Of Literature and History
By Syed Afsar Sajid
- ‘In the New Century: An anthology of Pakistani Literature in English’
Compiled and edited by Muneeza Shamsie
- ‘Swat State (1915-1969): From Genesis to Merger’– Author: Sultan-i-Rome
The two books in hand have been recently (2025) brought out by Oxford University Press
Pakistan, the first in its maiden edition and the next in its second edition.
‘Pakistani Literature in English’
Muneeza Shamsie is an eminent writer, critic and bibliographer, and a leading authority on Pakistani English literature. She has compiled and edited the present anthology of Pakistani Literature in English in the New Century. She has some other OUP publications too, to her credit as an author, compiler, and editor on subjects like literary history, prose and fiction. She is also an Area Editor for the online ‘Literary Encyclopedia’ and Bibliographic Representative (Pakistan) for ‘Literature, Critique, and Empire Today’.
The book, a voluminous one, covers work published between 1997-2017 and is purported to be a follow up of the writer’s first anthology ‘A Dragonfly in the Sun: An Anthology of Pakistani Writing in English’ (1997) with a comparable ratio of 44:86 writers related to the two works separately. Starting with two leading Anglophone literary luminaries viz. Shahid Suhrawardy (1890-1965) and Ahmed Ali (1910-1994) in the newly created Pakistan in the year 1947, Pakistani English literature came to assume ‘a new, contemporary voice’ in the 1960s with London-based Zulfikar Ghose (1935-2022) and Lahore-based Taufiq Rafat (1927-1998).
The community of indigenous writers of English including the Pakistani diaspora writing in English on alien soils, gradually expanded enfolding writers like Maki Kureishi (1927-1995), Daud Kamal (1935-1987) Kaleem Omar (1937-2009), Bapsi Sidhwa (1938-2024), Shuja Nawaz (b.1939), Adrian A. Husain (b.1942), Salman Tarik Kureshi (b.1943), Ejaz Rahim (b.1946), Tariq Rahman (b.1949), Alamgir Hashmi (b.1951), Waqas Khwaja (b.1952), Sara Suleri Goodyear (1953-2022), Aamer Hussein (b.1955), M. Athar Tahir (b.1956) et al.
In the introduction to the book, the compiler/editor has extensively probed the making of the Pakistani literature in English from its genesis to germination into a veritable form of art. During the course of this onerous exercise, she must have had to scale a wide range of Anglophone literary activity both native and diasporic, with a view to formulating, determining and finally highlighting the vortices of its (Pakistani English literature’s) increasingly vast but variegated content.
The format of the book is simple, terse, and definitive. To begin with, the compiler/editor introduces an author briefly with necessary references and antecedents besides a cursory critical ascertainment of his creative work and style, followed by a discreet sample of his literary output. The catalogue of the selected authors includes names, among others, of Taufiq Rafat, Abdullah Hussein, Zulfikar Ghose, Bapsi Sidhwa, Adrian A. Husain, Akbar S. Ahmed, Salman Tarik Kureshi, Tariq Ali, Tahira Naqvi, Ejaz Rahim, Shuja Nawaz, Tariq Rahman, Alamgir Hashmi, Waqas Khwaja, Sara Suleri Goodyear, M. Athar Tahir, Hanif Kureishi, Imtiaz Dharker, Moniza Alvi, Aamer Hussein, Syeda Henna Babar Ali, Tariq Mehmood (Ali), Fawzia Afzal-Khan, Feryal Ali Gauhar, Ayub Khan Din, Daniyal Moinuddin, Mohammed Hanif, Harris Khalique, Nadeem Aslam, Rizwan Akhtar, Uzma Aslam Khan, Mohsin Hamid, Bina Shah, Kamila Shamsie, Shahbano Bilgrami, Shandana Minhas, Omar Shahid Hamid, Sabyn Javeri, Usman Ali, Fatima Bhutto, Kanza Javed, and Sarvat Hasin.
After Dr. Tariq Rahman’s ‘A History of Pakistani Literature in English’, the instant book is a valuable addition to the extant historiograph, as it were, of Pakistani literature in English.
‘Swat State’
The second edition of the book has been recently (2025) published by OUP, the first having appeared in 2008. It is stated to be based on the author’s PhD dissertation titled ‘Swat State under the Walis (1917-69)’. It is ‘a comprehensive resource, covering nearly every aspect of the state of Swat’. It narrates ‘the details of its nomenclature, geography, climate, natural vegetation, regional ethnicity, and lineages’ besides the historical, geo-political, and strategic contexts with a careful analysis of the genesis, consolidation, and expansion of the state of Swat.
The book further evaluates the state’s relationships with neighbouring states such as Dir and Amb, as well as with the British government and later with Pakistan. It explains Swat State’s constitutional status, and the reasons of its merger with Pakistan. The writer has also examined the state’s civil, military, financial, and judicial administration systems apart from studying the ‘transformative changes’ in education, language, religion, health, communication, trade and industry, horticulture and agriculture, tourism, leadership, and women’s rights.
The book, based on objective research as asserted by the author, provides useful information about the now defunct Swat State and covers a thoughtful analysis of its political, administrative, socio-political and economic developments.
