ترقی پسند افسانے کا فنی و فکری جائزہ

Abstract

The Progressive Writers’ Movement (PWM), launched in 1936 in Lucknow and inspired by socialist and Marxist ideologies, aimed to use literature as a tool for social change. Founded by Indian intellectuals like Syed Sajjad Zaheer and Ali Sardar Jafri, it rejected escapist literature, promoting realism and resistance against oppression. In Urdu short stories, the movement shifted focus from romanticism to themes like poverty, class struggle, and gender inequality. Writers such as Krishan Chander, Ismat Chughtai, and Saadat Hasan Manto used simple, bold narratives to give voice to the marginalized, making fiction a powerful medium of awareness and reform.