Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad 9781138095441, 9781315141664

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LANGUAGES AND LITERARY CULTURES IN HYDERABAD

Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad

Edited by KOUSAR J. AZAM

First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kousar J. Azam; individual chapters, the contributors; and Manohar Publishers & Distributors The right of Kousar J. Azam to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bhutan). British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-09544-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-14166-4 (ebk) Typeset in Minion Pro 10.5/12.5 by Ravi Shanker Delhi 110 095

PRAYER Listen to this prayer O Lord! Bless my days and nights with contentment O Lord! Make Thou my country prosperous and populous, And grant me a hundred years to live O Lord! Among all the thrones let my throne be Like the gem that adorns a ring O Lord! Fill this my city with people As Thou hast filled the ocean with fish O Lord! Translated from Urdu by Prof. Syed Sirajuddin

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah

Contents

Foreword

11

Acknowledgements

13

Inroduction

15

1. A Tentative Paradigm for the Study of Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad City R.S. Sharma

21

2. The Poetry Society of Hyderabad G.N. Ruttonsha, Revathi Thangavelu and Pingali Nageshwar Rao

35

3. The Poetry Society Hyderabad Centre: A Brief Survey Bala Kothandaraman

53

4. The Dramatic Circle of Hyderabad B.S. Prakash with Shankar Melkote

59

5. American Studies Research Centre: The Rise and Fall of an Institution B. Ramesh Babu

73

6. Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad: The Foreign Languages Madhav Murumkar

85

7. The Unique Literary Traditions of Dakhni Shagufta Shaheen and Sajjad Shahid

89

8

Contents 8. Dakhni Literature: History, Culture and Linguistic Exchanges Ashraf Rafi

155

9. Urdu Poetry and Hyderabadi Culture Yusuf Azmi

163

10. Localities as Reflections of Linguistic Cultures of Hyderabad Anand Raj Varma

171

11. Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad: Arabic Ismat Mehdi

187

12. The Da’irat-ul-Ma’arif: A Unique Language Institute of Hyderabad Mohd. Suleman Siddiqi

203

13. Telugu Language in Hyderabad: A Personal Memoir Ampasayya Naveen

217

14. The Role of Literary Associations in the Promotion of Telugu Language in Hyderabad C. Mrunalini

227

15. Telugu Poets of the Deccan and their Contribution to the Development of Literary Culture in Hyderabad P. Varija Rani

233

16. Literary Translation and Contribution of Hyderabad to Hindi P. Manikyamba

239

17. Hindi Prose Writing in Hyderabad M. Venkateshwar

243

18. Hindi Journalism in Hyderabad City T. Mohan Singh

249

19. Growth of Malayalam Language and Culture in the City of Hyderabad Methala Gopalan

255

Contents

9

20. Contribution of Multilinguist Sri Gunde Rao Harkare to Sanskrit Literature and Tradition K. Geetha

265

21. Growth of Marathi Language and Literature in Hyderabad Shobha Deshmukh

273

22. Tamilians, Tamil Language and Literature in Hyderabad R.Vijaya and P.S. Chitra

281

23. Kannada in Hyderabad: Past and Present K.G. Narayana Prasad

285

24. Preservation and Digitization of Rare Literature: A Case Study of Osmania University Library, Hyderabad S. Yadagiri

291

List of Contributors

299

Index

301

Foreword

It makes me very happy to note that a volume on Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad is being brought out. I must congratulate everyone associated with this achievement of OUCIP, especially Prof. Kousar J. Azam, Advisor, OUCIP. Prof. Azam conceived and executed a one-day symposium on this topic on 18 February 2014 which incidentally turned out to be a very significant day for the fledgling Telangana state. Hyderabad is well known for its multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multireligious and multi-cultural history and in all these areas it has made a decisive mark. Creative expressions in all these areas are myriad and have overtly or covertly impingd on all aspects of life in the city, making it a microcosm of the thought currents impacting literature in various languages of this area. Hyderabad Studies also has the potential of being fore-grounded in academic, social, political and cultural circles at present with the conferring of statehood to Telangana. An entire hinterland of oral and written traditions of art and literature needs to be researched and OUCIP is the right place to do this. I am sure much original and seminal work in these areas will be undertaken by OUCIP with the help of scholars and researchers from all over. Let us take this opportunity to celebrate this first publication on the theme and look forward to some fresh insights for further study and research. April 2015

Sumita Roy

Director Osmania University Centre for International Programmes Osmania University, Hyderabad

Acknowledgements

I am thankful to the Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP) and the then Director of OUCIP, Prof. Sumita Roy for her interest in this project. I owe special thanks to all the contributors and the participants who made this inaugural event of Hyderabad Studies Programme at OUCIP a success. It was their enthusiasm and zeal to talk and discuss the different aspects of Hyderabadi culture rooted in the linguistic spaces of the city that made this exercise truly worthwhile. Thanks are also due to the staff, the Director of OUCIP Prof. A. Karunaker, Joint Director OUCIP/ACAS, Prof. Channa Basavaiah for their support. Special thanks are due to Sameera Khundmiri, Librarian, who always doubles as Conference Secretary and curator for all academic events at OUCIP. I am also thankful to Poetry Society, Hyderabad for allowing us print selections from their publication Echoes from the Past (1988), to Prof. Lakshmi Chandra (daughter of the late Mrs. G.N. Ruttonsha), Prof. of English, EFLU, and to Prof. Revathi Thangavelu for making the text available and for permission to print. Special thanks are due to Sajjad Shahid and Shagufta Shaheen for their valuable contribution on Dakhani language. We are also thankful to Prof. Nasemuddin Farees of the Department of Urdu, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, and Mr. Shah Alam, Research Scholar in the Department of English, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, for helping the authors in the transliteration and translation of extracts from Dakhani. I am obliged to Prof. R.S. Sharma, who extended help and guidance at every stage of this project. Finally I wish to thank Mr Ramesh Jain, Mr Siddharth Chowdhury, and their editorial team at Manohar for the meticulous production of

14

Acknowledgements

this volume. The views and opinions expressed by individual authors are their own, and they are solely responsible for them. The Editor, Publisher and OUCIP do not hold any responsibility in this matter. April 2015 Hyderabad

Kousar J. Azam

Introduction

The Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP) organized a one-day colloquium on ‘Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad’ as an inaugural event of the Hyderabad Studies Programme at OUCIP on February 2014. It would be appropriate to mention here that when the Osmania University took over the management of the former American Studies Research Centre (ASRC) it was felt that that a one-subject centre with a single source of funding was neither feasible nor desirable under the changed environment of the academia. The shifting priorities of the funding institutions called for an altering of research objectives with a focus on the new, or newer interpretations of the old. The result was the birth, rather the rebirth of the older institution with a new name—the ASRC became OUCIP with a new vision and mission document. Consequently the format of the institution was enlarged to accommodate about fifteen areas of interest chosen from Humanities and Social Sciences to reflect, rethink and absorb the latest trends in the subjects chosen. The inclusion of Hyderabad Studies as a subject of academic interest and research in this list was a culmination of a series of discussions among the members of the standing committee that was constituted by the then Vice-Chancellor to work out the instrumentalities, the objectives and the focus of the new Centre. It was felt that situated as it is on the campus of Osmania University—which itself was a result of a monumental historical decision of the then Hyderabadi ruler—the OUCIP should include in its priorities the subject of Hyderabad Studies. The fact that Hyderabad was and is transforming itself from a historical city absorbing the growth of the cultures and languages of its multi-cultural populace, into a new vibrant, modern metropolis symbolizing the advances in science, technology, education, media and digital technology, reflects

16

Introduction

a mingling of the old and the new—a synthesis of traditional with the modern. Its inherent internationalism has fused well with the trends of globalization, particularly in the areas of technology, information technology, trade, culture music and of course languages. Therefore it was logical to launch the Programme in Hyderabad Studies with a recounting of the contribution of different languages and literary cultures to the growth of this city. Reflecting all this, the colloquium also became an extension of the historical discourse that originated in the city about two decades ago. It was at an international conference at the Hyderabad Central University that the renowned scholar of South Asian Studies Sheldon Pollock, launched the discourse of languages and literary cultures in history. That initial conference led to the seminal work edited by Sheldon Pollock, Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia (2003). The OUCIP colloquium was thus a very modest effort to put together the contributions of different linguistic groups and languages to the growth of Hyderabad city as we know it today. While the historical recedes, or tends to recede in the background, the current sinews of culture now appear to dominate the social discourses. Despite this dazzle of the contemporary forms of culture, music, entertainment, recreation, knowledge, and all that accompanies the present ontological surge of the Hyderabadi society, the forces of history still beckon the newer architects of these new cultures of the city. The colloquium was conceived to look into the history and culture of the city of Hyderabad, to trace its cultural growth through the multiple trajectories of the growth of the languages spoken by its people and the cultural practices that grew along with this, spilling over the arenas of politics, social practices, economic progress and societal evolution as has been pointed out by Sheldon Pollock. Their interactions with community identity formations are crucial features of social order, literatures and literary history. Also the rise and fall of trans-regional communities of readers and writers reflect the extent to which the political dispensation provides for linguistic and cultural inclusion. However, the one way to think about literary cultures is to investigate the role of writings in the creation of linguocultural identities. Also the history of literary cultures is not forever or

Introduction

17

continuous, as essays in this collection reveal, for they are disrupted by historical changes. Several studies have appeared tracing, tracking, recalling and revisiting the historical trajectories of forces of what we now understand as Hyderabad. However we at OUCIP felt that we owe it to the city that has nurtured her institutions, including the Osmania University, so lovingly, to put on record the understanding of its cultural roots by its citizens. The first seven essays in the collection deal with the growth of English language literary culture in Hyderabad including the role of professional and academic bodies like the American Studies Research Centre, the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL) now English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), the Poetry Society of Hyderabad, and the Dramatic Circle of Hyderabad (DCH). In the first essay of this section R.S. Sharma offers a preliminary analysis of what constitutes literary culture and traces the contribution of English literary culture to the city. Focusing on the contribution of cities to the development of languages and literary cultures, he traces the origins of Hyderabad as a global city embracing languages and literatures along with the people who brought them here. Enlisting twelve parameters for a relook at the languages and literary cultures in the city of Hyderabad, Sharma’s is an extended analysis of the role of English language in the city. Essentially a survey of the contributions made by several individuals and institutions in the different genres of prose and poetry writing in English, Sharma covers a wide canvas of Hyderabadi writings in the English language. The second essay is made of selections from the professional publication of the Poetry Society of Hyderabad, Echoes from the Past (1988) put together and edited by the late Mrs. Ruttonsha, and her colleagues which would serve as a primary source of the information for researchers about the Poetry Society of Hyderabad. This is followed by an account of the same organization by Bala Kothandaraman, who informs us about the various activities of the society in more recent times. This is followed by an analysis of the role and contribution of the Dramatic Circle of Hyderabad by B.S. Prakash who in his personal narrative dwells on the trials and tribulations as well as the lighter moments in the trajectory of an organization that has become a part of the cultural landscape of the city. In an accompanying piece Shankar Melkote dwells upon the current scene in the activities of the DCH

18

Introduction

that seems to have moved away from professional to amateur theatre groups experimenting different forms. The next essay by Ramesh Babu is an account of the ASRC—an institution that was sponsored by the USIS to encourage American Studies in the Indian universities. Babu traces how in the process of doing so this centre contributed to the encouragement of English literary culture in the city. In the next essay Madhav Murumkar traces the introduction and growth of some foreign languages at Osmania University. This is followed by the essays which recount the rich tradition of Urdu language and literature in the evolution of linguistic culture of Hyderabad. In an exhaustive analysis Sajjad Shahid and Shagufta Shaheen trace the long and enchanting trajectory of the Urdu language in its many captivating genres in the city. Tracing the origin of Urdu language to the Ghaznavid occupation of Punjab they cover the trajectory of the expansion of Urdu language through the teachings of the Sufi saints to the court patronage and to the peoples’ appreciations. In the process we get to glimpse nuggets of Dakhani poetry, as expressed in sufiana kalam and romantic lyrics, literary puzzles and so on. In a similar fashion Ashraf Rafi traces the growth of Dakhani via the many linguistic exchanges between the Dakhani language and other spoken languages of the region. Here she brings to the fore the trans-regional impact on the evolution of the Dakhani linguistic culture in Hyderabad. She points out how Dakhani has been enriched by other languages like Marathi and Telugu and how in the process it has contributed to the richness of these languages. She also draws our attention to the subtle and not so subtle variations in the pronunciation of words. The next two papers deal with the rich heritage and contribution of the Arabic language to the religious, educational, cultural and social life of the city of Hyderabad. Ismat Mehdi in her detailed scholarly analysis gives us an account of evolution of Arabic in Hyderabad projecting the contributions made by eminent scholars from Hyderabad and abroad. Tracing the developments in the trajectories of this language through the reigns of different dynasties up to the recent times, she concludes with a discussion of the contribution made by the Osmania University that reflects the changes in the teaching of Arabic making its learning relevant to modern times. The following paper is about the world renowned institution,

Introduction

19

‘Da’irat-ul-Ma’arif ’—or the Translation Bureau by Suleman Siddiqi. Siddiqi provides a detailed account of this unique institution in the propagation of not just Arabic language but also in the propagation of knowledge available in Arabic sources in different subjects, varying from medicine to philosophy to logic to interested scholars. In the process he identifies different individuals and institutions who played a crucial role in the building up of this institution. The next four papers deal with the growth and evolution of Telugu language in the city of Hyderabad. In a personal memoir Ampasayya Naveen writes about the growth of Telugu language in the city. Recording his early impressions about the general prejudice towards the Telugu language among the non-Telugu-speaking peoples, he narrates the recognition and honour that it received as state language after the formation of Andhra Pradesh. C. Mrunalini writes about the role of the Telugu literary associations and traces the trials and tribulations that the language had to go through under the dispensation of the non-Telugu rulers. She elaborates on certain individuals and institutions who worked relentlessly to keep the development of this language on course and their eventual success. P. Varija Rani writes about the Samstahanam (small jagirs that constituted the Hyderabad state) poets and their contribution to the development of Telugu language in the city. Manikyamba brings to the fore the importance of translations in the expansion and growth of a language. She focuses on the Hindi translators of the Telugu texts and their contribution. M. Venkateshwar writes about the Hindi prose writers of Hyderabad. Tracing their work to the early migrations from the northern states he narrates the development of Hindi language from the state of Nizam to the inclusion of Hyderabad in the Indian Territory up to the contemporary scene. T. Mohan Singh elaborates on the role of Hindi journalism to the development of Hindi language and culture in the city. Methala Gopalan, provides us a record of the arrival, and synthesis of the Malayalee communities and their languages into the cultural scene of the city. Tracing their arrival to the development drive in the city he points out how the Malayalee presence began in the city with the migration of the educated middle classes covering different departments. He writes about their contribution not only to the

20

Introduction

cultural plurality of the city but also in different segments like services, media, health care, food, religion, cinema, effectively propagated by their professional and cultural organizations. K. Geetha in her paper informs us about the life and work of the great Sanskrit scholar Sri Gunde Rao Harkare, a linguist of great repute. Shobha Deshmukh writes about the growth and contribution of the Marathi language to the culture of Hyderabad city. She points out that the princely state of Hyderabad had a sizeable Marathi-speaking population spread out in the eight districts of the former Hyderabad state. The confluence of the districts speaking Marathi, Kannada and Telugu had created a historical tradition of linguistic coexistence and toleration, which enriched the literature of all the three languages. R. Vijaya and P.S. Chitra write about Tamil language and culture in Hyderabad and their contributions to the administrative services and higher education in the city. K.G. Narayan Prasad traces the presence of the Kannada culture in the city to three factors: their native presence historically, their arrival as promoters of the hotel industry and to man the services in the city. In the last article S. Yadagiri discusses the role of libraries in the digitization of the sources of knowledge in all the languages and traces the role of Osmania University in preserving these sources in a digitized form. It is appropriate to mention here that the individual authors have exercised their discretion for spelling the word ‘Dakhni’ or other terms as per their choice. This collection includes papers read at the colloquium and also papers invited to make it inclusive. However, despite our best efforts we regret that we have not been able to include papers on some languages, or aspects of languages which should have been a part of this. Finally a one-day colloquium could not have achieved more than this. We hope this initiative will encourage aspiring and interested scholars to construct a more comprehensive history of the languages and literary cultures in Hyderabad city. March 2015 Hyderabad

Kousar J. Azam

1 A Tentative Paradigm for the Study of Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad City R.S. Sharma

The historic turn in social discourses has stimulated interest in the reconstruction of histories at the grass root level. The process that started with Greenblat’s New Historicism has now percolated into the wider discourse of Cultural Studies. A monumental exercise in this field is Sheldon Pollock’s Literary Cultures in History which traces the many trajectories that some Indian languages have traversed in the course of their present development.1 Similarly urban development has been a key constituent in the development of languages and literatures the world over. There are a large number of studies focused on the role cities have played in the development of languages and literary cultures. In recent years, studies on cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, and Chennai have appeared. However, I am not sure if studies about Hyderabad as a city have appeared so far, particularly from newer perspectives drawing from Urban Studies or Cultural Studies. To be sure, there are books about Hyderabad, a whole archive of it, in many languages, but not a comprehensive account in one language. So we begin by asking ourselves whether we need such a study. Sensitive writers and thinkers have always felt that the unique cultural and linguistic identity of Hyderabad is lost in the larger paradigms of cultures and languages borrowed from outside. Since its humble origins in Chichalam (which appears, I hazard a guess, to be a distortion of Srisailam) the city has been evolving along linguistic patterns promoted by the many waves of migrants

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and settlers, not only from other parts of the Indian subcontinent, but also from distant parts of the world. Hyderabad was always a global city embracing languages and literatures along with the people who brought them here. While the process seems to have been located within the origins of Deccani or Dakhni, certainly there were languages of the indigenous people such as Koyas, Chenchus, Banjaras and Gonds which appear to have been lost, but which are now being resurrected and studied with seriousness. Their linguistic presence is now visible in the many place names such as Koheda, Chanchalguda, Banjara Hills, but also in the traditional sources such as oral history, inscriptions, folk festivals, and songs. There are even attempts to invent scripts for them. The promotion of mono-lingualism in the guise of linguistic states has deprived many languages of their legitimate place in the language diversity of the country. Mono-lingualism has been part of imperialism and though empires have vanished other global discourses have taken up their place. David Crystal suggested it earlier, G.N. Devy has suggested more recently in his long project on Indian languages. It is not surprising, therefore, that Deccani which was the original source of both standard Hindi and Urdu, Khadi Boli and Urdu-e-Mualla, had to contend with Urdu and Persian for its survival. No wonder the eminent Deccani poet Hashimi had to assert: tujhe chakari kyon, tu apnich bol tere shair dakhani, tu dakhanich bol What is your worry, speak as you will Your verses are Dakhani, let Dakhani be your tongue.2

Now that mono-lingualism is going through a revisionist phase, the time is proper for having a re-look at the languages and literary cultures in Hyderabad. We can start with the following parameters in mind: 1. The intrusion of Empire within the native spaces and their cultures and subsequent waves of migration and settlement. 2. The development of power grids as a historical process—the growth of the city along with the pattern of migration and settlements. 3. The culture of the court and the country. 4. The intrusion of ideologies—Arya Samaj, Marxism, panIndianism/Congress Nationalism, Utopianism.

Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad City

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5. End of the old order and the emergence of the new—the role of caste and community organizations. 6. The library movement and the role of libraries, academies, etc. 7. Global factors—new internationalism—the role of foreign missions such as Max Müller Bhavan, Alliance Francaise, America Studies Research Centre, the PEN International, etc. 8. The role of women. 9. Translations and translators. 10. The role of universities. 11. The role of individuals. 12. The role of the state and the media—the press, the radio and TV. Keeping these parameters in mind it is possible to build an archive for the study of languages and literary cultures in Hyderabad city. It will inspire young scholars across communities to undertake research in local literary history to create a multi-lingual forum to exchange scholarship, and to create proper environment for the publication of a journal and a directory of literary societies and personalities associated with them. In fact, Munindra’s founding of Triveni, and Murlidhar Sharma’s Sahitya Sangam International, were positive moves in this direction. Muse India, the e-journal (Managing Editor G.S.P Rao) is also contributing to this endeavour. The role of individuals in the promotion of literary cultures has been very significant. For example, Prof. Banshidhar Vidyalankar, Prof. Aryendra Sharma, Pannalal Pittie (founder of Kalpana the prestigious Hindi literary journal), Munindra (editor of Hyderabad Samachar), Yudhvir (editor of Milap), Nehpal Singh Verma (organizer, Geet Chandini), Murlidhar Sharma (editor, Prasangam, a literary journal), Govind Akshaya (editor, Golconda Patrika), have all played a pivotal role in the promotion of Hindi literary culture. Similar efforts have been made by other individuals such as Potukuchi Sambasiva Rao in Telugu, as is recorded elsewhere in this volume. Like individuals, institutions such as literary societies, universities, libraries, journals, the radio and television have reflected the evolving nature of literary cultures in Hyderabad. Some of these have been discussed elsewhere in this volume. A study of languages and literatures of a city provides important insights into the evolving nature of that city. A language is a visible and an audible expression of the presence of a community of people.

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Similarly literature is the oral and the verbal manifestation of the aesthetic and creative energies of that language community. A city evolves from the confluence and intermingling of several language communities as they come together to create a common habitat and to pursue their peculiar goals and aspirations, both spiritual and material. Over a period of time a city assumes the nature of an idea as a symbol of the collective life of these communities. It acquires a life of its own, impressing its unique imprint on the evolving collective life of that city, lending it a character, and a name, an entity in which history and geography become one. Literary culture, thus, refers to the totality of these forces that give a city its voice, its face, a process in which people, places and persons come together to articulate their nostalgia for what is not there, their future which is yet to take shape, and their present in which they struggle with the quotidian realities of day-to-day life. The literary culture of a city is, therefore, a way of understanding the life of an entire community embedded as it is in its languages and the many ways in which they reflect their creative energies. The older a city’s history, the greater is its diversity and complexity. Some of the constituents that go into the making of this diversity and complexity are: 1. Patterns of migration and settlements in specific geographical locations lending habitats their peculiar face and voice. 2. The expansion of these habitats into power grids leading to further expansion and growth of newer habitats. 3. The nature and culture of the political regimes and those controlling these regimes. 4. The role of ideology in influencing the socio-economic dimensions of a given community. 5. The micro-cultures of the settled communities. 6. The role of institutions structuring verbal culture, literary and cultural societies. 7. Kinds of libraries and archives—educational institutions such as schools, colleges, universities and academies. 8. The presence of institutional bodies. 9. Language environment, translation. 10. The role of the media.

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11. The role of individual intellectuals, scholars, academics, writers, poets and publishers and others engaged in ancillary activities. 12. Activities which promote literary culture such a poets’ gatherings, theatres, book clubs, and folk forms of literature.

Culture of Poetry in Hyderabad Like elsewhere in the world, literary culture in Hyderabad has evolved round the primary form of poetry or verse. The culture of the courts and the indulgence of its elites created an environment in which poets found patronage and poetry found appreciative audience. Both the Kutub Shahi and the Asaf Jahi royals were fond patrons of poetry. They drew from different streams of poetry: Persian, Hindavi, Telugu and Marathi and experimented with newer forms of poetic compositions. They had their own ustads (tutors), held periodic mushairas (poetic gatherings) and entertained their guests with poetry. The culture of the mushairas became a part of the courts and soon percolated among the elite. Soon it became a part of the culture of the city and remains till today an important part of the literary culture in Hyderabad. While the royals and the court followed the poetic conventions of Persian and the newly-evolving Deccani, other elite followed the conventions of Sanskrit. The culture of multi-lingual mushairas emerged out of this development. Mushairas and kavi sammelans became an important part of the cultural life in Hyderabad. It was common for communities and social bodies to organize mushairas and kavi sammelans on important social occasions including the annual Indo-Pak Mushaira, the multilingual mushaira at the All India Industrial Exhibition, and the All India Hindi Kavi Sammelan organized by the Agrasen Shiksha Samiti. These became institutions by themselves, drawing poets from different parts of India. The culture of mushaira was shared practically by all major linguistic groups. However, even the minor groups enjoyed the mushaira. Yazdyar S. Kaoosji reports how a miniscule minority of Parsees in Hyderabad aspired to preserve its language by organizing poets’ gatherings. He writes: ‘Dadabhai Kaoosji kept alive the interest in Persian language, regularly holding “Bazm-e-Saadi” evenings (gathering centred on Saadi, the great Persian poet) at his home in Public Gardens as did the surgeon, Dr Bahram Surti, himself a Persian poet.’3

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Persian continued to appear in poets’ gatherings in Hyderabad. On many occasions poems in Persian were rendered by members of Poetry Society. In its 504th meeting on 23 September 1988, the society celebrated the centenary of Nawab Erach Yar Jung, where poems from his biaz (notebook) were rendered with English translations by Prof. (late) Sirajuddin.4 Dr Polly Chenoy, Tayaba Begum, Dr. B.S. Surti, Taqi Ali Mirza, S. Sirajuddin, Amir Ahmed Khusro, Shahriyar Kaoosji and Rayees Akhtar have kept the Persian poetic tradition alive in Hyderabad. However, it will be erroneous to think that this culture of poetry was restricted to Indian languages. The nature of the court and elite had significantly changed during the late Asaf Jahi regime. The forces of modernity had changed the nature of the elite. The new elite were more oriented towards Europe, particularly France and England. Most of them were English educated and had sound mastery of the English language. The newly-created modern institutions had brought large numbers of bureaucrats who were deeply entrenched in English ethos, were anglophiles and keen to anglicize the life of the court. The culture of poetry was no exception. It is interesting to observe here that the inaugural meeting of the Poetry Society of Hyderabad started with readings of Portuguese poetry. When the Poetry Society of London was founded, it in no time found a branch in Hyderabad. The Hyderabad branch of Poetry Society (1929) became the new avatar of the culture of mushaira in Hyderabad. Lovers of English language and literature, anglophile elite, and bureaucrats converged on it to share the ecstasy of writing in a modern European language. Sir Nizamat Jung (1871-1955), poet, administrator, monarchist, and a very sophisticated anglophile was the moving spirit behind this development. He was the first president of the society and remained in that position for the next ten years. As president of the Poetry Society, Nizamat Jung created a circle of friends which included eminent poets like Sarojini Naidu, her brother, Harindranath Chattopadhyay and a host of others who constituted a school by themselves. Lesser known poets of the Nizamat Jung circle included Agha Mohammad Ali, M. Farhatullah Baig, Col. Sulaiman Moizuddin, Col. A. Jabbar, Dr. Hashim Amir Ali and others. Jung guided and nurtured a whole generation of poets who are now lost in oblivion for want of research. He published nine volumes

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of poetry most of which were later collected by the administrator Zaheer Ahmed in a volume entitled Poems (1954).5 He published in prestigious journals like Times Literary Supplement and received rave reviews for his craft. He was essentially a monarchist but his love for Islamic themes was deep and passionate. He wrote mostly on Islamic themes but occasionally also wrote on secular subjects. From his exposure to late romantic poetry, he imbibed a deep interest in the sonnet as a form and produced some exquisite sonnets. Zahir Ahmed was perhaps the only Indian intellectual to show deep interest in poetry, and apart from collecting his poems, he also produced an autobiographical account of his life and times in the very readable Life’s Yesterdays: Glimpses of Sir Nizamat Jung and His Times (1945).6 His sonnets, he quotes from TLS, were ‘full of singular excellence revealing a graceful fancy and true literary taste’.7 His poetry, wrote Sarojini Naidu, has ‘all the ecstasy of Hafiz, the wine of Omar, the mystic intoxication of Ghalib, the supreme abandon of Rumi’, and who claims ‘the burning sands of Arab deserts and the mystic roses of Persian gardens’.8 Sir Nizamat Jung and his circle of poets still remain underappreciated and under-valued. They were the fountainhead of the Hyderabad school of English poetry but sadly little remembered by only a few now. After the demise of the old order and the reorganization of states Hyderabad attracted a whole new generation of younger poets who made the city their home and produced some significant poetry. Srinivas Rayaprol was one such poet. He enjoyed the company of eminent poets like William Carlos Williams and received good reviews in journals abroad. However, his fame remains restricted to scholars interested in American Studies. The University of Hyderabad has created a poet’s corner for Rayaprol on its campus and has instituted an annual poetry prize of Rs. 15,000 in his name. He was followed by Gopal Honalgere, an art teacher who published two collections of poems entitled A Wad of Poems (1971) and A Gesture of Placeless Sound (1972). Another Hyderabadi poet, Indira Devi Dhanrajgir, emerged during this period. She produced three volumes of poetry, Apostle (1964), Return Eternity (1969) and Parting in Mimos (n.d.). She gathered a group of poets around her and her palace became a place for local poets to meet, read, discuss and translate poetry. She married the eminent

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modern Telugu poet Sheshendra Sharma. As a poet belonging to the Aurobindo School of Poetry she received some critical attention but now remains known, sadly, only to a select few. The new order also attracted teachers, poets and writers to the universities in Hyderabad. Shiv K. Kumar, Meena Alexander, Hoshang Merchant, Makrand Paranjape, Arvind K. Mehrotra are well-known writers and poets. They are essentially part of an international academic culture and their poetry only marginally reflects the local reality. Other poets writing in Hyderabad include M. Mallikarjun Rao, Songs of Passion (1970), and Moments and Eternity (1973), M.C. Gabriel—a writer and a poet—(Poems), K. Srinivasa Shastri, An Area of Ecstasy (1978), J. Bapu Reddy, In Quest of Harmony (1973), and M.S. Murthy, The Best Loved and other Poems (1970). Bhim Krishnamma and J.M. Girglani also belong to the category of Hyderabad poets. Girglani published Circles in Search of Circumference (1976) and Mirage in a Meadow (1990). He also introduced Sindhi poetry to poetry lovers in Hyderabad by translating and publishing the poetry of the eminent Sindhi poet Sheikh Ayaz and sponsoring a monthly journal in English entitled Sindhi Ratan.9 He fondly remembers how he was inspired to write poetry by attending C.V. Krishna Rao’s monthly poetry reading meetings called Vennela Nella Nella (Moon Light, Month after Month) where mostly Telugu poetry was read.10 Apart from Poetry Society, the Poetry Circle initiated by R.S. Sharma became a meeting point for Hyderabad poets and poetry enthusiasts. Some of the poets associated with this movement included R.M.V. Raghavendra Rao, Devender D., and Mohammad Abdul Haleem, who translated Iqbal’s The Mosque of Cordova into English which was enthusiastically received. Syed Sirajuddin translated T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland and other poems into Urdu. Among other expatriate poets, Neila Seshachari and Samuel Jaya Kumar deserve a mention. Neila was seen almost as an iconic figure in her adopted state of Utah in the US, while Jaya Kumar made London his home as a poet and as a journalist.

Culture of English Prose in Hyderabad Prose of the discursive kind and fiction does not seem to be the favourite genre of Hyderabad writers. Hyderabad figures as the backdrop in Zeenath Fateh Ali’s Zohra (1951), to be followed by P.P.

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Tara’s More than a Shadow (1957), Sunder Raj’s The Return of the Panther (1958), S. Yadav Reddy’s Storm Over Hyderabad (1964), M.V. Rama Sarma’s The Farewell Party (1971), and Shanta Rameshwar Rao’s Children of God (1976). Shanta Rameshwar Rao also produced good children’s literature in Matsyay: The Beautiful Fish (1985), Mohini and the Demon (1990), Gulmohar (1997) but did not get the critical acclaim she deserved. It seems women writers in Hyderabad have contributed more to English prose writing. Bilqees Alladin, Bilqees Latif and Anees Jang are well-known women writers who have contributed significantly to writing in English. Anees Jang’s When a Place Becomes a Person (1977) was widely acclaimed when it was published. She went on to publish Breaking the Silence (1997), Flash Points: Poems in Prose (1981), and established herself as a significant writer in the USA. Meena Alexander is now acclaimed as a significant poet, though she started as an novelist with Nampally Road. Shiv K. Kumar started with his Bones’ Prayer and continues to produce in various genres. He is without doubt the doyen of English writers and poets in Hyderabad. V.A. Shahane made his debut with two novels, Fauste and Prajapati and was widely reviewed in academic journals. M.C. Gabriel, teacher, journalist, and poet produced a novel Children of the Street (1994), and a collection of short stories Silence in the Cities but remains neglected. V.K. Gokak, professor, writer, poet and critic in Kannada and English, produced his novel Narahari: Prophet of India (1992) and his fellow Kannada academic Hemant Kulkarni produced Serpent in the Stars (1990). Venkatesh Kulkarni, founder of the Young Lecturers’ Movement produced his novel Naked in the Deccan (1983) and short fiction in prestigious American journals and was reviewed in major academic journals, but remained largely unknown as a writer in India. Recently Huma Kidwai has attempted to capture life in Hyderabad over the past hundred years in her The Hussaini Alam House. We cannot conclude this without mentioning P.V. Narasimha Rao, writer, and linguist, who produced The Insider, a novel, but could not enthuse critics to take a deeper look at his fiction.

English Language in Hyderabad City We must not forget that this growth of English literary culture would not have been possible but for the penetration of the colonial culture

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among the new elite, who were Western educated and enjoyed flaunting their newly-acquired culture. Though the English were late entrants as colonists (the French preceded them) English language had found its place in the houses of the elite educational institutions and foreign Christian missions. The process got accelerated with the rise of British hegemony over the state of Hyderabad. It was almost mandatory for the native elite to have their children looked after by English-speaking nannies, ayahs and tutored at home by English teachers. It was quite fashionable for the elite to send their children to England for modern education and Oxford was their favourite destination, which some wits affirmed was renowned for making gentlemen out of countrymen. It was natural for this English-educated elite to be influenced by the then prevailing literary culture. Edmund Gosse, the English critic became their guardian angel and mentor. Poets including Sarojini Naidu and Toru Dutt converged on him for inspiration and support. A conflict between the native urge for a personal articulation and the limitations imposed by colonial expectations is clearly visible in most of these poets. Schools and colleges established by missionaries, the establishment of Hyderabad Public School, the Nizam College affiliated to Madras University, and the establishment of Osmania University with the Bureau of Translation under it had expanded the reach of the English language. The expansion of the educational system had led to the arrival of a large number of native English-speaking functionaries, mostly from Madras (now Chennai) who were products of English education as practised in Madras and who added to the increasing number of English-speaking Indians in the twin cities. For them literature meant English only. They constituted a significant part of the intelligentsia. A similar development had taken place in the case of Urdu. A large number of intellectuals and poets had migrated from Urdu-speaking areas of the north and contributed significantly to the growth of Urdu language and literature in Hyderabad. In contrast to the people from Madras, who were called ‘Madrasis’, these migrants from the north were known as ‘Hindustanis’, and later as ‘non-mulkis’. After Partition and the reorganization of the state as Andhra Pradesh, the literary scene changed drastically in Hyderabad. With

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the departure of a large number of Urdu-speaking elite, Urdu lost much of its visibility. It now remained cloistered mostly in the old city. The new city became the home of a new class of English-speaking professionals, bureaucrats, academics and entrepreneurs who added to the existing number of English speakers who actively promoted English language and literature. These included persons like Bharat Khanna, Narendra Luther, Shiv K. Kumar, Vasanth K. Bawa and many others. English literary culture got tremendous boost under the guidance of Professor Shiv K. Kumar who, as head of the Department of English at Osmania University, was responsible for the publication of Osmania Journal of English Studies which had a subscription list of more than three thousand spread over India and abroad. It was reviewed internationally and was listed in major bibliographic sources. It continued for more than three decades but gradually became irregular. Prof. Kumar also started the Osmania University English Forum, an association of teachers of English, which became the hub of many literary events and a meeting point of scholars of English from India and abroad. It continued to hold regular meetings till the early 1980s. However, with a gradual shift away from British literature it also ceased to be active. Its place was taken over by the establishment of the American Studies Research Centre with its focus on American Studies and American literature and history. Since these disciplines were carried under the aegis of English departments, they continued to add to the growth English literary culture in Hyderabad. William Mulder was the moving spirit behind this institution along with Isaac Sequeira. The establishment of the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (now English and Foreign Languages University [EFLU]) and later the University of Hyderabad made the city the ultimate centre for English language and literary culture in India. It brought a host of scholars to these institutions, who provided new directions to English literary culture in Hyderabad. These included V.K. Gokak, the bilingual Kannada writer R.K. Bansal who produced a primer for spoken English for India, S.K. Verma, the linguist, Sujit and Prof. Meenakshi Mukherjee—the eminent literary couple and others who made significant contributions to English literary culture in Hyderabad. It also provided teaching and research facilities in

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foreign languages such as French, German, Russian and later Spanish and Arabic. Beginning with Mahlaqa Bai Chanda, women have contributed enormously across linguistic boundaries to the culture of poetry in Hyderabad and deserve a separate discussion. Though Telugu was the state language, English remained the dominant mode of social communication. Both the press and the radio contributed to this development. English literary culture was also enriched by translations from Urdu and Telugu. Shiv K. Kumar translated Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry into English. C. Vijaysree, T. Vijay Kumar, M. Sreedhar and Uma Alladi were actively involved in translating from Telugu. Others who contributed to the promotion of English literary culture in Hyderabad included intellectuals outside the academia such as administrators, librarians and journalists. Among the librarians who made significant contributions were Gulam Yazdani of Osmania University, Dorothy Clarke of American Studies Research Centre and L.S. Ramaiah of CIEFL. They helped modernize the library systems in Hyderabad, created excellent collections and produced very useful bibliographical materials. As a result a large number of scholars from India and abroad started converging on Hyderabad as an important resource centre for English literary studies. International and intra-governmental agencies such as the British Council and the United States Information Service started sponsoring literary events based in Hyderabad. Both ASRC—now Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP) and CIEFL (now EFLU) became major literary hubs. These institutions gradually lost ground to Theory, Commonwealth Literature in translation and finally to Cultural Studies. Despite all these, English literary culture continues to flourish in Hyderabad with new enthusiasts entering the field.

