[Reader-list] ³Best literature comes out of turmoil²

[SJabbar]

>From The Tribune

Meet the author
³Best literature comes out of turmoil²

SYED Anwar Owais, an engineer with the J&K government, is in his early
thirties and has already written three poetry books: The Nothing Wolf, The
Princess and the Madman, Kashmir. He is one of those rare Kashmiris who
write in English. His writings reflect the stark, honest reality of the day.

Humra Quraishi met him for an exclusive interview. Excerpts:

Troubled times and troubled minds bring forth the best of literature. Do you
agree with this?

I certainly do, though I don¹t know why you are asking me this question! I
have seen troubled times and my mind has had its share of trouble, but I am
yet to produce excellent literature. But yes, the best literature comes out
of turmoil‹social or personal. Doris Lessing wrote The Golden Notebook when
she was under great strain. Poets such as Robert Graves were produced by
World War I and are in fact called war poets. Karl Popper¹s The Open Society
and its Enemies is a war work. So many other examples can be given.

In recent times with the sole exception of Agha Shahid Ali, the Valley
hasn¹t really produced any English writers or poets. Why?

Not just in recent times, the Valley has never produced significant writers
in English. The reason for this is simple: we don¹t have a tradition of
creative writing in English. And this is what makes Shahid a pioneer.
Another reason is the exodus of the Hindus from Kashmir. They were ahead of
the Muslims in education and were more likely to produce a significant
English writer. Maybe once they come back it will happen. Having said this,
I must add that a number of Kashmiris (expatriates, for instance) are
writing all sorts of books in English. I have a Hindu friend who has written
poetry about the turmoil in Kashmir, but is scared to publish it.

     

You say that the purpose of poetry is to use persuasion instead of force and
that Mahatma Gandhi was the political manifestation of this idea. Elaborate.

It was Sarojini Naidu who called Gandhi "a poet in action." He believed in
bringing about change not by violence but by non-participation in what he
regarded as evil. His method, his genius was aimed at bringing out the good
in his opponents. Poetry uses images, the magic of words and emotion to
convince others of the poet¹s sincerity. To quote Robert Graves, "The source
of poetry is love."

Your generation of Kashmiris hasn¹t been able to dwell on the significance
of Mahatma¹s message of non-violence. What makes you identify with his
philosophy?

Well, it would be easy for me to be smug. Yes, it was terrible to see
large-scale violence in Kashmir. The madness only convinced me more of how
important it was to rid humankind of this disease called war, how terribly
tragic and numbing it was when human beings took to slaughtering each other.
Gandhi is just so humanly, so sublimely sane.

There seems a paradox of sorts when you say that you regard yourself as an
incidental poet. Aren¹t poets born? Also, if you hadn¹t met Agha Shahid Ali
would you have written?

I certainly don¹t think I am a good enough poet to be called a born poet.
Shahid certainly was. Yes, if I hadn¹t met Shahid, I would most probably not
have written poetry. He taught me practically from the scratch, with a lot
of patience and for free. However, I am arrogant enough to believe that I
have moved on. I follow the poetic principles of Robert Graves and write a
poem only when an urge to do so grips me. I virtually never revise a poem.
Shahid crafted his poems and would spend months honing a poem. Also, I do
not share Shahid¹s admiration for T. S. Eliot, if only because of the
latter¹s anti-Semitism. Graves believed that the source of poetry is love,
but in some of Eliot¹s poems you can see that hatred can also be a source of
poetry. Oh, a whole lot of credit for the fact that I have a bit of a
reputation as a poet goes to P. Lal of Calcutta.

You keep stressing that for you only three heroes exist ‹ Gandhi, Russell
and Einstein. What about some from the Valley, especially because several
poets of significance have emerged from here in the past centuries?

There is a reason why I focus so much on these three people as my heroes:
none of them was a Muslim. And the reason for this is that I am one. I think
it is important and good for one to have idols that are not from one¹s
religious group, ideological persuasion, ethnic group etc. because then can
one see how silly the divisions between Œus¹ and Œthem¹ are. Of course I
have heroes from Kashmir. Lalleshwari is awe-inspiring, Sheik Noor-ud-din is
a beautiful figure, Rasul Mir is a remarkable poet.

You say that writers are actually political activists. But the political
slant in your verse is minimal. Comment.

Well, I think several of my poems are quite overtly political. When I say
that writing is a political activity, I mean that all writers, knowingly or
unknowingly affect minds and this is a political activity. Shelley said:
"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."

Today with political turmoil in the Valley, you write and dwell essentially
on the personal. Is your personal life affected by politics and, if so, to
what extent?

You seem to be bent upon dismissing me as a bourgeois poet! I think a fair
number of my poems are directly about Kashmir and the turmoil there, for
instance, Kashmir, Downtown Srinagar, There will have been, Raju¹s Address,
Maybe when the Traffic is Running. Here I am reminded of what a promising
young Kashmiri writer, Arshia Unis wrote in her article ŒWhy I put on
lipstick¹. She says that she put on lipstick as a way of empathising with
the women of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan who had no such freedom. So
living your life to the full ‹ even with all the constraints ‹ is a way of
defeating evil. Of course my personal life has been affected by the
political situation, but this is another story for another day.

Can a writer survive in politically charged times? Also is there some
interaction between writers and poets in the Valley ‹ any forum where they
meet or interact?

The test of a writer¹s integrity comes precisely in politically charged
times. Without being foolhardy, a writer should give sanity a voice in such
times ‹ that is their duty, isn¹t it? Is there a forum for Kashmiri writers?
Well, we network loosely and learn from each other. I am especially keen to
meet those writers here who write in Kashmiri, because they know more about
the Kashmiri culture and I always pick up nuggets of information from them.

If you close your eyes how do you visualise the Valley ‹ as a poet, as a
citizen or as a dreamer?

Hopefully, I visualise it as a human being. And the human being in me sees
it as a bridge between India and Pakistan, the human being in me sees the
Hindus who are living in terrible conditions in Jammu back in their homes in
Kashmir.

The intensity (which is obvious in Agha Shahid¹s verse) is missing in yours.
Are you self-conscious or does the fact that you are an engineer with a
state department cramp you?

Well, Shahid was a more intense man than I am, so his poetry is bound to be
more intense than mine. But I am sorry to hear that you don¹t see intensity
in my poems, because a poem is nothing if not intense. As for my being a
government employee, well, all writers, including you, work within
constraints. But my bosses have never tried to censor me in any manner. In
the end, I would rather lose my job than compromise my integrity as a writer.