Zindeeq

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Zindeeq [1] [2] is the fifth novel by Urdu novelist Rahman Abbas , the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award (India's National Academy of Letters) for his fourth novel, Rohzin in 2018. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Zindeeq was published in November 2021 by Arshia Publication, New Delhi ( ISBN   978 9390682461). Rahman has received an international grant to study Nazism in Germany and find out how the politics in Pakistan and India will affect its minorities. [10] The novel research grant was awarded by 'Crossing Borders' programme, jointly held by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Literarisches Colloquium, Berlin as reported by LCB & TOI. [11] [12]

Contents

Zindeeq is published in November 2021 by Arshia Publication, New Delhi, ( ISBN   978 9390682461).

Awards

Maharashtra State Urdu Sahitya Academy Award for Best Novel [13]

Plot

It is a dystopian novel [14] about the future of the subcontinent, challenges faced by minorities and about various aspects of the queer movement and alternative sexual freedom. Although it is a novel about wars in future, it also analyses the past of mankind through the use of mythological tales. [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] German scholar Almuth Degener writes that Zindeeq's plot is gripping. The novel spells out a dire warning: do not allow narrow-minded identity politics to suffocate a liberal and pluralistic social order. Moreover, the book also tackles many things that are not of immediate political relevance, though they do have socio-political implications, such as sex, philosophy, drugs, a dose of Sufism and, not least, poetry. [1]

The novel ends in 2075 with the beginning of a devastating war in the subcontinent. But in a way, it is an anti-war novel. Peace cannot be retained if we fail to understand the terrors of the wars waged in the name of racial supremacy or for geo-political gain. The protagonist of the novel, Sanaullah, is rooted in Indian civilization and states that there are lessons in Mahabharat but realises that man is an animal who does not learn. And if a man cannot learn from Mahabharat or the Holocaust, he cannot learn anything, but can only suffer and die. The second theme of the book is the LGBTQ movement and freedom of choice. The third theme is what are the predictions of the Semitic religions about the last great wars in the world, and how can these affect geo-political equations? [20]

Reception

Critic Dr Shahid Iqbal Kamran analyzed the novel and writes in his article that "Zindeeq begins with the most important day of Sanaullah’s life, when he passed the compulsory examination to become an officer in the army and ends with the phrase, "And the war has begun'. It points to a fear that if both the countries will remain victims of their history, unless people here come out of the ideas and thoughts spread during the British rule, and the light of Taxila is not spread the region will continue to plunge in the darkness. As long as solidarity, freedom and equality are not embraced as a common principle, the fear of war will continue to haunt and destroy minds. And that is what this novel marks on the minds of readers." [21] [22] [23] [24]

Related Research Articles

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Rohzin is the fourth novel of Rahman Abbas. On this novel he won India's highest literary Award Sahitya Akademi Award in 2018. Published in 2016 by Arshia Publications, Delhi, and launched at the Jashn-e-Rekhta, Delhi on 14 February 2016. Since, then, Rohzin has been widely debated in India, Pakistan, The Middle East, Canada, Switzerland and Germany. The author coins the word- 'Rohzin' to signify the psychological trauma of children who witness the betrayal of their parents/sleeping with someone else. Critics in the Global South think of Rohzin as a literary landmark in Urdu literature.

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Ek Mamnua Muhabbat ki Kahani is the second novel by Rahman Abbas. It was first published in 2009 and was awarded Best Novel of The Year in 2011 by the Universal Society for Peace and Research (Aurangabad). The book was an immediate success in the Urdu speaking world.

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Karamat Ali Karamat (1936–2022) was an Indian Urdu poet, author, literary critic, and mathematician. Karamat is known for collecting and introducing Odisha's Urdu literature to the Urdu-speaking world. His works include Aab e Khizar (1963), Shu'aon Ki Salīb (1972), Izāfi Tanqīd (1977), Lafzon Kā Aasmān (1984), and Lafzon Kā Ākāsh (2000). Karamat received the 2004 Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize for his Urdu translation, Lafzon Kā Ākāsh.

References

  1. 1 2 "Rahman Abbas' "Zindeeq": Who's learning lessons from the Holocaust? - Qantara.de".
  2. ↑ "حیدر عباس وٹو کی رحمان عباس سے محبت۔۔عامر حسینی -مکالمہ". mukaalma.com. 10 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
  3. ↑ "Sahitya Akademi announces 2018 awards in 24 languages, Rahman Abbas bags Urdu award | The Siasat Daily". Archive. 6 December 2018. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  4. ↑ "Mumbai-based writer Rahman Abbas wins Sahitya Akademi award". KITAAB. 6 December 2018. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  5. ↑ "Chitra Mudgal In Hindi And 24 Writers Including Rahman Abbas, Sahitya Akademi Award - हिन्दी में चित्रा मुद्गल और उर्दू में रहमान अब्बास समेत 24 लेखकों को साहित्य अकादमी पुरस्कार - Amar Ujala Hindi News Live". amarujala.com. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  6. ↑ "Welcome to Sahitya Akademi". sahitya-akademi.gov.in. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  7. ↑ Scroll Staff. "Novelist Anees Salim among 24 winners of 2018 Sahitya Akademi Awards". shop.scroll.in. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  8. ↑ "Mumbai-based writer Rahman Abbas wins Sahitya Akademi Award". The Hindu. 6 December 2018. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  9. ↑ "Mumbai- Rahman Abbas, author bags Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu novel 'Rohzin' - Kractivism". kractivist.org. 7 December 2018. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  10. ↑ "Narratives on Nazism and Nationalism with Rahman Abbas". KITAAB. 25 May 2020. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  11. ↑ "Rahman Abbas : Literarisches Colloquium Berlin". lcb.de. 24 November 2019. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  12. ↑ "Mumbai-based Urdu writer all set to study horrors of the Holocaust | Mumbai News". Times of India. 25 August 2019. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  13. ↑ "09 Mar 2023 - Page 8".
  14. ↑ "Literary News: Reception of Zindeeq in India and Pakistan - A large canvas novel by Rahman Abbas". 7 March 2022.
  15. ↑ "Mumbai-based Urdu writer all set to study horrors of the Holocaust | Mumbai News". Times of India. 25 August 2019. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  16. ↑ "Interview with writer Rahman Abbas: Overcoming Indiaʹs social divide". Qantara.de. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  17. ↑ "رحمان عباس کا ناول زندیق -شاہد اقبال کامران - قندیل". Qindeel. 12 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  18. ↑ "رحمٰن عباس اردو ناول نگاری کا ایک معتبر نام ہیں یا نہیں ہم یہ تو نہیں کہہ سکتے لیکن انھوں نے ناول زندیق" میں جو تجربہ کیا ہے وہ یقیناً انہیں جدید ناول نگاروں میں اہم مقام عطا کرتا ہے۔". urdu.indianarrative.com. 27 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  19. ↑ "زندیق [ Zindeeq] by Rahman Abbas". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2022-03-04. [self-published]
  20. ↑ "Interview: Rahman Abbas, author, Rohzin – 'When you write about love, sex is inseparable'". 23 September 2022.
  21. ↑ "رحمان عباس کا ناول زندیق -شاہد اقبال کامران - قندیل". Qindeel. 12 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  22. ↑ "Zindeeq-Interprets the Dreams of the Future: Dr Shahid Iqbal Kamran". Dialogue Times. 25 February 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  23. ↑ "زندیق | ناول | رحمٰن عباس".
  24. ↑ "From a distant land".
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