Humour: The Favourite Genre Apart from poetry the genre that found special favour with the Hyderabadis was humour. The high mushaira found its alternative in the Mazahia Mushaira; the elite kavi sammelan had its counterpart in Hasya Kavi Sammelan. Mujtaba Hussain in Urdu and Venugopal Bhattar in Hindi found audiences in India and abroad. Narendra

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Luther was instrumental in organizing a World Humour Conference. He also produced two volumes of humourous writing. Most important contribution in this genre was Babban Khan’s Adrak ke Panje which ran to packed halls all over the world. It also revived interest in a Hyderabadi variant of Dakhani which later led to the evolution of Hyderabadi films. Dakhani suddenly appeared as a viable medium for mass entertainment. The language which once belonged to the Sufis and courtiers is now reaching the masses in unforeseen ways. The Hyderabadi film is now firmly established as a genre. It will be appropriate to recall here the role All India Radio played in the promotion of languages and literatures in Hyderabad. G.S. Marar in English, Ram Murthy Renu and Dandamudi Mahildar in Hindi and Ahmed Jalees and Aslam Farshouri in Urdu provided opportunity to writers and poets to reach out to people in Hyderabad and beyond. Similarly journals such as the Tenor edited by M. Sivaramakrishna and Literary Endeavours edited by Adinarayan Rao contributed to the growth of literary culture in English. These platforms provided opportunity to local writers and poets to reach out to wider audiences and helped create proper climate for appreciation of literature. Among institutions which helped promote English literary culture in Hyderabad in more than one way mention must be made of YMCA Hyderabad. Under the leadership of D.S. Chinnadorai it became a hub of a host of activities such as oratory, book-discussions, topical lectures and poets’ gatherings. Chinnadorai passionately supported the Young Lecturers Movement which was initiated to create an intellectual climate in Hyderabad by providing a venue for its activities. Similarly schools and colleges run by minority linguistic communities have played a pivotal role in promoting languages. Thus Vivek Vardhini Society, Nirputanga High School, Rai Bahadur Padma Rao group of institutions, have been active in promoting languages such as Marathi, Kannada and Tamil respectively. It is difficult at this stage of research to provide a comprehensive list of people and institutions who have contributed to the promotion of languages and literary cultures in Hyderabad. It is hoped that this very rudimentary and tentative effort will lead to more advanced studies in this area. The present narrative is largely restricted to the author’s personal memory of developments in Urdu, English and Hindi literary scene in Hyderabad. Omissions are bound to occur and should be pardoned. The entire exercise may be taken as a first

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step towards the construction of a history of languages and literary cultures of Hyderabad in English.

Notes 1. Sheldon Pollock, Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004. 2. Syed Sirajuddin, ‘For Better or for Verse’, in Syeda Imam (ed.), The Untold Charminar: Writings on Hyderabad, New Delhi: Penguin Books, India, 2008, p. 106. 3. Kaoosji Yazdar, ‘Growing Up a Parsi in Hyderabad’, in Imam, ibid., pp. 228-32, 233. 4. G.N. Ruttonsha, Revathi Thangavelu and Dr. Pingle Nageshwar Rao, (eds.), Echos from the Past: History of Poetry Society, vol. 1, Hyderabad (n.d.), vol. 2, p. 5. 5. Sir Nizamat Jung, Poems, Hyderabad: University Press, 1954. 6. Zaheer Ahmed, Life’s Yesterdays: Glimpses of Sir Nizamat Jung and His Times, Bombay: Thacker and Company, 1945, p. 265. 7. Ibid., p. vii. 8. Ibid., p. 265. 9. J.M. Girglani, Immortal Poetry of Sheikh Ayaz, Adipur (Kutch): Indian Samstha, 1990; Institute of Sindology, 2003. 10. J.M. Girglani, Mirage in a Meadow, Hyderabad: Udgeeta Prakashan Samstha, 1990, Preface, p. iii.

2 The Poetry Society of Hyderabad G.N. Ruttonsha, Revathi Thangavelu and Pingali Nageshwar Rao

[Editor’s Note: The Poetry Society of Hyderabad has played a major role in the promotion of languages and literature in Hyderabad. It will not be possible here to chronicle the manifold activities of the society concerning arts and literature over the past decades. We do not have a comprehensive history of the society published so far. Fortunately, we have a two-volume history of the society meticulously edited by the late Mrs. G.N. Ruttonsha and Mrs. Revathi Thangavelu assisted by other members of the society privately published by the society for its members. We publish these excerpts with the concurrence of the editors news. Thus to give the readers an idea of the enormous contribution that the society has made to the cultural life of Hyderabad. For authenticity we print the excerpts as in the original text while making very minor changes for the sake of clarity.]

Echoes from the Past The first lead to the origin of the society was an account of the 50th meeting. This account had no date on it and it was only much later from other references that it was possible to get the date 15 December 1937. Excerpts from it are reproduced below: Poetry Society—Hyderabad Celebration of 50th Meeting In 1909 the Poetry Society was founded in England with this object: ‘To promote a more general recognition and appreciation of Poetry by encouraging the public and private reading and use of it and developing the art of speaking verse.’

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In 1925 when Mrs. Rosenthal was in Hyderabad, with her special gift for literature and in conjunction with Dr. Ethel Pope, a Zenana branch of the Poetry Society was started. From this developed a non-purdah or open centre, now known as ‘The Hyderabad Centre’. The Centre yesterday celebrated its 50th meeting at the house of the President, Nawab Sir Nizamat Jung Bahadur. This meeting was made the occasion of a presentation to the Society of a fine bust of Shakespeare to be placed in the ‘Poetry Corner’ which he has also given to the society, furnished with a Poetry Library. The establishment of a Poetry Library and a Corner in Hyderabad where members may find the ktreasures of the great writers of English Poetry marks a very definite advance in the history of the Hyderabad Circle (pp. 1-2).* Probably it’s doubtful viability as a Zenana Branch led to its being turned into an Open Centre. This happened in 1929. The Open Centre was renamed The Poetry Society, Hyderabad Centre—the name by which it is known today- sometime in 1937. The 50th meeting held in December 1937 and the Annual General Meeting in July 1938 call it that. It may be mentioned that the Centre is the only affiliated centre of The Poetry Society, London, in all of Asia (p. 4).†

Second Report Sir Mohamed Iqbal sent a message to the Centre for its 36th meeting when an account of his life and poetry were being given. The message took the form of a Persian poem ‘To a Poet’ of which the translation is appended. (See Appendix 1 at the end of the chapter.) One item of marked progress during the period in review merits special notice, the development of a Dramatic Section. Another item of marked progress is the opening of a Poetry Library. This report would be incomplete without the mention of yet another direction in which the Centre is making development—the encouragement of the writing of original verse by opening a yearly ‘Calendar Competition.’ . . . the centre felt that those who may be Seers or Singers amongst us, and who might be diffident to publish, would be encouraged to have their work thus privately printed for a circle of friends. (p. 5)

The Poetry Society seems to have made special efforts to celebrate, the word is used advisedly, the meetings of multiples of 50. An * Echoes from the Past, vol. 1, pp. 1-2. † Ibid., p. 4.

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account of the 50th meeting has already been given. The 100th meeting which was held on 15 December 1943 was quite an elaborate affair with a Gilbert & Sullivan concert, a buffet supper, and indoor games. This notice about the meeting ends with ‘Do Come To This Party. It is Going To Be Fun’. The meeting was to have been held in the Bashir Bagh Palace by the kind permission of Nawab Zahir Yar Jung Bahadur, but the programme for the day gives its location as YMCA, Hyderabad. Why the change of place became necessary is not mentioned. The programme was arranged by Rev. James. The 150th happened to be an annual General Business Meeting held on 13 September 1950, so the 151st meeting on 28 October was celebrated instead. It was more or less a repeat performance of the 100th, probably because that had been so enjoyable. A Gilbert & Sullivan, this time arranged by the Rev. Page, was followed by a buffet supper and games again at the YMCA. But in addition, at the next Annual General Meeting on 20 July 1951, there was a decision that a sum of Rs. 500 (Rs. 250 each) should be awarded to two deserving students ‘as a thanks offering for the 150th meeting’. Prof. Doraiswamy and Mrs. (now Dr) Jussawalla were entrusted with the task of finding the students—a boy and a girl—from the University and the Nizam College. The recipients of the awards were Miss Susy Jacob, an M.A. student of University of Arts College and Mr. Santosh Kumar, a final year B.A. student of the Nizam College. The wards were ratified at a special General Body Meeting held on 27 September 1951. Miss Jacob and Mr. Kumar were invited to the Poetry Society meeting in October that year to be introduced to the members. Miss Jacob was later appointed a lecturer at the University College for Women where she worked till she got married in 1962. Mr. Kumar was teaching at Russell College, Oxford in 1972. So the excellence of the choice made by Prof. Doraiswamy and Dr. Jussawalla was fully proved by time. Strangely enough no celebrations marked the completion of twentyfive years in 1950 or 1955 if the later date is taken into consideration. The 150th meeting was made an occasion but not the silver jubilee year nor the golden jubilee year in 1975 or 1980. Preparations for the 200th meeting were first mooted at a Committee Meeting held on 26 June 1956. It was mentioned again at the Annual General Body Meeting held on 13 July 1956. It was celebrated in October that year. The Hyderabad Madrigals gave a performance that was convened by Prof. Gideon. The Secretary’s annual report

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mentions a full dress dinner, says that it was the highlight of the year, and also adds that the evening was an unqualified success. Plans for the 250th meeting were first mentioned at a Committee Meeting held in October 1962. The form it ultimately took was the presentation of Shaw’s one-act play Augustus Does His Bit. It was performed on 8 January 1963 at the YMCA. It was produced and directed by Mr. Barron and Dr. Jussawalla. The cast consisted of Dr. Polly Chenoy, Minoo Chenoy and Sq Ldr Lalla. The play was followed by a supper. The Annual Report calls it a gala occasion. This tradition of celebrating the multiples of 50 was somehow overlooked or allowed to lapse for the 300th meeting, which was held on 6 March 1968. This is not to say that it was a bad meeting. In fact, it was a very good meeting but to quote the Secretary ‘not with glitter and fuss’. Its hosts were Mr. & Mrs. Iqbal Alladin, so the meeting was held in beautiful surroundings and there was the usual lavish tea. The speaker was Prof. Halliday, Professor of Linguistics, University of London, one of the leading authorities on the subject. He read a most absorbing paper titled ‘Sound Patterns in Language’. What is meant about the break in tradition is that there was no mention of its special significance in the minutes of the Committee Meetings, as no planning was done for it beforehand as on previous occasions. That the meeting was such a good one appears to have come about more by accident than design. ‘Appears’ because the Secretary had probably earmarked the hosts and the speaker for this special occasion and worked hard to make it a success. The 350th meeting which happened to be an Annual General Body Meeting was held on 23 April 1973 at Percy’s Hotel. It was deliberately low key because the Secretary, Mr. Latifi felt it would be in bad taste to have an elaborate affair in view of the food shortages facing the country. There was a short cultural programme followed by a high tea instead of full dress dinner. The 400th meeting in March 1978 was held at the residence of the then oldest member, Mr. C. Gibbs. Two Indian poets who wrote in English, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and Meena Alexander read their poems. The President, Dr. Nambiar made the 400th meeting an occasion for reminiscences and stock taking also with references to the history of the Poetry Society as compiled by Mrs. Ruttonsha in 1972, in her Echoes from the Past. This was followed by a dinner generously hosted by Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Anthony. Following

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this meeting was a pictorial write-up on the society in the Sunday Standard of 2 April 1978. The 450th meeting was a lavish affair hosted by Dr. Polly Chenoy in her lovely home on 2 March 1983. As it coincided with the centenary year of the Late Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan, the meeting was devoted to the appreciation of the late Nizam as a poet and a patron of arts. Dr. Chenoy gave an interesting talk on the varied aspects of the Nizam’s life. Tyaba Begum, Kaushal Kumar and Sharifa Ziaee rendered the Nizam’s poems in Urdu and Persian with a lucid commentary by Tyaba Begum. An interesting collection of photographs of the late Nizam helped in creating the right atmosphere. These meetings of multiples of 50 were not the only memorable meetings. 11 September 1952 was a red letter day in many ways when the 167th meeting was held. H.E.H. the Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan Rajpramukh of Hyderabad graced the occasion by his presence. It was hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Vellodi at their house ‘Greenlands’. Mr. Zahir Ahmed read a paper on poetry of H.E.H the Nizam; Mr. Abdul Rauf, the famous singer recited some ghazals composed by the Nizam. The famous writer Louis Fisher who happened to be in town was a guest and gave an informal talk. It was to be expected that this meeting would make the press. It did. It was also to be expected that their version would be garbled. It was! The press notes in the Deccan Chronicle and the Sentinel read—‘H.E.H. the Nizam Rajpramukh of Hyderabad today attended a party given by Mr. M.K. Vellodi, Councillor, in honour of Mr. Louis Fischer, American journalist, in Greenlands. On the occasion poems composed by the Nizam were recited. The reaction of the Secretary, Mr. Ahsan S. Tyabji was also to be expected! Some correspondence and many phone calls later, the correct version appeared in the press the next day. It read: The party which was attended by H.E.H. the Nizam was under the auspices of the Poetry Society and not arranged in honour of Louis Fischer, the American journalist. Mr. M.K. Vellodi and Mrs. K. Vellodi were among the hosts. On this occasion Mr. Tahir Ahmed read a paper on Poetry! ‘Most things right this time! As noted the 450th meeting too in March 1983 was devoted to the Nizam as poet and patron of the arts. His poetry had figured earlier at a meeting held in April 1967. It did not have ‘the fuss and the glitter’ of the 450th one but was extremely enjoyable with Dr. Surti, Dr. Rafia Sultana and Mr. Sharyar Kaoosji giving voice to ‘The Voice of Osman’.

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Incidentally, this was the 290th meeting but due to an oversight it was numbered the 289th. Correcting the number would entail too many changes, so the committee decided to leave it as it was. The Poetry Society does not have sufficient resources to invite people who are not residents of Hyderabad, to address it. It tries, however, to take advantage of notable visitors. For that, its committee members have to be on the alert at all times—have their ears to the ground so to say. In this respect, the establishment of the American Studies Research Centre (ASRC), the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL) and the British Council (until its discontinuance in Hyderabad) has been of tremendous help as they attract scholars and literary figures from all over. Many of the meetings have been held jointly by the Poetry Society and one or the other of these institutions. The directors and other officials of these institutions have shown an interest in the Poetry Society and some of them have also been members. Special mention must be made of Dr. William Mulder, one of the early directors of the ASRC. He was an active member of the Poetry Society during his stay in Hyderabad and made it a point to attend or address a meeting whenever he happened to visit the city. Dr. Lott and Mr. Morgan, British Council professors at the CIEFL also took active interest in the Poetry Society. Members will remember the first meeting of the year 1971-2 when the ASRC and the Poetry Society were joint hosts to Prof. Leuders of the University of Utah. He gave a remarkable performance of his poems followed by music on the piano. This otherwise enjoyable meeting was marred by the absence of the president of the Society, Dr. Mrs. M. Jussawalla, due to the sudden demise of her husband. Carrying on randomly, in October 1964. Dr. Egbert Oliver, Professor, Portland State College Oregon, USA spoke on Carl Sandburg. In January 1969, Dr. Marshal Fishwick gave a haunting, unforgettable rendering of his own as well as some American Black poetry in the course of his talk on modern American poetry. The ‘Black’ poet Langston Hughes featured in the talk given by Dr. Amritjit Singh of the ASRC in July 1975 at the 370th meeting. In July 1970, the English forum and the Poetry Society jointly hosted a meeting at the Women’s College to hear Dr. Carmen Dantrea read his own poems. Louis Fischer has already been mentioned. E.E. Cummings addressed the society in 1956. Somebody was bound to ask him why he never used punctuation and capitals; and someone

