LITERATURE
7.1 Well over three crore parsons in India have declared Urdu either as their mother tongue or as their subsidaiary language in the 1971 and 1961 Census reports.* As a general rule, among the Hindi, Punjabi Kashmiri, Dogri, Sindhi, Marathi and Telugu speaking persons,there are many who are proficient in Urdu. Among the Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Oriya, Tamil speakers also there are many who have cultivated the language and acquired distinction as writers and poets.
7.2 There is another category of persons comprising millions of people who have become familiar with the language through films. That the film-goers and the radio fans enjoy and relish this language is proved by the ever-increasing popularity of the ghazals and qawwalis and the popularity of Urdu films. Yet another indicator of the popularity of the language is the large sale of the collections of Urdu poetry printed recently in Devnagari script. The diwans of individual poets or anthologies of various masters have run into very large editions, necessitating quick reprints. Punjabi has also followed suit by rendering Ghalib and Iqbal in the Gurmukhi script.
7.3 Notwithstanding this popularity of the language, there is an uneasy feeling among many Urdu writers and publisher that if the educational facilities in Urdu are not augmented, this sweet, expressive and powerful language may soon face extinction. We do not share this pessimism for, as we have seen in the preceding chapters, the language has been showing extraordinary resilience and the difficulties faced earlier are also slowly disappearing.
7.4 In the successive centuries, a rich literary tradition has been built up in Urdu of which any language could be proud. Qualitatively and quantitatively, it compares well with the best in the sister languages on the subcontinent. We have already noticed in the relevant chapters the various stages of its evolution and development. Here we propose to deal with the obstacles which are hindering its rapid progress in the field of literature and to identify the areas where State care and popular support are most needed.
7.5 The most important problems are those relating to publishing; printing; sales Organisation; purchase of books by libraries and state agencies; encouragement to writers and poets who produce creative, critical and research literature; publication of dictionaries, encyclopaedias and basic research material; establishment of institutes and academies for the development of the language; aid to voluntary organisations, arrangement for translations from Urdu into other languages and vice-versa; stipends to indigent writers; official aid for general publications and especially commissioned books and, finally, protection of the authors' rights.
Readership 7.6 The basic problem that Urdu faces today is simple. Notwithstanding the fact that it is an all-India language and that crores of people speak, write, understand and enjoy it, Urdu speakers are scattered and not concentrated in any one State or Union Territory of India. In its major centres like Uttar Pradesh. Bihar and Andhra, Pradesh, it is not the dominant language. Therefore, in terms of readership, its concentrations are not intensive but extensive.
7.7 Readership also presupposes assured arrangements for teaching the younger generation. These arrangements have not been satisfactory in the past and there were misgivings in the minds of many writers and publishers that readership may shrink considerably in future. These stemmed from the absence of adequate facilities for learning Urdu for a generation. which did not know well its options in a situation of sudden linguistic transition.
7.8 The connection between primary education and literature is obvious. It is an indicator of the size of fature readership for the books produced. Authors write and publishers produce books for readers. If there is no assurance of continued and varied readership in any language, both the writers and the publishers whose livelihood depends on the readers, will lose interest in that language. Steps will. therefore have to be taken to increase Urdu readership. The present readership of Urdu comprises the following broad categories :
(i) Persons who learnt Urdu in their schools as mother tongue and, to a considerable extent. as medium of education. Roughly about 90 per cent of these belong to the age group of 35 year; and above, that is, those who were born before Independence.
(ii) Persons who learn or learnt Urdu in their schools as an optional language, in addition to the languages compulsorily taught. The majority of post 1947 Urdu knowing generation belongs to this category.
(iii) Persons who learn or learnt Urdu in the madrasas or Urdu medium schools. They constitute a small minority whose number should run just into six figures.
* The returns for the subsidiary language have not yet been finalised for 1971 Census. We have therefore taken the 1961 Census figures for those who had returned Urdu as their subsidiary language.
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7.9 Obviously, therefore, if something concrete is to be done to reinforce readership, we must addr e ourselves primarily to the needs of the last two categories. Increased facilities for education as suggest e by us in the foregoing pages will create additional readership, though the impact of these measures may no be felt immediately.
