NAME- Ayush Singh

TITLE- Mirza Ghalib and Urdu literature.

SUBMITTED TO- Mr. Manish Sharma

YEAR AND COURSE- 1st year, B.A. English Hns

 Acknowledgment
The following paper has come together under the guidance of Mr.
Manish Sharma who guided me though the subject. I
acknowledge that all that is written in the following paper is to the
best of my knowledge a result of my creative process and is not
plagiarised and references have been duly marked in the
Bibliography.
 Mirza Ghalib and Urdu literature.

Urdu literature and its growth

Urdu had risen as an Idiom, a local language but its elevation to the level of a literary
language had warranted some time for the growth – two centuries to be exact.

Urdu had shown its growth in the southern parts of India for a long enough timeframe
before spreading its influence to the north. About how literature usually flourishes. The
rulers of the area were huge patrons of art and culture, thus promoting poetry as well as
Urdu literature.

The Mughal decline and with it the decline of Persian ( from its status as the language of
the court) was also a major factor in the spread of Urdu.

The nature of the language itself was somewhat special, it was after all a mix of
languages and dialects, and this closer to people and society than any other language
making it the perfect means of expression.

So the acceptance of Urdu was quick and widespread.

· Earliest writings in Urdu can be traced to Amir Khusrau (1259-1325 CE) and Khwaja
Muhammad Husaini (1318-1422 CE).

· It started to flourish in the Deccan kingdoms of Golconda and Bijapur.

· Edward Terry describes the language as ‘Indostan’ and states it has the power to say a
lot in a few words.

#Urdu was known by various names as it was a mixture of languages and dialects and
thus even writers have different names for the language that they referred to it as.
Urdu began to be known as zaban-i-urdu-I-mulalla-shahjhanabad ( language of the
exalted city of shahjahanabad) but over time got changed to zaban-i-urdu and Urdu at
last.

Urdu and the political scenario

It is interesting to observe the emergence of Urdu literary tradition and culture in a

period of political flux when the grandeur of Mughal empire was on the ebb.

Mughal empire when losing out on political prowess focused still on cultural
appropriation. Their rule was still seen as legitimate and their power in some sense was
still visible despite the limitations that had surrounded them. Even though all of it was a
socio-cultural phenomenon, the illusion was still upheld.

Though during Mughal times primacy was enjoyed by Persian as the language of the
court and Mughals the evidence is still present for the Patronship of regional dialects,
vernaculars, and other languages like the braj musician and patronization of poets.

However after the eighteenth century, with the decline of the Mughal empire, the
primacy of the Persian language was lost. And the era the poets stepped into became
more vibrant than the previous century.
 Mirza’s political relevance

Mirza Ghalib and his works are of the literary fashion and pertaining to various
languages. But with Urdu being the focus of the studies.

Now despite its limited historical value at times, Ghalib’s literature is welcomed by
historians and scholars of Urdu literature. He has a major role in the shaping of Urdu
literature after all.

Ghalib’s name holds a special significance and a symbolic value. He belongs in India to
the synthetic tradition of North Indian culture.

He is an amalgamation of societal experiences and thus his works are a reflection of the
same. It is important for studying the era and India and Delhi of the Times.

Ghalib’s political relevance was first discovered during the 1920s when the caliphate
movement has formed a short lived alliance between the All-India National Congress,
the Muslim league and the other Islam-oriented Muslim political parties.

Ghalib was eclectic and his studies and experiences were responsible for his unique
sense of being and his individuality. He was not captured by the religious or cultural
barriers but was representative of the current as he saw it. His experience of two
different regimes – British and Mughal was also helpful to him to understand the Social
structure and the interactions between culture and the individual well.

Ghalib was thus a true Unitarian, transcendental, and past the religious and cultural
boundaries. Ghalib was presented as a model of a true Indian nationalist Muslim.

Dastanbu by Ghalib, was also a historical valued text. Its value lies in the cautious
description of the Delhi citizens’ plight during the conquest by the British.
Similar was the case in his other works sometimes. This proves Mirza to be an important
figure to the historians. Though as a literary figure it is hard for himself to be called a
historian and many of the descriptions he points to have already been registered by other
evidence. But Mirza adds more creative and imaginative freedom to the work so that the
true face of the city and not the walls and structures is visible.
 Ghalib in 1857

MIRZA GHALIB REMAINED in Delhi throughout the uprising of 1857; he recorded

the events of this period, particularly those from 11 May, 18571 to 31 July 18582, in his
Persian diary, Dastambu. His thoughts and feelings about his experiences during the
Mutiny, however, can be found not only in Das tambu, but also in his letters, which were
written with greater freedom and boldness.

The limits of his financial state after being robbed by the victorious army in the rebellion
had left him out of a fortune and the promised pension, robe and title that Mirza was
promised after writing in praise of the queen was pulled back after he was reported for
having spoken at the crowing of bahadur shah zaffar.

“Only my Lord and Master knows what is happening to me. People go mad from great
sorrow…Would it be surprising if I should lose my mind from this onslaught of grief?...
What grief haven’t I suffered: grief in death, in separation, in loss of income, and in
honor. Besides the tragic events at the Red Fort, I know so many of my Delhi friends
who have been killed: Muzaffarud-Daula, Mir Nasarud-Din, my nephew Mriza Ashur
Beg, his twenty-one-year-old son, Ahmed Mirza, Mustafa Khan ibn-e-Azam ud-Daula.”

This is an excerpt from a letter of Ghalib and it shows the grief and mutiny held for the
regime and the hardships that were faced by all in the city during the time. But the
descriptions of the same in dastanbu are left limitations to 5-6 pages that were far more
extensive earlier as is assumed. Instead to curry favor from the queen and winning back
the 3 things that Mirza sought he continued in praise of the regime.

Mirza had a multifaceted and calculated nature. He was never the person to stick to
anything that he did not completely believe and so was the case with his own situation.

He played a pragmatic play while writing while he was stuck in a time of need.
Bibliography and references
 Ahmad, A. (1977). URDU LITERATURE. In P. Holt, A. Lambton, & B. Lewis (Eds.), The
Cambridge History of Islam (The Cambridge History of Islam, pp. 695-701). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521219495.013
 NARANG, G. C. “Ghalib and the Rebellion of 1857.” Indian Literature, vol. 15, no. 1,
1972, pp. 5–20. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23329794.
 Malik, Hafeez. The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 31, no. 4, 1972, pp. 969–71. JSTOR,
https://doi.org/10.2307/2052151. Accessed 15 Jun. 2022.
 Rusell Ralph, the oxford india ghalib, oxford university press
 Rahman, Munibur (2000). "ḠĀLEB, Mīrzā ASAD-ALLĀH Khan". Encyclopaedia Iranica.