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did. The reply is not on record. In February 1962, Sir Eugene Millington Drake, the Vice-President of the London Poetry Society spoke on ‘Gems of English Poetry and Prose’. Mrs. Bilkiz (Bilkis) Alladin, who was the secretary then, has given a detailed account of this meeting in her article for the Deccan Chronicle referring particularly to the way he spoke. ‘Each inflection, each word, each little nuance and emphasis transported us to a world far, far away.’ Another time that a member of the parent body addressed the Hyderabad Centre was November 1976 when Mr. Michael Whether read some of his own poems to illustrate his talk on ‘Poetry and Religion’. Mr. Norman Marshall, Shakespearean producer and director, has the distinction of drawing the largest attendance—105, when he spoke on ‘Shakespeare and the Modern Theatre’ at the 154th meeting in January 1951. It was just as well that the host was Sahebzada Nawab Basalat Jah Bahadur. In July 1961, the 237th meeting had two speakers—Prof. Monroe of Queen’s College, North Carolina, who spoke on ‘Kubla Khan’, and Prof. Gibby, Earlham College, Indiana, on contemporary poetry in America. In November 1970, Mr. John Bauker, Press Attaché to the American Embassy in New Delhi, read his own poems. In December 1965, Mr. Colin Mortimer of the Madras Christian College gave a talk entitled ‘It’s Not Just What You Say’. At the meeting in November 1967, (Late) Mr. Nissim Ezekiel, poet, journalist, and then editor of Imprint and Poetry India, read his own poems. It was entirely due to the efforts of the secretary, Dr. Polly Chenoy, who extended the invitation and was his hostess during his stay of three days in Hyderabad. Ever since then the Poetry Society has kept up an on-going relationship with Mr. Ezekiel who obligingly addresses the Society whenever he happens to be in town. He read his poems in March 1972 at the 339th meeting and in March 1976 at the 378th meeting, again in February 1980 at the 420th meeting. On this occasion he also gave the members a glimpse into a poem in the making, composed earlier in the afternoon. Another ‘Old Friend’ of the Poetry Society is Dr. J. Birje Patil, Head of the English Department, Baroda University. He has spoken at the Poetry Society meetings when he happened to be in town—July 1973, the 351st meeting, in June 1974, 368th meeting and August 1981, the 434th meeting. He has read his own poems as well as papers of literary interest. The most memorable evening was the 351st meeting hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Iqbal Alladin and Miss Farida Alladin at their home when Dr. Patil

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spoke on modern poets. There was a sudden power failure and the meeting was held by candle light. Dr. Patil dispensed with whatever notes he might have brought and gave a brilliant, inspired extempore speech. The beautiful drawing room and the flickering light of the candles made the perfect setting for Dylan Thomas’ triumphant chant, ‘And Death Hath no Dominion’ Prof. Naimuddin Siddiqui, Visiting Professor at the University of Liberia spoke on what is ‘Not Poetry’ at the 435th meeting held in September 1981. The following month the chief speaker was Prof. David Raj of the University of Missourie, Kansas City, acclaimed as a mature and powerful poet. Prof. William Walsh, Professor of Commonwealth Literature, University of Leeds spoke on the contemporary poet D.J. Enright at the 342nd meeting in August 1972. Mr. Jacob Sloan, editor-critic and poet was guest speaker at the 344th meeting in October 1972. Dr. Deba Patnaik of Ravenshaw College, Cuttack (Orissa) read his own poems at the 341st meeting in June 1972. So did Dr. P.S. Chauhan of the Department of English, Beaver College, Penn., USA at the 352nd meeting in August 1973. Dr. Shiv K. Kumar, Fellow of the Royal Literary Society and National Professor of English has addressed the Poetry Society on a number of occasions (363rd meeting, November 1974) (463rd meeting, July 1984) and (493rd meeting, July 1987) either reading his own poems or a paper of literary interest. Prof. S.K. Ghose, Head of the Department of English, Visva Bharati University, Shantiniketan and National Fellow gave a talk on the poetry of Sri Aurobindo in February 1975 at the 366th meeting. Mr. R.N. Mehta of the University of Baroda introduced the members at the 369th meeting in June 1975 to the poetry of Hart Crane whom he considered a greatly neglected poet. Mr. Chirantan Kulshreshta from Udaipur spoke on the poetry of A.K. Ramanujan (370th meeting, July 1975). Mr. Keki Daruwalla, the poet–policeman read his own poems, showing a fine blend of freedom and discipline at the 387th meeting in January 1976. The 402nd meeting in June 1978 saw Prof. Cewalti of the University of Chicago giving readings from modern American poetry and the 410th in February 1979 had Dr. R.K. Kaul of the University of Rajasthan reading from John Berryman’s poems. Tony Connor, a British poet read his poems at the 421st meeting in March 1980. The 465th meeting held in September 1984 had Prof. Eric Mottram of Kent State University, one time editor of Poetry Review who kept the members amused with the wit and humour of his poems

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and the manner of his delivery. Mrs. Naomi Shihab Nye from the University of Texas recited some of her poems as well as sang some of her lyrics to the accompaniment of her guitar at the 468th meeting held in December 1984. Mr. Jayanta Mahapatra read his poems against the geographical and psychological background of his native Orissa in March 1984 at the 461st meeting. The 423rd meeting in July 1980 had Sri Gopal Honalgere reading his poems which reflected his wide spectrum of interests covering Zen, gardening, tea-making, poetry and general semantics. The following month at the 424th meeting, the internationally acclaimed poet Prof. A.K. Ramanujan read from his several publications. His poems showed a sincere love of India and her tales; remarkable since, or may be because, Mr. Ramanujan lived far away from his homeland in the United States. In October of the same year at the 426th meeting Dr. William Meredith, Poetry Consultant, Library of Congress, USA, read his poems. This was followed in November by another poet Prof. K.B. Vaid of the New York State University reading from his works in English and translations from Hindi at the 427th meeting. The 430th meeting in March 1981 saw Mr. Saleem Peeradina give readings from his newlypublished work First Offence. Another journalist, the late Mr. Japhet, editor of the Mirror, spoke on ‘Poetry in Our Life and Part of It’ in April 1971. Not only poets and journalists but musicians have been invited by the Poetry Society. Max Lock, mentioned in the beginning, was a noted English town planner, architect and pianist. He gave a piano recital in February 1952. The Society sponsored a public violin recital by Mehli Mehta—a wonderful violinist in his own right and the father of the world famous Zubin Mehta in January 1955. Eric Linklater almost made it. There was hectic correspondence on the part of the secretary to try and get him to include Hyderabad in his itinerary when he came to India in 1951, but the closest he came to Hyderabad was Madras! Mr. Hodgson of the Madras British Council spoke on the English influence in Russian Literature in December 1950. Karl Shapiro, winner of the Pullitzer Prize for Poetry, addressed the meeting in August 1955. He spoke on American Poetry as distinct from English Poetry. In August 1985, the 474th meeting, had four speakers reading from their own works—Prof. Yasmine Goonaratne from Sri Lanka, Prof. Lloyd Fernando from Malaysia, Prof. Edwin Thumbo from Singapore and Prof. Nissim Ezekiel. They had come

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to Hyderabad in connection with the 1985 Commonwealth Poetry Prize, being members of Asia Region Jury for selection of the prize winner. Dr. Karan Singh was the Chief Guest at the 480th meeting held in February 1986. He recited from memory passages from Yeats, Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Shelley, Robert Frost; Iqbal and Faiz in Urdu and Kalidasa’s poetic description of the Himalayas in Sanskrit. A truly versatile performance! There were many others but probably the visitor who had the greatest impact on the Hyderabad audience was Rabindranath Tagore. A record of that visit is mentioned in the first report: Special reference must be made to the occasion of Rabindranath Tagore’s visit to Hyderabad in December 1933. . . . The meeting was held in one of the old gardens of Shad Palace, where the Maharaja Bahadur (Sir Kishan Pershad) was at Home. Those who were present will not quickly forget that intimate contact with the Doctor, while he read a few of his own poems in his clear, musical voice, making a few explanations, and sharing with us his gaiety of spirit—the spirit of a poet.

If you cannot have the poet himself, the next best thing is to have a recording by the poet. We have had interesting meetings of this type also. The 242nd was a talk on Edith Sitwell by Mr. Barron of the British Council. It was accompanied by a recording by the poet. The members were given typed sheets of the poems and they appeared to be a jumble of words but the whole thing came to life when the poet started reciting them. Another meeting captioned ‘The Poet’s Voice’ was the 281st arranged by Dr. Scott. It was a programme of recording in which poets read their own poetry. At another meeting in which we had the pleasure of listening to Dylan Thomas, arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Morgan. Mr. Barron’s talk on John Betjeman at the 225th meeting in 1960 was also interspersed by recordings of the poet. In 1969, when Hyderabad was paying homage for her Urdu poet Maqdoom the 314th was held in his honour. The highlight of the evening was a tape of Maqdoom reciting his own poems. The hosts were Mr. and Mrs. Ziaee and it was one of the very few meeting held in the old quarter of Hyderabad, north of the River Musi. Incidentally they were also the hosts of the very first meetings held north of the Musi—the 247th in September 1962. It featured Canadian poetry. The 425th in October 1980 had a recording of Sylvia Plath reading her own poems to illustrate a talk by Dr. Isaac Sequeira, entitled

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‘From Confession to Suicide’. A short radio play Golconda written by Mrs. Bilkiz Alladin and read by members of the society was taped and replayed at the 309th meeting in 1969. This tape was made the centre of an impressive event during the Tourist Week Celebrations in December 1970, organized by Mrs. Roda Mistry who was then Minister for Tourism. It was played in one of the halls in the Golconda Fort, decorated with arms, armour and finery representative of the Qutub Shahi period. Many meetings of the Poetry Society have been built round a central theme. For instance the 466th meeting in October 1984 had ‘Trees’ as its theme and quite a few members read verses dealing with trees. The 451st in March 1983 consisted of a presentation of a variety of poems on ‘Water’ by Mrs. Bilkiz Alladin and her charming daughter Maniza, Dr. Sequeria as a grand finish, sang the old favourite ‘The Song of the Volga Boatman’. The talented Alladin mother and daughter team again organized a most enjoyable evening around children’s poems and limericks in the lovely setting of their own drawing room in February 1982 for the 440th meeting. The 457th meeting in November 1983 was a fabulous journey into ‘Nursery Land’ organized by Mr. and Mrs. Thangavelu (then President of the Society) at their home. One entire room was given over to paper cut-outs, models, dolls, and pictorial representation of old-time favourites like Humpty-dumpty, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and others. Mrs. Thangavelu gave a talk on the historical background of nursery rhymes. In July 1979, the subject for the 412th meeting was a ramble through humorous Indian verse presented by Mrs. Syeeda Tyabji where members read from Indian poets in the regional languages. Humour was again the theme for the 472nd meeting in April 1985 when members read their favourite verses from English poetry. Humour figured also at the 385th meeting in November 1976 when Dr. R.K. Tongue presented ‘An Evening of Comic and Curious Verse’ drawing on a wide range of poets and an equally large number of readers. The earliest meeting with ‘Humour’ as its theme was the 18th in March 1933 with Mr. Abdy Collins as the speaker. The theme for the 345th meeting in November 1975 was ‘The Rose’. Dr. Ruttonsha wrote a scholarly paper ‘The Poet and the Rose’ which was read by his wife and this was followed by solo and group renderings of songs inspired by the rose. Various members notably Dr. Isaac Sequiera and Miss Azra Latifi and some distinguished invitees like Mr. Claude Campos and Mrs. Margaret

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Marsh contributed the songs and verses. ‘Flowers’ was also a theme much earlier at the 183rd meeting in November 1954. The ‘Child’ has figured a number of times, the earliest being the 32nd meeting in July 1935 when the programme was arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Hasan Latif. The 110th in January 1945 was arranged by Mrs. C.E. Preston and Mr. J.W.E. Gurr. The programme was called ‘An Evening for Children, Old & Young’. The ‘Child in Poetry’ was also the theme of the paper read by H.B. Kulkarni in October 1955 at the 191st meeting. Mention has already been made of the fantastic ‘Journey into Nursery Land’ (457th) and ‘Children’s Poems and Limericks’ (440th). A recurring theme is Christmas. The Poetry Society usually succeeds in having their December meetings programmed around this theme. In this respect the Poetry Society owes a real debt to Drs. Herbert and Helen Butt who have hosted quite a few of the December meetings as well as arranged the programmes. The Xmas decorations, the Xmas fare specially prepared by Helen Butt and the programmes to follow provide a feast for the eyes, the palate and the mind. The 458th meeting in December 1983 at their residence had Xmas through music, and poetry as the central theme. Hymns were sung in English, Latin, French, German, Swedish, Dutt Chickewa (African dialect), Telugu, Marathi and Hindi. The programme was interspersed with 20 poems composed by Dr. Helen Butt. The evening ended with carols in which everyone took part. At the 488th meeting in December 1982. Dr. Helen Butt gave a learned account of the development of Xmas music. The 386th meeting in December, 1976 has amongst other things, an interesting recording of Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Xmas in Wales. The most recent was the 497th meeting in December 1987. The theme ‘The Periphery of Christmas’ was a carefully researched and elaborately presented programme dealing with rites, rituals, customs and Christmas traditions celebrated across different countries and cultures. There have been other interesting Xmas programmes too. The 438th meeting in December 1981 was hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Mulder at their residence. They arranged an evening of Xmas hymns sung by the well-known group ‘Harmonaries’ of Hyderabad. The 428th in December 1980 was hosted by Mrs. Lillan Rodrigues in her unmistakable style at the Rock Castle Hotel and the highlight of the evening was Italian Renaissance Xmas music with explanatory comments by Dr. Isaac Sequiera. At the 417th meeting in December 1979, Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs presented ‘Carols of the Worlds’

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tracing their origin. They were sung by a choir. The 336th was hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Morgan (of the British Council) at their house. It had a collection of references to Xmas in prose and poetry—some humorous, some serious, but all beautiful. An interesting feature was a passage from the Koran referring to the birth of Christ. It was read by K. Latifi. For a variation the December meeting (488th) in 1986 was not restricted to Christmas but included other festivals of India like Diwali, Navroz, Ramzan and Holi amongst others. The Poetry Society has provided a platform, however, modest, for members and non-members to read their own verses. I have already mentioned some of the visitors. There were others of course. Mr. Krishnamma, who told us on one occasion how ‘His Verse Got Worse’ though the audience did not think so; Mrs. Bilkiz Alladin, who read some of the poems she had written for children; Col Jabbar, Harindranath Chattopadhyay; Col Suleiman Moizuddin; Sir Nizamat Jung; Padma Sri Dr. V.K. Gokak and Dr. Ekambaram who spoke of ‘His Solitary Pride’. We also had M.C. Gabriel, Ajit Khullar from Delhi, Srinivas Rayaprol, an engineer by profession with love for poetry and a number of publications to his credit. Dr. Helen Butt of the Poetry Society with a talent for writing verse whose publication Flux was released by the Telugu poet C. Narayan Reddy at a function organized on 12 March 1987 in Hyderabad, by the USIS, Madras. Kalindi Manohar and D.R. Mohan Raj who was greatly influenced by his experiment at the writers’ workshop in New York. Mrs. Fatima Shehnaz—the happy blend of a dual heritage—an Indian who has grown up in the West and drawn inspiration from both worlds. Mrs. Sukrita Paul, a research scholar at the ASRC, R. Parthasarathy, Pavan Saigal, and others also participated in the meetings. And these have been some of the most enjoyable meetings. A particularly interesting one on these lines was the 260th in January 1964. The programme was called ‘Poets of the Poetry Society, Past and Present’. It was arranged by Dr. Mehru Jussawalla and Dr. Lott. The society has shown a wide and catholic range of interests at its meetings. It has included great many aspects of literature—poetry, prose, drama—and the allied arts like instrumental and vocal music, painting and architecture. It has also welcomed programmes on the literature of all languages—French, German, Italian, Russian, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Persian, Greek, Urdu, Hindi, Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil. In fact, the very first meeting of the society featured

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‘Portuguese Poetry’ by Dr. Ethel Pope. In English the programmes have ranged from Old English to Modern. Shakespeare has naturally figured often. The 50th meeting took the form of a special homage to him. Of the ten productions presented by the Dramatic Circle of the Society at least two were from Shakespeare and one had one-act plays with Shakespearean themes. And yet when the whole world was celebrating the 400th centenary of Shakespeare in 1964, the Dramatic Circle was unable to do anything. It was not for want of trying though. Minoo Chenoy first suggested staging a play in January or February at a committee meeting in December 1963. At a committee meeting in March 1964, Chenoy regretted that due to unforeseen circumstances he had not been able to do anything and requested Dr. Lott to compile a play which could be produced in June or July. In August 1964, one read of Baird being asked to convene a meeting of the Dramatic Circle and produce as early as possible a shortened version of Much Ado About Nothing, with Chenoy’s assistance. At the meeting in September 1964, Baird explained his plans to stage a shortened version of the play in modern Indian dress in the second week of January 1965. In November 1964 the minutes show Mr. Baird still trying to muster a cast. In March 1965 it was decided to enlist the cooperation of the Dramatic Circle Hyderabad. In April 1965, the minutes mention August as the likely date. In September 1965, Minoo Chenoy again in charge reluctantly decided to stop production of the play now captioned Much Talk about Nothing. Moreover in 1964 there was only one paper on Shakespeare—Baird’s ‘Lighter Side of Shakespeare’. Tagore has been another favourite. One meeting, as mentioned earlier, was addressed by the poet in person. Sarojini Naidu was also popular and particularly active during the early years. Though she herself was too busy, her daughters Padmaja and Lealamani, were very active members. Papers on women poets have figured rather seldom. Emily Dickinson was the subject at most of them the 273rd meeting addressed by Dr. Sheshachari in 1965, the 293rd addressed by Dr. Mulder in August 1967, the 469th addressed by Dr. Anand Rao Thota in 1985. In February 1968 Mrs. Flemings, an American Visiting Professor read an excellent paper on ‘Modern American Women Poets’. The earliest paper featuring women was contributed by Dr. Mehru Jussawalla—she was Miss Dalat then—on ‘Womanhood in English Poetry’. Dr. Issac Sequeira read a paper on Sylvia Plath entitled ‘From Confession to Suicide’ in October 1980 at the 425th meeting.

