Auraq (1966-2005) was a prestigious Urdu literary journal. Renowned litterateur Dr Wazir Agha was its founding editor. Dr Mehmood Aseer has compiled an exhaustive but searching thesis (originally meant for his M Phil degree in Urdu) on its contribution to the world of literature.
Adabiyaat, a quarterly literary magazine, launched by the Pakistan Academy of Letters in the year 1987, comprises prose and verse contributions (both original and translated) from Pakistani writers. Its April-June’13 issue contains a wide selection of fiction (including folklore) and drama meant for children. This review seeks to touch the merits of the two publications.
Auraq ki Adabi Khidmaat
The book is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter relates the role of journals and magazines in the evolution and advancement of Urdu literature. The periodicals mentioned here include Ihsas, Akhbar-e-Urdu, Adab-e-Lateef, Adabiyaat, Adabi Dunya, Urdu Adab (Lahore and Rawalpindi), Afkaar, Iqbal Review, Pakistani Adab, TehreeraiN, Tehqeeq, Takhleeq, Jareeda, Dastango, Daairay, Dastaveez, Saat Rang, Saqi, Sab Ras, Sufaid Chari, Sang-e-Meel, Savera, Sayyara, Seep, Saheefa, Alamgir, Alamat, Funoon, Qaumi Zaban, Kitab, Maah-e-Nau, Mehfil, Makhzan, Naqoosh, Nigar, Nai TehreeraiN, Nai NaslaiN, Nairang-e-Khayal, and Humayun besides, of course, Auraq.
The second chapter carries a detailed introduction of Auraq and its history. In the next chapter, the author highlights the cultural, conceptual, and analytical dimensions of the magazine in the backdrop of the ideology of literature, phenomenology of culture, and pragmatics of applied criticism. In the fourth chapter, the writer focuses on the special features written on the person and art of select litterateurs, published in Auraq from time to time, the Inshaiya ‘movement’, and the promotion of the poetic genres of Haiku and Mahiya. The fifth chapter highlights the contribution of Auraq to different literary movements in the transcontinental perspective. Editorials of Auraq constitute the crux of this part vis-à-vis the familiar paradigms of structuralism, post-structuralism, modernism, symbolism and impressionism.
In the penultimate chapter, the author aptly summarises the theme and substance of the work whereas the concluding chapter brings out a concise introduction of the editorial team of the magazine headed by its founding editor, Dr Wazir Agha (a renowned poet, critic, and fiction and Inshaiya writer) assisted by his eminent deputies namely Arif Abdul Mateen, Sajjad Naqvi, and Dr Anwar Sadeed.
The work bespeaks Dr Mehmood Aseer’s brilliance as a research scholar. It will hopefully be acknowledged as a memento in the Urdu literary annals.
Title: Auraq ki Adabi Khidmaat
Author: Dr Mehmood Aseer
Publisher: Abid Khurshid, 58-A, Wazir Agha Road, Civil Lines, Sargodha
Pages: 432; Price: Rs.500/-
Adabiyaat (April-June 2013)
The journal has been serving the cause of literature in a befitting way ever since its inception. It caters not only for the national language i.e., Urdu, but also for the regional languages like Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi et al.
The present issue carries material on literature for children in the series bearing on the prose portion of Pakistani literature (Vol. III). Picking the thread from the first two volumes consisting of selections from the global literature for children and the Pakistani poetry, the instant work is comprised of stories, plays, articles, and folklore for children written in the Pakistani languages aside from the translated version (Urdu) of some stories for children in the Brahvi, Balochi, Pashto, Sindhi, Hindko, Punjabi, Saraiki, Potohari, Pahari, Shina and Kashmiri languages.
The authorship of the journal’s contents is shared by a discreet mix of veteran and young writers like Ashfaq Ahmad, Hafeez Hoshiarpuri, Hameed Akhtar, Hanif Ramay, Khadeeja Mastoor, Sir Sheikh Abdul Qadir, Saadat Hassa Manto, Shaukat Thanvi, Salahuddin Ahmad, Maulvi Abdul Haq, Ata Shad, Farkhanda Lodhi, Meerza Adeeb, Meeraji, Noon Meem Rashid, Bano Qudsia, Bapsi Sidhwa, Saqiba Rahimuddin, Haseena Moeen, Shoaib Hashmi, Zafar Iqbal, Dr Faqir Hussain Saga, Masood Mufti, Syed Wiqar Azim, Dr Tauseef Tabassum, Mujtaba Hussain, Syed Ahmad Pitras Bukhari, I A Rahman, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Anwar Sadeed, Shafqat Tanvir Mirza, Taufiq Rafat, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Muzaffar Ali Syed, Masood Hassan, Mian Bashisr Ahmad, Jabbar Tauqir, Saeed Lakht, Sheema Majeed, Tahir Naqvi, Neelofar Iqbal, Hamad-ur-Rahman Goraya, Zeeshan Bin Safdar, Shoaib Khaliq, Maalik Ashtar, Muhammad Asim Butt, Nighat Saleem, Saima Ilahi, Muhammad Faheem Alam, Afzal Murad, Ajab Khan Sa’il, Meer Aqil Mengal, Mehnaz Ghani, Wahid Bakhsh Buzdar, Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, Syed Wali Khayal Mohmand, Ilyas Ghumman, Zahid Hassan, Qamar Mehmood Abdullah, Sagheer Khan, Hamza Hassan Sheikh, Khadeeja Kubra, Shaukat Moghul, Nasim Akhtar, Fazal-ur-Rahman Memon, Leela Ram Rochandani, Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch, Habib-ur-Rahman Mushtaq, Shahid Nadeem, and Bashir Ahmad Soze.
The editorial team of the Pakistan Academy of Letters headed by Abdul Hamid and assisted by Zaheer-ud-Din Malik, Muhammad Asim Butt, Akhtar Raza Saleemi, and Syeda Ta’zeem Imran, has rendered a commendable job by selecting, editing, and compiling the present issue from an assortment of widely scattered material on the subject, transforming it into a veritable ‘thing of beauty’.
Title: Quarterly Adabiyaat (April-June 2013)
Bachon ka Adab (Jild Som: Qaumi Adab-Hissa-e-Nasr)
Publisher: Academy Adabiyaat Pakistan
Pages: 768; Price: Rs300/-