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KARACHI, May 31 (APP):Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi organized Dr. Nasir Abbas Nayyar’s thought-provoking lecture titled “Absence of Urdu Novel in Global Context: Fact or Fiction?” at the Haseena Moin Hall.
The session was presided over by renowned poetess Zehra Nigah, while President of the Arts Council, Mohammad Ahmed Shah, delivered remarks.
The event witnessed the presence of several notable literary figures, including Chairman of the Fiction Literary Committee Ikhlaq Ahmed Khan, Chairman of the Press & Publication Committee Ghazi Salahuddin, Hoori Noorani, Sadiqa Salahuddin, and poetess Dr. Fatima Hassan.
During his lecture, Dr. Nasir Abbas Nayyar challenged the prevailing notion that Urdu novels are confined to the Urdu-speaking world and lack global presence. He emphasized that this belief stems from a limited understanding of three key concepts: presence, global context, and the Urdu novel itself.
According to him, “presence” must be both material and experiential—a text must not only exist but also contribute to and shape the dialogic space of consciousness.
He argued that the so-called global context is largely shaped by Euro-American ideologies. The universality propagated during the colonial era was built on European philosophies and institutional structures, and continues in new forms today. While some Asian countries challenge Western dominance in technology and science, the West still dominates literature and cultural discourse.
Dr. Nayyar pointed out the ideological nature of global recognition by referencing major literary awards. The Booker Prize, for instance, originally recognized writers from Commonwealth countries, Ireland, and Zimbabwe. Although eligibility was broadened in 2014, it remains limited to English-language works published in the UK or Ireland. Similarly, the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded 121 times, has recognized only 25–30 non-Western writers, with Asian authors being the least represented. Rabindranath Tagore (1913) remains the only South Asian laureate.
Dr. Nayyar concluded by asserting that the perception of Urdu novels’ global absence is not a critical evaluation but a product of systemic exclusion from international literary accolades and cultural discourse.
He questioned whether Urdu novels are read in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, or Southeast Asia as extensively as we read theirs—a question to which, he acknowledged, the answer is mostly no.