Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq

Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq (Urdu: حلقہ ارباب ذوق, lit. 'Circle of the Men of Good Taste') is a Pakistani literary movement begun in Lahore, British Punjab, India on 29 April 1939. Early members included Urdu language poets Noon Meem Rashid, Qayyum Nazar, and Meeraji, the latter of whom was invited by Nazar. The Halqa is the second modern literary movement in Urdu poetry in the 20th century, founded just a couple of years after the leftist Progressive Writers' Movement and is considered to be the most influential group in modern poetry in the Urdu language. Its first meeting was held under the name bazm-e dāstāngo (Storytellers' gathering) and organized by writers looking for a non-political meeting, and the name was changed to 'Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq' soon after. Unlike the Progressives, the Halqa was not politically driven, but reflected a traditional Western mode of modernist literature with new styles of prose and new subject areas outside of classical Urdu poetry, with some experimenting with themes relating to the personal experiences of the subjects of the British rule in India. Noon Meem Rashid, for example, while not politically engaged, was influenced by Western modernist poets T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound in exploring new verse forms. Urdu poet Meeraji, who introduced free verse and is considered to be the founder of symbolism in Urdu poetry, was also a prominent member of Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq in its early days.¶

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Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq is a tradition recorded in open cultural data, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