Background of Progressive Literary Movement in Sindhi Literature (1936 - 1970)

Abstract

Progressive literary movement is one of the main literary movements in subcontinent which not only left enormous effect on literary figures and works but ordinary people’s thoughts and attitudes got influenced through its specific organized ideas and manifesto. Generally, after 1936 and in particular from post -partition to 1970 period, literary movement which strongly influenced to the Sindhi literature is recognized as the ‘Progressive Literary Movement’. The intellectuals, writers, poets and scholars associated with this movement promoted social thought and ideology in different genres of literature and disciplines of social life and tried to connect it with social change. In Sindhi, the new tradition introduced and established by the Sindhu magazine helped to advancement of realism and this trend paved the way for the progressive movement. By 1947, when Shaik Ayaz, renowned, prolific Sindhi poet and intellectual, published the ‘Agty Qadam’ (Step forward) magazine, it played the powerful role in the dissemination and diffusion of progressive thought and views. Not only, the first Sindhi free verse got published in this magazine; it also initiated the foundation of progressive literary criticism. In fact, the activism generated due to the global and regional impacts contributed to the foundation of an organized literary movement in Sindh. The occurrences and historical developments in the form of Sindhi Adabi Circle (Sindhi Literary Circle) in 1943, Association of Progressive Writers in 1945 and establishment of Sindhi Adabi Sangat (Sindhi Literary Organization) in 1947 are the best example and evidence of in the connection of literary progress in Sindh.