THE inflow of Urdu books from India has considerably slowed down ever since the postal authorities arbitrarily increased the postal charges manifold a few years ago. Despite an official intention to curb the flow of printed word across the border, some Indian books and periodicals somehow find their way into Pakistan. Similarly, some Pakistani publications do reach India.
But these are mostly complimentary copies that Indian writers or editors send to their Pakistani friends by post at exorbitant costs. The postal rates are so high in both countries that sometimes the amount of money spent on sending a book across the border through snail mail is much higher than the price of the book itself. As a result the exchange of publications between the two neighbours is unbelievably expensive and it is now hardly 10 per cent of what it used to be.
Mubeen Mirza, the editor of literary magazine Mukalma, informed this writer that he used to send about 100 copies of every issue of his magazine to India but now it is so expensive that it is not worth it. The editors of other periodicals have a similar story to tell. Now only those Indian writers who contribute to Pakistani Urdu literary magazines get their copies and rest are left in the lurch. What threat does a book or literary magazine pose to the governments? And if at all, in this era of e-books, internet and millions of websites, you cannot control the flow of information.
For example, one can view about 20,000 Urdu books and literary journals on an Indian website aptly named ‘Rekhta’ (https://rekhta.org). Similarly, Indians can enjoy thousands of old Urdu periodicals of Mushfiq Khwaja’s library online through British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme (http://eap.bl.uk/database/collections.a4d). Hence, if the logic behind the unreasonably high postal charges is to control the flow of printed word, it is nothing but nonsense.
Anyway, let us have a look at some of the Urdu publications received recently from India, through post, of course.
Naya Urdu Nisaab: Written by Muhammad Zakir and published by Maktaba-i-Jamia, Delhi, the book suggests some new approaches to teaching of Urdu to primary and secondary classes. Written as a manual for teachers, it offers some key information that, sorry to say, many teachers may not be aware of. For example, it says that the Urdu letter ‘vow’ serves two purposes: it is a vowel as well as a consonant. In the second part of the book some sample Urdu compositions are given. What it lacks is an intro by the author that could explain the training needs that the manual fulfils.
Usloobiyaati Tanqeed: Stylistics is not something new to Urdu, but strangely enough very few know about the critical approaches stylistics suggests, since it is based on linguistics. Especially in Pakistan hardly any critic or researcher has written on it in detail. The writer, Prof Mirza Khalil Ahmad Baig, a well-known linguist and scholar from India, has taken full advantage of his training and research in linguistics and has analysed many works by writers and poets of Urdu from the point of view of stylistics. He has discussed in details the theoretical basis of stylistics as well. Delhi’s Qaumi Council Bara-i-Farogh-i-Urdu Zaban has published it.
Matn Shanasi: The book is on textual criticism, a rarely discussed branch of literary criticism. Prof Dr Abdul Haq, Prof Emeritus, department of Urdu, Delhi University, is a veteran scholar of Urdu. In addition to his books on Iqbal, Prof Abdul Haq is known for his work on research and research techniques. The book, published by Iqbal Academy, Delhi, reviews some classical Urdu works from a researcher’s point of view. He is critical of some of the scholars who either failed to do justice with the research work they carried out on classical Urdu literature, or simply tried to mould some historical facts to arrive at the conclusions they favoured. He is especially annoyed with some of the researchers who tried to misinterpret Iqbal. He has given some very interesting examples of how Iqbal’s English writings were incorrectly translated, perhaps intentionally to conform to a specific point of view.
Masood Hussain Khan, Ahvaal-o-Aasaar: Masood Hussain Khan was one of India’s best known researchers and linguists of Urdu. His theory on the origin of Urdu is dubbed as “the most plausible one”. Mirza Khalil Ahmed Baig, the author, had been a student of Masood Sahib and he has in this book described the life and works of his beloved teacher. Delhi’s Educational Publishing House has published the book.
‘Urdu Adab’: The quarterly official magazine of Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu Hind, Delhi. With Siddiq-ur-Rahman Qidvai, Ather Farooqi and Sarwar-ul-Huda taking over as editors, the magazine has become more regular. The current issue (April-June, 2016) has a number of scholarly articles by veteran scholars such as Shamsur Rahman Farooqi, Moinuddin Aqeel, Mehr Afshan Farooqi, Baidar Bakht and Nasir Abbas Nayyar. Ather Farooqi in his article has raised some questions on literary criticism and literary theories that have caused to raise some heckle as well.http://www.dawn.com/news/1277555/new-urdu-books-from-india-arriving-despite-exorbitant-postal-charges
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