Baloch literature is staggering when it comes to productive content production. Once we complained of shrinking writers in national languages, but in the contemporary context, we are facing the crisis of useful contents – though the former concern yet remains unentertained. Apart from very radical literature, which is of significance, Nisar Ahmed is a name who we can refer to when it comes to pure national literature – one which is of great use in the present and would be of very importance in the future. It ultimately makes him a different author comparatively in the Baloch literature, because he is of a realistic viewpoint in literature, particularly, concerning the contemporary societal concerns and ways out.
In his writings, Nisar Ahmed emphasizes on reflecting the society – how it is and how it ought to be – instead of producing contents that are of use for merely one section of the society only. He believes that a writer is one who is tracing their pen from their roots and not somewhere in the skies. The very same idea is mentioned in several of his writing, including “O [Baloch] Author” – a short piece – “Clinic” his short fiction, and “Sold Intellectuals” – another short piece of Nisar. On several occasions, he has spoken of the same idea, connecting literature with politics – a thought which Ngugi wa Thiog’o, the African postcolonial writer, described in his book “Writers in Politics”. For Ngugi, literature was a tool to politicize the civilians against the larger patterns of repression and, for the same purpose, believed that “literature is inherently political”. Nisar has a parallel view.
On a similar note, there has always been two varying groups in Balochistan: the first was of the view that literature should always be literature and seen accordingly. They believe that literature is beyond nationalism and boundaries, and should never be bound on certain events, occurrences and national affairs. But the second group is of the opposite view: they believe that the essence of any literature is deeply rooted in its existence which roots back to its society – a place where he was born, received socialization and, in fact, become a writer from. When such a place is colonized and requires its children – the literati, the journalists, the intellectuals and people from every other walk of life to contribute in its decolonization – they should be very much ready and willing to contribute – which Nisar believes is the job of such factions. African writers are of a similar view. The same is the case with the Russians who were, at the same time, political and literati – take, for example, Maxim Gorky, Lenin and Stalin. We cannot ignore Mao of China, Edward Said and Ghassan Kanafani of Palestine, Frantz Fanon of Algeria, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam and a growing list of such literati who served the literature as a means of decolonization, resistance and politicization of the respective indigenous people.
Nisar belongs to the “minority group” in Baloch literature who believes literature should be political in both the means for societal welfare and use, and not something that does not reflect the larger societal interests. He believes that a writer is only relevant when they are connected with their roots. The very idea is portrayed in his posts on social media, his subject of fictions, and the theme of his former and upcoming novels. Nisar’s concerns about the contemporary Baloch literati are the indigenous people’s concerns too. During a phase as this, it is the literati on whose shoulders national duties lie to not only politicize their own people and mentally decolonize them, but those of the opposite group as well: if the literati belong to the group of oppressed, they need to write to decolonize and taunt the oppressor and the oppressed, and vis-à-vis – just like French author Jean-Paul Sartre who criticized the French intellectuals and authors, who he termed were “betraying the society” during the second world war, particularly, concerning the French occupation of the Algeria.
In the same view, Nisar Ahmed is different from the rest of the Baloch literati because of his approach towards the Baloch national question, the contemporary societal concerns and his idea of “how Baloch literature should cultivate” the seed of political action. When one reads Nisar, they would realize we need more literati as him to serve the society when it is facing a challenge of extinction of its existence, identity, culture (including languages) and everything connected to it. It is the literati, the intellectuals, who are to step forward and lead through their writings and interactions to mobilize, politicize and organize the masses against the common repression. And the society at large only conform those who write for them as a whole – both in the present and in the golden pages of history.
When your pen is used for merely one section of the society, represents no national agonies at a time as this, and waits for the time and situations to be “cleansed of violence”, the role itself of such literati gets cleansed. Because the right time to act accordingly is the present time when the use of pen for the national cause is not only a necessity but also the rightful duty of a pen-holder. Balochistan is welcoming, asking its literati to serve its people. Nisar does it and he is owned by it: whosoever chooses the other way of skipping, Balochistan and its people will never own them – not in the present and not in its history.
