Taufiq Rafat

Writer, interpreter, and poet, Taufiq Rafat (1927–1998) was viewed as perhaps the best
Pakistani artist writing in English. Proposing a basic ‘Pakistani Idiom’, he altered English
language writing in this nation by adjusting and naturalizing English to communicate
the Pakistani experience. 
Conceived in Sialkot in 1927, Rafat was educated at DehraDun, Aligarh, and Government
College, Lahore. His work included in every one of the three of Oxford University Press’ initial
assortments of Pakistani English verse, ‘First Voices’ (1964), ‘Pieces of Eight’ (1970), and
‘Wordfall’ (1976). 
He was distributed abroad in the commended artistic political diary, Encounter, just as
in Poems of the Commonwealth, and Mentor’s Modern Asian Literature. His first
assortment of poetical work, ‘Arrival of the Monsoon’, was distributed in 1985, and
‘Taufiq Rafat: A Selection’ was distributed as a major aspect of Oxford University Press’
Jubilee Series in 1997. ‘Half Moon’ his last assortment of poetry came after his death in
2009. 
His poetical works have been set in an auxiliary school and school English courses in
Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, just as in the Intermediate
English prospectuses in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan. Rafat’s
interpretations of Punjabi works of art into English incorporate Puran Bhagat by Qadir
Yar and the sonnets of the incomparable Sufi ace Bulleh Shah.
TAUFIQ RAFAT’S BIOGRAPHY
Taufiq Rafat was born in 1927. He was born in Sialkot. He opened his eyes to Hazir
Building. It was his ancestral home. It was located on Paris road in Puran Nagar Sialkot.
He was the son of Khwaja Ghulam Muhammad Hazir.  During the Second World War,
his father served the British Indian Army as a supply contractor. His father, later on,
shifted to DehraDun.
After the partition of the Subcontinent, his family came back to Pakistan and started
living in Sialkot. Taufiq Rafat received his education in English Colonial System in
DehraDun. He later on studied at Aligarh and then at Lahore. He completed his
graduation from the Hailey College of Commerce in Lahore. He then became an
executive in a company.
He got married to Rehana Rafat. She belonged to the same Kashmiri family of Taufiq
Rafat. His wife was a social worker. She also served as a women’s rights activist. He is
believed to be the pioneer of English language poetry in Pakistan.  
He is known to be the father of the Pakistani Idiom.  He published his first work of
poetry in 1985. It was titled ‘Arrival of the Monsoon 1047-1978.’ He then published his
second work. It was ‘Half Moon.’ He suffered from a stroke in 1984. He then survived
the stroke. Afterward, he stopped writing and then died in Lahore in 1998.
TAUFIQ RAFAT’S WRITING STYLE
He has been evened out with Ezra Pound for two clear reasons.  First, Pound had a
place with the Imagist Movement which meant to cleanse verse of superfluous items,
to render language exact, vision particular, and thought amassed into the picture. 
Pound’s specialized technique ranges from the straightforward conversational tone to
the long sections. Evidently Rafat’s  “Arrival of the Monsoon “in 1985 is loaded with a
similar strategy. Furthermore  ‘Drabble and Stringer’ in 2007 states that Ezra Pound
turned away from Imagist developments for translations. 
It likewise props Rafat up as the Ezra Pound of Pakistani writing when we go over the
way that: Rafat has additionally deciphered a few perfect works of art of Classical
Punjabi verse. Among these are Bulleh Shah: A Collection (1982) and QadirYar:
PuranBhagat (1983)
USE OF LANGUAGE
Zia Mohyeddin acknowledged Taufiq for the language he utilizes in his verses. He
likewise said that the words he picks are standard. Eminent essayist Kaleem Omar said
that Taufiq Rafat was an artist of the language who had ultimate authority over the
depiction of his musings and emotions. 
Khalid Ahmed remarked that Rafat couldn’t be judged so effectively just by his verse as he
generally stayed away from the abnormal presentation of pictures. M.Tahir Athar, a notable
essayist and a pupil of Taufiq is of the conclusion that he was an inventive author and a genuine
craftsman of nature. 
