Every year, usually on a weekend day in
April, the South Asia Institute and the Department
of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies
at Columbia University have hosted a one-day WORKSHOP on some topic of
South Asian, and especially Hindi/Urdu, literature; the workshop
is often comparative. (Counterpart workshops are often
held in the fall at the University of Pennsylvania.)
These workshops are open to the public, but require
registration in advance. Current information is
available below. Workshop topics have included: *'Tomb of
Sand': Adventures in translation (postponed
till fall 2024)*
*Mir Anis and the classical marsiyah (2023), with online materials* *"Modern Interpretations of Literary Traditions', (Nov. 2022, at Penn, with online materials* *"The 1930's" (Nov. 2019, at Penn), with online materials* *"Miraji and Muktibodh: Toward a 'Progressive' Modernism?" (2019), with online materials* *"The Progressives" (Nov. 2018, at Penn), with online materials* *"The Romance(?) of the Rainy Season" (2018), with online materials* *"The Heartbeat of Poetry: Meter" (2017), with online materials* *"Razm-o-bazm II: Elegant Gatherings" (2016), with online materials* *"Razm-o-bazm I: Poetry of War" (2015), with online materials* *"Who was Ghalib?" (2014), with online materials* *"From Amir Hamzah to Chandrakanta: How Long a Journey?" (2013), with online materials* *"Dakani, or Qadim Urdu?" (2012), with online materials* *"Mulla Da'ud's Chandayan: the first work of Hindi literature?" (2011), with online materials* *"Fort William College: Hindi/Urdu/Hindustani" (2010), with online materials* *"What is a Shahr-Ashob?" (2009), with online materials* *"Josh Chahiye! - On the Poetry and Prose of Josh Malihabadi" (Fall 2008, at Penn), with online materials* *"Satire in Braj and Urdu" (2008), with online materials* *"Mir Dard: Poet and Sufi" (Fall 2007, at Penn), with online materials* *"Insha and Rani Ketaki ki kahani" (2007), with online materials* *"The Poetry of Bhava" (Fall 2006, at Penn), with online materials* *"Sarapa and Nakh-shikh-varnan" (2006), with online materials* *"Modernism in Urdu and Hindi: Two Poets (N. M. Rashid and Muktibodh)" (2005)* *"The Urdu Marsiyah: Text and Performance" (2004)* "Who was Bullhe Shah?" (2003) "Urdu Poetry in Drag," a study of rekhti (2002) "Nazir Akbarabadi: Poet of the People?" (2001): In memory of Aditya Behl, who did the translations, here is a replica of *the packet for this workshop* "Has there ever been a Progressive Poetry in Urdu?" (2000) "Faiz, Rashid, and Miraji" (1999) "Ismat Chughtai" (1998)
==SEE ALSO: the
specially recommended Hindi/Urdu historical
background materials *on this site*,
some of which are online =Abdul Latif, Syed, The
influence of English literature on Urdu
literature (1924): [internet
archive] =Ahmad, Rizwan, "Urdu in Devanagari: Shifting orthographic practices and Muslim identity in Delhi," Language in Society 40,3: [site] ="Anarkali: Fact or Fiction?," author unnamed, from Dawn, May 1, 2005: [site] =Anjum, Zafar, "The Ghost of Urdu: a personal memoir," Sept. 1, 2003, on the Chowk website: [site] =Barz, Richard, and Yogendra Yadav, An Introduction to Hindi and Urdu (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2000); the introduction is online: [site] =Bedi, Susham, "Two Sides of a Coin: Linguistic and Cultural Aspects of a Language": [site] =Broughton, Thomas Duer, Selections from the Popular Poetry of the Hindoos (1814): [site] =Busch, Allison, "Vernacular Poetics in Early-modern South Asia," in CSSAAME 24,2 (2004): [site] =Dudney, Arthur, "Keeping the Magic Alive: How Devakanandan Khatri's Chandrakanta, the First Hindi Best-seller, Navigates Modernity and the Fantastical" (2009): [on this site] =Dudney, Arthur, A Desire for Meaning: Khan-i Arzu's Philology and the Place of India in the Eighteenth-Century Persianate World. Columbia University dissertation, 2013: [site] =S. R. Faruqi, Urdu ki na'i kitab (1986), a literary anthology for students with