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Lahore: Shehar-e-Pur Kamal / لاہور: شہر پرکمال
کرشن چندر، راجندر سنگھ بیدی اور کنھیا لال کپور کے دل آویز تاثرات
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 7, 2023
This is a delightful piece of writing about love - for a city, a manner of living, and, a mostly tolerant and mutually affectionate co-existence that transcended divides of birth and faith. It is also a tragedy for it is a memoir of loss. Loss of all that which made Lahore truly special, and of which we now have only some vestiges. Drawing on diverse literary sources and oral history the author puts together a rich mosaic of images of Lahore in the 1930s, its intellectual and literary movements, and the happy hum of printing presses, talented writers and avid readers. Almost a century later it provides very interesting and important insights into what was most cherishable about the place and to what extent has it been irrevocably lost.
Mehmood ul Hasan is a serious and passionate reader of literature and chronicler of the lives and times of writers. His ability to make connections, recollect details and locate and excavate materials that are hard to find is quite overwhelming. He has already done some seminal work that is all the more necessary in these times when we face a relative low point in terms of extending priority to matters literary, cultural and intellectual.
Lahore: Sheher e Pur Kamal is a tribute to legendary Urdu writers Krishen Chandar and Rajinder Singh Bedi and the satirist Kanahiya Lal Kapur. Through them it is also a tribute to their beloved city Lahore - beloved not just because of its largesse and generosity, its architecture and ambience, but also due to its glorious traditions, its generosity, its visionary publishers, and indeed its vast and thriving circle of writers and readers. Drawing on their own impressions in their stories and interviews, as well as of others who wrote about them, Mehmood ul Hassan opens up a window into the lives of the fascinating trio, their relationships, their mentors and inspirations, their challenges and travails, and their literary triumphs. Partition changed everything of course and forced to migrate it appears that none of the three sensitive souls overcame the trauma of having left Lahore behind. With them also went in many ways the unique status of Urdu as a language spoken and written by those of all faiths. A language of high culture shared by many as well as a language increasingly used to take major strides in order to capture the diverse experiences of society and culture in their entirety, such as that by the Progressive Writers Movement. Dark were the days when peace broke and the creative equanimity of the writers rudely disrupted. Something they never imagined could happen, as they lingered till the last moment, holding onto their homes and their treasured lives. They witnessed the brutality of riots, which left them scarred for life. They went on very movingly right about it.
Shehr e Purkamal provides various interesting insights into the three writers' backgrounds, evolution, craft and politics. We learn also of so many others who were part of the milieu as well as defined it, the mutual regard amongst writers, the institutions and enterprises key to the writers' lives, and the social and cultural associations with diverse neighborhoods and areas. It is fascinating to learn for instance of Krishen Chandar's involvement with progressive and revolutionary politics for which he was also jailed (he was part of the famous protest at Lahore Railway Station against Simon Commission under Lala Lajpat Rai's leadership that was brutalized by colonial police and also a member of Bhagat Singh's party) and also of Rajinder Singh Bedi's association with Bhagat Singh's movement as well as his (unperformed) task of assassination a British officer.
There are so many others associated with Lahore who appear in the pages which indicates the richness of the times in terms of people of merit (though few women find mention for which there could be various reasons). In this context, some of the several bits that I found interesting pertained to: Patras Bukhari and his brilliant student Balraj Sahni; Krishen Chandar's deep respect for Iqbal; the genesis and galvanizing role of literary journals like Humayun, Adab e Lateef, Adabi Dunya, Sawaira, Nayay Zawiyay, Naqoosh, Romaan and college magazines of Government College and FC College i.e., Ravi and Folio respectively (I have served as the Joint Editor of Ravi for two years and this was of particular interest to me); dynamic publishers like Nazeer Ahmed Chaudhry; and then writers, littérateurs and intellectuals like Hassan Askari, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Mirza Adeeb, Balwant Singh, Sufi Tabassum, Muhammad Khalid Akhtar, Shafiq ur Rehman, Ashiq Hussain Batalwi, Bari Aleeg, Maulana Salahuddin Ahmed, Jagannath Azad, Ahmad Rahi, Upender Nath Ashk, Akhtar Ansari, Saadat Hasan Manto, Zaheer Kashmiri, Dr. Aftab Ahmed, Akhtar Shirani, Abdullah Malik, Davinder Sathiarthi, Dr. Nazeer Ahmad, Dharam Prakash Anand, Mira Jee, Fikar Tonsawi, and so many others.
Though at times faced with dire financial straits - especially Krishen Chandar and Bedi - their commitment to writing and their deep affection for Lahore never diminished; their pining for it, from all accounts, was intense as they found themselves exiles in different parts of India post-partition. This is a book about an abiding romance with a city and culture that nourished and sustained three writers of high caliber, who were humanists and astute observers of and commentators on the human condition. It is a wonderful reflection on these iconic figures as well as the city which embraced them, was loved by them, and love them back with equal ardor.
