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Surrounded by Sadequains, Buddhas and Mughal miniatures, a stout,
bearded and bespectacled man with greying hair looks affectionately
at small cards, stuck along the bookshelves. The notes on the cards
remind him of the characters and situations, which are raw material
for his upcoming columns, TV serials and short stories: common folk
suffering in an inhumane system and power-wielding people taunting
the powerless.
These characters and situations have been haunting Amar Jaleel - the
most widely read Sindhi fiction writer, the poignant playwright and
the versatile columnist, for around half a century. During this
period, he was repeatedly persecuted for raising a strong voice in
support of the rights of the have-nots and against the abuse of power
by the ruling elite.
Each time his book/short story was banned and he was made to suffer
in one way or the other, his hatred for the system increased. But
like the characters of his favourite novelist, Ernest Hemingway, he
refused to say farewell to arms and wrote with more bitterness. An
untamed rebel, he is among the last of the Titans, who use their art
as a weapon in the fight for social/political justice.
The seeds of dissent were sown in the mindset of the Rohri-born but
Karachi-bred Jaleel in the late 1960s when he was a student at
Karachi University. "I took an active part in the agitation launched
by the National Students Federation," he recalls, "however, since I
was also obsessed with playing cricket and wanted to prove my prowess
in test cricket, I did not become a member of the radical
organization."
His performance as a wicket keeper and batsman at the inter-
university tournaments was superb but he could not make it to test
cricket. Instead he joined Radio Pakistan as a research officer and
also took up writing short stories, newspaper columns and plays for
TV and radio as a hobby which turned into his profession after his
retirement from the Allama Iqbal Open University.
Be it a hobby or a profession, he continued to highlight the
political and social injustices prevailing in the country. "Gross
abuse of human rights and that of power by the ruling elite tormented
me and turned me into a rebellious writer," he says and recalls that
the imposition of military dictatorship by Ayub Khan provided him
with an impulse to write some bold and defiant short stories. The
stories symbolically, yet explicitly, depicted the sense of isolation
created in Sindh and other smaller provinces by the imposition of the
One Unit, and made Jaleel a hero of the resistance offered by his
province.
But the revival of "pseudo-democracy" disappointed the sensitive
writer as it failed to ensure freedom of expression and instead
limited it by introducing a constitutional amendment which made
writing against the military a crime against the state. Due to a
feeling of having been betrayed by democracy, the politician,
particularly the feudal one, also became the villain of his stories.
"This new front of my war against the oppressors has proved to be
more painful for me," comments Jaleel. Punctuating his remarks with
biting criticism against the present set of rulers, specially those
governing Sindh, he says that when someone writes against
dictatorship, he is fighting with the other or an alien. But when he
targets a politician, who is a member of civil society, the writer
feels that he is fighting against himself.
However, his attention has not been limited to political affairs only
as he has also been making human rights violations a subject of his
fiction, since the time when the demand for human rights had not
become a fashion. A Hindu community of Kandhkot fell prey to arson,
loot and rapes in 1972 and the police refused to register an FIR
because some influential persons were involved in the incident.
The gory incident was narrated to Jaleel by a witness. He wrote a
shocking story, "Sard laash jo safar" on it, which not only raised a
storm in Sindh but also crossed the borders as its translation was
published by the Times of India. The minister for minority affairs,
Raja Tridev Roy, read the translation on his flight while returning
from a visit abroad. After his plane landed in Islamabad, the
minister directly went to the prime minister's house to appraise
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of the brutal incident.
Bhutto asked the concerned authorities to take notice of the
incident. But instead of providing justice to the grieved party, the
authorities reacted against Jaleel by issuing an arrest warrant
against him and banning his Pakistan Writers Guild award-winner
collection of stories, Jadinh maan na hoondus.
"Though I evaded arrest due to the intervention of the director
general, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, Khwaja Shahid Hussain,
who enjoyed considerable influence in power circles, the warrant was
not withdrawn but was only withheld to act as a sword of Democles for
me," Jaleel says. Moreover, an inquiry against him was initiated
which kept on lingering despite change of government. In keeping with
the policy of persecuting him, his service in the government was not
confirmed for as long as 25 years.
