ABSTRACT
India achieved freedom in 1947 but at a heavy cost. The dream of independence was soured by the reality of partition. It cast a dark shadow, challenging every aspect of the progressive concept. Communal tensions had been so strong that they divided the country; the project of developing a popular demotic language based on a syncretic heritage became a casualty of this division. There had always been a ‘progressive’ presence in the cities of what became Pakistan, but the All-Pakistan Progressive Writers’ Association had a very short and chequered history of a mere eight years. India had emerged from the horrors of partition as a democratic, secular state with Nehru as Prime Minister and a constitution that decreed universal suffrage, initiated some policies on land reform and accorded official recognition to the 14 main languages. Radical intellectuals across India identified with the heroism displayed by Communist activists in the movement and the actions of the peasantry.
