May be it is due to the fact that Ahmed Faraz was more interactive with the poetry lovers through his poetry of resistance and hence more requiem notes for him. Khatir Ghaznavi's death, it may be said, was eclipsed by Ahmed Faraz's phenomenal popularity.
Khatir Ghaznavi was born on November 4, 1925 in Peshawar in a middle-class family. His father was a contractor and had to move to Bannu where Khatir got early education. Even in his school days he wrote a novel and brought out a literary journal.
He was fortunate to have a galaxy of Urdu enthusiasts around him like Farigh Bukhari, Raza Hamdani, Mirza Mehmud Sarhadi, Shaukat Wasti, Syed Zia Jafri, Dr Nazir Mirza Barlas, Yusuf Rija Chishti and Shamim Bhairvi. It was a rare confluence of young writers who were destined to make a name.
Farigh Bukhari and Raza Hamdani were particularly very active. They did a lot to make the progressive canons of literature popular, Khatir Ghaznavi and Mohsin Ahsan alongwith Farigh Bukhari and Raza Hamdani formed a quartet which did a lot to put NWFP on the literary horizon of Urdu literature in the 40s of the last century.
As I have had the honour of being quite close to all of them I could write about their individual contribution to modern Urdu literature but the space doesn't permit. I have written about all of them in Ariel's column over the last 45 years.
Khatir Ghaznavi was academically more intense than other members of the Quartet. He became a University Don. He went to China and Malaysia. He learnt Chinese and Malay in China and Malaysia and headed the Urdu department in Malay University for some time.
He has also enjoyed the distinction of heading the Academy of Letters, Islamabad. He wrote short stories and has two collections of short stories 'Chatanain Aur Roman' and 'Sarhad Ke Rooman' to his credit. His novel 'Phool Aur Pathar' was not a success. He was more of a poet than a short story writer or novelist. 'Roop Rang' and 'Sanp Ki Chatri' are his collections of poetry besides his account of China in 'Cheen Nama' and a book of critical writings 'Jadeed Urdu Adab'.
His association with the Urdu Department Peshawar University was very productive. He made the departments magazine 'Khayahan' an important research journal of Urdu literature having a number of special publications on Pakistan Mein Urdu, Iqbal, Mir Anis, Abdul Hakim Shara etc.
He edited several magazines of Urdu from Peshawar eg 'Mashriqi Dunya', Fitrat, Naghma-i-Hayat, Ehsas, Tanwir and Tamir-i-Nau to have a permanent place for him in literary journalism. Towards the fag-end of his life he was elected as the head of PWA for the NWFP region. He revived 'Ehsas' as a journal of Progressive Movement in 2005. He remained a steadfast progressive to the last breath of his life.
He represented that group of writers who served Urdu and Hindku with equal devotion. Hindku is a dialect of Urdu in the upper Punjab and NWFP and all the glotto-chronological tests confirm that it has not separated form Urdu as yet. An Urdu reader doesn't encounter any difficulty in comprehending Hindku as the basic vocabulary of the two languages is common.
It shouldn't be surprising, therefore, that Hindku speaking writers of NWFP have made a significant contribution to Urdu. Who can forget Farigh, Ahmed Faraz, Raza Hamdani, Mohsin Ehsan, Shaukat Wasti and Taj Saeed Mirza, Mehmood Sarhadi, Yusuf Rija Shisti, Zahoor Awan, Sabir Kalori and lots of other writers from a region which is quite far from the main centers of Urdu.
In honouring Khatir Ghaznavi the Urdu lovers will be honouring one of the most fertile groups of Urdu writers in the sub-continent. The Progressive Writer's Association, Karachi, held a literary reference in his honour. I presided over the reference. Among speakers were Sahar Ansari, Sarwar Jawed, Rahat Saeed, Wahid Bashir and Muslim Shamim etc.
A UNIQUE LITERARY ALBUM: Very few photo albums of literary stalwarts have been published in the Pakistan or India so far. This is possibly due to the lack of interest in literature or the lack of glamour in men of letters.
