall, on the positive side.”