Doctoral Candidate Adnan Mohsin
Contact: adnan.mohsin01@stud.uni-heidelberg.de
Born in a small village near Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan, Adnan Mohsin developed a fascination for the Urdu language and literature, eventually becoming an Urdu poet and a student of Urdu Literature. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Urdu from GC University, Lahore in 2009 and 2015 respectively. Adnan has taught Urdu at the historic Dyal Singh College, Lahore, for nearly a decade.
Since his university days, Adnan has been deeply intrigued by the under-representation and silence surrounding the events of 1971 liberation war in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in Pakistani historical and literary discourse. This curiosity led him to explore the dissenting narratives found in Pakistani literary writings and the factors contributing to this dissent.
Doctoral Research
Project Title: Hermeneutics of Dissent: A Critical Evaluation of narratives on the separation of Bangladesh in Pakistani Urdu and English Literature
Summary: The incidents that took place in United Pakistan in 1971 – political crisis, military action, the emergence of Mukti Bahini, Pakistan-India war, surrender of Pakistani armed forces, and formation of Bangladesh– not only resulted in a geopolitical change but also reshaped the intellectual environment in Pakistan and Bangladesh (the then East Pakistan). The outcome of the episode is deemed national freedom by the Bangladeshi intelligentsia and academia but is perceived as a dismemberment of the country by the Pakistani side. The authors of Bangladesh have narrated the events extensively as a foundational period of the emergence of the country. Contrarily, Pakistani writers have tended to have by and large refrained from delving deep into this issue in their writings. And those who have written about the issue have divergent views about the contours of the event. different ways of responding to and remembering 1971 in Pakistan are very intriguing. The proposed research intends to find out the social, political, and cultural basis of this diversity of approaches. It will analyze the available texts to figure out which narrative is more rational and realistic. The most recent works will also be considered to know the sensibility, understanding, and diversity of points of view of later generations towards this historical event. A comprehensive survey of literary dealings with 1971 incidents in both Urdu and English writings from Pakistan is a great lacuna in literary history and criticism. This research aims to fill the gap in the literary history and criticism of Pakistan by comprehensively analyzing the literary writings from Pakistan regarding 1971. It may help to open new venues for dialogue to bridge the gulf between the people and the states of Pakistan and Bangladesh.