I remember some public spirited commercial enterprises devoting their attention to the galaxy of the greats but such efforts couldn't be frequent. Some annual diaries and calendars derived pleasure from having old breaded faces of the classical masters in their publications but the attempts were mostly haphazard and disorganised. I remember a literary album edited by Zawwar Hussain Zaidi.
It was on a small-sized book format having one-column plates of poets with the caption, having the years of birth and death. The effort could be deemed as something fulfilling the desire to have a photo-album of poets. However the editor's discretion in his selection couldn't be questioned he could omit a titan and selected a less-known without any tangible reasons. The less known printing houses could be quite reckless in their selection-criteria.
The first project on a big scale having a proper jury for the selection of important personage right from the first titan ie to the contemporary poets and writers to the 1980's was under taken by late Sabir Dutt, an Indian editor, who edited special numbers under the title 'Fun Aur Shakhsiat' of important literary personages. By being a close friend of film stars, Sunil Dutt and Nargis, he didn't restrict his album's to poets and writers but decided to have some show business personalities on the plea of their being "literary enthusiasts" helping his mission. Quite an understandable gesture.
His literary album entitled 'Chand Tasaweer-i-Butan' had black and white portraits of 216 writers along with the portraits the Jury which included Dr Gopichand Narang, Kali Das Gupta Riza, Dr Muhammad Hasan, Shams-ur-Rehman Faruqi, Dr Khaliq Anjum, Jawed Akhtar and Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqui along with the portraits of the Bollywood' s friends whose co-operation made it possible for the first ever album to appear in 1991.
As every first step has to have an improved succession to the preliminary effort, the credit goes to Ahmed Hussain Siddiqui, the former Chief Controller of Buildings and Director General KDA, to come up with the best effort so far in the publication of Literary Albums entitled "Chand Tasaveer-i-Raftagan" having approximately 425 colour portraits of important literary figures right from the days of pioneers to our times. This album, true to its title, doesn't have any living writer or poet.
All of them are that who are no more with us. They played their innings with varying distinctions, and have joined the limbo of the post. They are not restricted to any one country or languages but have contributed their best to literature mainly Urdu literature. Decidedly Ahmed Husain Siddiqui's effort is the most comprehensive and it is, by far, the best album for three reasons. The portraits are colored and the editor has ensured that all portraits are throbbing with life.
The brief CV with particulars of their important publications makes it a truly collector's item. The author has proved himself respectful of all schools of thought and is not, at all, partisan.
However, he couldn't have pictures of all the writers in spite of his entreaties. Therefore, he regrets that there are some omissions beyond his control. I believe that this is understandable and no work of this nature can claim that it has been fortunate enough to have the ideal level of co-operation.
Ahmed Husain Siddiqui started off the new phase of his career after the life-time of professional life with his autobiography 'Siyahat-i-Maazi'. Quite an unusal work. His next work was on Karachi in which he made use of rare maps of old Karachi. Then he turned to the writing of historical account of his birthplace, Amroha, under the title of 'Kishwar--i-Aulia', and then biography of his elder brother late Muhammad Hussain Siddiqui, a lawyer and poet of merit.
His magnum opus is 'Dabistanon Ka Dabistan', Karachi in three Volumes (The third volume is in the process of publication). Perhaps no work of this kind has been attempted so far. This work contains pen portraits of writers, artists, journalists and other important personalities of Karachi.
Unfortunately Ahmed Hussian's latest work 'Chand Tasweer-i-Raftagan' is blazing a new trail in the literary historiography of Urdu. It is an illustrated who of Men of Letters institutions like the 'Anjuman Taraqqui-i-Urdu', Academy of Letters, Muqtadara-i-Qaomi Zaban, Majlis-i-Taraqqui-i-Urdu could have thought of attempting.
The credit goes to the industry and dedication of one man that he has been able to do what departments with then budgets in millions couldn't think of, let alone complete.