Mirza Hadi Ruswa
Encyclopedia
Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa (1857 – October 21, 1931) was an Urdu
poet and writer of fiction, plays, and treatises (mainly on religion
, philosophy
, and astronomy
). He remained on the Nizam of Awadh's advisory board on language matters for years. He was well-versed in Urdu, Persian
, Arabic
, Hebrew
, English
, Latin, and Greek
.
His famed Urdu novel, Umrao Jan Ada, published in 1905, is considered by many as the first Urdu novel. It is based on the life of a renowned Lucknow
courtesan and poetess of the same name and later became the basis for Umrao Jan Ada (1972), a Pakistani film, and two Indian films, Umrao Jaan
(1981) and Umrao Jaan
(2006). The novel was also the basis of a Pakistani television serial, Umrao Jan Ada, which aired in 2003.
from Persia and that his great-grandfather was an adjutant in the army of the Nawab of Awadh
. The street on which the Ruswa family home was situated is known as Ajitun Ki Gali (Adjutant's Lane). He had not much to say of his grandfather and father, except that they were both keenly interested in arithmetic and astronomy.
Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa was born in 1857 in Lucknow
, Uttar Pradesh
. He received his early education at home. His parents died when he was sixteen years old and he soon became a ward of his maternal uncle, who relieved him of much of his inheritance. Haider Baksh, a renowned calligraphist of his time, then befriended Ruswa. He taught Ruswa the art of penmanship and lent money to him. However, since Haider Baksh's income came from counterfeiting revenue stamps, he was arrested and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. Amongst the many people who aided Ruswa in his writing career was the Urdu poet, Dabeer. Ruswa studied at home and passed his matriculation. He then tackled the Munshi Fazil course and examinations and earned himself a Munshi Fazil (Honours in Urdu) degree. Thereafter, he received an Overseers diploma from Thomas Engineering School in Roorkee
. For some time, he was employed in the railways, laying tracks in Balochistan
. All through these years, he continued to write and study, his passions being chemistry
, alchemy
and astronomy
. After a short term of government service, he returned to Lucknow to teach and write. He was employed as a teacher at a local mission school and then as a lecturer at Christian College
, where he taught mathematics
, science
, philosophy
and Persian
. He left Lucknow for Hyderabad and worked in the Bureau of Translation at Osmania University
for a year. He died of typhoid fever
on October 21, 1931, aged seventy-five.
The first part of his Afshai Raz was published in 1902. No sequel is traceable. Three years later came Umrao Jan Ada. It was an immediate and thunderous success, proving that the successful literary pieces are always those that can satisfy the lusty cravings of men and women through softcore vulgarity. Critics acclaimed it at once as one of the best narratives of the life and culture of Lucknow and praised Ruswa's mastery of Urdu prose. Several editions of the novel were sold. The theme, no doubt, contributed to its large sale, but it was its language that made it a steady seller for all time. Two other novels, Zat-e-Shareef and Shareef Zada, did not do as well but Akhtari Begum was again applauded by the Urdu-speaking intelligentsia. It is still considered by some to be better than Umrao Jan Ada.
Ruswa wrote a large number of treatises on religious and philosophical subjects. He had a deep and abiding interest in religion and Greek metaphysics. He was the head of the literary department at the All India Shia Conference and wrote twenty volumes on the Shia religion.
Despite the name that Ruswa made for himself in literary circles, these novels and works of philosophy and religion did not earn him much money. His sustenance came from the worst kind of penny dreadfuls which had titles like The Loves of Satan, The Bleeding Lover and The Murderous Dame. Ruswa was an excellent example of a dual literary personality - an earnest-minded Dr. Jekyll burning the midnight oil writing sublime prose, working out a system of Urdu shorthand or studying the movements of the stars - and the vulgarian Mr. Hyde, doing the rounds of the city's brothels and churning out cheap trash to bring in much needed filthy lucre.
Among his other interests were astronomy
, higher mathematics, hydraulics
, metallurgy
, and chemistry
. He considered nothing beyond his keen. When the bicycle first appeared in Lucknow
, he assumed that since it took other people some hours to learn to control the machine, it should not take him more than a few seconds. He rode without any assistance and fractured his collarbone. Undaunted, he walked home, set the bone himself, and proceeded with his work.
Ruswa was a man of amorous temperament. The only affair which seemed to have moved him and became the subject of a mathnawi was with a young lady of Anglo
-French
parentage by the name of Sophia Augustine. If Ruswa's own version of the affair was to be believed, Mlle. Augustine insisted that Ruswa become the manager of her estate. The impecunious Ruswa turned this business into good account and soon became her lover. He accompanied her on a trip to Bombay where they stayed in the same hotel. She disappeared from her room one morning, leaving a note saying that she was going to France
to claim her inheritance and would return as soon as the business was settled. She never came back and the disconsolate Ruswa found comfort in successive marriages and the company of courtesans. No doubt this is the reason Umrao Jan Ada is extremely popular among people from all walks of life.