introductory material in simple, clear Urdu: [on this site] =Freitag, Sandria B., ed., Culture and Power in Banaras: Community, Performance, and Environment, 1800-1980 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989): [site] =Gandhi's last letter on Hindi/Urdu, written 19 days before his assassination: [on this site] =Gilchrist, John Borthwick: a number of his books: [site] =Gold, Ann Grodzins, A Carnival of Parting: The Tales of King Bharthari and King Gopi Chand as Sung and Told by Madhu Natisar Nath of Ghatiyali, Rajasthan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). An example of real, unexpurgated North Indian (Rajasthani) oral storytelling: [site]. =Grierson, George, The Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustan (1888): [site] =Grierson, George, A Bibliography of Western Hindi, Including Hindostani (Bombay: Bombay Education Society, 1903): [site] =Hansen, Kathryn, Grounds for Play: The Nautanki Theatre of North India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). These 'folk operas' had both Hindi and Urdu forms: [site] =Hurst, Rev. John F., "A Native Publishing House in India," in Harper's New Monthly Magazine 75 (June-Nov 1887), pp. 352-356: [site]. About the early days of the famous Naval Kishor Press. =Insha'allah Khan, "Rani Ketaki ki kahani." See the 2007 Workshop material, where the text is presented in both scripts: [on this site]. =Kellogg, Rev. S. H., A Grammar of the Hindi Language (1938 ed.): those excellent comparative dialectical charts are [on this site] =King, Christopher. One Language, Two Scripts: the Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994: [on this site] =Lal, Vinay, "Sexual Moves, Colonial Maneuvres, and an Indian Game: Masculinity and Femininity in 'The Chess Players'"; on his 'Manas' website: [site] =Majumdar, Rochona, "'Self-Sacrifice' versus 'Self-Interest': a Non-Historicist Reading of the History of Women's Rights in India," in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 22,1-2 (2002) (in PDF format): [site]. The article contains much discussion of literary sources. =Manto, Sa'adat Hasan, "Hindi and Urdu," Annual of Urdu Studies 25 (2010): [site] =Masica, Colin, "Introduction to The Indo-Aryan Languages" (1991): [on this site]; a thoughtful overview. =Pritchett, Frances W., Marvelous Encounters: Folk Romance in Urdu and Hindi (New Delhi: Manohar, 1985): [on this site] =Rai,
Alok, "The Persistence of Hindustani," Annual of Urdu Studies
20 (2005): [site] =Raley, Rita, "A Teleology of Letters; or, From a 'Common Source' to a Common Language." A theoretical article on the role of Gilchrist in shaping Hindi/Urdu: [site] =Ramaswami, Sumathi. Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891-1970 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). A useful case for comparative study: [site] =Russell, Ralph, "Some Notes on Hindi and Urdu," Annual of Urdu Studies 11 (1996): [site] =Russell, Ralph, "Urdu in India since Independence" (1999): [on this site] =Safadi, Alison. The Colonial Construction of Hindustani 1800-1947 (2012): [site] =Saksena, Ram Babu, A History of Urdu
Literature (1927), Chapter 1, "The Urdu
Language and its History": [on this site]; an Urdu
translation [on this site], a
Hindi translation [on this site] =Shackle, Christopher, and Rupert Snell, Hindi-Urdu Since 1800: A Common Reader (London: SOAS, 1990): [on this site] =Srivastava, Sushil, "Review Article: Christopher King, One Language, Two Scripts," Social Scientist 23, 263-65 (1995): [site] ="Symposium on Literature and History in Persianate South Asia," Oxford University, May 2015, convened by Arthur Dudney, interesting papers with full audio online: [site] =Tara Chand, "The Problem of Hindustani" (1944), a set of four articles: [on this site] =Wright, Gillian, "Urdu and the City," Outlook India, April 10, 2008: [site] =Yashwant Malaiya's site on the modern Indic languages: [site] =And while we're at it, why not a few classic Akbar-Birbal jokes? [site] |