Alamgir Hashmi and Muneeza Shamsi additionally refresh Taufiq Rafat for his
uniqueness and being the agent of his own way of life, convention, religion, and
society. Sarwat Ali in his article concludes that everything in Taufiq Rafat’s verse was
nearby and inside the setting of Pakistani culture.
IMAGIST AND IMPRESSIONIST
Rafat is without a doubt the best of every single Pakistani artist who wrote in English.
His best work, ‘Arrival of the Monsoon: Collected Poems’ in 1985, including four
sections, carried him to the peak of respect and acknowledgment. He is a one of a kind
and incredible imagist, impressionist, sentimental just as an old-style Pakistani writer. 
He is the writer for whom the incorporation of Pakistani Idioms remained the best
practice all through his idyllic profession, and the others were additionally motivated by
his enormous poetic staff. He is the artist who saw high points and low points on the
dirt of Punjab both at local and national levels, and at familial and political levels. 
His verse opens him to be a genuine onlooker of the progressions occurring from pre-
partition to post Partitions periods. It appears that he relates the fitness of style with
the indigenous topics.
Different methods of postcolonial opposition can be applied to analyze his idyllic
intellect. His utilization of indigenous maxims is additionally one of the sorts of
opposition where he appropriates the language as per his own decision. Ashcroft
points out that the non-English essayists utilize the language of the English for some
reason. 
One of them is to save and engender the nearby culture so that it may grab the eye of a decent
number of crowds. It is drafted that a non-English author who chooses to write in English does
not do so in light of the fact that one’s primary language is viewed by one as insufficient.  It is
but since the pioneer language has become a helpful method for articulation, one that contacts
the greatest conceivable crowd.
SYMBOLIC TREASURY
His all sentences are direct or indirect storage facilities of the representative treasury.
He could have utilized them in interpreted structure however he did the other way
around. For example, we have the word shisham that could be deciphered as sissoo
yet the writer didn’t do as such and fortified his own conviction that verse ought to be
composed by the individuals who are established in the earth on which it is stated. 
Then again, his utilization of this word in his verse has additionally numerous resistive
targets behind it. Shisham, sissoo, tahli and taliare the various names for a similar tree.
It is of incredible criticality in rustic territories of Eastern and Western Punjab. This tree
was the image of comfort, love, and solidarity yet current industrialization has
diminished its customary worth.
His patriotism permeated with the verifiable realities presents the contention between
the conventional and the cutting edge. ‘Arrival of The Monsoon’ encodes a scope of
encounters, from individual to political, financial to the strict, neighborhood to general,
and numerous more.
‘Kitchens’ is one of his most masterpieces. It has increased striking fame among the
contemporary English writing of Pakistan. The kitchen is a representative and amusing
presentation of past culture and the outflow of innovation that has tainted its
conventional setting and transformed the familial practices and standards into
breaking down. 
Because of such treatment with his indigenous topic Jamal Rasheed calls him the doyen
of Pakistani verse. Being Punjabi natives like Rafat we know that unlike the cutting edge
variant of the kitchen, the customary kitchen was the image of familial joining where
the people used to be at home with one another.
TAUFIQ RAFAT’S ROMANTICISM
Rafat’s poetic workmanship is packed with the Romantic characteristics however he
doesn’t distance them from his local soil where he was conceived. His verse for the
most part presents peaceful symbolism where he subtleties the neighborhood
creatures, seasons, individuals, blossoms, and trees as we have just examined shisham,
bulbul, and so on. 
There is nothing remote about the characters and circumstances in his whole exertion.
His poem ‘Village Girl’ helps us to remember ‘The Solitary Reaper’ of Wordsworth
despite the fact that both are not coordinating with one another as far as social
personalities. The writer is completely mindful of his foundations and Pakistan town
life is included in multitudinous sonnets. In characterizing that local atmosphere he
remains in accordance with Shakespeare of England just as Waris Shah of Punjab.
Although Wordsworthian character Solitary Reaper’s correlation with songbird and
cuckoo is increasingly detailed yet the town young lady of Rafat is the exemplification
of Punjabi women’s activist excellence, depicted inaccuracy. Here the analogy
“Sugarcane stalks” plainly depicts the beguiling physical stature of that town young
lady. Beloved’s examination with the regular items has been the act of the Punjabi
writers, and out of them, ‘cypress tree’ with which the stature of adored is analyzed, is
vital. 