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She was also the subject of a meeting addressed by Prof. Birje Patil. And there were women poets who read from their own works at a number of meetings. The year 1975 declared to be the international year of the women had a number of meetings dealing with women. Dr. Helen Butt read from a collection of her own poems entitled ‘Woman and Other Poems’ (372nd meeting, September 1975), Prof. Thomas Fitzsimmons of Oakland University Michigan read a paper on ‘Women as Women’ (374th meeting, November 1975); Dr. Polly Chenoy read a paper on ‘The Feminist Theme in American Poetry’ (375th meeting, December 1975); and by a strange coincidence the meeting held in January 1975—the first month of the women’s year was an all-woman affair; Mrs. G.N. Ruttonsha, Vice-President, was in the chair as the President, Dr. Sequeira could not attend. The speaker was Banu Tahera Sayeed who read a number of poems in Urdu (some her own) which were translated into English by Mrs. Bilkiz Alladin and the vote of thanks was given by Dr. Helen Butt, the Secretary. Amongst the programmes in languages other than English, Urdu and Persian have been the most popular. The 161st meeting held at the Boat Club, Hyderabad in November 1951 had a paper on ‘The Poetry of Omar Khayyam’ read by Mohamad Hadi. It was the one and only meeting in which wine was served—in deference to the Persian poet. The 470th held in February 1985 was somewhat unusual in that it featured Urdu translations of English poems by leading Urdu poets. It was entitled ‘Poetry from Culture to Culture’. Prof. Taqi Ali Mirza and Prof. Sirajuddin, both of Osmania University, and others read the English original and some leading local poets were invited to read the translations. Several meetings featured discussions on nationally acclaimed poets like Ghalib, Maqdoom and Sir Mohamad Iqbal, the earliest being the 36th meeting in November 1935 built around the life and poetry of Iqbal. He could not attend in person but he sent a message in the form of a poem in Persian. The translation into English verse by E.E. Speight given in the second report of the society is quoted below: TO A POET 1. Among the clustering orient reeds where moves the poet today? O hidden Piper, hast thou breathe upon reeds to play?

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2. The race whose will is soft and meek through years of slavery No ‘ajami’ Song will rouse the race, no alien melody. 3. It matters not, the chosen vessel, glass or earthen ware, But Sabre-Keen must be the tang of wine that bubbles there. 4. Beneath the heavens we behold there is no world in sight Wherein high throne shall crown the fate of those who shun the fight 5. Each moment a new Sinai fresh lightning bids ascend; Pray thou this road of thy desire may never find an end.

The Society has encouraged interest in the allied arts. To mention some of the comparatively recent ones, the 464th meeting in August, 1984 was a delightful song-and-dance presentation—‘Ours is a Magnificent Land’. The verses in English were beautifully sung by Dr. Leela Narayan of Osmania University Women’s College and a classical Bharata Natyam interpretation was given by Dr. Champaka Lakshmi, also of Women’s College. In November of the same year, at the 467th meeting, H.E. Jean Paul Robert, Consul-General of France, read a paper on ‘Impressionism in French Paintings’. The 447th meeting in November 1982 was a talk by Isaac Sequeira on Wallace Stevens’ poems showing their connection with painting and music. In October 1977, the 395th meeting saw Tagore’s poems set to music by Andrew P. Gibbs, members of his family, Mr. Ganguli and A Narayan Rao participated. It was held in the Golden Threshold formerly the residence of Sarojini Naidu. The 200th meeting, as mentioned earlier, was an evening of music provided by the Hyderabad Madrigals as was also the 215th one. The 233rd meeting in January 1961 was on the use of the English language in India. Earlier it was mentioned that some of the distinguished visitors were musicians, one of them being the violinist Mehli Mehta. This event was open to public with admission rates. Its purpose was to collect funds to help the poor patients of the Radium Institute of Hyderabad. A cheque for Rs. 1,000 was presented in 1955 to Nawab Mehdi Nawaz Jung Bahadur, President, Indian Conference of Social Work, for use by the Radium Institute. The amount looks like peanuts today (1987) but in 1955 it was sufficient to build a small ward and there is a plaque at the entrance to the ward acknowledging the Poetry Society’s contribution. This plaque was brought to the attention of the members by Mr. Anthony. The Poetry Society makes it a point to have meetings to honour a

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poet or literary figure whose 25th or 50th anniversary or centenary happens in a particular year. Goethe was the first to be so honoured by the society. At the 14th meeting in March 1932 Mrs. Rosenthal, Honorary Secretary, read a paper entitled ‘Goethe—His Centenary’. The 347th meeting in January 1973 was in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the French dramatist, Moliere. Miss Dorothy Clark had arranged a play reading of Moliere’s Doctor in Spite of Himself. In 1979, India celebrated the centenary of her well-loved ‘Song Bird’ Sarojini Naidu, and the 414th meeting in October that year was in her honour. The well-known gifted sisters of Hyderabad, Miss Mary Nandi and Mrs. Dora Cottle presented the poems of Sarojini Naidu in song and mime in which many members took part. The costumes were colourful and the songs lilting and haunting. At the 449th meeting in January the great Tamil poet Subramania Bharathi was the person honoured in 1983, his centenary year. Prof. K. Subramaniam of the CIEFL gave an interesting talk on the life and works of the poet and Prof. Manickam sang some of the poet’s songs. The right atmosphere was created by having a large garlanded portrait of the poet surrounded by vilakus (traditional south Indian lamps). It has already been mentioned that the 450th meeting was a centenary celebration of the late Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan. In 1986 there were three other such celebrations. The 485th meeting in September saw a paper read by Dr. Sequeira on Hilda Doolitte. He quoted profusely from her work against the background of the modern poet’s credo of poetic expression: ‘hard, clear, crystal pure and never blurred’. In August, the 484th meeting was a celebration of the birth centenary of the Hindi poet Maithilisharan Gupta. Dr. Dalip Singh of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha underlined the main characteristics of Maithilisharan’s poetry—women in new perspective, nationalistic fervour, humanization of characters from the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. In January of the same year Prof. R.S. Sharma of the Osmania University gave a talk on D.H. Lawrence whose birth centenary in 1985 caused hardly a ripple even in England. Prof. Sharma felt that D.H. Lawrence as a poet deserved more attention than he has had and that his reputation as a novelist should not be allowed to outshine his accomplishment as a poet. In October 1985, the 476th meeting was addressed by Dr. Christian Acquasciati (CIEFL) to commemorate the death centenary of a novelist poet-artist exiled from his own country for nineteen years, Victor Hugo. The 310th

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meeting in April 1969 was held jointly with the ASRC to celebrate the bi-centenary of Walt Whitman. Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Sloan presented a programme entitled ‘Grass’. ‘A Little Bouquet from Ghalib’ was offered by Dr. Hashim Amir Ali to commemorate Ghalib’s centenary at the 304th meeting in October 1967. The 439th meeting in January 1982 was addressed by Dr. Mulder (Director, ASRC) to celebrate the centenary of Emerson. Kalaprapoorna Dr. D. Venkat Avadhani was invited to speak at the 437th meeting in November 1981 on ‘Pothanna and His Poetry’ to celebrate the great Telugu poet’s fifth centenary. The only notable exception was the failure to commemorate the fourth centenary of Shakespeare. It was not for want of trying though as mentioned earlier.

3 The Poetry Society Hyderabad Centre: A Brief Survey Bala Kothandaraman

The Poetry Society Hyderabad Centre held its 757th meeting in January 2014. Originating as a Zenana Circle/Branch in November 1925 for ladies to listen to and appreciate poetry, it expanded into an Open Centre in 1929 and became the Poetry Society Hyderabad Centre in 1937, with Nawab Sir Nizamat Jung as the first President and Mrs. Rosenthal the Secretary (she was the prime mover of the Zenana Branch). The society was affiliated to the Poetry Society, London (and continued to be so till the 1990s). With minor changes over the decades, the format followed for the Poetry Society Hyderabad Centre [PS for short] is to meet once a month to appreciate a poet reading her/his verse, or hear a talk on some aspect of poetry, or any poetry-based activity, with language no bar—the very first meeting was on Portuguese poetry—except for a rendition in translation into English. May and June are vacation months following the AGM held in April. There is no fixed address or day of a month for meetings. Members take turns hosting the monthly meetings with the organizational responsibilities left to an Executive Committee elected at the AGM. Membership consists of people from all walks of life, with an established protocol for admission of new member usually with the total numbers around 80-90. In the early 1970s, the idea of putting together a history of the PS and printing it commenced with the Honorary Secretary Mrs. G.N. Ruttonsha making a brief oral presentation; it gained momentum in the 1980s and picked up steam to complete the task so as to mark the approaching 500th meeting. During 1987-8, when this writer was privileged to be the President, frenzied activity by a group of members

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rummaging among papers and files stored in ‘the Secretary’s Almirah’, arranging them in chronological order to aid the compilation and narration by Mrs. Revathi Thangavelu and Mrs. Ruttonsha resulted in the publication of Echoes from the Past which was released at the 500th meeting held on 24 March 1988. Ms. Mrinalini Chattopadhyaya, niece of Sarojini Naidu, launched it; Prof. Shiv K. Kumar, Chief Guest, was invited to speak on ‘The State of Poetry Today’. This history, Echoes from the Past, a mine of interesting information and a mirror of a bygone gracious era moving into the changing contemporary ethos, was really possible because of the amazingly meticulous recording and preservation of documents for an organization with no staff or even a fixed location. The narration pieces together clues picked up from scattered sources, the main one being a report of the 50th meeting which was deduced to have been held in December 1937 and this helped in tracing the origins of the society. The narration is enhanced by reproductions of photographs and facsimiles of notices, letters, and other documents. Giving a vivid picture are three detailed Appendices: (1) a list of current, i.e. 1987, members; (2) office-bearers of the PS from 1930-87; (3) record of meetings from the first one onwards, with details of speaker, host/s, and venue for each, right up to the scheduled 500th meeting. A second volume covering the period 1988-2003 continues the history up to meeting number 650, beginning with an account of the 500th meeting. Mrs. Ruttonsha, Mrs. Thangavelu, and Dr. Pingali Nageswara Rao put together this volume with the help of a sub-committee. It was released by Nawab Mir Moazzam Hussain. It highlights meeting number 629 held in March 2001 to mark the Platinum Jubilee Year (2000-1) of the PS; the programme was ‘Poetry through Dance’ suggested by Bala Kothandaraman, worked out by her and Prof. Lakshmi Reddy with Potti Sriramulu, Telugu University Faculty, Ms. Alekhya who along with her troupe performed an amazing fusion of English poetry and Kuchipudi dance. The second volume continues the same format as that of the first one making for absorbing and informative perusal related to one aspect of Hyderabadi culture. Some noteworthy features from the two volumes are randomly listed below: For quite some years since its inception, the focus was on British poetry, Shakespeare being a stated favourite. A marble bust of Shakespeare is among the heirlooms of the society. Quite a number

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of programmes were also held on Persian and Urdu poetry. European poetry was a frequent topic. From the mid-1970s, programmes on poetry in Indian languages, and Indian poetry in English were more frequently held. A 1975 talk surveyed Punjabi poetry from the thirteenth-eighteenth centuries. With the setting-up of the ASRC in the 1960s, American poetry, speakers and poets started featuring. Music, performance, painting and related arts also formed topics on many occasions. One unusual programme was meeting no. 526 at which Prof. Sudhakar Marathe escorted PS members across the University of Hyderabad campus on a nature walk followed by refreshing tea and a presentation on nature poetry. Another one was a member-participatory programme ‘In the Beginning’, a recitation of verses with appropriate music from different scriptures/cultures on the origin of the universe/world with participants not visible, only heard from behind thin curtains. Distinguished poets—Rabindranath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu among them as also Sir Nizamat Jung—academics, speakers across the globe are listed in the detailed Appendices of Programmes, as also many members. While these reflect the multicultural, multilingual nature of the city, they also point to the active association of PS with a range of universities and organizations, as it had no resources of its own to invite speakers. The December meet centres around the theme of Christmas along with a festive tea; for some years now, March has become the month at which member-poets showcase their own work. A presentation, ‘Virtual Verse: Poetry and the Internet’ was held at the beginning of the new millennium. With no fixed address, the venues for meetings had been members’ homes along with hospitality for many decades—the list reads like a Who’s Who of Stately Hyderabad and includes the Basheerbagh Palace, the British Residency, and the one hosted by Major General J.N. Chaudhari at the Bolarum Residency. The YMCA and the YWCA figure frequently as ‘non-home’ venues. From the 1970s, Percy’s Hotel, Secunderabad, provided a steady venue. Mrs. Rodriguez, the owner, herself paying special attention, and members taking turns with the hospitality. With that landmark edifice vanishing, Hotel Sarovar took its place until 1989. Thereafter, venues map the twin cities ranging from homes, educational institutions, clubs, hotels, and unusual

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locations such as Dak Sadan, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Directorate of Archeology, until sometime in early 2000 when the IAS Officers’ Association Institute became occasionally available and has since provided a regular venue. The changing social ethos over the last few decades is reflected in that ‘home/residence’ as venue declines in frequency; this, along with the expanding city and increasing traffic making access to varied locations difficult and a common venue welcome. Related interests of members such as theatre, readings and so on, were also encouraged and led to offshoots such as the Reading Circle and the Dramatic Circle Hyderabad (DCH). DCH which became the city’s leading amateur group operating independently from PS for some decades since the 1960s and now functions as the Little Theatre. The Reading Circle is confined to members of the PS and meets informally around a stated theme with members reading/reciting poems selected by them, and often their own verses. A fine library holding mainly gilt-edged poetry collections and gifts by visiting speakers or members, as well as volumes of Poetry Review which came with the affiliation to the London Poetry Society, was housed in various places courtesy the kindness of owners/heads of institutions including Sarojini Naidu’s girlhood home behind the GPO until, with no means for augmentation or upkeep, the books were auctioned to members and the remaining ones accommodated in the University of Hyderabad. A long-standing society would obviously be rich in nuggets of collective memory, and PS has its share in ‘Shakespeare’s Bust’, ‘Polly’s Suitcase’—containing the collection of papers which formed the basis of the recorded history—followed by ‘The Secretary’s Almirah’, apart from anecdotes and personalities. One such person is Veeresham the Attendant, rather the ever-alert Jeeves, who personally distributed monthly notices to members’ homes and kept the Honorary Secretaries on their toes; he was rightfully recognized formally at the 500th meeting. The Indian Postal Service replaced him and of late email is in use with the executive now wishing to do away with the tedium and expense of posting notices and other documents. Thus while the PS retains its ‘quaint’ distinctiveness, it also adapts to changing times aiming to uphold its motto ‘Where There is no Poetry, There is no Vision/Where There is no Vision the People Perish’ and to keep alive a cultivated interest in poetry. As with

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numerous organizations, particularly cultural/voluntary ones, more so a literary, poetry-based one in a fast-changing technological era, identifying new/young members who display regularity of attendance and sustained enthusiasm and to whom the baton can be handed over is a matter of some concern. Given Hyderabad’s proven capacity to acquire newer layers of culture without losing the earlier ones, Poetry Society Hyderabad Centre remains optimistic of the rose continuing to bloom, giving a positive perspective to the lines by Sarojini Naidu, Hyderabad’s iconic poet: Time is like the wind that blows The future like a folded rose. Who shall pluck it? No one knows.

4 The Dramatic Circle Hyderabad B.S. Prakash with Shankar Melkote

B.S. Prakash The invitation from Professor Kousar J. Azam to join in a one-day colloquium on 18 February 2014 titled ‘Language and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad: A Peep into History’ came at an exceedingly opportune time. She asked Shankar Melkote and me to present—in conversation with each other—a ‘peep shot’ at a historical perspective of English theatre in Hyderabad. Coming in the 50th year of the founding of the Dramatic Circle Hyderabad, this invitation provided both an opportunity and an impetus to convert the strong but vague and disjointed bouts of nostalgia and reminiscences that some of us oldies were indulging in, into a more orderly and structured—well, weakly structured one would need to admit—presentation. After all, one only had to sit down and talk to each other about it all and then leave it to the audience to either join into this conversation, or to ask questions, or may be express views, and so on. We could see no flip side to it and looked forward to an interesting and enjoyable morning requiring us only to jot down a few random points and string these into a conversation. The two of us enjoyed all this greatly—the looking back, the recalling of individuals and incidents from the past, the recounting of anecdotes and experiences and up to a point even the trying to put all of this under the overall umbrella of ‘English language theatre in Hyderabad’. When it was all over—or so we then thought—we left with that feeling of satisfaction that tends to come from an enjoyable job that in our view was well done. What we then did not know, and did not account for, was Professor Radhe Shyam Sharma—the other half of the Azam-Sharma duo—gently moving into his perseveringly persuasive persona

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and seeking a ‘copy’ of the talk that the two of us presented at the colloquium. If we did not speak from a prepared text—I am pretty sure he knew all along that we did not—could we put those few points into a written piece that could be included in a publication that OUCIP was planning for the proceedings of the colloquium. The opening of the Ravindra Bharati in Hyderabad in May 1961 provided a definite fillip to cultural activity in the city. It was from this culturally charged environment that the first sort of semiorganized English theatre group emerged within Osmania University. It is a piece of interesting trivia that the inaugural programme in the Ravindra Bharati was a performance of Tagore’s Mukta Dhara under the auspices of the Osmania University Dramatic Club. This performance was a part of the 1961 Tagore Centenary celebrations. Succeeding years saw the production of Russell Crouse’s Life with Father in 1962, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar from the majestic setting of the steps leading to the University Library in 1963, and Strindberg’s Fadren in the summer of 1964. The three latter productions were directed by Dr. Jay Gurian, the Minnesota Visiting Professor in American Literature at the Osmania University. Indeed Dr. Gurian was the moving spirit behind this theatrical activity at the university. The last of these productions, Strindberg’s Fadren, was performed after that year’s final examinations. At that stage this group of university theatre activists was passing out of the university. By then they had all got well and truly bitten by the theatrical bug and what began as mere fun and frolic slowly but steadily converted itself into a serious interest in amateur dramatics. The university drama group was no longer available to this group of youngsters who were keen on following up on their interest, so the seeds for the Dramatic Circle Hyderabad were sown. As a result of this interest, enthusiasm and seriousness on the part of these newly passed out students, and with the catalytic influence of their mentor Dr Gurian, Dramatic Circle Hyderabad came into existence on 10th August 1964. The group that started DCH had, among others, Yezdyar Kaoosji, Bashiruddin Babu Khan, James Warner Björkman, the Minnesota exchange scholar at Osmania University, N. Ramesh Reddy, Ashima Roy Choudhry, Syed Mehmood Khadri, Kumar C. Bhavnani and R. Ravi Prakash. They got together and systematically prepared not only a Memorandum and Rules of Association but also went on to have it registered as a bona-fide society on 20 October 1964. Yezdyar Kaoosji

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was elected President, Miss Zareen Pestonjee became Vice-President, (Late) Bashiruddin Babu Khan, Secretary and Kumar C. Bhavnani, Business Manager. They approached and obtained the consent of Shri M.R. Appa Rao, the then Honourable Minister for Cultural Affairs of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, to be the society’s patron. As an aside, the letter to the government seeking the consent of the minister to become patron was signed by Bashiruddin Babu Khan as Secretary of the DCH. In the fullness of time, Bashiruddin himself went on to become a minister in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet. He passed away in 2013 and it is a matter of sincere regret that he is not around with us to mark the golden jubilee of DCH. Having sorted these formalities, DCH set itself to pursue its main objectives that could at first glance sound a trifle pedantic but which in fact reflected its seriousness of purpose: i. To promote theatre arts and give the public of Hyderabad and Secunderabad  an organization dedicated to English drama. ii. To encourage local talent and educate it in acting, play production and other allied subjects in stagecraft. iii. To make the capital of Andhra Pradesh a theatre conscious city in the tradition of ‘little theatres’ all over the world. With Dr. Jay Gurian completing his term at OU and heading back to the USA, the group found a prospective Director in Minoo H. Chenoy, who was active with the Drama Circle of the Poetry Society of Hyderabad. They also put together an Advisory Committee consisting of the following culture and theatre conscious citizens of Hyderabad:

• L.N. Gupta, Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh • Donald F. Mathes, US Information Service, Hyderabad • Minochere Hoshang Chenoy • Mrs. Bilkis Alladin • Dr. M.F. Jussawala • Mrs. Lakshmi Raj.

