Umrao Jan Ada

Description

Umrao Jan Ada by Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa

Originally written and published in Urdu by Muhammad Hadi Ruswa in 1899, the poignant tale of Umrao mirrored the lives of courtesans (tawaifs) in colonial India.

Umrao Jan Ada, published more than a hundred years ago, was the first novel to be written in Urdu. It tells the story of a courtesan from Lucknow, a woman of great charm who was also a brilliant poet and singer. Documented by a close friend and dictated by Umrao Jan herself, the novel weaves the courtesan’s story with interspersions of poetry, exploration of social dynamics and the author’s radical subtext with regard to patriarchal double standards. Umrao Jan Ada is perhaps one of the most enigmatic figures in South Asian literature. The exploration of her story is an attempt to capture the essence of what it meant to be a courtesan in nineteenth-century India.

Author Biography

Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa (1857-1931) was born in Lucknow in the very year which saw the collapse of the kingdom of Avadh. There is nothing remarkable about his career which took him from teaching in schools to the Nizam s advisory board on language matters. Like many of his contemporaries, he composed Urdu poetry, and seems to have acquired a reasonable reputation in the art. He wrote a number of novels, but now his fame rests solely on Umrao Jan Ada. Throughout the pages of his book the life of the Nawabs are vividly portrayed with great affection and nostalgia for a glorious past which is no more.