Sindhi Fiction Writers Talk About Rural And Urban Divide In Sindhi Literature

In a survey conducted by WiseSindh on topic of "Shouldn't Sindhi literature be urbanized rather being rural?" on social media renowned and seasoned Sindhi writers including Shoukat Hussain Shoro, Amar Leghari, Azharuddin Noonari, Hafeez Laghari, Inam Sindhi and others participated and shared their views regarding this important question. The WiseSindh asked following question in a social media (facebook) post on Wednesday 07-08-2019:

Q: Is it necessary that only rural Sindh should be depicted in Sindhi literature? Should other topics be ignored?

Couldn't writers depict and portray urban life and its different issues in Sindhi literature?
Even some recent Sindhi novels written on university life unnecessarily portray rural issues in them.
Isn't it need of the hour to urbanize Sindhi literature like other walks of life?

Should we still produce traditional rural literature?

To these questions of serious nature seasoned short-story writer and dramatist Mr. Shoukat Hussain Shoro responded thus:

"Sindhi literature shouldn't be limited only to rural life and not only to urban, when any story or novel is created; it brings its background with itself, that is not the choice of creator to fill it up with rural or urban background, this limit couldn't be drawn by a critic and not even by a creator. Our young generation should compulsory read stories of Naseem Kharal, I don't think after reading him there would be any confusion."

Famous Sindhi novelist and short story writer Mr. Amar Leghari responded:

"The body of our Sindhi literature is of post-romantic (Edwardian), while its head is of modernist (post WW-I) approach, we need a lot of experiments. This very important question and we should seek its answer from what is being published in Sindhi. In actions or events characters should deliver dialogues according to their social backgrounds, but it is necessary to see the diction of writer when describing characters and events, I have still not come to conclusion what is urban Sindhi, whether it's a new diction, a slang or mixture of other languages like Urdu and English."

Novelist and critic Mr. Azharuddin Noonari responded with a question:

"I want to ask a more important question, whether social issues should be portrayed in literature?"

Writer and publisher Mr. Inam Sindhi responded: 

"Both rural and urban societies should be portrayed in our literature, but it is vital use Sindhi language rather than using Urdu or Persian words."

Researcher and reviewer Mr. Abdul Hafeez Laghari responded:

"It is difficult as the urbanized teenagers of Sindhi community while talking Sindhi use words from other languages frequently, who would a story depict them while using pure Sindhi. The language should be considered according to the demand of the character."

WiseSindh came to conclusion from this survey that majority of Sindhi writers were of opinion that the rural or urban background of the story should be considered by its plot.

It was also concluded that representation of both urban and rural in literature was important, but it depended on the creator what he/she wanted to share with his/her readers. 

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