Here, the writer appears to go astray from the conventional examination and picks
another symbolism. Rather than utilizing the expression ‘cypress tree’, he utilizes the
picture of ‘sugarcane’. Ali remarks that in Rafat’s beautiful creation the pictures are
suggestive in nature. 
They carry with them the smell, the touch, and the inclination that are natively
constructed and extremely nearby in appearance. ‘Trees in March’, ‘The Marsh Birds’,
and numerous others show the country pictures before the reader’s mind. The poem
‘Trees in March’ presents the pictures of mulberry, ‘mango trees’, ‘ready rainstorm’, ‘
late pipal’, ‘kites’, ‘shisham’ etc.
The Salient Features of Pakistani Literature
in English                              
Literature reflects the spirit of the age in which it is written. It also influences the
age in which it is written and vice versa.  The saying comes true in the case of Pakistani
writings in English.  Dr. Alamgir Hashmi introduced the term "Pakistani
Literature in English" with his "Preface" to his pioneering book Pakistani Literature:
The Contemporary English Writers (New York, 1978; Islamabad, 1987) as well as
through his other scholarly work and the seminars and courses taught by him in many
universities.
Here underneath are some salient features of Pakistani Literature in English:
Religious Element and Impacts
Pakistan is basically an Islamic state and Islam encompasses the every activity of all the
walks of life. No area of the life, individual of collective, can trespass the boundaries of
Islam. Men and women think, do, and say keeping in mind the stand-point of Islam.
Though there are deviation from religious code of conduct yet openly no one dare so, if
one may, he or she does so taking some cover. The stamp of Islam is upheld to be proved
valid. So, in this respect, the literature depicts Islamic values, Islamic culture and
civilization etc.
There are other religions in Pakistan like Christian, Hinduism, Sikhism and Parseeism.
They have their own beliefs, rites, traditions and festivals. These are depicted in the
literature. 
Sectarianism is also a prominent feature of the literature. People are shown feuding with
the opposite sect. Sectarianism causes extremism in the country. Extremism gives way
to anarchism and terrorism. Pakistani society is suffering the deadliest blow of
terrorism.
Religious rites, festival, traditions and customs, offerings and days hold their due share
in the literature. Eidain are the very special occasions that are commemorated with
full religious zeal and zest. There are number of local festivals and days too.
The worship-place holds a prominent place in the Muslim community and likewise the
Molvi does. The non-Muslim communities also have their sacred worship-places which
are revealed in the literature.
Political Scenario
Pakistani Literature in English depicts the Political Scenario of the country. Since 1947,
more of the time, Military has been in power. A time more than forty years, Pakistan
sees an army general as the state head. Intra-Pakistan clashes, based on economy,
language, territory, caste, ethnicity, sectarianism and provincialism, have been the root-
cutters of the state. Divide and Rule, the ancient strategy to be in power perpetually, has
knocked down the national integrity, peace and progress. The corrupt leaders extort
what they can from the masses by hook and crock. Politics shares a vital part in the
literature because a man of conscience can never close his eyes from this deplorable
condition of the country. Pakistani pen men of English write the decaying political
conditions of the state. In Pakistan, there are number of political parties and every party
partakes in election with its own interest. Every party is running a rule-race. Democracy
is a modern term and in Pakistan democracy is the best tool to befool and extort the
people. This aspect of politics is shown in the literature.
Family structure and Shift
In Pakistan, traditionally, there is Patriarch cal family structure. A male member of the
family runs the family affairs while others obey him.  Most of the families live as joint
families and more than one families live in a big house. Grandfather, Grandmother,
Father, Mother, Uncles, Aunts and brothers and sisters live together. The upbringing,
looking after, and schooling thought to be the business of the either Grandpa or
Grandma but Father and Mother also are responsible for that. The matter of the
marriage of the children, most of the time, is considered to be the only business of the
Grant-parents where the Grand-parents may please to tie a knot the Grand-children
dare not disobey. In the joint family system the member shares pains and pleasures. 
