BOOK REVIEW
Hamid Ahmad Khan and His Times
Monthly Alhamra
March 2006 (Hamid Ahmad Khan Number)
Editor: Shahid Ali Khan
Published by: Alhamra Publications
24 J Model Town Lahore
Pages: 104
Price: Rs 30:
Review
by Dr Afzal Mirza
This issue of Alhamara is dedicated
to the memory of Prof Hamid Ahmad Khan who was not
only an eminent educationist but also a research
scholar and intellectual who left a deep impact
in the field of literature and education. Although
he evoked great respect throughout his career as
a teacher and writer but he attained the celebrity
status when he became the vice-chancellor of the
Punjab University in 1963.
Those were the days of Nawab Amir Muhammad Khan
of Kalabagh’s ruthless governorship and people
were skeptic that a person of Hamid Ahmad Khan’s
integrity and uprightness would be able to pull
on with the former. But it was surprising that in
spite of various ups and downs Khan Sahib remained
in that position for six years and when the governor’s
interference became unbearable he resigned and bravely
withstood all the pressures to withdraw his resignation.
Prof Hamid was a forceful writer of both English
and Urdu but had a special devotion for Urdu language.
He belonged to the family that produced luminaries
like Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Maulana Hamid Ali Khan
and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan who were devoted to the
cause of journalism and literature. It may be pointed
out that Alhamra was started by Maulana Hamid Ali
Khan in 1951 but it ceased publication after a few
years. Now in 2000 Maulana’s son Shahid Ali
Khan restarted the magazine and has been regularly
bringing out its issues. Shahid had no experience
of publishing business as he is a banker by profession
but it seems publishing is in his genes that is
why he edits and publishes a very readable magazine.
In the present issue besides Dr Khawaja Zakarya’s
very informative article on the personality of Prof
Hamid Ahmad there are a few very interesting articles
by Dr Anwar Sadeed. The learned doctor is a prolific
writer and even at 78 he writes for almost every
literary magazine of the country. He has written
on the literary contribution of Mahmood Hashmi,
another octogenarian writer, who is still active
at this ripe age. Hashmi’s name has permanently
entered the annals of literature due to his moving
book “Kashmir Udas Hae” written soon
after partition. He was then teaching in a college
in Indian-held Kashmir.
Another interesting article has been contributed
by Dr Ihsanulahaq who has written a Ph D thesis
on Prof Hamid Ahmad Khan’s contribution to
Urdu language and literature. He points out that
although Prof Sahib wrote incessantly but during
his lifetime he wasn’t able to collect all
his writings and publish them in book form. The
credit of publishing all his valuable articles on
Ghalib goes to his son Said Ahmad Khan who published
them as Muraqa-e-Ghalib.
Columnist Kazi Javed has contributed an inspiring
article on Dr C.A.Qadir, the late professor of philosophy,
who made a legendary contribution to teaching and
research in the field of philosophy. Kazi Sahib
has recalled his personal association with the late
professor who after retirement from the Government
College Lahore had been engaged by the Philosophy
Department in the Punjab University. At the tail
end of his life, Dr Qadir was inflicted by the tragic
death of his young and brilliant son Muzaffar Qadir.
Kazi Javed writes that on the third day after the
death of his son he saw Dr sahib coming to the university
to teach and when he asked him how did he feel about
life after this tragedy, he replied, “Absurd”.
In addition to a rich section on essays and articles,
Shahid Ali Khan has published a short story of the
most important contemporary story-writer Azra Asghar
and has also published travelogues by Anwaar Feroze
and Khalid Lateef. The poetry section carries the
poems by Abdul Aziz Khalid, Aslam Ansari, Khayal
Amrohvi, Mashkoor Yaad, Hussain Shahid, Zafar Ali
Raja, Neelam Ahmad Bashir and Shagufta Nazli.
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