Ramshackle buildings in the narrow lanes of the downtowns, moth-eaten inestimable books, treasured yet tattered manuscripts stacked in rickety almirahs, withering sales of books, publishing journals and books faltering on academic rigour count and relying on rhetorical flourish encapsulate the plight of ever-dwindling Urdu promotion organization and publishing houses across India.
The case of organizations and academies set up by the central and state governments with considerable fund allocation is equally pathetic and disgusting as favouritism, nepotism, and political intervention mar their functioning. These bodies, often headed by political appointees with dubious academic credentials or bland writing skills, publish inconsequential books and trash journals, organize seminars on quotidian topics discussed by diminutive scholars, and frequently bestow awards on weeny authors.
Going beyond Rekhta
Barring the unrivalled popularity of Rekhta, Urdu’s shrinking space and the listless contemporary literary scenario betraying the closure of widely admired literary periodicals and ever-diminishing sales of books in Urdu scripts leave Urdu lovers exasperated. Strict adherence to an arbitrary code of ethics that proscribes books or omits certain portions of writings, even by eminent authors, preponderates Urdu publishing. It shuts out even those whose creative dexterity shaped Urdu literature. Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810), known as the God of Poetry, is no exception. The full text of his widely admired autobiography, Zikre Meer, is no exception, as the full text of his widely acclaimed autobiography originally written in Persian, has yet to appear in Urdu. It is not that it has not been rendered in Urdu; it appeared a couple of times, but without his anecdotes as the so-called guardians of public morality and namby-pamby scholars of Moulvi-oppressed society find the tantalizing and occasionally titillating narration unacceptable. Many publishing houses of the subcontinent published truncated or censored text. The prevalent stifling self-righteousness puts a question mark on the freedom of expression and creative meditation of the pioneer of Urdu poetry.
Athar Farooqui dares traditionalists
Peeved at the irksome situation, Dr Athar Farooqui, a celebrated bilingual author, translator and new information technology-savvy secretary of the Anjuman, seeks to fashion a transformative narrative by subverting the age-old interdiction practice. He made it a point to publish the uncondensed Persian text in a reassuring Urdu idiom as a befitting tribute to the greatest exponent of Urdu ghazal whose tricentenary is being celebrated.
Astutely rendered into Urdu by a promising writer, Sadaf Fatima, Zikr -e- Meer certainly offers more than biographical details, a poignant tale of unrequited love, journeys, associations with the power that be, accomplishments, and creative endeavours. Not having any trace of the commissioned history, it presents an unbiased account of what transpired and happened in the later Mughal period. The tradition of Chronicle writing and non-fiction genres such as travelogues, spiritual discourse, and memories are meticulously dove-tailed into Zikr.
In his laconic yet equally insightful introduction, Dr Athar Farooqui points out, “To commemorate the tricentenary of the God of Poetry, Anjuman is publishing the complete Urdu translation of the Persian autobiography of Meer. In 1938, the Anjuman published the Persian text, but its compiler, Moulvi Abdul Haq, the then-secretary, cast aside the last portion titled “Lataif “. For him, this part was obscene and hence does not merit publication. Everyone has the right to employ his point of view to evaluate all values of life and every aspect of literature, but he has no right to impose his sense of morality on others.
Now, hardly any space is left for this sort of constraint. As a general secretary, he had no right to expunge the last part of the autobiography; he could have used his discretionary power not to publish the Persian text under the aegis of the Anjuman. Only a few anecdotes could be described as smutty; moreover, Meer’s poetry is replete with sensual images that get widespread adulation from the Urdu world dominated by Muslims.”
Meer’s style is different
One tends to agree with the pertinent point raised by Athar. Meer’s narration betrays a subtle sense of humour that hardly lies next to salacity, and a short reminiscence stands up for it. “Once, a famous physician, Sheikh Hussain Shorat, visited the royal eunuch where a person suffered from hernia. He consulted the physician, who told him that the treatment was at one’s disposal, but the testicles of everyone looked threatened in this house.”
Not only did the Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu Hind ensure the publication of the uncensored autobiography of Meer, but it also made available the latest collection and the collected works of the most potent voice of Urdu, Iftekhar Arif. The connoisseurs of Urdu poetry always thirst for the poetry of Iftekhar Arif, who is reckoned as the most outstanding poet of the Faiz era. Sukhane Ifthekar (collected works) Baaghe Gul- e -Surkh (latest collection). The Anjuman released the collected works of two greatly admired exponents of modern Urdu poetry Mustafa Zaidi and Muneeb Rehaman.
Beyond kitsch
Despite having a glorious tradition, contemporary literary journals in Urdu hardly go beyond producing “kitsch.” Here, one can see an engaging departure. The latest issue of the literary journal of Anjuman, Urdu Adab, explores the different dimensions of the somewhat opaque and complex orthographic system. Similar to Hebrew, Urdu is marked with the absence of vowel letters and the omission of diacritics. The cursive script makes it more challenging to read. No Urdu journal has published a special issue on Urdu orthography, which Dr Athar Farooqui supplements as he took pains to collect articles from renowned scholars Abdul Sattar Siddiqui, Rasheed Hasan Khan, Rauf Parikh and the like.
In the ever-expanding post-print world, one can hardly find a sustained effort to reinvent the Urdu language, digitally preserve its books and manuscripts, and initiate philosophical and new ideological discourse in the public sphere. It looks incredible that the dominant whizz of despair engulfing the Urdu fraternity is upended by a pristine organization, Anjuman-e-Tarraqi Urdu, Hind, often perceived as a quiescent body by a slew of initiatives about publication, revamping of infrastructure and impeccable use of new information technologies.
Shafey Kidwai, a bilingual critic, is a professor of Mass Communication at Aligarh Muslim University
| 
