Mumbai: Sometime in the mid-1930s, at writer Sajjad Zaheer’s Lucknow home, a group of writers was conversing when one rolled out the prayer mat to offer namaz. The progressives, not practising Muslims, were surprised. Zaheer calmly replied: “If someone finds peace in prayers, why should it disturb others? He still remains a progressive.”This tolerance defined the Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) which turned 90 on Friday. As members of PWA mark its 90th anniversary at Parel on Saturday, many recall how the progressive movement influenced a generation of writers and poets.“The biggest relevance of PWA is that we are faced with polarisation in our society and PWA members must fight it,” said Nadira Zaheer Babbar, theatre director and daughter of Sajjad Zaheer, one of the founders of PWA.Four friends, Zaheer, Mohammed Deen Taseer, Mulk Raj Anand and Ahmed Ali, met in London in 1935 to discuss the formation of a writers’ association to fight fascism and British rule in India.On April 10, 1936, presiding over the inaugural conference of PWA in Lucknow, author Munish Premchand had declared: “We have to change the criteria of art.”This was an articulation of a long-felt need to liberate literature from the trappings of love and romance and make it a vehicle to oppose oppression.“The film industry and formation of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) in 1943 made Bombay a magnet for the progressives. IPTA became a stage wing,” said Javed Siddiqui, veteran scriptwriter, dialogue writer, playwright and IPTA’s former vice-president.The Red Flag Hall in Khetwadi, the local headquarters of the Communist Party of India, became the progressive writers’ hub, recalled Siddiqui. “I was 17 when I came to Mumbai and would mostly watch the likes of Kaifi Azmi, Sahir Ludhianvi and Khwaja Ahmed Abbas discuss a lot of things. Then Kaifi Sahab’s Juhu home (Janki Kutir) too hosted such meetings,” he said. Actor and wife of poet-lyricist Kaifi Azmi, Shaukat Kaifi, once told TOI that the progressives bonded by sharing meals and singing revolutionary songs at meetings.Over endless cups of tea, these idealists discussed Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Gorky, dreaming of a new dawn.Hope has sustained them. “We keep holding meetings, staging plays, book readings and poetry recitations,” said PWA’s general secretary Sukhdev Singh Sirsa. Charul Joshi, coordinator for Saturday’s event, said: “Our strength lies in the values we progressives abide by. Many of us may not be there when PWA turns 100, but our fight will continue.”
