The urdu novel has made advancement in fits and starts. I mean that the history of this genre lasks the kind of continuity we find in the case of urdu short story, the history of wich can be divided into different periods, one following the other and each possessed wich characteristics of its own. This continuity guarantees a stable tradition of fiction wich possibilities of development.
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In the case of the novel, its early period appears to be very productive wich a number of novelists dominating the scene of urdu fiction. This period seems to have come to an end wich premchand’s Gaoodan’ wich was published in 1936. It was the year when a new literary movement called the progressive Writers Movement started with a bang.
It brought in its wake host of short story writers. Another literary trend called modernism appears to have provided an incentive of the short story rather than for the novel. So the rich literary period which its beginnings in late 1930s seems to be dominated by the short story writers. Amid this crowd of short story writers a novelist worth the name is hardly visible. Only when the decade of the ’40s were drawing an end did two major novelists make their appearance, one after the other.
They were Aziz Ahmad and QurratulAin Hyder. Of these two major figures, Qurratulain Hydre made her presence felt in a big way. But even the craze for her captivating style amonge young leaders did not lead to a rich period of novel-writing. From then on there was a sporadic rise her and there of fiction writers, who chose to write one or two novels along which their short stories. Those who chose to gave precedence to novel writing are very few in number. So after the publication of one serious novel, we have to wait for a sufficiently long period to get another one worth the name. Now her is a novel titled Na Junoon Raha published by Sang-e-meel. With the publication of this novel Muhammad Saeed Sheikh has to his credit three novels, and so now he can well claim to be a novelist.
Although written in a traditional way, I have sensed in it something which helps us to distinguish it from purely traditional novels. This ‘something’ may be defiend as his attempt to probe into the inner being of his characters. In fact, in contradiction to the pratice of traditional novelists, Saeed Sheikh likes to go beyond the social level of human relationships and enquire into the inner world of his characters, hoping to have an access to their true selves. That is what he appears to be trying to achieve in the present novel. The two central characters, Arjumand and Gulshan, hardly give any clue of their true selves in their marital life. Each carrias with them an inner world, which they do not like to share with the other. It is here that they revel their true selves. Arjumand still carries the remembrance of iffat with him, enshrined in the inner most chamber of his heart. Iffat, on the other hand, in a state of frustration submits to the will of her father and agrees to marry of young man who is a frutrated soul and leat interested in his marital life.
In a fit of frustration he proceeds to Afghanistan and Joins the group of militants who think that they are fighting for a just cause. Ofter undergoing much suffering he succeeds in his attempt to escape from there. He returns home and reconciles with his family. He is now a changed man and is happy to live with his wife iffat and his daughter Afiya. But soon he is kidnapped in a mysterious way. The author says no more than that, leaving it for the reader to guess who the kidnappers are.
So in this way sinister situation from our contemporary life creeps into a story of relationship and gives it a new turn. This speaks of the author’s socio-political awareness. But Saeed Sheikh is not among those writers who demonstrate their socio-political consciousness by taking sides and making ideologically biasd comments on the current situation. Possessed of the quality of artistic restraint, he is content to present the situation as he has observed it. If there is any comment at all it comes from the characters themselves, those who are involved in the situation.