RALPH Russell was a British scholar, translator and teacher who loved Urdu. He spoke chaste Urdu and did not utter a single word of English while speaking Urdu.
Russell was recruited into the British army as second lieutenant during the Second World War and was sent to India. Between March 1942 and August 1945, Russell served in the local Indian forces. As Russell has mentioned in his autobiography, in those days Indian forces’ official language was Urdu and for army personnel it was must to learn Urdu (Juinda Yaabinda, page 274). Russell not only wanted to converse with the local troops in their native language but also to spread, as put by himself, communism’s message of love among the local soldiers and common men who were ignored by the local communist leaders. But Russell never thought that communism was the final or definitive answer. He was much impressed with the sympathetic attitude of communism towards humanity and its message of equality and love.
Finally, when he was to return to his country he decided upon three things: the basic values that had turned him into a communist, love for all which was the basic characteristic of true humanism and — of course — Urdu.
Ralph Russell had joined communist movement when he was 16 and considered himself a communist till he breathed his last. Even after the disintegration of Soviet Union his commitment to communism remained unshaken as he believed that to understand human values and to serve humanity, communist movement was the best way. But he was ever so unpretentious about his political beliefs.
In one of his articles Dr Anwer Sadeed had very rightly mentioned that unlike our local communist leaders, Ralph Russell never used his commitment to communism as an advertising billboard to get a foothold in certain domains. Russell believed in practice rather than preaching and wrote that when you live a life according to your ideals and try to put your values first it does bring change into the lives of those you meet. And it is a fact that Russell left his mark on everyone he met and everything he did, be it Urdu, teaching of Urdu or his students.
He was taught Urdu as an officer of Royal Indian Army Services Corps at Kakul Military Academy where he was sent for training. It was the beginning of his lifelong love affair with Urdu. Russell went on to teach Urdu literature and language and wrote books on Urdu that made him one of the most prominent Western scholars and pedagogues of Urdu.
Interestingly, Russell found love and recognition in Urdu’s literary circles because he never wore his political philosophy on his sleeve though practically he was more communist than the staunchest of Soviet communists. Compare this with the attitude of our political and literary figures that never miss even a slight opportunity to be ostentatious about their political ideas. But he was critical of some communist regimes, too, for their inappropriate approach. Russell firmly believed in justice and denounced every injustice, even if committed by communists.
Ralph Russell was born on May 21, 1918, in Hammerton, a village in North Yorkshire, England. He was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge. Having returned from India in 1945, next year he got admitted to London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) to earn a degree in Urdu, a language that he already spoke like natives as he had worked hard to learn the language during his stay in the subcontinent. In 1949, he was appointed as lecturer at SOAS where he taught for about 32 years. Russell travelled to India and Pakistan many times and to be able to get a real feel of the language and culture stayed with his friends, most of whom were writers, poets and intellectuals.
Russell played a key role in arranging Urdu classes in over 25 UK counties for migrant children. He not only worked to raise the funds for the project but designed new syllabi and wrote a book New Course in Urdu and Spoken Hindi for Learners in Britain. Written with a new approach and different methodology, non-native speakers praised the book, too.
Russell’s other works are Three Mughal Poets (1968), Ghalib: Life and Letters (1969), The Pursuit of Urdu Literature (1992), Selections from Persian Ghazals of Ghalib with Translation (1997), An Anthology of Urdu Literature (1999), How Not to Write the History of Urdu Literature (1999), The Famous Ghalib (2000) The Oxford India Ghalib: Life, Letters and Ghazals (2003), The Seeing Eye: Selections from the Urdu and Persian Ghazals of Ghalib (2003), Ghalib the Poet and His Age (1997). Prof Khursheed-ul-Islam had cooperated with Russell in writing a couple of books.
Ralph Russell wrote his autobiography which was published in two volumes in 2001. The first part Findings Keepings: Life, Communism and Everything was translated into Urdu by Arjumand Ara under the title Juinda Yaabinda. Part two is titled Losses Gains.
Ralph Russell died on September 14, 2008. As he wrote in his autobiography, Russell’s study of Urdu poetry helped him understand that to be a true human it is essential to love, no matter who you love, but love you must!
Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2020
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