Novel
Umrao Jan Ada
امراؤ جان ادا
Mirza Hadi Ruswa · 1899
Synopsis
At a poetry gathering in Lucknow, the narrator, Mirza Ruswa, takes an interest in Umrao Jan, a lettered courtesan, and urges her to tell her life story. She was called Amiran and lived in Faizabad in a modest family; to take revenge on her father, who had testified against him, Dilawar Khan abducts her as a child, shuts her up with another little girl, Ram Dai, then sells her for one hundred and fifty rupees to Khanum Jan, who keeps a house of courtesans in Lucknow. Renamed Umrao, she learns music, dance, Urdu and Persian there, with Gauhar Mirza, the illegitimate son of a nawab.
Context
The novel appeared in 1899. It presents itself as the account that the courtesan supposedly gave to the author, who appears in it under his own name, and mixes into the narrative the poems she recites; the real existence of Umrao Jan remains disputed. It depicts the Lucknow of the nawabs of Awadh before the British annexation of 1856, and the revolt of 1857 appears in it only in the last chapters. Several editions sold out immediately. Muzaffar Ali made it into a film with Rekha in 1981, followed by another adaptation in 2006; Khushwant Singh and M. A. Husaini translated it into English in 1961, David Matthews afterwards.
Who it is for
A first-person novel, interspersed with ghazals. It is better to know what a tawaif was, a courtesan trained in the arts and in court poetry. No French translation.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by many as the first Urdu novel; its English translation was included in the Unesco Collection of Representative Works.
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