Mehmood ul Hasan is a serious and passionate reader of literature and chronicler of the lives and times of writers. His ability to make connections, recollect details and locate and excavate materials that are hard to find is quite overwhelming. He has already done some seminal work that is all the more necessary in these times when we face a relative low point in terms of extending priority to matters literary, cultural and intellectual.
Lahore: Sheher e Pur Kamal is a tribute to legendary Urdu writers Krishen Chandar and Rajinder Singh Bedi and the satirist Kanahiya Lal Kapur. Through them it is also a tribute to their beloved city Lahore - beloved not just because of its largesse and generosity, its architecture and ambience, but also due to its glorious traditions, its generosity, its visionary publishers, and indeed its vast and thriving circle of writers and readers. Drawing on their own impressions in their stories and interviews, as well as of others who wrote about them, Mehmood ul Hassan opens up a window into the lives of the fascinating trio, their relationships, their mentors and inspirations, their challenges and travails, and their literary triumphs. Partition changed everything of course and forced to migrate it appears that none of the three sensitive souls overcame the trauma of having left Lahore behind. With them also went in many ways the unique status of Urdu as a language spoken and written by those of all faiths. A language of high culture shared by many as well as a language increasingly used to take major strides in order to capture the diverse experiences of society and culture in their entirety, such as that by the Progressive Writers Movement. Dark were the days when peace broke and the creative equanimity of the writers rudely disrupted. Something they never imagined could happen, as they lingered till the last moment, holding onto their homes and their treasured lives. They witnessed the brutality of riots, which left them scarred for life. They went on very movingly right about it.
Shehr e Purkamal provides various interesting insights into the three writers' backgrounds, evolution, craft and politics. We learn also of so many others who were part of the milieu as well as defined it, the mutual regard amongst writers, the institutions and enterprises key to the writers' lives, and the social and cultural associations with diverse neighborhoods and areas. It is fascinating to learn for instance of Krishen Chandar's involvement with progressive and revolutionary politics for which he was also jailed (he was part of the famous protest at Lahore Railway Station against Simon Commission under Lala Lajpat Rai's leadership that was brutalized by colonial police and also a member of Bhagat Singh's party) and also of Rajinder Singh Bedi's association with Bhagat Singh's movement as well as his (unperformed) task of assassination a British officer.
There are so many others associated with Lahore who appear in the pages which indicates the richness of the times in terms of people of merit (though few women find mention for which there could be various reasons). In this context, some of the several bits that I found interesting pertained to: Patras Bukhari and his brilliant student Balraj Sahni; Krishen Chandar's deep respect for Iqbal; the genesis and galvanizing role of literary journals like Humayun, Adab e Lateef, Adabi Dunya, Sawaira, Nayay Zawiyay, Naqoosh, Romaan and college magazines of Government College and FC College i.e., Ravi and Folio respectively (I have served as the Joint Editor of Ravi for two years and this was of particular interest to me); dynamic publishers like Nazeer Ahmed Chaudhry; and then writers, littérateurs and intellectuals like Hassan Askari, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Mirza Adeeb, Balwant Singh, Sufi Tabassum, Muhammad Khalid Akhtar, Shafiq ur Rehman, Ashiq Hussain Batalwi, Bari Aleeg, Maulana Salahuddin Ahmed, Jagannath Azad, Ahmad Rahi, Upender Nath Ashk, Akhtar Ansari, Saadat Hasan Manto, Zaheer Kashmiri, Dr. Aftab Ahmed, Akhtar Shirani, Abdullah Malik, Davinder Sathiarthi, Dr. Nazeer Ahmad, Dharam Prakash Anand, Mira Jee, Fikar Tonsawi, and so many others.
Though at times faced with dire financial straits - especially Krishen Chandar and Bedi - their commitment to writing and their deep affection for Lahore never diminished; their pining for it, from all accounts, was intense as they found themselves exiles in different parts of India post-partition. This is a book about an abiding romance with a city and culture that nourished and sustained three writers of high caliber, who were humanists and astute observers of and commentators on the human condition. It is a wonderful reflection on these iconic figures as well as the city which embraced them, was loved by them, and love them back with equal ardor.
January 12, 2023
These bittersweet accounts of all the amazing authors who fell in love with this city and wished to come back and died with this wish... While reading this book I could visualize many places from where I have passed by sometime. It gave me goosebumps when I read the sacredness of Krishan Chandar about this city land. This is quite sad tha Lahore is losing its historic beauty though that is in sense of aesthetics or it's so called 'development' that is killing it silently. Lahore seems sick with the dark clouds of smog. I remember we used to read in our social studies book that it was called City of Gardens but now we see concrete everywhere that has taken place of all this greenery.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews