‘ A CRITICAL SURVEY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE URDU NOVEL AND SHORT STORY BY } SHAISTA AKHTAR BANU SUHRAWARDY (Begum Tkeamullah) To MY FATHER THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF Pa.D. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON LONGMANS.QREEW AND Co. LONDON’ © NEW YORK TORONTO.LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO, LD, OF PATENNOSTER NOW 43 supper Dutye, LoxDoN, 8.W. 19 NICOL ROAD, ROMBAY 17 currrazaxsax avERUR, cATOUIEA 364 mou ROAD, KADRAS LONGMANS, GREEN AND Co. 85 TIFT avuNUE, NEW YORK 3 LONGMANS, GREEN AND Co. 216 vioroms emrxg, tonoNTO 1 First published 1945 CODE NUMBER; 999¢0 runred ni onmae mpegs ay STEER AUTEN AND SORS, LUD., MhtervORD. Ih4-we HY 6062 B FOREWORD FROE more reasons than one I gladly avail myself of the opportunity offered me, of according a warm weleome to this volume. The English reader of it who has some acquaintance with the work of modem Indian writers through translations of the works of Rabindra Nath ‘Tagore, of the novels of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and of the poems of Muhammad Iqbal, will find himself breaking new ground ; for little has been written hitherto in English of the work of the Urdu novelists Of the bookitself I need only say that he will find it delightful reusing and that, as he reads, he will marvel at the ease and intimacy with which the author moves in two different worlds of thought—those of the East and the West. What, in the absence of this brief note of introduction, might escape him is the remarkable fact that the book is not the production of an elderly college don, but of a woman of comparatively tender years who is a member of that community in India which was admitéedly slow in exchanging the edueation provided at the indigenous maktabs and madressahs, for that of the colleges and universities modelled on tie educational institutions of the West. And as a former Chancellor of the Caleutta University, it gives me sincere pleasure to be able to congratulate her on being the first Muslim to graduate from that university with Honours in English literature, and the first Muslim lady from any country to have been awarded the degree of Ph.D. of the London University. Ibis, perhaps, permissible for me to add in a note introducing the author to the Bnglish public, that I have more personal grounds for satisfuction at her success, for Shiista Akhtar Banu Subrewardy is the daughter of my old friend, Alhajvi FOREWORD Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Hassan Subrawardy, O.BE., a former ‘Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University and a member of a family distinguished for its cultural attainments, whose own versatile gifts have enabled him to play for many years past a prominent part in the public life of his country. Its, indeed, of interest to note that the author of this volume is the granddaughter on her father’s side of one—Bahr-ul- Uloom Maulana Obaidullah el Obaidy Sukrawardy—who ‘was a pioneer of Anglo-Islamic studies and of female education in Bengal; and on her mother’s side, of a distinguished public citizen of Dacea, Nawab Syed Muhammad; and, further, a near relation of two men of recognized cultural attainments, the late Sir Abdullah Subrawardy and Sir Yahhadur Rahim Zahid Suhrawardy, both members of the Bengal Legislature during the term of my Governorhip of the Presidency, and the latter for ten years a Judge of the High Court of Calcutta, It will be seen, therefore, that Shaista Akhtar Banu Subrawardy carries forward a torch already lit and destined in her hands, if we may judge by the present volume, to blaze with increasing lustre in the days to come. Zernan. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I 1. A Suorr Hisvontoar, Sorvey or mz Nova, — 1 (i) First appearance of the novel. {ii) Development of the novel. (ii) The structure of the novel. U. Conpinioxs mar Lup 70 vm: Burra or rim Nover 1 Urpu: eee eceaeeeea1a} @) Contact with the West. (i) The development of Prose at Fort William College, Caloutta, TLL Tae Founpanoy ov Rowancn . .. 33, (i) Verse Romances. (ii) Prose Romances. (iii) Fasiina e “Ajab” PART TV. “ Fasina e dead” (Sansitin, 1846-1902). 31 V. Nain Anasan (1886-1912) . oo. 4 ‘VI. Suanan (1860-1926) . 2... 66 VIL. ‘Tite Inrrators op Sarsitin, Nazi Ayotap, anpSuaRaR . -. 80viii Vu. Ix. XL xi, xm. XIV. xv. XVI. XVII. XVII. TABLE OF CONTENTS Risum on, Kurared (1870-1936). Wowen Novis . . . ‘Taz Movurn Nove... . , PART IIT ‘Tux Suonr-srory, 1s Dernvrcion anp 11s APrmarance IN Burovtan Literarore Bremwmas or vam Suorr-story iv Unpu Lrrsratore wrrm ru Skwreuns ww“ Avadh Pane”. peered Devetorsuny ov tux SHonr-srory mv Urpu Row 1900-1925 =. 