Politics, Public Issues and the Promotion of Urdu Literature: Avadh ...

ULRIKE STARK • 89Sarsh≥r’s novel Sair-e Kohs≥r, a titillating narrative about a young Nawab’sillicit affair with a low-caste woman, prompted Avad^ Pan± to publiclyurge the government to take legal action against Naval Kishore for publishinga “very obscene” novel in a paper delivered to countless schools inthe province. 64Fas≥na-e ¥z≥d was published in installments in AA from 13 August1878 to January 1880. 65 It started out as a series of humorous sketches( ar≥fat), published in loose succession. With its vivid and humorous portrayalof contemporary social life in Lucknow, it took the reading publicby storm and, from January 1879, was published at daily intervals. WhileSarsh≥r’s claims to Fas≥na-e ¥z≥d being a “modern novel” remain controversial,66 its publishing pattern marked the breakthrough of a new narrativegenre in Urdu—the serialized novel. As the first piece of original fictionin Urdu written expressly for publication in a newspaper, Fas≥na-e¥z≥d broke new ground: For one, it was a text conceived in installments,demanding self-contained units which were sufficiently barbed with suspenseto hook the reader to the plot before he was relegated to the nextissue of the paper by the inevitable “b≥qµ ≥’inda …” (“to be continued...”). Daily intervals imposed enormous pressure on the writer. The regulardoses of opium that Sarsh≥r was allegedly supplied with by the publishermay be a reflection of this. More important than the demands thatthe new mode of writing put on the author, however, was the new formof reader-writer interaction prompted by serial publication in a paper.Reader reaction to Fas≥na-e ¥z≥d was vivid, testifying to the existence of acritical literary public that was eager to discuss the notion of realism inliterary fiction. Readers of AA sent in letters of criticism or suggestions towhich Sarsh≥r readily responded with comments or ad hoc modificationsin the plot of his narrative. 6764Avad^ Pan± of 20 May 1886, SVN 1886, p. 406.65 For the publishing history of Fas≥na-e ¥z≥d, see Mookerjee, pp. 78–80. AsMookerjee points out, the common notion that the novel was published in AAfrom December 1878 to December 1879 is based on an incorrect statement givenin the first printed edition of 1880.66 For a discussion of Fas≥na-e ¥z≥d under this aspect, see, e.g., Mookerjee,pp. 87–97, Ralph Russell The Pursuit of Urdu Literature, A Select History (Delhi:Oxford University Press, 1992) pp. 87–92, and M. Asaduddin, “First UrduNovel: Contesting Claims and Disclaimers,” Annual of Urdu Studies, No. 16 (1),2001, pp. 84–6.67 Mookerjee, pp. 102–33.