"Sard" proved to be his first story to be banned as it was followed
by the banning of another two dozen stories, including "Zindagi hik
kun, Mehdi munhjo put, Aadam ji mau, Jilawatan:. Similarly he was not
allowed to write for Pakistan Television for 15 years. But it failed
to force him to deviate from the path he had taken as an angry young
man for he kept on documenting contemporary history in his fiction.
His short stories deal with real life situations and down-to-earth
characters in a satirical way which stir deep agony in the mind of
his readers. One of his oft-repeated technique is to highlight a
problem by a contrast between innocence and guilt through a naive
character confronting or commenting on a grave situation. The
character sometimes takes the form of a fool, at others that of a
grown up man whose mental growth has stopped in his childhood.
The modest author admits that his debut novel was nothing but an
extension of his short story and his TV plays also have similar
characters and situations.
Comparing the short story with TV plays, he says that the former is
literature while the latter is merely a craft. "This is why our
prominent TV playwrights have never been invited to a literary
conference on the one hand and on the other, several silver screen
personalities, who do not have anything to do with literature, have
become TV playwrights. When asked to choose between his short stories
and plays, he goes for his first love. (As his romantic stories show,
he has a firm faith in the concept of "first love is last love." He
says that a book is the outcome of the exclusive effort of a writer
but a TV play does not offer this feeling as it is a team work.
However, because it offers monetary rewards, the dragon of TV plays
is devouring writers and consequently literature, he says. He points
out that in the west, books still earn more money for their authors.
In Pakistan, very few authors are paid by publishing houses and
newspapers whereas TV offers lucrative financial rewards. Hence the
rush for TV writing and growing scarcity of impressive literature,
particularly in the Sindhi language. Even Jaleel has not written a
short story for a couple of years. He defends himself by pointing to
the paucity of reputable literary magazines in the language.
"The magazines published by government organizations do not have an
impressive circulation which is mainly confined to government
libraries while those produced by the private sector have turned to
character assassination of literary personalities," he deplores.
As a rebel writer, does not he get depressed by the fact that the
political and social scenario has remained the same in which he began
writing over four decades ago? He begins by pointing out the fact
that for the 140 million people of Pakistan, only 700,000 copies of
newspapers are published daily and 3,000 copies of books
annually. "Therefore I do not have any illusion about the role of a
writer in our society. Even my neighbours do not know me as a writer
and, taking me as a retired man, ask me about how I keep myself busy.
This is why when I ponder the impact made by my works, I feel as if I
am writing in a void, a lone wolf crying in the wilderness."
His words betray the sadness which he feels. He is courageous but
helpless.
Amar Jaleel: profile
Born: In Rohri in 1936
Education: MA in Economics from Karachi University; graduation in
Educational Technology from Florida University, US; training courses
in education through TV from Japan, France, US, Thailand, Sri Lanka
Professional career: Joined Radio Pakistan as research officer;
promoted as programme manager and then deputy controller, world
service; transferred to Allama Iqbal Open University as director,
Institute of Educational Technology, also served as vice-chancellor
of the university
Publications: Jadinh Maan Na Hoondus; Tareekh Jo Kafan; Munhjo Das
Aasmaan Khan Puchho; Tiyon Wujood; Dil Ji Dunya; Ranikot jo khazano;
Runj; Adam Ji Mau (short stories); Naith goongey galhayo (novel);
Sindhu Munhje Saah Main; columns for Dawn, Nation, Kawish, Hilal-i-
Pakistan
Awards: Pride of Performance; Writers' Guild Award (twice); PTV award
for best playwright of the decade; PTV award for best playwright of
the year; Koonj award for best Sindhi story writer of the subcontinent
On this home page, I'll introduce myself and talk about my reasons for wanting a web site. I might put a picture of myself on this page...or just a picture that I especially like.
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