Pakistani literature ( ur, ) is a distinct literature that gradually came to be defined after Pakistan gained nationhood status in 1947, emerging out of literary traditions of the

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

. The shared tradition of

Urdu literature Urdu literature ( ur, , ) is literature in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ''ghazal '' غزل and '' nazm '' نظم, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of ...

and English literature of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

was inherited by the new state. Over a big time of period a body of literature unique to Pakistan has emerged in nearly all major Pakistani languages, including

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' English, Punjabi, Seraiki, Balochi, Pushto and Sindhi."Prolegomena to the Study of Pakistani English and Pakistani Literature in English" (1989), Alamgir Hashmi, ''Pakistani Literature'' (Islamabad), 2:1 1993.

History

The nature of Pakistani literature soon after independence aroused controversy among writers due to its being centred heavily on the negative events related to the

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

movement. According to Gilani Kamran ( GC University), Pakistani literature was expected to take a new direction along with the new state of Pakistan at this point, but did not immediately meet this expectation.''Pakistan Literature: Evolution & trends''
, Gilani Kamran, 2004.

Saadat Hassan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, ur, , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author born in Ludhiana, who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan. Writing mai ...

(1912–1955), a prominent writer of short stories of South Asia, produced great literature out of the events relating to the India-Pakistan independence. His literature is considered to be progressive in its tone and spirit. According to several critics it had not only evolved its own identity but also had played a significant role in documenting the hardships and hopes of Pakistan in the latter part of the 20th century. Today, Pakistani literature has taken a shape of its own by depicting the complex class system and the common man. It also has evolved in merging Urdu literary forms and English literature leading to experimentation. Many writers of fiction borrow from English and vice versa. Pakistani literature's main official platform is the Pakistan Academy of Letters, whose work is overseen by a Board of Governors.

Digests

Since 1960s Pakistan had periodicals called digests. As some digests cater to current events, but a large number of them used to publish

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Vin ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

was leading in publishing of popular pulp fiction. Ibn-e-Safi and Shakeel Adilzada of '' Sabrang Digest'' (1960s) was Pakistan's early popular pulp fiction writers. Mohiuddin Nawab ran a 33 year long Suspense Digest series called Devta until 2010. Some of the fiction digests not being adequately in tune with Pakistan's Islamist religious orthodoxy faced challenging times during General Zia times, but also had to find ways and means to bypass official & unofficial moral police at times by bribing them. According to Haseeb Asif historically not only romance & sexuality but also soft erotica had always been a part Pakistani pulp fiction digests, only that some of them make it feel it guilt free by imputing something negative along natural human instincts. While government tried to interfere, one important cross road came with Television and their after digital media. Some of digest writers shifted to television drama script writing, same time to sustain in business print media digests rather than subscription started depending more upon advertising & spirituality business and therefore had to compromise with their sexual openness to an extent. Haseeb Asif says as much predominant language of these digest is language of middle class in Pakistan society, consuming sexual content masked with imputing moral guilt on self & judge upper & lower classes too is feature of middle class. Asif further says while some of the authors of classical Urdu literature too explored human sexuality, but most times it comes as an argument to question social & patriarchal hypocrisy where as pulp fiction continue to compromise with misogyny & patriarchal values of the society.

Literature by language

Urdu Pakistani literature

Punjabi

Pashto

Sindhi

Saraiki

Kashmiri

Pakistani literature in other languages

English

English is an official language of Pakistan and has been established in the area since the British colonial era. The dialect of English spoken in Pakistan is known as

Pakistani English Pakistani English (also known as Paklish or Pinglish) is the group of English language varieties spoken and written in Pakistan. It was first so recognised and designated in the 1970s and 1980s. Pakistani English (PE), similar and related to ...