7 Won Storr-srory Wrrrens ‘Prom Canp anp His Lurrarors . ‘Tae Monexn Sxonr-srory Wrrrers . () Writers with socialist tendencies. Howonous Wrrrres . eee ‘Tus Forure ov wit Snorr-story aN rie Nover Comparer fesse Inpex 105 1238 166 208 206 2 233, 219 265 291 308 309 INTRODUCTION TPHE advisability of profucing « publication with a short account of its author and his circumstances is sometimes suggested on the ground that it would establish a cortain bond of understanding botwoen the reader and him. ‘The suggestion has been assailed on the ground that a book should establish understanding by its own merits, and the immediate approach might save the reader from having to comect an impression given by the third person in the biographical sketch, A knowledge of the history of the novel is not likely to produce a novelist, nov need it be a part of his equipment ; neither is it nor acquaintance with the novelist's biography necessary to the reader's enjoyment of his work. But to a student of literature, of social movements, and of course the critic, a knowledge of a work’s antecedents and contem- poraries is at once interesting and necessary, and the voluue before us meets a clamant need, ‘The risk from it to a budding novelist of becoming self-conscious may be taken as negligible ! ‘The talented author of this volume refrained from the unnecessary task of prefixing to ib a history of story-writing in general, and of novel-writing in Britain in particular, and of deciding as to the paternity of the latter between Samuel Richardson and Henzy Fielding, Sir Walter Scott's putative “Father of the English Novel”, but references to these and othor English writers of stories have been made as contacts in matter and manner have been established In his recent essay, “The Bridge of Tdeas,” contributed to the compilation Binding the Adantie, Mx. Frank Swinnerton writes : "Tt would not be true to say that the English invented the novel; but it might be argued that they gave earlyx INTRODUCTION lessons in writing it to all other nations in the moder world.” India has played the part of a sedentary disciple. There is not much from the epistolary style of Richardson’s Pamela, through the historical of Scott, the didactic of moralists believing the world too good to ban if too bad to bless, the socially reforming of Kingsley and Reade, to the psychological of Henry James that has not been imitated or has not exercised an influence. But models have been taken from the Continent of Europe too; the Russian short story is occasionally found in translation, perhaps because ofa certain measure of affinity, but though India’s spirit is imbued with “the sincere asceticism of the sea” it is not to the same extent with the gzimness of the reality in the shadow. She has some affinity ‘too with the humorons earnestness characteristic of Britain at work and play, while her College-bred son has much with tthe intellectual aleriness and mental outlook of Bernard Shaw in his plays, Some two-score years ago America found in the novel new scope for expression. She prides herself on being the melting. pot for elements from many nations, The new emergent is faced with new situations and complexities, and wider spread horizons, Has India passed beyond the range of her models ? Tt must be recognized that social conditions restrict the scope of her novelists, and to a considerable extent of her short story writers. ‘The lines of demarcation between classes, groups and peoples, are still pretty rigid, and the veil is drawn before the intimate existence of a very large section of the population. Prem Chand will probably be generally accepted as having given the strongest directional lead towards independence in the short story. His gentle narratives describing conditions of social order and disorder do much to reveal the heart of the people and the heartlessness in custom and petty authority. His manner is not a hasty improvisa- tion at the instance of a burning sense of man’s injustice to ‘man, an impatient impulse to escape from under the eneom- INTRODUCTION xi passing slough of ancient circumstance, Tt is the genuine art which Oscar Wilde maintained develops, not through the pressure of the external world on the artist, but according to impulsos of its own. “The style is the man.” Prem Chand’s inner urge led him to depict the life of people ordinarily met with off the highway, and his eympathy to sketch in, with a touch like Dickens, a human trait, a sorrow or a sacri None will dissent from the author's eonelusion that the novel and short story have made good in India. ‘They have proved themselves viable and hardy, and their struggle for existence ‘was not an easy one, ‘Though the story hus a universally Popular appeal, and the story-teller is an historical and welcome figure in easton lands, the novel met at once, on its appearance, with the opposion that stired involuntarily or conscientiously in an unusually sevious-minded public to the reading of fiction, on the ground that it deals with a fanciful ‘world—and who can command fancies? Other obstacles are mentioned by the author, but this form of literature has survived for the tyro and the dilettante to find a market for their wits, the psychologist a clinic, the reformer a. public to woo and win, and the women of India @ platform wiiereon to tepresent, from the anonymity of the purdah if they still so desivo, the ills of a one-sided social order. A history of the Urdu novel and short story was much needed, and the