The rise & rise of Pashto

By Dr Sher Zaman Taizi

Pashto Poet, BBC Afghan Education Peshawar

 

 

According to G.P. Tate, the author of The kingdom of Afghanistan the first to use Pashto for literary purposes was the famous Pir Roshan in the seventeenth century. His arch-rival Akhund Derweza (1533-1638) was also compelled to use Pashto to arouse his followers against the Roshania movement. Apparently, both the giants exploited religious and mystic sentiments of their followers. The windfall of that movement was the freedom of Pashto prose from the influence of Arabic and Persian languages.

The most remarkable achievement of that era was the innovation by Pir Roshan that made the writing of Pashto easy. He realized that Pashto could not be written in Arabic script owing to some of its peculiar sounds. He, therefore, invented 13 alphabets to represent those sounds. Some of these alphabets patched up vocal differences between the hard and soft dialects of Pashto as well. Subsequently, Khushhal Khan Khattak came to be known "the father of Pashto". Apart from his unsurpassed works in verse and prose on various topics including hunting, falconry, medicine and religion, he compiled a good deal of information on the history of the Pakhtoons.

There was a lull in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries until the emergence of the Ahmad trio (Mir Ahmad Shah Rizwani, Maulvi Ahmad and Munshi Ahmad Jan). Mir Ahmad Shah Rizwani compiled two books for the course of Pashto Honours introduced in the University of Punjab during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The famous prose work of Munshi Ahmad Jan, Da Qissa Khawane gup (The gossip of Qissa Khawani) was published in the second edition with introductory notes by C.L. Pert, dated January 22, 1930.

Then comes Syed Rahatullah alias Rahat Zakheli (1884-1963), the harbinger of modern Pashto prose. He introduced or revived almost every genre of the time in Pashto. He wrote the first imaginary novel, published in 1912 under the title of Mah Rukh or Natija-i-Ishq (the result of love). His short story Konda jeenae (the window girl) was published in the newspaper Afghan in 1917. It was the first but a perfect short story. He compiled history and grammar also in Pashto.

In the political arena, Hazrat Bacha Khan gave due attention to the renaissance of the Pashto language, literature and culture. He encouraged and sponsored Pashto poets and writers. Professor Hafiz Muhammad Idrees wrote a novel, Peghla (The damsel), which is considered the first comprehensive novel in Pashto language. Said Rasul Rasa, Abdul Rahim Majzoob and Fazal Haq Shaida modernized Pashto literature by introducing odes and some other genres of English literature. At this juncture, Pashto took a sharp turn to change its oriental style into a European style. Said Rasul Rasa was a good poet but he is best known for his five novels - Mafroor, Shamae, Khund Kushi, Maimunae and Maikhana.

By that time, Pashto received a momentum in Afghanistan also with the emergence of a number of good writers, Saleh Mohammad Hotak, Abdul Haye Habibi, Gul Bacha Ulfat, Qiayamuddin Khadim, Siddiq Ullah Rishtin, Zalmay Hewadmal, Abdur Rauf Benawa and many others. Abdullah Mahak wrote the most voluminous novel - Zamarudda in three volumes on the post-revolutionary situation in Afghanistan. A great number of Afghan writers are busy now-a-days in almost every field of literature. In Pakistan, this writer too has authored five novels - Gul Khan, Amanat, Rahman Koroona, Ghunday and Wade 'o'n'sho to Pashto prose. Rahim Shah Rahim wrote historical novels. The novel of Tahir Afridi Kano kshe razoona (the stone veins) depicts the inter-tribal jealousies. The novels of Mato Khan are mostly erotic, which do not appeal to the conservative psyche of the Pakhtoons.

In the field of research, the Ph.D holders, whose thesis have been published include Iqbal Naseem Khattak, Rajwal Shah Khattak and Muhammad Azam Azam.

Many writers have contributed to Pashto drama but only a few dramas have reached the market. Dost Muhammad Khan Kamil introduced academic research to Pashto language with his laborious work on Khushhal Khan Khattak and Rehman Baba. Some writers work on religious matters also. The outstanding in this field is Faqir Mohammad Abbas Qadria whose works in various size-from 10 to 1000 pages-have been published in more than 3000 books. According to Dr Hidayat Ullah Naeem, the religious theme in Pashto books is more voluminous than in any other language of Pakistan.

The prose writers also include some figures of national and international stature like Muhammad Afzal Khan Lala, Khan Abdul Wali Khan (on the Khudai Khidamtagar Movement in four volumes), and Hazrat Bacha Khan (Autobiography Zama zswand auo jaddo jehhad" (My life and struggle).

Pashto prose today covers most of the genres in vogue in Urdu and English including the short story, novel, drama, travelogue, essay, character-sketch, critical evaluation, book reviews, grammar, figures of speech, history, biography, autobiography and columns.