I am not in the revisionist Azad-Hali camp that condemned the ghazal as a decadent and sick genre to be dumped for Wordsworthian naturalism. On the contrary, I love the ghazal and consider it the high point of Urdu literature that compares with the best of any other literature. What I am arguing for is that we stop ‘singing’ ghazals.
My concern is that the baby is getting thrown out anyway and only the bathwater is surviving. The pool of people who understand the ash’aar AND enjoy the singing is shrinking rapidly -- just think through the transition between the generation before you to the one after you. What I want is that we should work on increasing the number of people who understand the ash'aar. Whether they then enjoy the singing or not is of secondary importance.
Agree
Let’s not throw away the baby with the bath water. It will deprive those who understand the ash’aar AND enjoy the singing.
My concern is that the baby is getting thrown out anyway and only the bathwater is surviving. The pool of people who understand the ash’aar AND enjoy the singing is shrinking rapidly -- just think through the transition between the generation before you to the one after you. What I want is that we should work on increasing the number of people who understand the ash'aar. Whether they then enjoy the singing or not is of secondary importance.