By: M. Shanawar Jura
In Urdu poetry there are many genres like ghazal, nazm(poem), Tarweeni(three liners) and many others. These are the genres that have practiced by the classical and modern poets as well. Slowly and gradually the trends of Urdu literature has changed especially after the new era has started. This new era is called the post-modern era of Urdu literature which starts from the 1990s almost. It got its flow with the advent of millennium. In this era many changes have occurred in the literature, for example, the change of diction, ideas and writing style are remarkable.
In this context, the new genre has emerged that is called ASHRA (Ten liner). The founder of this form of literature is Idris Babur who is from Gujranwala.
According to him ASHRA is basically ten liner poem which may consist of rhyme or may not. Moreover, it can hit the number of topics like politics, economy, religion and other social issues. One can follow the meter or cannot. In simple words, it has no boundary but the only restriction is the ten lines.
” This new genre (ASHRA) of the literature is getting popular among the young poets because of its diverse topics especially the current issues of the country and the society “
A few years before this new genre started traveling on the road of movement and with the passage of time, it made massive familiarity among the young writers. Young writers not only started writing but also launched campaigns through different forums for this new genre of the literature. While on the other hand, senior poets started a kind of witch hunt and opposition against this campaign. But very few writers recognize it like Afzal Syed, Saeeddudin and Ajmal Kamal are notable.
This new genre of the literature is getting popular among the young poets because of its diverse topics especially the current issues of the country and the society. Moreover, it facilitates the writer very much to express his or her feelings without any boundary and limitation. Ashra negates all the walls and difficult parameters of poetry and gives freedom to the writer so that he or she can peculiar the inner majestic and naïve feelings smoothly. In this very context, many young writers wrote about freedom, happiness, life, and other nonidentical topics. In addition to this many renowned institutions like university of engineering and technology(UET), university of Gujrat(UOG), university of agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) and some other universities organized Ashra competitions. In these competitions, the younger generation not only participated but also tried to persuade the senior writers by their acceptance.
But on the other hand atrocities and awfulness by the senior writers are at the peak. In the same context in a conference of Urdu literature, it was banned to a poet that not to recite the Ashra. basically, the Ashra was about the incident of Zainab.
So basically there is involvement of politics in the literature. The person or community on a higher level will decide what to read and what to write. Then the question is that who will tell this nation truly that what is right and what is wrong ? who will tell about the rights of the people? who will tell that where is the charming gate of freedom? This situation is really shameful. Writers should accept the new ideas and new styles of writing and there should be no politics in the literature otherwise the next generation will blind from the right and the wrong and there are numbers of chances that they may not accept the new ideas and novelty in any field.