The clashes of Bhabi-Nand, Saas-Bahoo and Devar-Devrani  are also the bane
of joint family system. Nowadays this system is crumbling down rapidly and the
separate family structure is emerging. The big joint family is now dividing into small
and individual family. People start living in separate houses with their wife and children.
These both family structures, joint and separate, have the one of the main theme of
Pakistani Literature in English. The writers have dealt with this shift in their writings.
Values
Every society has its dearest values, religious, social, ethical, political, cultural,
traditional economical, and geographical. Pakistani society has its own particular values
too. The dominants are Muslims so the dominant values are those that belong to Islam.
There are non-Muslims with their due values. Since Values have relative importance so
they are, sometimes, controversial. The literature reflects these relative values in there
due spheres. The pen men present them from different angles and with new meanings.
Caste System
In Indo-Pak, Caste System plays a very vital role in the life of the people. People are
judged by their caste or Linage not by their character or deeds. A high-born has almost
all privileges of the world whatever sort of human he or she is. On the other hand, the
world is a hell for a low-born. The low-born is born to serve the high-born. The high-
born does not merry a low-born because the former is Nakami and the latter is Kami.
Even the Jatt does not marry the Butt. This aspect of the society has evoked the writer to
writer on caste system prevailed in Pakistan and India.
Economical Issues
Unequal distribution of wealth has been one the most major issue of the Pakistani
economic system. On the one hand, there are those who have so much money that they
are at loss to find places to spend it. On the other hand, there are those who starve to
death. So the whole strata is divided between ‘’Haves and Have-Nots’’. Land lords,
aristocrates, high official, businessmen, politicians, mill owners, industrialists and
capitalists, who are the frictional part of the population, suppressing the low class,
which is the majority of the population. Banks issue loan on high interest rate.
Unemployment eggravates the situation. Jobians are at the stake of their jobs at the
hands of upper class’ least displeasure. Earning a just livelihood is becoming a Hercules’
job. The literature also depicts vividly the economic issues of Pakistan.
Female Class
In the Literature, female class is presented dependent upon males. A typical Pakistani
female is one who bears the stamp of the concept of pure Easter Female
(Mashraqi Orat). She is confined to the four walls of the house. At other lever she is
dependent on her father, brother, husband and son. She is pictured as weak, humble
and indecisive. But she is also depicted being something else. Someone who can
influence and empower men. Chaste as well as seductress. She is honoured the status of
mother, sister, wife, and daughter. People give life for them and kill as others as well. On
the other hand, she is also depicted as victimizer and the male is victimized.  Sometimes
it is she, not he, who is initiative taker.
Domestic Hobbies and Pastime
The literature shows the domestic hobbies and pastime of the Pakistani folk. People who
have no ain in life kill their time in playing gambling and cards, running races, fighting
dogs, drinking wine, flying kites and pigeons, and sittings in bazaars and on Thharras
(Raise platforms) gazing passer-bys. Some people do the practice of Huqqas
(Hubble Bubble) daylong sitting there idle.
Marriage and Death
Pakistani Literature in English brings both the aspect of life namely happy and tragic.
Marriage is a special event for the Pakistani families which brings them close and
happiness for them as well. It is the time when the newly-weds are starting a new life.
Most of the cases the marriage is an arranged one but sometimes a love marriage is also
acceptable. Firing, firework, Bhangarra, Luddi is favourite part of the marriage-
celebrations.  Mehandi, being a high priority, is a special event of the marriage. Nikah
and Vallema, from Muslim viewpoint, is very sacred event. Other communities celebrate
marriage according to their norms and customs.
On the contrary, death is also the part and parcel of life.  When someone, near and dear,
departs for good the relatives and the family members of the aggrieved and other
acquaintance offer the religious ceremonies for the redemption of the dead.
A Mixed Society
Pakistan Literature in English exhibits the society of Pakistan as a mixed society. This
societical diversity is prominent in every walk of life. The society is an amalgamation of
the Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsees, Buddhas etc. Religious sects are also
there to exercise their power on the society. The society is also divided on the bases of
economy, politics, territory, ethnicity, language, caste, family-system and the high-born
and the low-born. It is a male dominant society where females have lesser power of
decision making and taking as well. But the female class is not altogether a submissive
one. The literature also presents the initiative females in it.