author has placed under a deep debt of gratitude not only the reader of Urdu fiction, bnt the student of general literature. Her wide rango of research, lier generous résumés of stories of special note, and her soundness of Judginent will make this a useful compendium for many Yeats to come. A. IL HARLEY,PART [ Cuarren I A SHORT HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE NOVEL () The First Appearance of the Novel ‘Tho Novel appears very late in the world of literature, tong after the Epic and the Drama, the Lyric, apd the Essay had attained perfection, yet it enjoys a greater popularity and is more widely read than any of these for it satisfies the inborn love of man for hearing a story. The novel in its present form is not more than two hundred years old, Richardson's Parela, which was published as late as 1742, is by unanimous opinion considered the fixst novel. Yet the foundation of the novel goes back into the very beginning of Man’s consciousness. Tts seeds are to be found in the myths and legends of pre-historic times, They were succeeded by the ballad, which gave place to romance, which in its turn yielded to the novel. This out- line applies in the case of every literature of the world. The same eyele of development is followed in each case, ‘The novel has this in common with the romantic tales of the Middle Ages that its primary object is also to tell a story, but this is the only thing common to the two. For the rest, the novel. of to-day is a very different thing from the romances of earlier times. The first and most important difference isin the material used. Novels are made of the ordinary stuff of life, they are commentaries on the contemporary life, a portrayal of the manners and men of the present date. Their events aro such as happened, or ean happen to anyone, while romance dealt with things impossible and adventures, and placed its people in an imaginary world and made them perform heroie and2 SHORT HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE NOVEL unlikely déeds. ‘The supernatural always intermingled with the natural destroying every vestige of likelihood. In older romances little or no attention was paid to “ char- acter”. In the modern novel it is “character” that is everything, It is in the portrayal of men and women and in the delineation of their thoughts and motives that a novelist’s greatness is shown, and it is the study of “character” that makes novels so interesting. ‘The actions are important only ‘as an expression of “character” or as showing the reaction of “character” to them. The understanding and exposing the inner springs of human conduct aro what is expected of a novelist. Nothing of the kind was demanded from the romantic writer. Romances were told in narrative style. They had no definite form like the novel. A well-constructed novel follows, or should follow, the same line in development of plot as the drama, that is the first few chapters should Place the “ char- acters” before the reader and explain the situation in which they are shown, Soon it ehéuld become apparent that a conilict is likely to ensue if thay ever happen to eroaa each other's path. ‘The bulk of the book would then be devoted to gathering the elements of conflict and the crisis would be reached somewhere in the book corresponding to the third act of a play. Ifit is to be a tragedy, the crisis should be the failure of the hero or heroine, if a comedy, his or her triumph. ‘The end of the book as of the play would be devoted tothe final gathering of threads and smoothing out the tangle, ‘The conflict need not he between the most important “ char- acter’” in the book and another person, but with eircum- stances, ideals, situations, anything for that matter as long as it is antagonistic to the smooth running of the protagonist's character, Hence novel writing involves a knowledge of plot- construction, while that of romance needed only a gift of flow- ing narrative. The novel mirrors and expounds the tendency of the age that gave it birth, that is the eighteenth century, SHORT HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE NOVEL 3 which was an essentially realistic and social age, People had begun to get interested not only in what unknown men did in unknown times but what contemporary people did in their daily life. ‘The novel satisfied that growing interest in contem- porary affairs and in society. ‘The same attitude towards life appeared in India towards the nineteenth century as the result of contact with the West, and consequently the novel also made its appearance, (ii) The Development of the Novel ‘The novel came into being as the result of a more realistic attitude towards life and was from its inception more demo- cratic in its tone, for it dealt with ordinary people as opposed to romance which concerned itself only with the fortunes of the great. It also brought with it an interest in personality or “character” as opposed to actions, In other words, the novel was subjective while the romance had been objective “in its attitude, With the passing of the years the breadth and scope of the novel has