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The News International,
Wednesday, November 23, 1994
Prof. Nazeer Siddiqi
 Ahmad Shah Bokhari, generally
known as Patras Bokhari in the Urdu knowing world, was one of the few legendary
figures of Pakistan. He rose to fame in the pre-partition India. First he
achieved reputation as an inspiring professor of English in the prestigious
Government College, Lahore. He was fortunate enough to have studied at
Cambridge University under such eminent professors like I.A. Richards and F.R.
Leavis, who were impressed by his remarkable abilities. Probably F.R. Leavis
had predicted a very bright future for him. During his Government College,
Lahore days he gained a reputation not only as an ideal teacher but also as a
distinguished writer in Urdu. He tried his hand in many different literary
forms in Urdu – for instance, he attempted light essay, wrote literary
criticism, translated some of the modern classics of English literature,
introduced early Greek philosophy to Urdu readers and undertook polemical
writings as well. But what has sustained his reputation as a writer in Urdu are
his light essays which are known as Patras Kai Mazameem (1927). There
was a refreshing originality and delightful humour in those essays. Such
spontaneous essays of contemporary interest were written neither before him nor
after him. Perhaps, Prof. Kanahya Lal Kapoor, who was a student of Patras,
emerged as a creative influence of Patras. But there was an intrinsic
difference between the two. Patras by nature was a humorist while Kapoor by
temperament was a satirist. There were some other representatives of humorous
and satirical essays in the field. For example, there were Prof. Rasheed Ahmad
Siddiqi, Farhatullah Baig, Sajjad Ansari, Shaukat Thanwi and others. But Patras
and Kapoor were distinctly different from them.
Before Pakistan came into being,
Prof. Patras Bokhari joined All India Radio as Director General. This was
another phase of his reputation as a distinguished administrator in one of the
most sensitive institutions of the then British Government. It was during this
period that Patras Bokhari appointed a number of renowned Urdu writers and poets
in various capacities, in All India Radio for different stations. These
functionaries included persons like Miraji, Noon Meem Rashid, Saadat Hasan Manto,
Krishan Chander, Upender Nath Ashk, Shaukat Thanwi and a host of others. Z.A
Bokhari, the younger brother of Patras Bokhari was also ushered into Radio those
very days. Both Bokhari brothers came to be known as Barai Bokhari and Chotai
Bokhari. Chotai Bokhari, that is Z.A. Bokhari, surpassed his elder brother as a
radio man. He was indeed a king of voices. He could act in a radio drama in
several voices simultaneously. He could perceive the slightest defect in the
machinery of Radio. Before the establishment of Pakistan, he served as Station
Director at Bombay, Delhi and Peshawar. In Pakistan he held the highest post in
Radio Pakistan. Like Patras Bokhari, he was not only an official of the highest
rank, he was also blessed with literary gifts. A very fine poet of Urdu Ghazal
as he was, he has left his autobiography in an inimitable style.
Though Z.A. Bokhari was bestowed with many qualities, Patras Bokhari was
far ahead of him. As soon as Pakistan came into being, Patras Bokhari
was assigned to serve as the permanent Representative of Pakistan at the
U.N. There he discharged his duties to the best of his abilities and
earned the reputation of being a ‘diplomat’s diplomat’, cosmopolitan
crusader and the citizen of the world. His speeches at the UN attracted
the largest audience. His elegant and impeccable speeches in English,
interspersed with Shakespearean quotations, were highly enjoyed by the
elite audience of UNO. His native humour was another asset which he
employed artistically. Being a specialist on Shakespeare, he knew how
to speak dramatically and charm the listeners with dramatic effects.
Probably he had organized a sort of a theatre at Government College,
Lahore where he had trained some of his talented students as actors.
One of his Hindu students whose name I am forgetting at the moment,
became a film actor of India-wide fame. He was at his best in the Urdu
film Hum Log.
Patras Bokhari had the honour to accompany
Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, on his visit
to America as his main speech-writer. It is said that most of the speeches that
deeply impressed the American minds, were written by Prof. Bokhari. He was a
man of transparent clarity in expression and masterly simplicity in language.
He always attacked his subject from an unexpected angle. He had invariably
something new to say. Not only that he said things in an exquisite manner; he
also managed to adorn his writings with thought-provoking substance.
He died at an age (1898-1958)
which left his admirers to say in the words of Galib: What was the harm
to you if you had lived a little longer?
What is more unfortunate about
his death is that he died in America and his dead body was not brought to his
country. In this way Pakistan was deprived of his physical memorial where his
lovers and admirers could go and pay homage to him.
However, attempts have been made
to collect and preserve his writings as his immortal memorial. The late
Mohammad Tufail was the first editor to bring out Patras Number of Naqosh
in a befitting manner. It contained condolence message of the great
personalities of the world, including that of Hammarskjold, the
Secretary-General of UN, with whom Prof Bokhari had the pleasure and honour to
work. Probably Hammarskjold was the only person of Bokhari’s kind, that is,
essentially a literary, philosophical and somewhat mystical personality,
entangled, like Bokhari, in world politics. The Patras Number of Naqoosh had
several pen-portraits of Bokhari by his close friends, disciples and admirers
such as Prof. Sufi Tabassum, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Kanahya Lal Kapoor and
Prof. Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqi. It also consisted of a selection of his best
essays, translations like R.L. Stevenson’s Markheim, and Galsworthy’s
The Apple Tree, his famous speech on Tunisia, some of his critical articles
and an introductory essay on the early Greek philosophy. I wonder if the Patras
Number of Naqoosh is available these days. If not available, it deserves
to be reprinted.
Fortunately two collections of
Bokhari’s writings have recently appeared – one in Urdu and another in English.
The Urdu collection is the outcome of the labour of Shima Majeed, who has given
herself to rediscover and preserve all that is scattered, buried and lost. Her
collection Patras Kay Nasri Afkar (Patras’s reflections in prose) seems
to some extent an improvement on the Patras Number of Naqoosh. It was published
in February 1994, and possesses Urdu translations of Bokhari’s several writings
in English. One can’t help wishing that Prof. Patras Bokhari was only a writer,
in Urdu and English. He must have enriched both the languages with his creative
and critical writings much more that he was able to do despite his multifarious
preoccupations. He was as fine a critic as a creative writer.
One of Prof. Bokhari’s students,
Prof. Anwar Shabnam Dil, has published a massive collection of his speeches and
writings in English. His book entitled On This Earth Together, is one of
the most welcome gifts of the current year.
Dr. Aftab Ahmad has rightly said that Prof. Bokhari was many things in addition
to being a writer. Literature was not his entire life. It was only a part of
his life. |
