THANKS to Prof Mohammad Umar Memon, his journal, Urdu Studies, has, for the time being, helped me to get rid of the terror-stricken atmosphere we are at presently fated to live in in Pakistan. I have passed this whole week in the company of scholars who, stationed in the different universities of the US and Europe, are engaged in the study of South Asian literatures, with particular reference to Urdu.
Urdu Studies is a publication of Wisconsin University, whose Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia manages to bring it out annually under the editorship of M.U. Memon. The latest I have just received is its 13th issue. During these years, the journal has gradually come to stay as an organ playing the role of introducing Urdu literature to the English-knowing literary world of the West in a serious way. And what a journal! With each issue we feel inducted into an assembly of scholars belonging to different countries of the West and East, preoccupied in the critical study of Urdu literary tradition in its manifold forms.
So, in the present issue, Stephanie Lonsdale, who studied English philology in Barcelona University and later developed interest in South Asian literature, has chosen to make a study of Hajra Masroor’s short story Bhag Bhari, in the light of its social background. And Valerio Peintrangelo coming from the University of Rome will be seen here discussing the theme of social situation of women as treated by male writers in Urdu, and later picked up by female writers who were now seen asserting in the fields of fiction and poetry.
Amina Yaqin from London University scrutinizes Anita Desai’s treatment of Urdu in her novel, In Custody. The way the novelist depicts the situation of Urdu in post-Partition India leads her to conclude that “Urdu is destined to wither away in the stultifying heat of summer unable to sustain the hopeful beginning of spring.” And Amina Yaqin ends her analysis by saying that Desai’s symbolism is tinged with the troupes of a communally-charged present, unable to break out of the fragmentary Hindu-Hindi and Muslim-Urdu divide despite her staging the debates within the ‘secular’ Indian-English novel.”
Shamsurrahman Farooqi’s article deals with what has been termed as Sabak-i-Hindi, which includes Persian poetry, specially ghazal “written mostly from the 16th century onwards by Indian and Iranian poets, the latter term to include poets of Iranian origin, who spent long periods of their creative life in India.”
But perhaps more important is the long section devoted to the study of Mohammad Hasan Askari done jointly by M.U. Memon and Mehr Afshan Farooqi, who at present is an assistant professor of Urdu at the University of Virginia. Mehr Afshan has focused on what Askari wrote between 1940 and 1955, and has translated a number of critical articles written during this period. It was during this period that Askari dominated the literary scene as a critic and fought a number of battles in defence of literary values as he had understood them. He had, in the first phase of this period, written short stories, one of which has been translated here.
The later period has been covered by Memon. While discussing this phase of Askari’s life, he has reproduced in English translation a number of articles written during this period. With complete indifference to contemporary literary situation, he was now preoccupied with the questions which belonged to the domains of tasawwuf and Islamic thought.
Mehr Afshan regrets at what she imagines “his omission from the wider scholarly discussion of modern Urdu literature” and his marginalization because of his confrontation with the progressive writers’ movement. The actual situation is that soon after his death, he came under heavy attack because of his little book published posthumously under the title Jadidyat ya Maghribi Gumrahiyon ki Tareekh. In consequence, a heated controversy flared up. So once again, he was a controversial figure for years to come, compelling Urdu readers involved in ideas and ideologies to react for or against him. A recent controversy which had erupted in the previous issues of Makalma has perhaps not yet completely cooled down.
Along with the critical studies of Urdu writers and writings, we have a section devoted to the English translations of Urdu writings. It includes translations of short stories of Prem Chand, Ghulam Abbas, Hajra Masroor and Ikramullah. Add to it the translation of a character sketch by Qudratullah Shahab.
We find a few Urdu writings at the tail-end of this bulky volume. They carry with them questions relevant to our time. But they ask for a separate treatment. So let the discussion be deferred to next week.
THANKS to Prof Mohammad Umar Memon, his journal, Urdu Studies, has, for the time being, helped me to get rid of the terror-stricken atmosphere we are at presently fated to live in in Pakistan. I have passed this whole week in the company of scholars who, stationed in the different universities of the US and Europe, are engaged in the study of South Asian literatures, with particular reference to Urdu.