grown tremendously. The belief that literature should represent life has been growing stronger and the novel, which came into being as tho result of this attitude, has been the one to be most profoundly influenced by it. Realism has taken on far wider implications than when it was applied to Jane Austen’s novel. In her work, realism meant an accurate and detailed description, a faithful rendering of the foibles of society. Tt became in Dickens the presenting of social evils. ‘Thackeray's realism, though of the same kind as Jane Austen's, was mnch more stinging; while in conneetion with Hardy's work, realism means something eternal and frightening ; and one is almost unable to face the realism of 'T. 8. Eliot or Hurley. ‘The novel, democratic from the first, has tended to become more and more so. Richardson had realised that even the4 SHORT HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE NOVEL humblest type could be made interesting if its joys. and sorrows wore treated. sympathetically. Novelists of the present day are enthusiastic believers in this. They ake the lifo of the humble a theme of their story, their interest lies with the outcast of society, the underdog in the social straggle, the down-trodden in the world. Is has become a fashion to deal with these at one time neglected strata of society. But most of all has the novel developed in the conception and Presentation of “character”. ‘The novel had at once lnid stress ‘on personality instead of on action and had taken the attitude “that action is only a result of * character ” and consequently of secondary importance. This attitude has grown to such an extent that.in Hardy or Meredith it is “character” that is fate, “ character” the determining factor, “ chavacter” the motif spring of actions, ‘The modern novelists do not concern ‘themselves with what a “character” did but why he did it, Alongside this growing importance of “character” has come the realisation that the division of all mankind into groups of the good and the bad'was fallacious, Human nature is much more complex than that, and the impulses of the ‘human heart are strangely contradictory and mixed, ‘These elements which were found in the novel from the firsé have attained great heights during the last two hundred years. ‘Richardson was not aware when he wrote Pamela that he had created a new form and that his ponderous and sontimental stories Would bring to life such masterly studies in psychology as The Idiot or The Brothers Karamazov, that the ereation of Pamela would be followed by the ereation of such personalities as Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina, Tess and Hester Paryan, and that the novel would be able to reveal the innermost thoughts of the mind, and the deepest recesses of the soul and the subconscious impulses of nature, ‘The novel was born in England and some of the greatest ex- ponents of the possibilities of the novel have been English. ‘The perfoct miniature paintings of Jane Austen have as yot ccashesineaneeeseemee SHORT HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE NOVEL 5 not found a peer; Tielding, Smollet and Sterne, Scott, Dickens and Thackeray, Goorge Rliot, Eraily Bronte, Meredith and Hardy, Wells, Arnold Bennett, and Galsworthy—they make a fine array, and in recent years there have been D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, Virginia Woolf and James Joyee, Every type of humanity is represented in the gallery of “ characters” that the genius of these novelista has created. ‘Thackeray and Jane Austen have held up the mirror to society. Dickens, Bennett and Wells have shown the middle classes in their smugness and morality. Scott has given unforgetable pictures of the past. Fielding, Smollet and Sterne have provided the language with the best examples of the pricaresyue novel. George Eliot began the psychological novel, Hardy: and Meredith have made it their special forte. Tess of the DUrbervilles, Jule the Obscure, The Return of the Native have the greatness and austerity of a Greek tragedy. Merodith’s Sir Willoughby is a study in egoism that eannot be surpassed and Wuthering Heights is a unique study of passion, It is an achievement to be proud of, but though born in England, the novel has attained its greatest heights on the Continent. Beside Balzac Dickons appears lacking in sub: stance. There is not such a study of woman's soul as Madame Bovary. Seott's historical novels ean be placed beside Dumas’, but there is no Lady with the Camelia amongst them. D. H. Lawrence has analysed the sub-conscious, but nob as Marcel Proust, . ut it is in Russia that: the novel has really achieved per- fection, IE. M. Forster declares tha no Hnglish novelist is as great as Tolstoy, that is to say, has given go complete a picture of a man’s life both on its domestic and its heroic side. No English novelist has explored man’s soul as deeply as Dostoievsky " ; and that even works such as Jane Eyre, The Heart of Midlothian, Richard Feverel and Cranford appear 23 little mansions against the colonnades of War and Peace, or the vaults of Whe Brothers Karamazov.