Introducing Postmodernism to a Pre-modern Society

A Book Review by Umair Khan

Postmodernism is believed to be the culmination of the three thousand years of

philosophical speculation. Yet, it is fundamentally different from all the previous
trends, theories, and schools of thought in the history of philosophy. Where all the
energies of the past philosophers were focused to find one “grand theory” to solve
all kinds of intellectual, psychological, social, political, and economic problems,
postmodern theorists are determined to undermine the very project of establishing
one ‘grand theory’ to explain all. In fact, they go one step further and attack the
basis of forming any ‘grand theory’; they’ve brought the formation of a ‘grand
narrative’ that leads to constructing a ‘grand theory’ under the linguistic and
semiotic critique.

Whether its idealism of Plato or realism of Aristotle, empiricism of Hume or

rationalism of Descarte, idealistic dialectics of Hegel or materialistic dialectics of
Marx, existentialism of Sartre or logical positivism of Wittgenstein, every ‘grand
narrative’ has its own flaws and shortcomings and it can’t be used to solve all kinds
of problems. Whether postmodernism is revealing the true nature of human inquiry
or its a reaction to the failure of the modernity project still remains to be decided.
The jury is out. The problem with societies like Pakistan is that they are not part of
this ‘jury’. In fact, they are not even part of the audience in the ‘court room’.

Currently, there are two books under review. The two authors are trying to
introduce postmodern theory and its application to the intellectual circles in
Pakistan who work in the framework of Urdu language and do not have access to
the English sources. The first book “Ma’ Baad Jadeediyat: Nazri Mubahas” is a
collection of essays, compiled by Nasir Abbas Nayyar. This book tries to explain the
theoretical framework of postmodernism. It is quite exhaustive in the sense that it
includes essays introducing postmodernism to the general audience of philosophy
and literature. Then, some essays successfully compare and contrast
postmodernism with modernism and structuralism. Most importantly, several
important postmodern writers are introduced in various essays and their theories
are described in simple language. And finally, several important terminologies of
postmodernism are explained separately. In short, the book contains significant
information about postmodernism to make Urdu readers familiar and acquainted
with postmodernism and the debates prevalent in it.

The second book “Ma’ Baad Jadeediyat ka Doosra Rukh” is an application of

postmodern critique on Urdu literature. Authored by Zameer Ali Badayuni, a
renowned scholar and critic, the book tries to bring postmodern debates in the
realm of Urdu criticism. However, these theories are applied on writers like Mirza
Abdulqadir Baidal, Iqbal, Muhammad Hasan Askari, and Qamar jameel, almost all of
them write in modernist tradition of literature. Their writings are devoid of the kind
of ‘linguistic games’ and primacy of the interpretation of the reader over the
intentions of the writer, which are hallmark of any piece of postmodern literature.
But that is because there are very few contemporary Urdu writers who use
postmodern themes in their writings. Mr. Badayuni has provided Urdu criticism with
a precious new trend. It is now the responsibility of contemporary writers to bring
postmodern themes and ideas into their writings like Mirza Athar Baig has tried in
his stupendous novel “Ghulam Bagh” and several other writings. Only then Urdu
criticism can fully embrace the trends in postmodern critique.

Both of these books are a good attempt to introduce indigenous Pakistanis thinkers
and writers to postmodernism. The problem, however, is that Pakistani society has
not even gone through the complete transition from a feudal to a modern society. It
has not seen the fruits of modernity fully achieved in the western societies. In such
circumstances, postmodern ideas are difficult to be comprehended and still more
difficult to be accepted widely. But, that is how all theories and ideologies start;
from a handful of creative thinkers.

Postmodernism is against any kind of creating a “whole” and letting its hegemony
over other ideas. In a society that opposes Multiculturism, such philosophy which
entails multiple discourses to be treated equally and to be critiqued on equal
grounds can help in starting to create a level of tolerance required for a meaningful
debate. How well these ideas are accepted depends upon the work of writers,
scholars, and academia. As for the present, it is still to be seen how a nation that is
in search of definite answers perceives a philosophy which proclaims that there are
no definite answers.