HISTORY sometimes plays strange tricks on writers. It makes them shine and shimmer like stars, creating a halo around them. But when the spotlight moves on to some new entrants, often the old stars are on the wane. And if not in their lifetime, many writers are forgotten soon after they depart from this world.

Worse still are the ones forgotten in their lifetime. Wamiq Jaunpuri, for instance, was a progressive who had become one of the most well-known poets when the progressive literature in the subcontinent was on the rise. But during the last few years of his life, he was almost forgotten and when he died quietly in 1998, not much was written about him. Today many young critics and researchers do not even know who Wamiq Jaunpuri was.

Sultan Hyder Josh, too, was a literary star that shone brightly but was forgotten soon after his death. So much so, that many research works and doctoral dissertations on Urdu fiction do not mention even his name, though he was one of the pioneers of short fiction in Urdu. When mentioning the pioneers of Urdu short story, usually Munshi Premchand, Sajjad Hyder Yildirim and Rashid-ul-Khairi are named. But Sultan Hyder Josh should also be considered one of the pioneers of Urdu short fiction as he began writing Urdu short stories in 1904.

Also, it was Sultan Hyder Josh who introduced novella in Urdu. Often referred to as ‘novelette’ in Urdu, a novella is a piece of fictional prose and is a sort of ‘brief novel’. A novella is shorter than a novel but longer than a short story. Sultan Hyder Josh’s Havaai is Urdu’s first novella. In Havaai ’s preface, calling his work a ‘novelcha’ (little novel), he informed the readers what a novella was with reference to some literary works of English.

Sultan Hyder Josh was immersed in English literature and this is also reflected in his Urdu fiction. Some of his stories and novels are either inspired by or based on some English works. A couple of his works are almost plagiarised from some English literary pieces. For instance, Josh’s Havaai is based on Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. His novel Naqsh-o-naqqaash (1945) is clearly inspired by Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence and his article Iblees is simply a plagiarised albeit short version of Marie Corelli’s Sorrows of Satan.

But all this has indeed added much to Urdu fiction, especially short fiction and novella, helping it to develop and the readers were able to taste some exotic — as well as erotic — style, since Josh was also accused of “obscenity” by some critics. But he did not care a bit and kept on writing in his usual style.

Sultan Hyder Josh was born in Sheikhupur, district of Badaun, UP, in 1886. Brought up and educated at Delhi, in 1902 he was admitted to M.A.O College, Aligarh, but had to quit a year later. In 1912, he joined the government service and began as a tehseeldaar, but ultimately rose to the post of deputy collector.

Sultan Hyder Josh’s literary career began quite early and he contributed to some of the prestigious Urdu literary journals of his times, such as, Makhzan, An-Nazir, Naqeeb, Zamana, Kehkashan, Humayun, Nairang-i-khayal and Old Boy. While writing for Naqeeb, Josh used the penname ‘John Bull’, a befitting epithet for his serio-comic musings on cultural issues hotly debated in those days, such as ‘purdah’ (veil), adopting Western values and, as put by Josh, “aping the West”. He was not against the West or Western lifestyle. Rather, he lived a life that was apparently Western. But he abhorred thoughtlessly copying the West. Josh’s early writings were deeply steeped in Romanticism, as it was the popular trend in Urdu literature of the early 20th century. But later he turned to realism, satirising the political and cultural issues.

After his retirement in 1946, Sultan Hyder Josh had settled in Aligarh and did not migrate to Pakistan after independence. His daughter Abida Begum was married to Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who later became India’s president, but Josh was looked at with suspicion by Indian authorities for his unrestrained thoughts. His cousin and friend Waheed Ahmed had written an article on him in Naqoosh, Lahore, (Shakhsiyaat Number, 1956). He has narrated how Josh was considered a Pakistani spy and the district management was seriously considering his arrest. The reason stated was that Josh had written letters to his cousin, Attaullah, a Pakistani, and was quoted as saying “minority is always oppressed everywhere”, a seditious thought indeed in a post-independence, predominant Hindu India. Waheed Ahmed, being an official in the Indian government, clarified the situation and Josh was spared.

Sultan Hyder Josh’s other works are Nawab Fareed (1911), Ibn-i-Muslim (1915), Fasana-i-Josh (1926), Josh-i-fikr and a play Haram-o-halal. His novel Shabaab remained unpublished. Also, many articles and stories published in journals remain buried there.

Sultan Hyder Josh died in Aligarh on May 18, 1953.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2018