Aakar Patel : Khalid Hasan: a great Pakistani
One more on Khalid Hasan this time from Mumbai ~~t
Khalid Hasan was bilingual. That gave him intellectual access that is denied to most English journalists in India and Pakistan. It gave his writing a dimension that desis do not get in other English writing. It is what attracts us to the English writing of bilinguals like Tagore, Iqbal and Gandhi: their knowledge of our subcontinent.
Hasan's writing was illuminating and entertaining for all of us; but his great value was to English monolinguals whom he introduced to their culture and literature. And of course he made people come alive. This is something he had in common with the two men he translated -- Manto and A Hamid.
Like a conjurer, Hasan was able to settle us effortlessly into that favourite subcontinental emotion: nostalgia. He was able to recount anecdotes perfectly. And his readers will remember many of Khalid Hasan's columns because of this talent. He ennobled characters. Delhi, Bombay and Bollywood have suffered because they have not been chronicled by a person of Khalid Hasan's calibre.
Khalid Hasan was bilingual. That gave him intellectual access that is denied to most English journalists in India and Pakistan. It gave his writing a dimension that desis do not get in other English writing. It is what attracts us to the English writing of bilinguals like Tagore, Iqbal and Gandhi: their knowledge of our subcontinent.
Hasan's writing was illuminating and entertaining for all of us; but his great value was to English monolinguals whom he introduced to their culture and literature. And of course he made people come alive. This is something he had in common with the two men he translated -- Manto and A Hamid.
Like a conjurer, Hasan was able to settle us effortlessly into that favourite subcontinental emotion: nostalgia. He was able to recount anecdotes perfectly. And his readers will remember many of Khalid Hasan's columns because of this talent. He ennobled characters. Delhi, Bombay and Bollywood have suffered because they have not been chronicled by a person of Khalid Hasan's calibre.
posted by temporal at 2/11/2009
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