With these formalities completed and with the structure and the infrastructure firmly in place, the group set to work on its first production—The Man Who Came to Dinner, by George Kaufman and Moss Hart. Presented at Ravindra Bharati on 17 December 1964, the play was directed by Minoo Chenoy and had James Warner Björkman

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playing the male lead of Sheridan Whiteside. The impressive cast of over 30 included, among others, Polly Chenoy, Zareen Pestonjee, Lynn Edwards, Bashiruddin Babu Khan, Mehmood Khadri and Shankar Narayan Melkote who all turned in impressive performances. DCH had well and truly come into existence. Hyderabad always had local language theatre groups. Telugu groups had long been active in Hyderabad and included the Indian National Theatre, IPTA and Bharatiya Natya Sangh. Rasaranjani was started in the early 1970s. The Marathi/Hindi group Rangadhara began in 1971. One of its early productions in 1972 was a joint-billed multi-lingual production with them doing Waiting for Godot in Hindi and DCH doing The Bald Soprano in English. Apart from school and college drama groups, DCH was Hyderabad’s only English language theatre group until 1971, when Toni Mirchandani and his sister, Mala (now Mala Pasha)—the force behind this active and accomplished group today—started Torn Curtains. The Muses another group was started by Jayant Paranji, today a recognized movie director, who up to a point took an active part in DCH and even now continues to be one of us, albeit without involvement. Many other theatre groups have since been added to the city’s theatrical scene, especially in the past few years . . . more about which later. For convenience, DCH’s half century can be divided into three distinct periods. The first—the decade up to 1972—featured plays usually directed by Minoo Chenoy. During the period up to 1984, the second decade as it were, several directors produced a variety of plays. And since then, during the third period spanning over three full decades, Pranava Singhal took the director’s role and has wielded, almost single handed, the metaphorical megaphone. Starting with Kaufman and Hart’s The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1964, Minoo directed a string of DCH productions—many of them drawing-room comedies. These included Sheridan’s The Scheming Lieutenant, Noël Coward’s Hay Fever, both in 1965, A.A. Milne’s Mr. Pim Passes By in 1966, Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take it With You in 1971, and James Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace in 1972. To relieve the monotony of a series of comedies Minoo directed a much appreciated and remembered A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. It is worth mentioning that Brian Harrison, who played Sir Thomas More in this play, was a part of the original West End production of this play, albeit in a minor role. After 1972, Minoo swung to the

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other end of the pendulum and did the grim tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. While most of his other productions were performed in Ravindra Bharati, for Oedipus he chose to use the amphitheatre at the Hyderabad Public School. The venue and its ambience added substantially to the overall effect of the performance. As an aside, Minoo made (or should one say needed to make) a brief appearance in Oedipus Rex, á la Hitchcock, as the second messenger bringing a message for the king. However, wanting to assess the power and impact of the performances under his direction, Minoo decided to watch a bit of the play from the front row and—yes, nearly missed his entrance! After a frantic search and some confusion, he did make his entrance, quite flustered, which in fact helped in creating the right mood in which a common shepherd would expected to be when brought before the imperial presence of the king himself! While those of us backstage, not to speak of the players on stage, were beginning to build ourselves into somewhat of a tizzy, the audience did not seem to notice anything amiss. Oedipus was followed by a string of short plays from the theatre of the absurd, including works by Ionesco, Brecht, Arrabal and Clifford. Thus, during its first decade DCH had on its list of performances not only comedies but also historical drama in the form of Bolt’s play, Sophocles’ deep tragedy, and interesting experimentations with the theatre of the absurd. This period saw most of the earlier stalwarts moving on in life and away from DCH. In 1966, Minoo had become DCH President, with Polly Chenoy—Pouruchisti N. Chenoy to provide her impressive full name—as Vice-President. As the first decade drew to a close, Minoo took over as Patron in 1972, while Dorothy L. Clark became DCH President. The second decade from approximately 1973-4 saw DCH, while continuing to present comedies, diversifying in a big way and covering other genres as well. During this decade DCH’s productions were directed by a clutch of directors, each both vastly experienced and hugely effective. Professor J. Birje Patil of M.S. University, Baroda was the first of these directors. Having come to attend a seminar at Osmania University, and being a friend of Isaac Sequeira, Birje got drawn into the DCH vortex. The first play he directed was Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano. He had a propah Brit accent and I remember him patiently and perseveringly correcting me throughout rehearsals about the

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pronunciation of refer with the accent on the second syllable. Every evening it was: ‘Prakash, it is refe’r, not re’fer’. It must be said to his credit though, that on the evening of the performance when I stuck doggedly to re’fer he kindly turned a deaf ear to my mispronunciation. After The Bald Soprano he went on to direct Philip King’s See How They Run—a rollicking comedy set in a provincial parsonage, Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie, and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. His plays were notable both for the rounded interpretation of the overall script and for the carefully etched portrayals of character that he was able to draw from individual performers. It is a lasting regret that the production of A View from the Bridge that was rehearsed by him for the whole of one hot summer could not, for a variety of reasons, be performed. Chronologically speaking, Prof. M. Nagabhushan Sarma comes next. Professor Sarma brought a rare combination of an academic, a playwright and a theatre personality; he was an accomplished and acclaimed authority in each of these areas. In his association with DCH he served as both secretary and conscience keeper. He directed four plays as director and was associated with a fifth as associate director. Three of the plays were Indian plays in translation—Hayavadana, Tughlaq and Mrichakatika. On each of these productions he left his impressive imprint if one were to choose one from among these three, it would have to be Mrichakatika. The tasteful inclusion of music, dance and mime and the successful adaption of a centuries old Sanskrit classic into a meaningful experience for a contemporary audience was no mean achievement. As another aside, almost a decade after the performance, one of the actors from this play, which played for exactly two evenings, was recognized and accosted by a railway ticket inspector, when on a journey from Hyderabad to Vijayawada, who excitedly recounted how impressed he was with that evening’s production. That that evening’s performance left such a lasting impression on its audience is, I think, the ultimate accolade which can give any theatre director a sense of well-earned pride. Not to be typecast as a director of Indian plays in translation for DCH, Professor Sarma directed Friedrich Durrenmatt’s The Visit. With its set on two levels of the small and ill-equipped Indira Priyadarshini Auditorium in Hyderabad’s Public Gardens, this largecast production was able to hold its own against the raucous rumble

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of trains passing by Hyderabad Public Gardens are adjacent to the Nampally Railway Station, and the tracks are just behind the Auditorium. It stands out as an example of what can be achieved by a great script, a truly imaginative director and a competent cast and crew, without needing to resort to or rely upon complicated and sophisticated technological inputs. Along with Alan Moller, Professor Sarma also worked on an Indianized version of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, for which he was an associate director. The two of them independently handled separate segments of the play, with Alan taking overall responsibility of integrating these segments. Continuing with the multi-director phase, the next directors involved in DCH productions were Reverend Alan Batchelor, Reverend Robert Marsh and Alan Moller. Set as it was in a provincial parsonage, one wonders if See How They Run had anything to do with the two reverend gentlemen being drawn in! Surprisingly the pair of them chose Indian plays in translation. Alan Batchelor chose to direct Priya Adarkar’s translation of Tendulkar’s Shantata Court Chalu Ahe—Silence The Court is in Session. In this play Susie Tharu turned in a truly inspired and inspiring performance as Benare. Recollecting her last monologue in which she speaks out as the wronged woman who quite uncommonly feels neither guilt nor remorse and who takes on, in her own way, the hypocritical society that is putting her on trial, it still leaves those of us who watched her with a sense of definite thrill. Alan himself was a keen actor who showed a marked preference for comedy and performed in both The Bald Soprano and See How They Run. Robert Marsh chose to direct Mohan Rakesh’s Ashad Ka Ek Din. Apart from being a fine director, Bob Marsh was a versatile actor who played the king in Oedipus Rex, and had important parts in plays as diverse as Arsenic and Old Lace, Waiting for Lefty and See How They Run. Alan Moller, the third of this trio of expat directors, directed DCH’s maiden venture into Shakespeare with a rollicking Twelfth Night set in medieval Rajasthan. In this production Captain Gigi Bedi as Sir Toby Belch, Mavillapally S. Chakravarthy as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Shankar Melkote as Malvolio of the yellow garters—or in this case the yellow churidars—had a whale of a time on stage and kept the audience in splits. Also during this period M.S. Chakravarthy directed Bertolt Brecht’s The Elephant Calf, Woody Allen’s Don’t Drink the Water and some one-act plays.

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Gigi Bedi’s was a larger than life personality who came into and was with DCH for a brief period. Beyond being a fine actor who played with equal aplomb Sir Toby Belch in the Twelfth Night and John Proctor in The Crucible, he was a skilled director of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Ayn Rand’s The Night of January 16th. He also played an important role in tying up a very advantageous sponsorship deal with the Vazir Sultan Tobacco Company. VST sponsored many DCH productions and in fact was vitally responsible for keeping DCH going for a substantial period of time. DCH can never be adequately grateful to this sterling cultureconscious organization. As an aficionado of Shakespeare, Bedi was forever planning to put together an evening about the Bard with three snippets from the plays on the subject of love in its many facets— stringing together Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and the Portia-Brutus scene from Julius Caesar to cover, in turn, young, tempestuous and mature love. It is a pity that his idea never made it to the stage. Nice things they say come in small doses. He passed away early, aged 56, after a relatively short association with DCH. Those who knew him from those days can easily imagine him saying along with Edna St. Vincent Millay, ‘My candle burns at both ends. It will not last the night. But Ah! My friends and Oh! My foes, it sheds a lovely light.’ It was indeed a lovely glow we all enjoyed it if only briefly. Zaraawar Mistry and Rukhshad Banaji were two young men who joined DCH in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Not only were these two exceedingly talented but also extremely serious about theatre. They volunteered and took the entire responsibility for putting up Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park in January 1982, as a very efficient and well-rendered production. Later, in September 1982, these two got together with Florence and Aditya Srinivasan, Pranava and Renu Singhal, Vaman and Radha Rao and Vanita Bhargava as a group to put up a production of Waiting for Godot. Pranava Singhal played Lucky in this, his earliest association with DCH. There were no credits other than a cast-list in the play’s brochure; every aspect of the play, direction included, was a true cooperative venture by the group with decisions taken after discussions among themselves. Zaraawar later went to the USA for a course in theatre at Bennington College and obtained an MFA in theatre from the University of California, San Diego. For a while an actor with the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Zaraawar and his wife Leslye Orr own and operate a 40-seat play

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house in St Paul, Minnesota, called the Dreamland Theatre—named after Secunderabad’s erstwhile movie hall. Pranava Singhal (Pappy to most in the DCH) joined in 1982. After two appearances on stage—first as Lucky in Godot and then a double cameo in Mrichakatika—he stepped into the shoes of the director and has continued as such ever since. ‘Only because no one else has come forward’, he says, but one suspects he secretly enjoys being El Directore. And a damn good director he has been too. He has directed many fine and finely produced comedies with a marked preference for Neil Simon of whose plays he has done several. His other productions include Peter Ustinov’s The Unknown Soldier and his Wife, Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus, twice, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off in two versions—once Indianized and the other in its original format, Neil Simon’s God’s Favourite and The Odd Couple, Dave Freeman’s A Bed Full of Foreigners, Edward Lear’s ‘The Owl and the Pussy Cat’, a dramatization of Faroukh Dhondy’s Bollocks, and many more. However, Singhal cannot be classified as a comedies man. Two of his finest directorial ventures have been Equus and The Merchant. The Shaffer play he directed with such skill and sensitivity; Bhushan Kalyan as Alan Strang and Zareer Reporter as Professor Dysart provided stunning performances. With elaborate lighting and almost incantatory sound as very effective complements to truly first-rate acting skills of the cast, Pranava devised a standard of theatre quite capable of holding its own against the best anywhere. The Merchant was a portmanteau production with some of the Shylock scenes from Shakespeare juxtaposed with Arnold Wesker’s The Merchant. Pranava’s direction of this multi-layered scrip made for great theatre all round. Pranava, whose name is virtually synonymous with today’s DCH, did many smaller and less taxing experiments including several dramatised readings from P.G. Wodehouse, a bunch of Sunday afternoon readings for children with and at Alliance Francaise, readings from authors as diverse as T.S. Eliot, Roald Dahl, Peter Ustinov, the Durrell brothers Lawrence and Gerald and, of course, P.G. Wodehouse, theatrical and communications skills workshops for corporates and for others, and is now involved in bringing together a band of new talent into DCH. Describing Pranava’s association with and contributions to DCH will need at least a whole article, and no paragraph in a write-up such as this can do more than scratch the

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surface. His association with DCH is current and continuing; any fuller or more comprehensive coverage will have to wait. A word about those who helped in the nitty-gritty of play production, like  handling sound, light, costumes, sets, make-up, properties and so on. While actors and directors hog the limelight, the contribution of these others to the overall spectacle is immense. For a long time Pranava has been handling lighting for all DCH plays. Zakir Alladdin (Zak to all) along with Prakash Savio (nicknamed Proxy) and their crew from Mowzz—professional sound and light rentals— has been the sound and lighting equipment arm of DCH. One can unhesitatingly cite them as the best in the business in Hyderabad and among the best in India. Sets were originally handled by Sharma, then for many years by Naidu garu, and lately with help from Ranjan Ranganathan. Make-up as needed came from the doyen of the field in Hyderabad, Babu Rao. When he passed away in 2001, DCH dedicated its performance of Who’s Got My Trousers to his memory. His son Ashok Pawar now handles DCH’s make-up. This brings the happenings of DCH over the past fifty years almost to current times. But no recounting can ever be complete without remembering the many individuals who passed through its portals. One needs to remember Isaac Sequeira, that genial soul who could not be caustic even when he tried to be and who was always ready to chip in with whatever was required—a quickly whistled tune to help with the music for a production, or being President when needed, offering his sage advice when it was sought, or at times even without the seeking, his willingness to smoothen ruffled feathers and more than anything else for his glorious company and ready willingness to bend the elbow and wet the whistle. RIP Isaac. And then there was Dorothy Clark who like a mother hen kept the brood together, clucking at times but being protective and possessive also. With the traits of the professional librarian that she was, Dorothy turned archivist and maintained records and interesting theatrical clippings not only of DCH but from all over on the off-chance that they may prove to be of use to DCH some time or the other. She effectively nurtured the organization through a critical growth phase. And then there is the bunch of fine actors who came, who performed and who moved along. These include Minoo Chenoy, Bashiruddin Babu Khan, Jim Björkman, Isaac Sequeira, Shankar Melkote, Polly Chenoy, Chakravarthy Mavillapalli, Lakshmi Chandra née Ruttonsha, Jayasri

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Majumdar, Jagi Shahani, Nomita Vasandani, Kartik Raina, Clive and Greta Brasnett, Alan Batchelor, Alan Moller, Bob Marsh, M.V. Krishna Rao,  Rima Kashyap, Susie Tharu, Piroja Batliwala, Deepa Dhanraj, Havovi Chenoy, Perviz Patel, Zaraavar and Dilaavar Mistry, Rukshad Banaji, Behram Chinoy, Arif Mirza, Rajesh Vidyasagar, Dr. Ram Kumar, Vikram Vepa, Bhushan Kalyan, Zareer Reporter, Roda Reporter, Nandini Bedi, Param Bedi, Rajini Bedi, Anupama and Uma Magal, Ayesha Hussain (now Bilgrami), Dinaz Chenoy, Rukshana Chenoy, Linda de Souza, Paul Gunashekar, R. Srinivas, Norma Davis, Malavika Rao, Ganesh Eashwar, V. Ramnarayan, Jayant and Archana Paranji, Saqib and Arif Alladin, Pradeep Sinha, Lubaina Tyebji, Elahe Hiptoola, Aparna Karve, Nadir Chinoy, Mahamid Hussain, Akhil Bararia, Shauqat Ibrahim and many, many more. Each one of them brings back a host of memories, of fun times, of vehement arguments, of great camaraderie and of fine theatre. It is all very well to get mushy and nostalgic in remembering the past and those who moved away or moved on, but what of those of us who stayed on and who are still actively or sort of actively involved with and available to DCH today? A toast then to the present also. To Pranava Singhal, Ranjan Ranganathan, Monideepa Sen, Aarti Karmarkar, Shashank Karmarkar, Jayant Dwarakanath, Ananda Shankar Jayant, Vijay Marur, Anuj Gurwara, Arun Masilamani, Kamal Kasturi, Madhu Swaminathan, Sampada Harkara, Simran Shinh, Amit Thakral, Charanjit Saluja, Saharssh Bubna, Chinmayee Dutta, Sonal Gandhi, Arvind Harinarayan, Sunita Modi, Sharad Adiga, Unnati Ved, and certainly not to be left out B.S. Prakash. DCH is completing fifty years but in the process is merely preparing itself for the next fifty. Like Sheridan Whiteside, the protagonist of its first production on 17 December 1964 in Ravindra Bharati, the Dramatic Circle Hyderabad is here to stay.