Ruswa's dress was as eccentric as his way of living. When he had the money, he stepped out like a Lucknow dilettante, wearing a thin muslin
kurta, finely creased pyjamas, an embroidered cap on his head, and velvet
slippers on his feet. But most of his time he spent in his ganji and lungi. In these sparse garments, he wrote or dictated, sitting cross-legged on a mat with his books littered about him on the floor. Ruswa was a tall and powerfully built man of light-brown complexion with a bushy moustache and a neatly-trimmed beard. He had a broad forehead but narrow eyes. He had a high-pitched, wheezy voice.
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
poet and writer of fiction, plays, and treatises (mainly on religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
). He remained on the Nizam of Awadh's advisory board on language matters for years. He was well-versed in Urdu, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Latin, and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
.
His famed Urdu novel, Umrao Jan Ada, published in 1905, is considered by many as the first Urdu novel. It is based on the life of a renowned Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
courtesan and poetess of the same name and later became the basis for Umrao Jan Ada (1972), a Pakistani film, and two Indian films, Umrao Jaan
Umrao Jaan
Umrao Jaan is a 1981 Bollywood film, directed by Muzaffar Ali. It is based on the Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada , written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa based on the famous Lucknow courtesan...
(1981) and Umrao Jaan
Umrao Jaan (2006 film)
Umrao Jaan is a Bollywood film about the famous courtesan of the title. Aishwarya Rai stars in the lead role. The film is directed by J.P...
(2006). The novel was also the basis of a Pakistani television serial, Umrao Jan Ada, which aired in 2003.
Life
Accurate details of the life of Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa are unavailable and there are material contradictions between the accounts given by his contemporaries. Ruswa himself mentions that his ancestors arrived in IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
from Persia and that his great-grandfather was an adjutant in the army of the Nawab of Awadh
Nawab of Awadh
The Nawab of Awadh is the title of rulers who governed the state of Awadh in India in the 18th and 19th century. The Nawabs of Awadh originated form Persia-Establishment:...
. The street on which the Ruswa family home was situated is known as Ajitun Ki Gali (Adjutant's Lane). He had not much to say of his grandfather and father, except that they were both keenly interested in arithmetic and astronomy.
Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa was born in 1857 in Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
, Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
. He received his early education at home. His parents died when he was sixteen years old and he soon became a ward of his maternal uncle, who relieved him of much of his inheritance. Haider Baksh, a renowned calligraphist of his time, then befriended Ruswa. He taught Ruswa the art of penmanship and lent money to him. However, since Haider Baksh's income came from counterfeiting revenue stamps, he was arrested and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. Amongst the many people who aided Ruswa in his writing career was the Urdu poet, Dabeer. Ruswa studied at home and passed his matriculation. He then tackled the Munshi Fazil course and examinations and earned himself a Munshi Fazil (Honours in Urdu) degree. Thereafter, he received an Overseers diploma from Thomas Engineering School in Roorkee
Roorkee
Roorkee is a city and seat of a municipal council in Uttarakhand, in far northern India. It is located on the banks of the Ganges canal on the national highway between Delhi and Dehradun. Roorkee is known for Roorkee Cantonment, one of the country's oldest cantonments, and the headquarters of...
. For some time, he was employed in the railways, laying tracks in Balochistan
Balochistan (Pakistan)
Balochistan is one of the four provinces or federating units of Pakistan. With an area of 134,051 mi2 or , it is the largest province of Pakistan, constituting approximately 44% of the total land mass of Pakistan. According to the 1998 population census, Balochistan had a population of...
. All through these years, he continued to write and study, his passions being chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
and astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
. After a short term of government service, he returned to Lucknow to teach and write. He was employed as a teacher at a local mission school and then as a lecturer at Christian College
Christian College
Sri Jayawardenepura Maha Vidyalaya is a government school in Kotte, Sri Lanka. It was formally known as Christian College until 1964 when the administration of the school was taken over by the government. The school traces its roots to 1822 when the Cotta Institute was established as a seminary for...
, where he taught mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
. He left Lucknow for Hyderabad and worked in the Bureau of Translation at Osmania University
Osmania University
Osmania University , , since 1918, is a public university located in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established and named after the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan. It is one of the oldest modern universities in India. It is the first Indian University to have Urdu and...
for a year. He died of typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
on October 21, 1931, aged seventy-five.
