== *119* ==
[Urdu 1859] [1.0] [1.0x] CAUSE I -- IGNORANCE ON THE PART OF THE PEOPLE, THAT IS, MISAPPREHENSION OF THE INTENTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

[1.1] [1.1x] Misunderstanding on the part of the Indians.

There seems to be an extra, brief heading in the 1957 Urdu edition; it does not figure in the Quraishi 1997 Urdu version, and has not been translated.

The adjective bar-((aks is wonderfully economical, but in English I can't think of how to render it with equal pithiness. 'To be the opposite' is incomplete without specifying what the opposition is to.

[1.2] [1.2x] Apprehension of interference of Government with the religious customs of the Indians.
== *120* ==

The same word, mudaa;xalat , that has just been used for the (desirable) 'entry' or 'access' of Indians into the Legislative Council, is now used for the (undesirable) 'intervention' or 'intrusion' of the Government into Indian religious life; both senses are perfectly suitable (see Platts p. 1013), and I doubt if Sir Sayyid did this on purpose.

My paragraph break follows the Urdu, so I've put it into the 1873 translation as well. More paragraph breaks are often helpful to the reader, if they don't violate the spirit of the original. Here as always, not only paragraph breaks but sentence breaks too are often indicated casually, erratically, or not at all. The translator has a good deal of leeway for personal judgment (to put it positively), and is also thus forced to somewhat reshape the text (to put it negatively). Basically, English-style punctuation was an imported convention, and took a while to catch on; even today it is often used somewhat idiosyncratically.

[1.3] [1.3x] Mention of the Secundra Orphan Asylum.
== *121* ==
[1.4] [1.4x] Religious discussion being carried to a great height during the present time.
== *122* ==

Here as always, the choice between the favorite quotation form of traditional Urdu, called by linguists 'direct discourse' ('He told me, "you're a fool"'), and the favorite quotation form of modern English, 'indirect discourse' ('He told me that I was a fool'), remains a matter of the translator's judgement. In 'normal' translation, I'd give preference to indirect discourse almost always. In this translation, I'm often preserving examples of the direct discourse of the original. This is to help students notice what is going on, and try to capture the enjoyably colloquial, immediate texture of the original.

The following title has been slightly misplaced in the Urdu text.

[1.5] [1.5x] The covenanted officers assumed the Missionary functions.
[1.6] [1.6x] Preaching of the Gospel by the Missionaries.
== *123* ==

To say that a 'policeman' accompanied the missionary gives an anachronistic and somewhat inaccurate impression; rather, it was a chapraasii from the thaanah , a kind of messenger or all-purpose errand-runner from the (police) station. Such a 'chaprasi'-- Platts gives as synonyms 'peon, orderly, messenger' (p. 422)-- would be recognized by everybody as a low-ranking functionary; he would not be armed, and his presence would be mostly for symbolic purposes.

[1.7] [1.7x] The establishment of Missionary Schools and the covenanted officers attending examinations at them.
== *124* ==
[1.8] [1.8x] Village Schools.
== *125* ==

How different the effect of "Native Clergyman" from that of ' Kaalaa Paadrii '! Deliberately or not, the 1873 translators have gentrified the nickname and deprived it of all its colloquial force and pungency.

The objection to .sirf urduu ta((liim suggests that proper religious instruction must be carried on through, or at least must include, the sacred language of a religion. Sir Sayyid is carefully broad in his phrasing, so that objections might have been made on all these grounds not only by Muslims but by members of other religions.

Sir Sayyid loves long lists of parallel nouns, in a way that modern English (and modern Urdu) do not The list of threatened religious items is only one of many similar examples.

[1.9] [1.9x] The introduction of female education.
== *126* ==

If the girls would 'become unveiled' [be-pardah ho jaa))e;N], what exactly did that mean? Leaving their houses in the first place? Leaving their houses to attend school? Attending school without wearing a veil? Or ceasing entirely to wear a veil? The nature of the unacceptable behavior isn't made clear.