Shankar Melkote Today’s English theatre scene in Hyderabad is more than somewhat different from the time when DCH started fifty years ago. Today there are several local amateur English theatre groups performing regularly in the twin cities. Obviously there is increasing interest, noticeably amongst the younger lot, in various aspects of theatre. The twin cities have grown very significantly, both in extent and population in the

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intervening period which has resulted in this situation. Younger people from the IT and telecom sectors, coming from different parts of the country are now living in the mini metropolis of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Cyberabad. Even during the early years of DCH there were other groups like Torn Curtains, Muses and Expressions which were also actively engaged in producing English plays. Today, groups like such as Dramanon, Samhara and Nishumbita are regularly mounting productions in English. From the staple fare of drawing room comedies and farce, there is considerable variety in the plays being performed today. Many experimental plays, some in the short format, are being performed. Theatre has become interactive with higher audience participation. This seems to be the flavour of the season. Consequently, street theatre, open-air theatre, musicals and so on are also being attempted with varying degrees of success. What is very encouraging is that the younger people are not interested in acting only, but are also into writing plays, working on sound, lighting, music, sets, publicity, and all other aspects related to the mounting of a production. Their high levels of energy enable them to actively engage in theatre, in spite of full-time employment. The number of auditoria available for theatre productions has also registered a noticeable increase in the past fifteen years. There is a place to perform for a wide range of budgets. In addition to Ravindra Bharati, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Hari Hara Kala Bhavan, many more auditoria/spaces are now available for theatre productions, covering a range of sizes and prices. The refurbished Indira Priyadarshini Auditorium is a significant addition. And La Makaan just off Road No. 1, Banjara Hills is by far the most popular, with Sacred Space on Sardar Patel Road in Secunderabad coming up a good second. Many educational institutions which have come up in the recent past have planned and built auditoria on their premises having reasonable modern facilities for staging plays. The auditorium at the ISB is one such example. Both Shilpa Kala Vedika and Brahmakumari’s auditorium have excellent facilities for staging plays. Smaller spaces are available in plenty for low budget/ experimental plays. Thus while Hyderabad still lacks something on the lines of Bombay’s Prithvi, or Bangalore’s Ranga Shankara, there is still considerable choice of theatre spaces to choose from. Since the twin cities today have a sizeable theatre audience, the

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Hindu holds a chapter of its annual Metro Plus Theatre Festival here, bringing plays from other cities. The Qadir Ali Baig Foundation occasionally includes a production in English in their annual theatre festival. Professional theatre groups like Evam from Chennai and other groups from centres like Mumbai and Delhi, including the National School of Drama (NSD), bring their productions to the twin cities on a regular basis. The audience in the twin cities is thus able to see quality productions in English on a regular basis. The Little Theatre Hyderabad is a group which does dramatized readings regularly at different locations. Dramatized readings do not require sets, costumes, movement or intensive rehearsals. Over the last fifteen years this group has built up a dedicated audience for its readings. This format enables readings not only of plays but also of poetry, short stories, excerpts from novels, biography, history, etc. Thus they are able to focus on vital issues confronting society and to popularize the reading of books amongst the citizens of the twin cities.

5 American Studies Research Centre: The Rise and Fall of an Institution B. Ramesh Babu

[Editor’s Note: We are reproducing here in a slightly revised form a paper that Professor Ramesh Babu produced when the American Studies Research Centre (ASRC), an institution that played a pioneering role in the promotion of English language-based literary culture was about to be closed in Hyderabad around the year 1998. Prof. Babu traces the growth and decline of the ASRC from a historical perspective and the many ways it promoted literary studies along with other disciplines. The paper emphasizes the role that literary institutions play in the promotion of language and literatures in a specific time and place.]

When India attained Independence in 1947, many a thoughtful leader in higher education, public life and government realized that there was an urgent need for men and women knowledgeable about the world. It was in this context of national awareness of the vital need to have on hand people acquainted with the outside world (both at the popular as well as at scholarly/research levels) that familiarity with America, its institutions and public affairs acquired importance for the nation. By the end of Second World War, the United States had emerged as the strongest power on earth, unequalled in military, economic and technological fields. Subsequent ideological polarization actually enhanced the relevance and value of American Studies for India. The global competition between the two superpowers propelled the United States to become a powerful champion and acknowledged leader of the free world. For the U.S., the Cold War provided the rationale, motivation and the urgency to promote American Studies all over the world, including India. The availability of U.S. PL-480 funds supplied the wherewithal for the foundation, burgeoning and

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blooming of American Studies in India over the last four decades. Americans saw they had a lot to gain by Indians learning more about them. Indians thought they had a lot to gain by learning as much as possible about America and Americans. Responding to the changed global context, the Fulbright programme in India under the leadership of Olive I. Reddick nurtured American Studies in Indian universities in a variety of ways. A limited number of pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships were earmarked for the subject. The United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI) and the United States Information Service (USIS) promoted and sustained a variety of academic programmes: conferences, seminars, curriculum development workshops, research guide meetings. interdisciplinary courses on American civilization for college and university teachers, publication of low-cost textbooks, their translation into Indian languages, new textbooks in Hindi written by Indian scholars for use in Indian colleges and universities, etc. Amidst such an array of programmes and activities, two pathbreaking developments in the growth of systematic study and research on the United States occurred in the early 1960s. One involved university-to-university cooperation between the two countries and the other was the launching of a central research resource devoted to the study of the United States. Under the initiative of the Educational and Cultural Bureau of the US Department of State, an ambitious plan was launched to create ‘Chairs in American Civilization’ in three universities in India. These were conceived as interdisciplinary programmes adopting a holistic approach in tune with the intellectual trends in American Studies circles in the United States. Bombay, Osmania and Jadavpur universities entered into five-year agreements with the universities of Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Missouri respectively. While these university-to-university agreements waxed and waned over time for a variety of reasons, the American literature programme at the Osmania University and American government and politics programme at the Bombay University gathered momentum, and were doing reasonably well.

Launching of the ASRC The path-breaking institutional development in the growth of American Studies in India was the launching of the ASRC. The

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historic meeting of Indian academics at Mussoorie in the summer of 1962 was the act of creation. The USEFI, the USIS and a large assemblage of Indian academic specialists of American history, literature and politics in unison sought the establishment of an allIndia resource centre for American Studies. A memorandum of association was adopted in 1964 and the American Studies Research Centre was launched. The credit for the choice of Hyderabad as the location for the centre goes to the then Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University, D.S. Reddy. He offered land on the campus and gave an interim ‘home’ for the ASRC. ASRC began its work in two rooms on the first floor of the Osmania University library building. Over the years a galaxy of distinguished scholars of history, literature, politics, and American Studies served as directors and gave the centre academic leadership, its distinctive Americanness and helped it secure a pivotal place in India. The centre’s achievements have been impressive on all counts. Membership grew from 198 in 1964 to more than 6,000. Members came from every nook and corner of India and were spread across a multiplicity of disciplines. ASRC also had an impressive and growing number of international/regional members from Asia and Africa. The collection of printed books, journals, reference materials, other serials, etc., has grown from less than 16,000 in 1964 to more than 140,000. The nonprint collection consisting of microfilms, microfiches, films, video cassettes, CD-ROMs, etc., was in the order of 50,000. Over 3,000 M.Phil. and Ph.D. dissertations on every aspect of American society and life—its culture, history, literature, politics, public life, economy, etc.—had been successfully completed by utilizing the centre’s holdings. This collection, called Indian Contributions to American Studies (ICAS) was the real showpiece of the ASRC. The number of books borrowed by outstation scholars was quite high despite the ever increasing restrictions (by way of categories and security deposits) and rising costs of postage and handling. The number of scholars using the library for research had grown phenomenally since the initial years: it is around 22,000 per year now. All in all, the ASRC became a vast resource for research on the United States. The centre’s collection of Americana is the largest—or the second largest—outside the U.S. The Kennedy Center in Berlin probably has a larger number of audio, audiovisual and other non-print materials than the ASRC, whereas our print collection outnumbers

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theirs. However, the ASRC’s record of M. Phil. and Ph.D. dissertations based on its collection and the number and quality of scholar-users is simply unmatched. Furthermore, over the last few years, the ASRC has become a prized American Studies resource for all of Asia and Africa. Most recently we had a scholar from Mongolia! USIS posts in many parts of the world are finding it highly attractive (academically as well as financially) to send their scholars to the ASRC for study and research in American Studies. During the last three years as many as 125 ‘regional scholars’ from 25 different countries came to the ASRC to do research and/or participate in courses there. The new-found utility of the centre is likely to grow in size and scope, especially when shrinking budgets have become a reality. The visiting faculty over the years has included such luminaries as Joel Porte, Leslie Fielder, Marshall Fishwick, Ed Gustad, Ray Browne, Nathan Glazer, Pat Moynihan, Carl Degler, Charles Curran, Earl Rovit, Pulitzer Prizewinners R.W.B. Louis and Gordon Wood and many others. Directors, who were visiting Fulbright professors in their own right, have added to the richness of the resource persons on hand. Workshops for Research Guides in American Studies, an innovative programme aimed at enhancing the quality of research guidance, were organized by the ASRC on different university campuses. These were centred on the guides because they play a crucial role (far more than their counterparts in the West) in the research work leading to M. Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in India. The most recent such workshop was held in Shimoga in December 1996. Twenty teachers from universities in south India, who were guiding research in American Studies (among other subjects), and many senior professors from different departments of many universities participated in exchanging ideas on guiding research, selecting relevant research and writing publishable research, etc. Over the decades the ASRC conducted a large number of local, national and international seminars/conferences on a whole range of issues relating to American Studies. A significant number of seminar papers and proceedings have been brought together as monographs or books. In some cases, selected papers have been published in the form of a special issue of the ASRC’s biannual journal, Indian Journal of American Studies. This 25-year-old flagship of the centre enjoys high standing in academic circles at home and abroad. It has provided a worthy outlet for specialists in American Studies in the country.

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Achievements in Perspective The list of ASRC’s achievements is endless and adds up to a remarkable record of which any research institute anywhere in the world could be truly proud of. The most significant contribution of the ASRC is to be seen in the quantity, quality, range and depth of research in American Studies it has induced, promoted and sustained. Over 3,000 M.Phil. and Ph.D. dissertations listed, catalogued and designated as Indian contributions to American Studies are a living testament to this unique achievement. Many of these are published as books and monographs in their own right. A whole generation of Americanists have sprung up and are doing as well as, if not better than, any other such branch of research and learning in India’s higher education system. All this was achieved in American Studies because of the felt need for the subject. The continental scale and multicultural complexity of the US are extremely meaningful and relevant for India. There was interest at the top. Committed scholars were available and could be mobilized. Above all, key institutions were put in place. The ASRC was an institution with a mission and a vision. By all accounts, the ASRC’s achievements are remarkable in themselves. They are also remarkable in comparison with other institutions and agencies in the country— as well as in comparison with what has been accomplished in other countries (including those in which the PL-480 largesse was also on hand). All the American evaluations, including the most recent one, ‘The Carter Report’, not only gave a favourable rating to the ASRC’s record of achievements across the board, but also adjudged it as the most cost-effective dollar-for-dollar in comparison with such research centres anywhere in the world.

Where Do We Go From Here? Naturally, it takes money to do all this and more. The Centre’s annual budget has grown from its modest beginnings in the 1960s to $340,000 plus in recent years. Now, however, the centre is ensured of funds only for fiscal years 1997 and 1998. The less than two-year period is to be used for raising funds from other sources on an adequate scale. The present Academic Director is to be succeeded by a Managercum-Fund-raiser. If the fund-raising efforts don’t fructify in time,

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September 1998 could be the end of the road for the ASRC. A recent message from the USIA stated: The New Manager will be charged to produce a comprehensive report on ASRC’s situation and outlook with a set of recommendations for future operation of the ASRC due by the end of calendar year 1997. The report will examine the feasibility of all options for ASRC’s survival, including moving the Centre from Hyderabad to another location appropriate to what may become the institution’s redefined mission. In January 1998 the agency will decide what further support, if any, may be warranted for the ASRC or whether it would simply make more sense to close the institution, to merge it with another organization, and/or to distribute its large collection of research materials.

Such a monumental institution as the ASRC cannot be allowed to go waste simply because its historic source of support—the US government—may be withdrawn. Other funding sources have to be tapped. The ASRC on its part has to re-conceptualize its mission, resituate itself in tune with the changed global scenario, and have a long-term vision of where it wants to go. It has got to re-tool itself to traverse along new pathways and reach new goals. In doing so the ASRC should not lose sight of its great strength. While retaining the primacy for American Studies and not abandoning its international perspective, the ASRC should stretch outward and branch out into new areas, activities and programmes with an eye on their potential to attract outside funding on an adequate scale. Also, the general membership of the ASRC and all the others concerned about the future of American Studies in India should participate in an exploration of ways and means to raise funds.

Help From the Private Sector American Studies is the raison d’être of the ASRC and promoting and sustaining research and teaching in the area has been and will have to continue to be its core mission. However, the original mission needs to be modified with a view to enhancing ASRC’s relevance to and utility for India’s higher education system. ASRC must also move a bit beyond the purely academic realm and offer programmes and services meaningful to the world of Indian business. Indeed, Indian business (especially, perhaps India-US joint ventures) hopefully will

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play a major role in fund-raising for the ASRC. The centre should enter the field of human resources development for the twenty-first century. For example, its vast holdings can easily become the basis for fashioning meaningful ‘training’ programmes beyond American Studies. In international relations, in social and economic development at home, challenging programmes should be devised for the benefit of Indian government officials and business professionals, NGOs and other activist groups. One way ASRC can make itself more useful and ensure its continuation is to devise with the cooperation and support of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs a special three- to four-week intense ‘immersing’ exercises in the politics and public affairs of the US and its cultural ethos, etc. for Indian Foreign Service officers as well as for economic, commercial and legal officers. Nobody can and should underestimate the crucial need for a widespread knowledge of the United States and its ways of life, government and politics on the part of leaders and people of India (as well as the other countries in ASRC’s ‘region’). Tailor-made ‘know how’ programmes and specially designed training courses cannot materialize from nowhere. They have to grow from the solid base of across-the-board academically oriented study and research sustained on a long-term basis. That is what the ASRC is all about. Similarly, the ASRC could plan and conduct specially designed programmes for senior and middle-level executives of companies engaged in trade and commerce between the two countries on the ways of the U.S. business and its unique features, and the cultural milieu in which they function. The ASRC is by far the most ideal location for such an enterprise. The centre can take the initiative to plan and conduct similar ‘training’ programmes on Indian government and politics as well as Indian cultural ethos, etc., in conjunction with Indian institutions and scholars. Lectures and discussion sessions on the ‘Indian culture and values’ context of its economics and politics can complete the picture. Over the decades the ASRC has conducted study courses for younger scholars and research guide workshops for senior academics in American Studies. The centre can easily branch out and do similar programmes in other areas. After all, research methods, study techniques and writing skills do not vary that much across disciplines or subject areas. In this context, the three-year grant from the Ford Foundation to the ASRC for the enhancement of research in international relations deserves special mention. M. Glen Johnson,

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a former ASRC Director, took the bold initiative to diversify and branch out in a significant manner. The study courses and Research Guides workshops have clearly demonstrated that ASRC has the intellectual flexibility, administrative capability and infrastructure facilities to make the switch and make it work. The Ford grant, unfortunately, is due to end later this year. There’s still another way that the ASRC can be saved. The University Grants Commission of India (UGC) could be approached to recognize such courses in research methods to be on par with the orientation and refresher courses the Commission supports financially all over the country. The consequent augmentation of opportunities available for college and university teachers to improve their skills and competence, one hopes, will be welcomed by the UGC and the academic community in the country. Efforts should be made to seek the necessary recognition and programme funds from the UGC. Another possibility is to seek UGC funds under the rubric of area studies. It recently included American Studies under its purview. This route, however, has its limitations, because programme and project money can go only so far and no further. Programmes may wax and wane, but the core staff should be on hand to keep the library in good shape and continue acquisitions of research materials and renew serials at least at a minimum viable level. It is here that the recently formed ASRC Hyderabad Foundation in the United States under the leadership of Ed Harrell, most recent among the dynamic directors, can be of immense help. If the seniors in the fraternity of Americanists in India take the lead, a real spirited campaign may yield results. All the colleges and universities benefiting from the ASRC should be mobilized to contribute reasonable sums to the corpus of the ASRC. Board members can help. Suggestions should be invited from all ‘concerned’ and from committed scholars/members of the ASRC in India and abroad. Something like an alumni fund-raising campaign should be made on a permanent basis. Let us all do what we can to save the ASRC. If there is a will, there is a way! It should be possible to raise funds in today’s India. There must be scores and scores of people who are willing and ready to chip in and help in fund-raising as well as spreading the word about the ASRC’s magnificent record. Mobilizing a few leaders can and will make the difference.

