Literary Notes: Misconceptions and a plea for a 'proper history of Urdu literature'.

Byline: Rauf Parekh

THE latest issue of Urdu Adab, a literary magazine published by Delhi's Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu Hind (ATUH), carries an intriguing article by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi.

As the arrival of Indian books and magazines has come to the proverbial grinding halt ever since the relations between India and Pakistan further deteriorated last year, now we have to rely almost entirely on websites for access to Indian books and periodicals. Luckily, some websites (such as https://rekhta.org), have proved to be a great treasure for the students, scholars and common readers. The Urdu website named 'rekhta' exclusively caters to those looking for material on Urdu literature and language.

Similarly, the ATUH runs its website (www.atuh.org) and new issues of Anjuman's magazines too are uploaded regularly. The ATUH publishes Urdu Adab, a quarterly Urdu magazine devoted for the promotion of Urdu language and literature.

A prestigious journal, Urdu Adab carries informative and research-based articles. Its new issue (Jan-March, 2020) too offers some thought-provoking articles. Available online as well, the issue also carries an article by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, one of the most respected literary figures of our times. Faruqi has earned this respect through sheer hard work, profound study and deep sense of attachment. For him, literature is not a pastime or entertainment. It is a question of life and death. The article is in fact an Urdu translation of his English article. Translated into Urdu by Ather Farouqi, ATUH's secretary and editor of Urdu Adab, it raises many questions about the histories of Urdu literature written so far and is bound to raise many heckles, too. The article asks that a 'proper' history of Urdu literature may please be written.

The original English version, presented as a keynote address at University of Virginia in 2008, was titled 'A Modest Plea: Please, Could We Have a Proper History of Urdu Literature?' On the onset, Faruqi reminds us of Ralph Russell's stricture on some histories of Urdu literature when he elaborated on 'How Not to Write a History of Urdu Literature'. Faruqi says Russell's condemnation could very well apply to nearly all histories of Urdu literature. Faruqi is not any less annoyed with the literary histories of Urdu than Russell was.

Aab-i-Hayat (1880) by Azad is treated as history despite its anecdotal style and inaccuracies, says Faruqi, but even a hundred years after Azad, it has not become clear what...