What exactly is the sense of ' kih yih '? The structure is so multivalent that a number of readings would be possible. I think it's really just loose, and lets the grammar flow with the thought in a kind of run-on way. Sir Sayyid often writes in long loose thought patterns, where modern English (and much modern Urdu) would require more sentence breaks and a tighter logical structure.

'Anything more obnoxious than this to the feelings of the Hindustanees cannot be conceived'--here the 1873 translators have somewhat hyperbolized. Sir Sayyid says that 'this' (whatever it was) was 'extremely unacceptable' [;had se ziyaadah naa-gavaar], which is certainly very strong, but he doesn't rank it as the MOST offensive possible or even imaginable thing, as the translation does. I think the translators were just making what they felt to be an appropriately forceful rhetorical maneuver.

There were 'examples of this'-- but still, what exactly is the 'this'?

[1.10] [1.10x] Alterations in the usual system of education in large Colleges.
== *127* == *128* ==

The 1873 translators make Shah 'Abd ul-'Aziz strongly urge or even command Muslims to go to the colleges and seek English education. This is definitely a mistranslation: Sir Sayyid attributes to him the mere opinion, properly given in answer to a question, that to do so is not contrary to the religion.

The conflation of the various languages with their various 'learnings' is clear. How best to translate ((uluum , the plural of ((ilm ? I think 'sciences' is too, well, sciencey; and 'philosophies' or 'disciplines' doesn't really do the job either. Maybe something like 'bodies of knowledge'? It's impossible to tell to what degree Sir Sayyid is talking about language study, and to what degree about the study of texts in those languages; surely he means to wrap both ideas together. For my own interests, I'd love to know what exactly he meant by 'poetics' [((ilm-e adab].

Of Sir Sayyid's list of five proper teacherly qualifications, the final one is that the teachers should be 'abstemious' [parhezgaar]. This seems to be shorthand for their being considered admirable in a general (religious and cultural) way: as the 1873 translation puts it, they should be men of "sound moral character."

Sir Sayyid's resonant conclusion, that thus 'these colleges too came to be in the very same state', loses some of its force for a careful reader, since the question at once arises, in the very same state as what? Perhaps he means to compare them to the village schools.

[1.11] [1.11x] The issue of Government proclamation on the subject of admitting Government College English students to appointments in preference to other candidates.
== *129* ==
[1.12] [1.12x] Introduction of the messing system in the Jails.
[1.13] [1.13x] The circulation of Mr. E. Edmond's letters from Calcutta.
== *130* == *131* ==

The 1873 translators say of the Edmond letter and its effects, "And yet again at this crisis there was no one at hand to set men's minds at rest." This works well with Sir Sayyid's emphasis on the need for a Hindustani high in the government, but the Urdu does not speak of a person: rather, no plan or scheme [tadbiir] was effective in erasing this mistaken view.

Sir Sayyid's title for the Governor of Bengal is lavishly long and respectful, and also includes a nice example of rhyming prose: janaab-e mu((all;aa al-laqaab navaab .

[1.14] [1.14x] The interference in religious matters more repugnant to the feelings of the Muhammadans, and its causes.
== *132* == *133* ==

Sir Sayyid's explanation for Muslims' greater religious strictness is so peculiar that I've reflected it even in my translation: hinduu apne ma;zhab ke a;hkaam ba:taur rasm-o-rivaaj ke adaa karte hai;N nah ba:taur a;hkaam ma;zhab ke . Thus the Hindus apparently both do and don't have 'religious injunctions' that can be likened to those of Islam. Sir Sayyid is trying to be fair, but he also wants to explain the actual facts on the ground as he sees them, and he obviously has a low opinion of Hindu religious practices. He's really pretty sweepingly insulting in this passage.

The 1873 translation here is so inaccurate that it's hardly even a paraphrase; it's just a completely separate invention by the translators along broadly the same lines. They can see where he's going, and they mean to get there too, but they obviously feel entitled to cut their own path through the jungle.

 

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