The Ambivalent Aesthetics of Muhammad Hasan Askari

Abstract This chapter reads Jazīre, a notable short-story collection by the canonical Urdu modernist Hasan Askari, against the grain to reveal the conflicting commitments of his oeuvre. Askari’s stories reveal a consistent engagement with the category of ordinary Indians, or the ‘avām, who inspire both progressive and modernist tendencies in his work. Where Askari initially deploys a self-reflexive progressivism to advocate for a more capacious representation of the ‘avām in literature, his later stories stress his inability to pursue just such a depiction in positive terms. The internal development of Jazīre, the chapter suggests, necessitates a rethinking of the assumed oppositions between progressivism and modernism in Urdu literature, especially as they inhibit our interpretation of authors such as Askari.