بلوچستان کے اردو افسانے میں"لب ۔ ولور"کی روایت کا انعکاس : تنقیدی مطالعہ

Abstract

Balochistan has been the cradle of diverse cultures, sub-cultural zones, value systems and tribal and oral traditions. As per the 2017 census report Baloch and Pashtoun are the major ethnic groups and Balochi, Pashto and Brahui are spoken by 36.70%, 36.40 and 17% respectively. According to the said census report above 72% population live in rural areas and still live in traditional tribal structures. Contemporary and 20^th century anthropologists segregate the Pashtun and Baloch tribal systems in the Afro-Arabic and Turko-Mongol social systems. Although diversity of the natural habitats, livelihood and mean of production, there are interesting commonalities and divergence in terms of cultural histories, value system, customs, mythology, rituals and intangible cultural heritage.

Although both Baloch and Pashtun ethnic tribal structures are led by the patriarchal norms and the family-clan structures have been evolved around patrilineal patterns, the customs of marriage and particularly the bride price also calls “Lab” and “Walver” in Balochi and Pashto respectively have common social acceptance. The Pashtun and Baloch folklorists and cultural experts argue on the significance of the “bride price” as means of social security and men’s premarital performance as bread winner. On the contrary this ancient custom has shown the dark side of women’s commoditization.

How the Urdu fiction writers have dealt “Walver” and “Lab” in their published works is one of the leading questions investigated in this research paper. The paper tends to analyze the textual discourse beyond symptomatic levels.