Rita Farhat Mukand

What would have been just another conference that ended with the invitees returning home rejuvenated did not quite turn out that way. A new exciting journey commenced at the end of the two-day All India Women Writers Conference in Patna, hosted by Bihar Urdu Academy, six years ago.

Some 250 women read their stories, poetry, and prose, and shared research papers on different topics at the Patna event. With a concoction of senior writers, junior writers, research scholars, journalists, professors, and some teachers, all gifted scribes, the event was incredibly thrilling.

Tasneem Kausar, former Urdu news anchor in Doordarshan, was one of the participants. Going down memory lane she says, “That conference connected us all. Earlier, we used to see these writers’ names and read about their works in newspapers and magazines but never met them in person. This occasion brought a lot of positivity and we even celebrated someone’s birthday. In the last session, the president Nigar Azim, a very renowned story writer gave a stirring speech as she said she is not sure if we would meet again.”

A gathering of women Urdu writers

Tasneem Kausar, Akashwani, author of Bonsai, a short story collection, who lives in Purnia, Bihar says, “I took a bold dive and declared, “We will get together again, and we will meet soon.” She was being boisterous as she had no idea about how that would happen. Probably, no one took her seriously. She and others headed to their destinations.

“When we returned, I was in touch with my friend from Kashmir, Razia Haider Khan from Jamia Milia Islamia who conducted a radio and anchoring session.

One day, I asked her, “Why don’t we start an organization for women Urdu writers that would revive Urdu literature which seems to be dying out?” Razia liked the idea. We decided to talk to our senior leader Nigar Azim. Still, before that, I called my other friend, Tarannum Jahan Shabnam along with Razia Haider Khan and we excitedly shared our thoughts. When we met Nigar Azim, she was pleased with the idea and said, “It can be an extension of our conference.”

“We did not waste a moment and started a WhatsApp group on 4 October 2017 with just four members initially, I, Tasneem Kausar, Razia Haider Khan, and Tarannum Jahan Shabnam under the guardianship of our senior writer Nigar Azim.

An event of BANAT

“We held our first formal meeting on the 31st of October at the Ghalib Academy in Delhi, and we named it Bainul Aqwami Nisaai Adabi Tanzeem (BANAT) meaning International Women Urdu Literary Organization with nearly 125 members. The sisters elected Nigar Azim as president, Azra Naqvi as vice president, and Tasneem Kausar (me) as the general secretary. BANAT Foundation is registered as a Trust in Delhi."

Under Nigar Azim’s guidance, the BANAT grew to 135 members. Yearly, it holds two special programs - one around International Women’s Day in March between March 12-16 and the other on its foundation day on December 31.

"We strictly use the Urdu language only in our WhatsApp group, not allowing English or Hindi even if it is broken Urdu. If any writer wants to pen her thoughts, poetry, story, or research article, she can send it in and our group of professors read it, correct it, and approve it to be published to encourage young new writers who generally hesitate to come out in the open.

“Our vision in BANAT is to revive the dying Urdu language which we fear may fade away with time. We wanted to create a honey web of Urdu literature by enabling women Urdu writers to share and publish their literature with ease. In BANAT, we envision Urdu as a sweet honey-toned language that should never disappear and are working raising writers and artists to keep creating new stories and poetry. Our queen bee is Nigar Azim and we are all busy bee workers!

Members of BANAT during an event

“With the rising revolution of media and social media, people are delving less into literature and the art of reading is slowly vanishing. In promoting Urdu through literature, we also took the media to organize eloquent oratory programs with thought-provoking speeches and talks. From 2017, we have only moving forward. In our organization, we call ourselves sisters and we are 125 ladies.”

BANAT celebrates its Foundation Day on October 31 in different states; so far it has been ogranised in Kashmir, Udaipur, Mumbai, Punjab, Meerut, and Delhi. This year’s event is planned in Hyderabad.

The Srinagar event was sponsored by the J&K government under the provision for the promotion of the Urdu language. Likewise, members tend to seek collaboration for the event.

This year, the two-day event is scheduled at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University of Hyderabad. It’s being held in collaboration with the Women Studies Department of the University.

“The University has been a pillar of support to us. It has generously given us their auditorium for the conference and we will be staying at their guest house from 29th October and holding a Mushaira on the 31st night in their open auditorium, while our other sessions will be held indoors.”

BANAT members

The MANNU covered 75% of the expenses of the events, members contributed the remaining amount.

“This time in Hyderabad, we will have a panel talk show in Urdu on a one-to-one basis with students in a prose and poetry question and answer session, and at another time, we will have a journalism one-to-one session with the students.

Tanseem Kausar also gave details of the women's group plunging into social work during the COVID crisis. “During COVID-19 we pooled in money to distribute raw ration kits to the needy. We gave a lot quietly, without any publicity because we did not want to embarrass the people we were helping."

The women writers also came together to help the victims of the East Delhi riots. “Nigar Azim was the only one in Delhi at that time, and she bravely started a great initiative to go to the most affected areas during the riots to help the victims. Along with a few others, they visited homes and also found shops burned down. Contributions were given to rebuild their shops and lives. It became a small movement where others not in BANAT such as my brother reached and brothers of other sisters reached out to help as we were contacting the needy people, so they were more than willing to help as they felt their money was going to the right place. We help only in emergencies as the need arises and not as a general practice.”

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Tanseem runs a primary school in Purnia and is happy that the Urdu literary movement continues to evolve and is making a difference in the promotion of the Urdu language.

Rita Farhat Mukand is an independent writer and author.