Literary notes: The 1965 war and Pakistani Urdu literature

The 1965 Indo-Pakistani war saw an overwhelming support for the Pakistani armed forces from the Pakistani nation and everyone stood behind them (for they were the very people the true soldiers loved and fought for).

This included poets, writers, journalists and intellectuals. The Indian attack, wrote Dr Waheed Qureshi, bolstered a true sense of unity among the Pakistanis, which was hitherto not as deep as one would have desired. The introvert writers, romantic poets and the intellectuals who used to ask ‘should a writer be loyal to the country’ began reassessing their noncommittal stance.