7.10 The content of education in most of the madrasas being predominantly religious, the emphasis there lies on Arabic and not on Urdu literature. Whatever stimulus is generated from these institutions will affect only the readership of a very specialised type of literature. But, with the increase in the number of Urdu- medium schools students coming out of these institutions will, no doubt, form a readership for general books.
7.11 The second category, however, is the most important. In future also this group is going to provide the bulk of readership, expanding with the increase in the facilities for the teaching of Urdu at the primary and secondary levels. Any plan of production of literature which does not concentrate on this category will be unreal and lopsided. The statistics given in the chapter on Education reveal an ascending curve in the enrolment of Urdu students.
7.12 Of course sustained and large readership presupposes the provision of substantial facilities for the development of Urdu. This has been dealt with in the relevant chapters. We are sure that with the implementation of our suggestions, Urdu writers will be assured of amuch larger readership and be able to overcome the complexes that they developed in an atmosphere of uncertainty and suspicion. The available statistictics and the emerging climate of sympathy and liberality towards Urdu, lead us to believe that the language will regain its verve and vitality.
7.13 Another factor to be borne in mind is that in the field of education, emphasis is already shifting from the urban to the rural areas where the vast majority of agriculturists and cottage industry workers dwell. This vast sector of Urdu speakers will continue to study Urdu for cultural and historical reasons nd provide the readership required for literary growth.
7.14 Printing came to India very late. But once it came, it helped to release an immense fund of creative energy. Literary activity in every language gathered new momentum. The earliest book to be printed in any Indian language was the Tamil translation of Saint Francis Xavier's book published by the Portuguese missionaries in 1557.
7.15 Earlier, books in all the Indian languages and scripts used to be written in hand by expert calligraphers. The art of calligraphy was practised on a wide scale and every educated person acquired proficiency in it either as a hobby or as a profession.
7.16 Classical Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic were the established languages of learning and literature but Indian languages were freely used to express ideas ranging from the most religious to the most erotic. Men of religion and romance writers preferred the languages of the region concerned to classical languages because they had to Communicate with the common man In the language he could easily understand. For the same reason Urdu. was chosen in preference to Persian, the court language. While the established nobility at the royal court disdained Urdu as a plebean language, men in the armed forces, businessmen, artisans and professionals adopted Urdu in their day to day dealings. It soon became the language of interregional communication at the common man's level.
7.17 It was this aspect of the linguistic scene in the country that made most foreiguers-Asians and Europeans alike-so keen to learn it as the language of the common man. Many fortune-seekers who came to India from Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asian countries, quickly learnt the language and even, tried their hand at poetry. The number of such Turks, Afghans and Iranians who started wrtiting Braj Bhasha, Rekhta or Urdu is fairly large as history books and Tazkiras reveal.
European Interest 7.18 The case of the Europeans, with no background of Persian, Sanskrit, Arabic and Turkish, was different. Being absolute strangers, they could converse neither with the ruling' classes and elite nor with the common man. They soon discovered that the language commonly spoken and understood at all social levels was Urdu or Hindustani. They needed if first for the purposes of religious preaching and trade commerce and. later in, the sphere of administration. The missionaries among them were keen to propagate Christianity. The number of such Europeans must have been considerable to justify compilation of gram- mars and lexicons. John Joshua Caterlaar, Director of the Dutch East India Company, compiled an Urdu grammar entitled "Lingua Hindostanica" in 1715, which was published in 1743. Benjamin Schultz wrote an Urdu grammar in Latin entitled "Grammatica Indostanica" which was published in 1744 with Urdu words printed in Urdu script itself. The same author translated the Bible into Urdu in 1748. In fact many books on Urdu grammar and alphabets were written in Italian Portuguese and French languages during the period of early European contacts.
7.19 The love of a French scholar Garcin de Tassy (1794-1878) for Urdu is legendary. He studied Urdu and lectured on it and though he was not able to visit India he kept, over a long period meticulous chronicle of Urdu literature. His annual lectures on Urdu and the history of the Hindustani literature in Frenuch provide invaluable source material on Urdu literature of that priod.
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Fort William College Publications 7.20 Englishmen also displayed similar zeal in the pursuit of Urdu. John Gilchrist felt keenly that the English in India had to learn this widely spoken local language. Impressed by his arguments, the East India Company gave him indefinite leave with pay to tour India and find out ways of teaching Urdu to the employees of the Company. Gilchrist left Calcutta in 1785 and after spending 12 years at different places like Patna, Faizabad, Lucknow, Delhi and Ghazipur, he wrote his famous dictionary and grammar while at Ghazipur. On his suggestion, the Company agreed to the establishment of a college.
