The significance of such a degree of activity becomes more meaningful when seen in the larger context, although "propagation and publication of Urdu in Bangladesh is like trying to grow flowers in the desert," says Bangladesh's Ikramul Haq Aurang in an article published in the Karachi based Qauni! Zaban. "Urdu is not accepted on the governmental level. Nor does it have schools and colleges within its reach...the radio station's international service broadcasts news in Urdu but on a frequency which is not audible in the country. On an official level, Urdu is a discarded language. On the political front, there are occasional statements against it. On the other hand, cassettes of Urdu music are heard in every house. Urdu movies are popular on the VCR." The article goes on to point out that despite heavy odds, writers are still active so that the literature of recent years is comparable with that of India and Pakistan, and what is even more surprising, the number of Urdu magazines and books produced after 1971 exceeded the number of Urdu publications from the former East Pakistan. A bird's-eye view shows the scene to be in a constant state of flux. It is also rooted deep in the area's history. People seem to have forgotten (but should do well to remember) Shabbir Alt Kazmi's pioneering work on the common vocabulary of Urdu and Bengali and his work on the Pothi literature (Prachin Urdu). The common heritage also finds an expression in the previous century and beyond. Abdul Ghafoor Nassakh and Nawab Azad, both born in what is now Bangladesh, belong to the mainstream of Urdu literature. They cannot be dismissed as local oddities, but were part of a long-standing classical tradition which had nourished and sustained them. Dr. Kulsoom Abul Bashar, who teaches Urdu and Persian at Dhaka University, told me that she is working on a full length study of the region's Urdu literature before 1947. Many people are of the opinion that this tradition would have kept on flowering, had not the government-sponsored official Urdu been seen as a threat by nationalist intelligentsia. To this long standing tradition was grafted the considerable literary activity generated by the post-1947 influx of Urdu writers from other regions. The body of work produced then is worthy of greater consideration than some of the Pakistani critics are willing to give presently. The story of the Urdu scene in what was then East Pakistan was compounded by several other factors, which are beyond the scope of the present article. While many of the Urdu writers migrated to Pakistan after 1971, there were many important figures who chose to remain behind. Ahsan Ahmed Ashk, one of the most prominent Urdu poets in the former East Pakistan, stayed back as did the short story writers Zainul Abedin and Ahmed Saadi. Gholam Mohammad, who also had some affiliation with the liberation forces, felt that he had an irrevocable commitment to the land and its people. To these and a host of other writers, goes the credit of having kept alive the tradition of Urdu literature in Bangladesh. The situation underwent a dramatic change in 1971. Despite the extremely polarized situation in the years that followed, several literary cum social organizations cropped up. The "Halqa-e-Ahle Qalam" and "Halqa-e-Yaran" in Chittagong, "Makhzan-e-Adab" in Khulna, "Halqa-e-Ahbab", "Manzil-e-Adab" and Markaz-e-Takhliq-e-Adab' in Saidpur. and "Halqa-e-Fikr-o-Danish", "Bazm-e-Asifi", "Bazm-e-Khateeb" and "Dabistan-e-Adab" in Dhaka are examples of organizations which held poetry sessions and literary evenings. The effects of this widening circle are documented by Aurang: Annual of Urdu Studies, #7 §4