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For many people, Urdu is indelibly associated with a bygone era: the cultural renaissance of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the face of colonial oppression, heady mushairas and romantic poetry. For others, it brings to mind the gritty prose of the Progressive Writers portraying the grim social realities of the mid-twentieth century. In this luminous collection of Urdu poetry and prose, Ralph Russell expands our world of Urdu letters to include folk and oral narratives, besides prose and poetry. By situating each form historically, he gives us a refreshing perspective on the diverse literary cultures and histories of India. Besides canonical short stories by the likes of Manto and Premchand, there is Ismat Chughtai's a little-known autobiographical essay about her relationship with her brother, the writer Azim Beg Chughtai. There are creation tales from the Quran, popular stories of Akbar and Birbal, along with the legendary exploits of Sikandar (Alexander the Great). Selections from the sublime poetry of Mir, Ghalib and others are supplemented by astute commentary and roman transcriptions of the original Urdu. Farhatullah Beg's brilliantly imagined account of the 'last Delhi mushaira' captures a moment in time never seen again, with the horrors of 1857 just around the corner. An accessible introduction for unfamiliar readers, and a pleasurable companion for those familiar with Urdu literature, this volume is a treasure trove of stories, poetry and history. Originally published as Hidden in the Lute(1995), this revised edition has been edited by Russell's student and friendfor several years, the novelist Marion Molteno.
The two Muslim poets featured in Scott Kugle's comparative study lived separate lives during the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries in the Deccan region of southern India. Here, they meet in the realm of literary imagination, illuminating the complexity of gender, sexuality, and religious practice in South Asian Islamic culture. Shah Siraj Awrangabadi (1715-1763), known as "Sun," was a Sunni who, after a youthful homosexual love affair, gave up sexual relationships to follow a path of personal holiness. Mah Laqa Bai Chanda (1768-1820), known as "Moon," was a Shi'i and courtesan dancer who transferred her seduction of men to the pursuit of mystical love. Both were poets in the Urdu language of the ghazal, or love lyric, often fusing a spiritual quest with erotic imagery. Kugle argues that Sun and Moon expressed through their poetry exceptions to the general rules of heteronormativity and gender inequality common in their patriarchal societies. Their art provides a lens for a more subtle understanding of both the reach and the limitations of gender roles in Islamic and South Asian culture and underscores how the arts of poetry, music, and dance are integral to Islamic religious life. Integrated throughout are Kugle's translations of Urdu and Persian poetry previously unavailable in English.
Urdu was born, Russell writes, out of the need of Muslim invaders of India from the 10th century onwards to create a literature in which they could communicate with their Indian subjects. Slow to gather literary momentum, it is now one of the great literatures of the area. This collection, selected and translated by Russell, includes the work by Ghalib, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chugtai, Prem Chand, Krishan Chander and many others. There are sections on popular literature, love poetry, the novel, new and traditional names. Notes on writers and further reading are included, as well as extracts from the letters of Ghalib.
This book, aptly titled ‘Tabiyat’ which translates to ‘health’, ‘nature’, ‘temperament’ or ‘disposition’, is a collection of nine masterly and thought-provoking essays which explore some important discoveries, dwelling on their relevance in our daily lives. Including essays on War and Medicine, Medical Ethics, Music and Medicine, Nursing and Death, the book encompasses various fields of human endeavour and aspects of life and living which influence and impact medicine.
First published in 1932, this slim volume of short stories created a firestorm of public outrage for its bold attack on the hypocrisy of conservative Islam and British colonialism. Inspired by British modernists like Woolf and Joyce as well as the Indian independence movement, the four young trailblazers who penned this collection were eager to revolutionize Urdu literature. Instead, they invited the wrath of the establishment: the book was burned in protest and then banned by the British authorities. Nevertheless, Angaaray spawned a new generation of Urdu writers and gave birth to the Progressive Writers' Association, whose members included, among others, stalwarts like Chughtai, Manto, Premchand and Faiz. This edition also provides a compelling account of the furore surrounding this explosive collection.
‘Easily the best Urdu scholar in the West.’ Shamsur Rehman Farouqi ‘Marion Molteno has mined a substantial corpus of Russell’s writings to string together his most valuable insights into the genre of ghazal... to prepare the uninitiated reader for the final feast of Ghalib’s ghazals in English translation. And what a magnificent feast it is!’ M. Asaduddin, Jamia Millia Islamia The second edition of Ralph Russell’s critically acclaimed The Famous Ghalib has been put together according to guidance left by the author/translator before his death in 2008. This book introduces Ghalib to anyone who wants to find out why his poetry has inspired generations of Urdu speakers and many others besides. It explains the form of poetry in which Ghalib wrote, and how he used its symbolism to express his response both to the universal experiences of life and to the times that he himself lived through. With over 200 couplets in Ralph Russell’s translations, alongside the original Urdu – and also transcribed using both English and Hindi scripts, this is a must have for all poetry lovers. The translations are as concise as the original, matching Ghalib’s intensity with words chosen to convey precise meaning; and they do this in English which flows naturally and with unobtrusive poetic metre.
Winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and the Washington State Book Award in Biography/Memoir Named One of the Best Books by Asian American Writers by Oprah Daily Longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award The Magical Language of Others is a powerful and aching love story in letters, from mother to daughter. After living in America for over a decade, Eun Ji Koh’s parents return to South Korea for work, leaving fifteen-year-old Eun Ji and her brother behind in California. Overnight, Eun Ji finds herself abandoned and adrift in a world made strange by her mother’s absence. Her mother writes letters in Korean over the years seeking forgiveness and love—letters Eun Ji cannot fully understand until she finds them years later hidden in a box. As Eun Ji translates the letters, she looks to history—her grandmother Jun’s years as a lovesick wife in Daejeon, the loss and destruction her grandmother Kumiko witnessed during the Jeju Island Massacre—and to poetry, as well as her own lived experience to answer questions inside all of us. Where do the stories of our mothers and grandmothers end and ours begin? How do we find words—in Korean, Japanese, English, or any language—to articulate the profound ways that distance can shape love? The Magical Language of Others weaves a profound tale of hard-won selfhood and our deep bonds to family, place, and language, introducing—in Eun Ji Koh—a singular, incandescent voice.
History of commercial publishing in nineteenth century North India.
Memoirs of an Urdu author.