. English language poetry from Pakistan from the beginning held a special place in South Asian writing, notably with the work of Shahid Suhrawardy, Ahmed Ali, Alamgir Hashmi, Daud Kamal, Taufiq Rafat, and Maki Kureishi, and later of M. Athar Tahir, Waqas Ahmed Khwaja, Omer Tarin, Hina Babar Ali and others; but fiction from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

began to receive recognition in the latter part of the 20th century, with the popularity of the

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

author

Bapsi Sidhwa Bapsi Sidhwa ( ur, بیپسی سدھوا; born 11 August 1938) is a Pakistani novelist of Gujarati Parsi Zoroastrian descent who writes in English and is a resident in the United States. She is best known for her collaborative work with Ind ...

who wrote '' The Crow Eaters'', '' Cracking India'' (1988), etc., after the earlier reputations of Ahmed Ali and

Zulfikar Ghose Zulfikar Ghose (March 13, 1935 – June 30, 2022) was a Pakistani-American novelist, poet and essayist. His works are primarily magical realism, blending fantasy and harsh realism. Biography Born in Sialkot, Punjab, which was in British India ...

had been made in international fiction. In the diaspora, Hanif Kureshi commenced a prolific career with the novel '' The Buddha of Suburbia'' (1990), which won the

Whitbread Award The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

, and

Aamer Hussein Aamer Hussein (born 8 April 1955, Karachi) is a Pakistani critic Biography
Aamer Hussein official website. ...

wrote a series of acclaimed short story collections. Sara Suleri published her literary memoir, ''Meatless Days'' (1989). Pakistani English writing has had some readership in the country. From 1980s Pakistani English literature began to receive national and official recognition, when the Pakistan Academy of Letters included works originally written English in its annual literary awards. The first major English writer to receive this national honour was Alamgir Hashmi. Subsequently, through the last three decades, a number of other English writers, including

and

Nadeem Aslam Nadeem Aslam FRSL (born 11 July 1966 in Gujranwala, Pakistan) is a British Pakistani novelist. His debut novel, ''Season of the Rainbirds'', won the Betty Trask and the Author's Club First Novel Award. His critically acclaimed second novel '' Ma ...

, have been recognized by the Academy. In the early years of the 21st century, a number of Pakistani novelists writing in English won or were shortlisted for international awards.

Mohsin Hamid Mohsin Hamid ( ur, محسن حامد; born 23 July 1971) is a British Pakistani novelist, writer and brand consultant. His novels are '' Moth Smoke'' (2000), '' The Reluctant Fundamentalist'' (2007), ''How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia'' (2 ...

published his first novel '' Moth Smoke'' (2000), which won the Betty Trask Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; he has since published his second novel, '' The Reluctant Fundamentalist'' (2007), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. British-Pakistani writer

won the

Kiriyama Prize The Kiriyama Prize was an international literary award awarded to books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia. Its goal was to encourage greater understanding among the peoples and nations of the region. Established in 1996, the prize was last awa ...

for his second book, ''

Maps for Lost Lovers ''Maps for Lost Lovers'' is a novel by the British Pakistani writer Nadeem Aslam. It was first published by Faber and Faber in 2004. Ostensibly about the murder of a pair of lovers, the book is in fact a minute dissection of working-class Pakis ...

'' (2004). The first novel of Mohammed Hanif, ''

A Case of Exploding Mangoes ''A Case of Exploding Mangoes'' (2008) is a comic novel by the Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif based on the 1988 plane crash that killed General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, former president of Pakistan. The book received generally positive reviews f ...

'' (2008) was shortlisted for the 2008

Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspap ...

. Emerging authors Kamila Shamsie and Daniyal Mueenuddin have garnered wide attention."Pakistani Authors Catch Literary World's Attention"
Rob Gifford, ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...

'',

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, May 29, 2009

Persian

During the early Muslim period, foreign

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken a ...

became the lingua franca of South Asia, adopted and used by most of the educated and the government. Urdu, Pakistan's national language and lingua franca, draws heavy influences from the

(see

Persian and Urdu The Persian language and Urdu have had an intricate relationship throughout the history of the latter. Persian historically played a significant role in the formation and development of the modern Urdu, and today acts as its prestige language. ...

). Although

Persian literature Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...

from

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

itself was popular, several figures in South Asia, and later Pakistan, became major poets in Persian, the most notable being

Allama Iqbal Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

. For a time, Persian remained the court language of the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

, soon to be replaced by Urdu and English. Persian still held its status, despite the spread of Urdu, well into the early years of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

rule in South Asia.

References

External links

*
"Pakistani Authors Catch Literary World's Attention"
Rob Gifford, ''

'',

, May 29, 2009
''Pakistaniaat'': A Journal of Pakistan Studies''BookExchange'': Pakistan Top Book Exchange
* Pakistan
Literature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pakistani Literature