7.21 The Fort William College was established in 1800 and continued till 1854 but its most productive period was the first 20 years of its existence, when over fifty books, written and translated by eighteen different authors were published by the college.
7.22 Though the books produced by the college did not leave a lasting impact on Urdu literature, they did succeed in ushering in the modern simple prose style later perfected by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the Aligharh School. They also ushered in a technical innovation in that all the books produced by this college were printed in type. It may be noted that even the first Urdu journal, Jam-e-Jahan Nume, which started publication in 1822 was set in type. Litho printing was introduced later.
7.23 While it is not known who invented the Urdu type used by Schultz in his Latin grammar of Urdu, it is usually believed that the Urdu type, as also the Bengali and Devnagari types, were introduced for the first time in East India by the famous Orientalist, Charles Wilkins, who was knighted later. The "Grammar of the Bengali Language" was printed in 1778 in the Bengali type invented by Wilkins. The Urdu type produced by him was used for all the books printed in Persian, Arabic or Urdu from the second half of the 18th century onwards. The first Urdu book to use Wilkin's type was probably Gilchrist's "Dictionary of Hindustani Language", of which the first part was released in 1790.
Early Publications 7.24 The earliest books printed in Urdu type were either in Persian or partly in Urdu and partly in other languages, such as grammers and lexicons. Those wholly in Urdu language were published only in the beginning of the 19th century. We also find some English newspapers in Calcutta using Naskh, Nastalig and Bengali types in the eighth and ninth decades of the 18th century. The popularity of Urdu type soon spread to England also, where Haileybury College, which may be called an English counterpart of the fort William College, adopted it for its publications. The Company's notifications, orders, rules and regu- lations issued in Calcutta as also the literature produced by the Wahabi sect between 1820 and 1837 were printed in Urdu type.
7.25 According to Gilchrist, books entitled Chihar Darvesh, Sehrul Bayan Gulistan and Tota Kahani were published in type on behalf of the Fort William College, in 1801, at the Harkara Press, Calcutta Gazette Press, the Mirror Press or the Telegraph Press. Urdu books, Akhale-i- Hindi and Miskin ke Marsive were printed in Devnagari script. The first commercial press to use Urdu script regularly was the Hindustani Press (Established in 1801 or 1802) and its first publication was "The Strangers East India Guide to Hindustani".
Back to Calligraphy 7.26 Notwithstanding this flying start, Urdu type did not acquire popularity and was replaced by the litho system of printing in which calligraphed matter is transferred on to a flat stone from which it is printed off. While 'Urdu type was difficult to obtain and costly, calligraphists were easily available. In addition to the superior aesthetic appeal of the Nastaliq style of calligraphy over the Naskh style, it was also more convenient and practical to adopt in litho printing. The overriding consideration in switching over to calligraphy was, however, the. high cost of books printed in Nastaliq type. An idea of the costs can be had from the fact that the Urdu translation of the modest volume of Sadi's Gulistan and Pandnama was priced at Rs. 32 in 1809. Consequently, there have been very few champions of Urdu type since the establishment of the first litho press in Delhi around 1835.
7.27 The popularity of the litho process can be judged from the fact that by 1848 as many as 17 presses had been established in North West Province alone. Of these, seven were in Delhi, five in Agra, one each in Meerut, Bareilly and Simla and two in Banares. These were in addition to the presses established by the Christian missionaries at Mirzapur, Banaras, Allahabad, Agra and Ludhiana. In 1849, the total number of presses rose to 23, which published 36,400 copies of 141 books of the total value of Rs. 42,500. The print order averaged a little over 280 copies per book. The Banaras and Indore presses concentrated on religious books in Sanskrit, Hindi and Marathi. The remaining 101 books printed elsewhere were in Urdu, Arabic or Persian, mostly reprints of earlier editions. Subject-wise break up of the publications was as follows:
subject No. of books
(i) Medicine 8
(ii) Religion 16
(iii) History, Science and Agriculture 16
(iv) Poetry and Literature 7
(v) Revenue and Criminal Laws
(vi) Textbooks 26
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Diversified Production 7.28 Our information about the type of books produced by Publishers other than the Fort William College is based primarily on two sources, namely, the Selections from the Records of the Government of North West Province, Government Press, Allahabad (1868) and the lectures of Garcin de Tassy (1852-69). Of these, while the former is more authentic , the latter is more comprehensive, going much beyond North West Province which was obviously only one of the many centres of Urdu at that time.
