Pakistani Literature In English

Pakistani English Literature: A Historical Glimpse

Foreign languages, especially rulers' languages have always been influencing the local literature and writings extensively. Pakistan is not an English-speaking country, but the Pakistanis have been studying English for more than a century and a half. This paper would cover the English literary traditions and evolution in the sub-continent from the day the British stepped in till the partition of Pakistan in 1971. This was a period of slow incubation during which the power and authority of the English as rulers grew rapidly, leading to a corresponding growth in the importance of English. Encouraged by these signs and fired by the ambition of converting the subcontinent to Western culture, Lord Macaulay proposed the establishment of a network of schools and colleges on Western lines. He dreamt of an India completely metamorphosed mentally, undergoing a spiritual rebirth under the benign influence of the English administrators.

Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), a notable M...

English: Signatures of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

English: My own work

These developments resulted in the formal adoption of English as the official language of India in 1835. In the cultural history of the territories which constitute Pakistan and India this event must be considered a major landmark.

English spread widely and rapidly as a result of the new educational policy. Lord Macaulay's expectation that the people of the subcontinent would renounce their past history, traditions and culture was, of course, not fulfilled. As the Cambridge History of English Literature points out, "the adoption of English as the language of instruction in universities had the altogether unexpected, though in every way desirable, result of revivifying the vernaculars." �But although Macaulay's prediction did not come true, the effects of English have indeed been manifold.

Of equal importance on the cultural level has been the diffusion, through the medium of English, of...