Writing career
Ruswa's first work was published in 1887. This was a poem recounting the romantic tale of Laila-Majnu. Sadly, it was not well-received. His versification was amateur, his wit unwitty, and his satire stale and flat. Portions of the work were condemned by critics as commonplace and vulgar. The criticism did not, however, dampen Ruswa's ardour to write poetry: he continued to compose mediocre verse till the end of his days.The first part of his Afshai Raz was published in 1902. No sequel is traceable. Three years later came Umrao Jan Ada. It was an immediate and thunderous success, proving that the successful literary pieces are always those that can satisfy the lusty cravings of men and women through softcore vulgarity. Critics acclaimed it at once as one of the best narratives of the life and culture of Lucknow and praised Ruswa's mastery of Urdu prose. Several editions of the novel were sold. The theme, no doubt, contributed to its large sale, but it was its language that made it a steady seller for all time. Two other novels, Zat-e-Shareef and Shareef Zada, did not do as well but Akhtari Begum was again applauded by the Urdu-speaking intelligentsia. It is still considered by some to be better than Umrao Jan Ada.
Ruswa wrote a large number of treatises on religious and philosophical subjects. He had a deep and abiding interest in religion and Greek metaphysics. He was the head of the literary department at the All India Shia Conference and wrote twenty volumes on the Shia religion.
Despite the name that Ruswa made for himself in literary circles, these novels and works of philosophy and religion did not earn him much money. His sustenance came from the worst kind of penny dreadfuls which had titles like The Loves of Satan, The Bleeding Lover and The Murderous Dame. Ruswa was an excellent example of a dual literary personality - an earnest-minded Dr. Jekyll burning the midnight oil writing sublime prose, working out a system of Urdu shorthand or studying the movements of the stars - and the vulgarian Mr. Hyde, doing the rounds of the city's brothels and churning out cheap trash to bring in much needed filthy lucre.
Personality and appearance
Ruswa's eccentricities made him a legend in his lifetime. He could be so single-minded in his devotion to work as to forget the world about him. It is reported that he refused to go to the funeral of his own child because he was busy with an experiment. When something fascinated him, he could work for twenty hours at a stretch for weeks on end, bathing in ice-cold water at midnight to keep himself awake. He was vain and convinced of his genius. He had the ability for sustained work combined with a prodigious memory.Among his other interests were astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, higher mathematics, hydraulics
Hydraulics
Hydraulics is a topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. In fluid power, hydraulics is used for the generation, control,...
, metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
, and chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
. He considered nothing beyond his keen. When the bicycle first appeared in Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
, he assumed that since it took other people some hours to learn to control the machine, it should not take him more than a few seconds. He rode without any assistance and fractured his collarbone. Undaunted, he walked home, set the bone himself, and proceeded with his work.
Ruswa was a man of amorous temperament. The only affair which seemed to have moved him and became the subject of a mathnawi was with a young lady of Anglo
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
-French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
parentage by the name of Sophia Augustine. If Ruswa's own version of the affair was to be believed, Mlle. Augustine insisted that Ruswa become the manager of her estate. The impecunious Ruswa turned this business into good account and soon became her lover. He accompanied her on a trip to Bombay where they stayed in the same hotel. She disappeared from her room one morning, leaving a note saying that she was going to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to claim her inheritance and would return as soon as the business was settled. She never came back and the disconsolate Ruswa found comfort in successive marriages and the company of courtesans. No doubt this is the reason Umrao Jan Ada is extremely popular among people from all walks of life.
Ruswa's dress was as eccentric as his way of living. When he had the money, he stepped out like a Lucknow dilettante, wearing a thin muslin
Muslin
Muslin |sewing patterns]], such as for clothing, curtains, or upholstery. Because air moves easily through muslin, muslin clothing is suitable for hot, dry climates.- Etymology and history :...
kurta, finely creased pyjamas, an embroidered cap on his head, and velvet
Velvet
Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed,with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel.The word 'velvety' is used as an adjective to mean -"smooth like velvet".-Composition:...
slippers on his feet. But most of his time he spent in his ganji and lungi. In these sparse garments, he wrote or dictated, sitting cross-legged on a mat with his books littered about him on the floor. Ruswa was a tall and powerfully built man of light-brown complexion with a bushy moustache and a neatly-trimmed beard. He had a broad forehead but narrow eyes. He had a high-pitched, wheezy voice.
Further reading
- The Courtesan of Lucknow (Umrao Jan Ada), (UNESCO Collection of Representative WorksUNESCO Collection of Representative WorksThe UNESCO Collection of Representative Works was a UNESCO translation project that was active for about 57 years, from 1948 to about 2005. The projects purpose was to translate masterpieces of world literature, primarily from a lesser known language into a more international language such as...
). Hind Pocket Books, 1970. - Hasan Shah. The Nautch Girl: A Novel. Translated by Qurratulain Hyder. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1992.
- Umrao Jan Ada. Translated by David Matthews. New Delhi, Rupa and Co., 2006. ISBN 81-7167-311-2.
- Umrad Jan Ada, Translated K. Singh (English). Orient Paperbacks, 2005. ISBN 8122203930.
- Umrao Jan Ada, Translated Khushwant SinghKhushwant SinghKhushwant Singh is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, is among the most widely-read columns in the country....
(English). 2006. Disha Books. ISBN 8125015930.