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04 Nishat Zaidi 2021 - Detective Fiction in Urdu - Form, Function, Genealogy
04 Nishat Zaidi 2021 - Detective Fiction in Urdu - Form, Function, Genealogy
The rise of detective fiction goes back to the 1800s, when with the
coming of the Industrial Revolution in England, a large number of
people began moving to cities, which led to escalation in crime and
suspicion in inter-human interactions. Developments such as the
formation of London’s police force in 1829, and New York City police
force in 1845 and a rise in crime rates in the cities, created fertile
ground for the detective fiction genre. Allan Poe is credited with
having written the first modern detective short story, ‘The Murder in
the Rue Morgue’, published in 1841 which introduced the character of
a detective to the Anglophone world in the figure of Monsieur C.
Auguste Dupin. This was followed by the publication of Wilkie
Collins’s The Moonstone, arguably the first detective novel. Yet the
genre did not attain its height until the birth of the character of
Sherlock Holmes, the ultimate and most famous detective till date,
known for his extraordinary blend of wit and intelligence. Its creator, a
young doctor, Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, desiring to supplement his
income, began writing Sherlock Holmes novels in 1887, which did not
reap immediate financial success. However, Doyle later reworked the
formula and with a huge success following him, he continued to write
till 1927. With Agatha Christie’s detective novels and her famous
detective characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, the genre
witnessed newer heights. Thereafter, several experiments have been
done with the genre in England and America, ranging from the puzzle
solving, and hardcore crime fiction to the cinematic adaptations of
classic detectives.
While the genre has nearly disappeared from the Urdu literary
scenario in India, in Pakistan, it is now mostly confined to cheap
digests like Jasoosi Digest, Suspense Digest, Kiran Digest, Dar Digest
and their online portals, which is a testament to the decline of the
genre. Apart from these, the thrillers published in children’s
magazines in Pakistan like Taleem-o-Tarbiyat or Aankh Micholi are
mostly copies of Ibne Safi’s frames. The book-mills of Pakistan rope
in lesser-known writers like M A Rahat, Riaz Aqib Kohler, Amjad Javed,
Arshad Ali Arshad, who churn out titles like Bhagoda (2016), Daldal
(2016) and Aurat Zaad (2016). In addition, there are twelve to fifteen-
page pulp fiction booklets sold for children in Pakistan for one or two
rupees with titles like Bahr-i-Hind ka Qazzaq, Tarzan Aur Khooni Balaa.
Most of the detective fiction published in the above digests printed in
Pakistan toes predictable lines with villains mostly being Indians or
Chinese (Schaflechner 2021).
References:
Daechsel, Markus. ‘Zalim aku and the Mystery of the Rubber Sea
Monster: Urdu Detective Fiction in 1930s Punjab and the Experience
of Colonial Modernity’ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 13:1 (April
2003), pp. 21 – 43
Naim, C.M. ‘The Holmesian Canon in Urdu’. Dawn. October 29, 2021.
Web. Accessed on 26 October 2021.
Orsini, Francesca. ‘Detective Novels: A Commercial Genre in
Nineteenth Century India’ in India’s Literary History. Edited by Stuart
Blackburn and Vasudha Dalamia, New Delhi: Permanent Black, 1990.
pp. 435-485
Schaflechner, Jurgen. ‘A Specter is Haunting Pakistan! Nationalism in
Pakistan’s Horror
Pulp Fiction’. Asian Ethnology. 80:1(2021)
pp. 31-56.