7.29 According to official reports, the standard of the books was generally low. Books on religion followed by elementary books like karima and Khaliq Bari had a ready market. Books on Jyotish (astro nomy), miracles and long love poems (Masnavis) were also sold in large numbers.
7.30 By 1850, Garcin de Tassy informs us, books on science, agriculture, law and travels were also being written in addition to such conventional types of publication as poetry, poetic selections and biographical notes with cirticism (Tazkira), religious literature, fiction (including myth and folklore both in prose and poetry), ethics, history, etc.
7.31 Above all, the 19th century was the age of translations. While the first half of the century was dominated by the translations of the Fort William College, various other agencies also helped to sustain this urge to transfer the welth of western knowledge into Urdu. Among these, one must mention the Royal Translation Bureau set up at Lucknow (where Syed Kamal-ud-din Haider alias Mohammed Amirul Hasan Alhusairu alone translated 19 scientific books into Urdu), and the translation bureau set up by Nawab Shamsul Umara at Hyderabad in 1834 which employed about half a dozen translators "to translate scientific and technical books".* The bulk of the translations were, however, produced by bodies like the Vernacular Translation Society of the Delhi College (1842), the Scientific Society founded by Syed Ahmed Khan in 1863, the colleges of western education set up in Delhi, Agra, Bareilly, Aligarh, etc., and the Christian missionary organizations with their presses at Serampore Sardhana (Meerut), Mirzapur, Ludhiana and other places, producing not only some excellent translations but also original books in Urdu.
7.32 Of these bodies, Syed Ahmed Khan's Scientific Society did the most notable and sustained work, following the trail blazed by the Delhi College. Originally founded at Ghazipur, the Society was transferred to Aligarh when Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was posted there. Financed by donations and subscriptions, it had a building of its own, where lectures on scientific topics were delivered each month.
7.33 Due to the efforts of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, many important and valuable English works were translated into Urdu. The subjects on which he laid great emphasis included mechanics, electricity. pneumatics, natural philosophy and modem farming. On mathematics alone, he assigned 17 books for translation to Maulvi Zakaullah. History had special fascination for him. He got Elphinstone's History of India, Malcolm's History of Persia and Rollin's History of Ancient Egypt, translated into Urdu.**
7.34 More and more books continued to be published on a variety of subjects, though there was much greater reliance on selected subjects from the humanities group. Sciences and technical subjects were seldom touched. It is, however not our purpose to go into further detail on this subject here.
7.35 Authentic material in respect of Urdu publications brought out in the post-Independence period is not available. The annual volumes of the Indian National Bibliography do contain some information about Urdu books also but even a cursory glance is sufficient to convince the reader that it is incomplete to the point of being misleading. So far as our personal knowledge goes, not less than about 500 books are being printed every year in Urdu. In this connection, mention may be made of the survey conducted by the Ajkal (Urdu) of Delhi in 1968, which broadly confirms our estimate of books Produced. But the highest number ever recorded by the Indian National Bibliography is 182. Under the Central Libraries Act every publisher is bound to send a free copy of each publication to the National Library at Calcutta (one of the Central libraries) but the arrangements there are extremely unsatisfactory. only a small fraction of the total number of Urdu books printed ever reaches the library and the small complement of staff available for Urdu can hardly do justice to whatever is received in that language. In the absence of reliable statistics, we have to be content with the figures available in the Bibliography in order to assess not the progress in the field of production, of which it is a poor indicator, but the trend of the subjects covered and the relative importance attached to various categories of books.
Table I
Details of Urdu publications as given in the Annual Volume of
Indian National Bibliography
1958 1959 1960 1963 1964 1965 1971
Poetry 44 78 51 57 39 41 48
Drama 10 8 4 2 2 5
Fiction 114 51 73 38 60 17 63
Essays 1 5 1 3 8 5 4
Letters 1 1 1 3 1