Written by: Mahnoor Fatima
Posted on: July 01, 2020 | 
| 中文
(L to R) Ibn-e-Insha, Ashfaq Ahmed, Munir Niazi and A Hameed
When it comes to Urdu writing, particularly the humorous kind, Ibn-e-Insha is hailed as one of the finest Urdu writers of his generation. Insha or Inshaji, as his contemporaries and admirers called him, was born Sher Muhammad Khan in Pillaur (now Jalundur, India) in 1927. He moved to Karachi Post-Partition, and continued to write there till he passed away in 1978. Insha was known for his poetry, prose and newspaper columns. His language was playful, accessible, but also possessed a great depth and command over his language.
Perhaps Insha was most famous for canonizing the travelogue as a popular form of Urdu literature. His work with the United Nations allowed him to visit countless places, and he used these experiences for his writing. He gave audiences an insight into foreign worlds, from the United States and Soviet Russia, to China and Japan. Not only does he use his humor and detail to entertain, but he also takes the time to carefully educate the reader about the history, the customs and the political/economic issues of the regions which he visited.
Chaltay ho tou Cheen Ko Chalye (If We Must Go, We Should Go to China) takes Insha and his charming intellectual friends to the China of 1966, a little before the Cultural Revolution. His three-week journey took him across major countrysides and cityscapes, like Wuhan, Suzhou and Canton (now Guangzhou) but also major cities like Shanghai and Beijing (then, still called Peking). This was a unique time in China’s history, as well as in Pakistan-China relations.
The Book Cover for Chaltay ho tou Cheen Ko Chalye (If We Must Go, We Should Go to China)
At the time when Insha was traveling, Third World Countries wished to carve out a separate identity from the Cold War politics that were prevalent in that period. China emerged as a rising superpower, which was communist, but focused on pushing forward development based on its own unique culture and attitudes. The China which Insha traveled to, had only just begun to open up to foreign tourists.
But in his book, Insha mentions the presence of Chinese people who lived and worked in Pakistan, or Pakistanis who worked and resided in China, suggesting that the relations between both the countries had already been well established by the 1960s.
The City of Shanghai in the 1960s, when Insha was visiting it
China held a special place in Insha’s heart due to his own left-leaning, anti-colonialist inclinations. He sympathized with their anti-colonial struggles, which he traces from the first Opium Wars to China’s final liberation in 1949. He was particularly astounded by the speed at which they managed to develop their infrastructure and social services. He was impressed by how the state took care of its citizens, and in return how the citizens worked to claim ownership of the country. After his visit, he also translated several Chinese poems into Urdu, some of which are found in the book.
The Palace Museum, Beijing in the 1960s, as Insha saw it
A recurring theme in the book is the idea of translation, making connections, and sometimes a lack thereof. At the time, China’s interaction with the world, particularly with the West, was very limited. Therefore, certain Chinese customs or practices were not fully compatible with those of the rest of the world. For Insha, things as simple as not wanting to drink hot tea all time, to more complex ideas of class struggle was difficult to predict or understand fully. And the language barrier meant that much of what ordinary Chinese people said to Insha was unfortunately lost.
Shanghai Hotel in the 1960s
However, Insha spent a considerable time amongst those who crossed between both languages and cultures, whether Chinese or Pakistani. The comedy came from misunderstanding each other, or a lack of information about each other. For instance, some incidents revolved around his pretending to have authored such great Urdu classics like “Aag ka Darya” or “Khuda ki Basti”, or accidentally giving a children’s book to a 24-year-old student of Peking University’s Urdu Department, who was actually fluent in the language.
Sometimes, though, he does succeed in making a connection, particularly through his poetry. As he translated popular Chinese poetry, he was met with great acclaim and appreciation from even the Chinese. During a party in Wuhan, the translator was narrating the lyrics of a popular song to Insha, who was inspired enough to compose a poem in Urdu. He found a deep and a meaningful connection between Chinese and Urdu, perhaps not in the language structure but rather in the themes, the stories and the feelings of everyday people.
Huaisheng Mosque, built by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, which Insha also visited during his trip
What is notable is that Insha never approached his subjects with prejudice, instead, he had an intellectual curiosity, and gave a sincere account of his interactions with a world that was altogether different from what he had imagined. He recalled the travels of famous explorers, Ibn-e-Battuta and Marco Polo, who first traveled to China, and introduced the people of their homelands with stories of that undiscovered country’s grandeur.
China and its tourism have come a long way since the 1960s, but Ibn-e-Insha’s work still serves as a fascinating first-hand account of a country that was asserting its identity to the rest of the world in the post-war era. It is clear that the people and the history of China left a lasting impact on Insha, and the connections he created between the two cultures have had lasting impact even in the present day.
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