Political Aesthetics and Progressive Writers, 1940s–60s
Thursday, January 2, 2014: 3:50 PM
Columbia Hall 3 (Washington Hilton)
This paper contrasts the careers and political aesthetics of Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004) and Sajjad Zaheer (1905-1973). Both were among the Progressive Writers’ Movement’s founders and drafters of its manifesto; both were later on the editorial board of the Afro Asian Writers Bureau associated with the Non-Aligned movement, though now as representatives of different countries. Through their divergent pathways, I want to explore how their leftist international
orientation – in relation to an anti-fascist popular front in the 1940s-50s, and in relation to a third world solidarity project in the 1950s-60s – shifted not only their understanding of the nature of their cause and its ultimate destination, but also their understanding of the events of 1947. In one sense the Progressive Writers Association could be seen as consonant with the Nehruvian ideal of nationalism (secular, socialist, radically democratic); yet exceeding it in several ways that I would argue make it something qualitatively quite different. First the way it positioned India's anticolonial struggle in relation to a global, multi-front resistance to fascism-- which they linked to imperialism in both its techniques and its racialist logic-- made India's cause both smaller (as but one of multiple fronts in this resistance), and larger (as not of only local import, but endowed with universal-human-civilizational significance). Second, the association of many Progressive Writers members with communism led to political and aesthetic tensions within the group as well as between them and mainline nationalism; particularly as the communist doctrine of self-determination led them to support Pakistani nationalism even while decrying religious sectarianism and the splitting of Hindi and Urdu language and literature. Finally, their goals were as much about an internal transformation of Indian society and regeneration of its culture as about confronting external enemies, thus redrawing the pathway from treasured traditions to visionary alternate futures.
orientation – in relation to an anti-fascist popular front in the 1940s-50s, and in relation to a third world solidarity project in the 1950s-60s – shifted not only their understanding of the nature of their cause and its ultimate destination, but also their understanding of the events of 1947. In one sense the Progressive Writers Association could be seen as consonant with the Nehruvian ideal of nationalism (secular, socialist, radically democratic); yet exceeding it in several ways that I would argue make it something qualitatively quite different. First the way it positioned India's anticolonial struggle in relation to a global, multi-front resistance to fascism-- which they linked to imperialism in both its techniques and its racialist logic-- made India's cause both smaller (as but one of multiple fronts in this resistance), and larger (as not of only local import, but endowed with universal-human-civilizational significance). Second, the association of many Progressive Writers members with communism led to political and aesthetic tensions within the group as well as between them and mainline nationalism; particularly as the communist doctrine of self-determination led them to support Pakistani nationalism even while decrying religious sectarianism and the splitting of Hindi and Urdu language and literature. Finally, their goals were as much about an internal transformation of Indian society and regeneration of its culture as about confronting external enemies, thus redrawing the pathway from treasured traditions to visionary alternate futures.