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Post Script As forewarned the American funding stopped in September 1998 and that was the beginning of the end of the ASRC as the premier allIndia research centre, think tank, and intellectual leader in American Studies and much more in the firmament of higher education in the country. Well intentioned and concerted official and private efforts to raise funds to save the great institution did not succeed. The Indian government was not willing to step in. The Government of the United States was not willing to reconsider the decision, which was a part of the macro-plan of reorganizing the USIA during the Carter Administration. The then Director of the ASRC and a senior Indian professor went round the country to enthuse private American and Indian companies involved in bilateral economic and commercial relations between the two countries without much success. What is most heartening and touching was the response of the members of the ASRC. The research scholars and teachers from the colleges and universities across the country gave whatever they could. They knew how much they benefited from the ASRC and wanted to acknowledge their gratitude in the form of donations. However, touching the sentiment might have been what all the academic community could actually give was inadequate to save the institution. What is most ironic was that the end of the American funding coincided with the historic upswing in the bilateral political and economic relations between India and the US. With the demise of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism as an alternative model of development, the Cold War era ended. America emerged as the lone superpower and under its championship liberal capitalist globalization swept the world. India fell in line quickly ushering in a marked rightward shift in the country’s political/ideological context. Unprecedented economic reforms along capitalist lines were launched in 1991 and the process continues till today despite changes in governments and parties in power in both nations. Better relations between India and USA are a national priority rising above partisan politics in both the countries. By all accounts this should have been the beginning of a new era of promotion of American Studies all over the world including India. American triumphalism was the most opportune time to spread the good word about American democracy, rule of law, human rights,

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and pluralism, etc. As a student of American politics and foreign policy, I have reason to affirm that the limited funds available with the reorganized USIA (and its successor institutions) were redeployed to promote American Studies in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and Outer Mongolia, etc. However, this brief postscript is not the place to analyse the Carter Reorganization Plan and its aftermath. It is more appropriate to present a very brief overview of the immense contribution of the ASRC to the country’s higher education in general and American Studies in particular. As an Indian academic who devoted over six decades to the study of International Relations and American politics and foreign policy, let me say that the ASRC is one of the unique and possibly the best example of phenomenal success achieved by American assistance abroad. This was possible because of the sincerity and commitment of scores of Indian scholars to American Studies. It is at a bilateral conclave of academics from the two countries that the decision to launch the ASRC was made in 1964. American management, sustained cooperation from leading Indian academics over the decades, and the availability of large-scale funding in rupees (under PL-480) and dollars (in direct funding) was the root cause of ASRC fulfilling its founding objectives in such full measure. There is no other such success story of American assistance outside the Western world. The John Kennedy Center in Berlin was the only possible contender for such honour. In terms of the size of the collection of Americana, the ASRC in its heyday did better than the JFK Center, it must be pointed out. During the three decades of its life span, the ASRC contributed immensely to the growth and evolution of the study of the USA—its civilization, society, culture, literature, history, politics, and foreign policy, etc. Generations of research scholars earned their M.Phil, and Ph.D. degrees utilizing the research resources and expert guidance readily available at the monumental ‘mandir’ of American Studies in India. After initial years, the ASRC became the acknowledged research centre for American Studies in the vast region stretching from West Asia (Egypt) to East Asia (Malaysia and Singapore). The US State Department found it more cost effective and wiser to send foreign scholars from the international region to the ASRC at Hyderabad than anywhere in the US. The ASRC’s impact was not merely regional in geographical terms,

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its reach also spread across disciplines. Since American Studies was inter-disciplinary by its very nature, and since the individual scholars trained at the ASRC were leading academics in their own institutions of higher learning, they contributed to the enhancement of the quality and quantity of research, research guidance, and publications in the parent departments of literature, history, political science, economics, and sociology, etc., in their respective universities and IITs, etc., in India and also in many countries in the assigned international region (though to a lesser extent). Since the process went on for a long period, at least three generations of faculty members contributed to improvement in the quality of research and publications in American Studies in particular and higher education in general. This kind of favourable impact spread to the smaller and less well-known universities and less-endowed institutions across the vast country. The pre-Ph.D. and post-doctoral scholarships given year after year purely on the basis of merit enhanced the spillover effect, which was not even visualized in the first place! In terms of quantity and quality, the impact was more widespread in the departments of English because American literature courses could be easily incorporated in them. In other departments like history, political science, economics, and sociology, etc., the scale of the spillover effect was less extensive, but still significant. Due to the relative rigidity of our universities and the narrowly discipline-centred Boards of Studies, introduction of courses in American history, economics, and government and politics, etc., was rather difficult. However, a limited number of pioneering departments succeeded in offering US-centred courses at the graduate and postgraduate levels in the optional streams. But over the years most of them ceased to be offered for a variety of reasons including the displacement of American Studies by Comparative Cultural Studies in line with the intellectual trends in higher education in the US and the rest of the West. The library, naturally, was the very heart and soul of the ASRC. It quickly gained reputation as a model library in terms of professional competence and eagerness to serve the scholars. The library was constantly updated and technologically upgraded. The librarians and the devoted staff took the initiative to conduct guided tours of the library and organized training and orientation courses for the senior and junior-level library staff drawn from all over the country.

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In terms of service and continuing research support to the members, the ASRC Library was the byword for excellence. Often, leading university libraries and many of the local libraries brought their staff to the famous library to learn the tricks of the trade, so to say. This was an immense value addition to our higher education, which was not even conceived at the outset! After the takeover by the Osmania University, the ASRC went through several phases of transition. Now, the successor institution is called Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP). The focus naturally shifted away from American Studies as the very name indicates. After the lapse of a few years, the UGC came round to recognize the importance of American Studies and gave a substantial grant to institute an Advanced Centre for American Studies (ACAS) in the OUCIP and recognized it as an all-India institution for research in the field. However, this is a classic case of too little, too late. For a variety of reasons, the UGC-sponsored centre did not take off. As an old hand associated with the former ASRC in a variety of roles (including that of Acting Director for short spells), I can only record my deep sense of anguish over the demise of what was a monumental ‘mandir’ of American Studies and much else in the country.

6 Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad: The Foreign Languages Madhav Murumkar

The Hyderabad State under the rule of Nizam comprized three linguistic regions, namely, Telangana, Marathwada and Karnataka. The official language of the state was Urdu. Hence every citizen whether educated or uneducated, knew minimum four languages. Besides Marathi, Urdu, Kannada and Telugu, the educated elite knew English too. In 1917 the Nizam established the first university at Hyderabad: Osmania. The university had Urdu as a medium of instruction. Osmania’s Arts Faculty had Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Persian departments. After Independence, in the year 1952 Dr. D.S. Reddy was appointed the vice-chancellor of the university. He was a great visionary and started many new departments. He also brought to the university very highly qualified faculty members from different parts of India. Dr. Reddy had a dream to make Osmania the centre for studies in foreign languages. In those days foreign languages were taught in very few places in India. In the year 1954-5, Dr. Reddy started German, Russian and French departments with the help of a part-time faculty. He wrote to the UGC to permit the university to start French, Italian, German and Russian departments in collaboration with universities from the respective countries and also to sanction a few posts of lecturers in these departments. After getting the required permission during 1956/7, he went on a tour of Europe with a mission to get collaboration to start the departments of German, Russian, Italian and French. In the year 1958 full-fledged departments of these languages were started with faculty members from the then West Germany, Italy, France and

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the then USSR. For some reason the Italian department was closed within a year. Dr. D.S. Reddy realized that these departments cannot be run permanently with the faculty from abroad. He then got two posts of lecturers sanctioned in each of these departments. However, before he got them sanctioned from the UGC he requested Prof. Aryendra Sharma of the Sanskrit Department, who had been in Germany for quite some time, to be the head of the German Department. Similarly Mr. Patwari of the Mathematics Department, who had studied Russian in Osmania itself, was asked to conduct classes in Russian in the absence of the native Russians as and when required. Likewise A.D. Bhogale, who had studied French in France, was transferred from the Chemistry Department with a promotion as Reader in French. Initially Junior and Senior Diploma courses in these languages were started in Arts College and the Evening College. These courses were postgraduate courses to start with. Later on it was decided that admission to these courses be given to students who passed the intermediate course or 12th grade. Similarly these languages were introduced as second language in degree courses at Arts College, Nizam College and Women’s College. Russian was offered as second language in Saifabad Science College too. Of all these languages the demand for Russian increased a lot, as Hyderabad had two major public sector industries, namely Hindustan Aeronautics and IDPL that were established in collaboration with USSR. We had to run three batches of Junior and Senior Diploma in the Evening College and the Arts College. Dr D.S. Reddy once told us that he wanted to develop the largest centre for foreign languages in Osmania. Unfortunately after a long legal battle for the autonomy of the university, he stepped down as the Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University. In the 1960s, Max Müller Bhavan in Ramkote and Indo-Soviet Cultural Society opposite Nizam College also started classes in German and Russian respectively. With these started a lot of cultural activities like film shows in German and Russian. The Dramatics Club in Max Müller Bhavan, produced German plays adapted in Hindi. Music and Ballet troupes from Germany, Russia and France started visiting Hyderabad. The Indo-French Society was started by some French-knowing people in the late 1950s. A full-fledged Alliance

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Francaise was started in 1982. After this, a lot of cultural activities related with France started to take place in Hyderabad.       The Russian Department of Osmania was the first one to publish a journal Friendship in Russian. It was also the first one to stage a five-act play Revisor by Gogol in Russian with a cast chosen from among the Russian students studying at the Osmania University and me from the staff. It was staged in Ravindra Bharati in 1968 and was a housefull show. Osmania University opened the Centre for Exploration of Geophysics in collaboration with USSR in the 1960s. Many Russian professors used to visit the centre as visiting professors and many of the faculty members from Osmania used to visit Moscow for improvement of their qualifications or to participate in seminars. To facilitate the students to be able to interact with the Russian experts and to be able to refer scientific material from Russian books and journals, Russian language was made compulsory. A special course was designed for them by the Department of Russian, Osmania University. In 1962-3 the first Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the first woman cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova visited Osmania and interacted with the Russian students. Dr. D.S. Reddy became the chairman of the Governing Council of the Central Institute of English which was located in the Osmania campus. With his efforts the CIE became CIEFL in 1972. Today it is known as the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) receiving funds from the central government. The EFLU today teaches Japanese, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic besides French, Russian and German. It has plans to introduce many more languages in future. Now they have courses ranging from Certificate Course to 5-year MA and in some languages Ph.D. too. It has cultural exchange programmes with a number of countries. The EFLU often organizes food, and film festivals from different countries. Many foreign delegations visit the university and interact with the students, thus giving them a glimpse of different cultures. In the year 1982 the Russian Department of Osmania University adopted Sri Vidya Higher Education School and started teaching Russian to the school children on an experimental basis. We selected students from 5th grade to 9th grade and started teaching them Russian. The results were amazing. Three students in the age group of 13-14 years were selected to represent India in the International

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Olympiad of Russian language for school children held at the Pushkin Institute of Russian Language, Moscow. These children had learnt the language for just three to four months. I am proud to mention here that one of them—Ms. Susmita Sundaram—won a silver medal. She continued her studies in Russian at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, from where she got her Master’s degree and later completed her Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Today she is a faculty member in the Russian Literature Department of Pittsburgh University, USA. Subsequently the Sri Vidya High School introduced Russian as a second language. One of our Advanced Diploma students was appointed on a part-time basis to teach Russian there. In 1987 again two students in the age group of 11-12 years from this school were selected to participate in the International Olympiad of Russian Language held at Moscow and one of them won a bronze medal. Many of the Osmania students got employment as interpreters/ translators in Hindustan Aeronautics and IDPL, which were public sector units in Hyderabad. Initially a few IAS and IPS officers, army and air force officers were deputed to learn Russian at the Osmania University. We also conducted special courses for the defence personnel. After the disintegration of the USSR in the 1990s many private companies also started importing know-how from Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, etc. Other countries like Uzbekistan, Dagestan, etc., are taking know-how from India. Hence the opportunities of employment for candidates knowing Russian is increasing. I end my presentation on a sad note. Due to the negligence of the government and lack of vision of the university administration the foreign language departments in Osmania University are almost on the verge of closure. The department of Russian was closed in 2011 after its Golden Jubilee. Now the departments of French and German are in the ICU. They are waiting for the retirement of the existing faculty members. [On an optimistic note, some of the undergraduate colleges continue offering courses in languages such as German and French and also in Arabic. Outside the university the Milton Academy in Secunderabad taught non-professionals courses in foreign languages in the past, while the Ramkrishna Math, the Alliance Francaise and Goethe Zenthrum (the French and German Culture centres in Hyderabad) continue to do so even now.]

7 The Unique Literary Traditions of Dakhnī Shagufta Shaheen and Sajjad Shahid

The circumstances that led to the birth and evolution of Urdu language are so complex that even centuries after it gained popularity amongst the masses, its very name remains the subject of academic and popular discourses. The versatile genius Amir Khusrau lists 12 languages extant in India in his seminal work Nuh Sīpīhr (c.1318): including Sīndī, Lāhorī, Kashmīri, Kībār, Dhawr Samandarī, Tīlangī, Gujarī, Ma’bārī and Gawrī are identified by the regions where they were spoken, while the use of Sanskrit is mentioned as being exclusive to Brahmins. The languages spoken in Bengal, Awadh and around Delhi are clubbed together as Hīndawī, implying languages of India and not the progenitor of Urdu. However, one comes across numerous references in literary sources to Hīndawī (or Hīnduī), Rékhta and Hindi down the centuries which many scholars assume to be Urdu in its nascent form. Khusrau himself, in one of his frequent patriotic assertions, has expressed a strong preference for the vernacular in oral communication and claims to have ‘scattered among my friends a few chapters of Hīndawī poetry’.1 The language has also been referred to as Déhlvī, Gujrī and Dakhnī; the nomenclature often being an indicator of the region under discussion, without any linguistic considerations being taken into account. The most significant of these region-based definitions was acquired during the phase of its development at Delhi (Shāhjahānābād) where it came to be known as the Zabān-é-Urdu-éMo’alla-é-Shāhjahānābād, or the language of the camp of the exalted city of Shāhjahānābād; this term was subsequently abbreviated to the now familiar Urdu. The expression remained in popular use despite parochial attempts by the British to rename the language as Hindustani in the mid-nineteenth century when, post-1857, the policy of ‘divide and rule’ implemented by the colonial power succeeded in driving

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a chasm in Indian polity. The common language thereafter suffered differentiation on the grounds of religion and was termed ‘Hindi’ or ‘Urdu’ depending on the faith professed by its speakers. Interestingly, as late as the mid-nineteenth century, the British policy had few takers and there was a strong resistance to the promotion of Hindi as the indigenous language of the Hindu majority by the educated elite of the community. They termed Hindi ‘foreign’ and continued with their claim of Sanskrit being the only true Indian language. Students of the Sanskrit College at Banaras strongly opposed in 1847, the attempts of their English Principal to improve their style in the language, contending that they did not understand what Europeans meant by the term ‘Hindi’. In their opinion, hundreds of dialects were equally entitled to the name. However, by the beginning of the twentieth century, students of the same institution had founded the Nāgrī Prachārīnī Sabhā to promote Hindi and the Nāgarī script.2 Despite a lack of evidence in the form of texts or even isolated literary samples surviving from the period, quite a few historiographers trace the origins of Urdu to the time of Ghaznavid occupation of the Punjab. The premise is often based on the assertions of eminent and reliable scholars and the fact that a new language of communication had to evolve for the rapid spread of the sufi doctrine.3 Islamic mysticism, or Sufism, which laid great stress on love for God and annihilation of the self, found a receptive audience in India due to its flexibility in interpreting Islamic doctrines. It has often been claimed that the first interactions of the Islamic world with Indian society following the Arab conquest of the Sindh (711-14 ce) had led to the transference of Buddhist and Brahmanic concepts of nīrvāna and bhakti, which in turn influenced the evolution of the Sufi doctrine. This has been claimed as one of the primary reasons for the doctrine being readily accepted when introduced in India.4 However, there is a general unanimity among scholars that Persian remained the literary language for centuries and Urdu, in its nascent form, was largely restricted to oral communication; sustained and nurtured by the Sufi orders. The language spread throughout northern India subsequent to Mohammed Ghori establishing his rule at Delhi in 1192 with a clear indication of intending to hold on to his Indian possessions. His legacy of permanent settlement became a matter of policy for his successors.5 This fundamental change in governing policy establishes a seminal moment in medieval Indian polity with the stability

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afforded due to permanent settlement providing the required impetus for assimilation and synthesis.

The Role of Sufis in Promoting Assimilation and Synthesis From the early days of its development, the structure and morphology of Urdu shows a marked grammatical affinity to Punjabi. Linguistic barriers were first demolished by the Persian poets of Lahore, who not only used Punjabi words and idioms freely in their compositions but also experimented with poetic forms alien to Persian and Arabic literary traditions. We thus find Masud Bin Sa’ad Salman introducing Dwāzdéh Māhā to the Persian repertoire, which is but an imitation of the Punjabi Bārāmāsā.6 That this cross-fertilization was reciprocal and sustained is evident from the significant impact on Indian writing evident in a reading of Chand Bardai’s Prithvīrājarāso, which yields ‘distinct traces of the new developments that had taken place in the formation of a common language’.7 The contribution of Sufi mystics towards development of a common language is too vast to be documented in detail here. Suffice to say that the doctrine gained popularity due to its inherent mass appeal right from the time of its first introduction into Indian society by Abul Hasan Ali Hujwiri of Lahore (Dātā Ganj Bakhsh; d. 1071-2) and spread rapidly across north India following the permanent settlement of Muslims at Delhi.8 Among the numerous Sufi orders active in the country, the ‘extraordinary success of the Chishtī order was due to the fact that it knew better how to adapt itself to the practices and customs of the country in which it had come to settle. It was also due to the personality of its early leaders.’9 The founder of this order, Khwaja Muinuddin Chishtī (Sultān-é Hīnd, Gharīb Nawāz; 11411236), arrived in India in 1190 and after a brief stay in Lahore, settled down at Ajmer. Overcoming strong opposition due to his immense popularity among the lower castes, he established an order that has held the subcontinent in its sway for the past eight centuries. One of the greatest contributions of the Chishtī order has been its acceptance of the spiritual value of music. Patronizing local professional singers, irrespective of their caste or religion, also provided an opportunity to spread the message of Sufism amongst the masses in a language that they understood and through a medium which they could appreciate. An illustrative example is the exquisite dōhā:

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[01] Sājan sakāré jāyéngé aur nain maréngé rōé, Bidhnā aisī kījīyō, ké bhōr kabhu nā hōé.10 My love will depart by dawn And my eyes will cease to see crying Oh destiny! let it so happen that There is never a dawn a coming (tr. R.S. Sharma)

Attributed to Shah bu Ali Qalandar, a contemporary of Shaikh Nizamuddin Aulia, it bears testimony to the fact that by the beginning of the fourteenth century, ‘Hīndawī had become an effective medium of expression and acquired all the grace and beauty of a cultured language’.11 The Sufi hospice provided a perfect platform for interactions between those segments of the population which were otherwise isolated on the grounds of religion and social status. In contrast to the long established trait of reclusiveness associated with ascetics and hermits, the Sufi was inclined to be acutely aware of society. Even the rare reclusive mystic would come out in open criticism of the highest authority whenever the masses faced persecution at the hands of a tyrannical ruler. Understandably, such confrontations with authority on behalf of the underprivileged sections of society endeared Sufis with the masses and their abodes (khānqāh) were considered alternative centres of power, attracting large numbers of people. By the mid-fourteenth century the Sufi orders had gained such a reputation that the Bahmani court poet Abdul Malik Isami, writing about the importance of mystics in 1350, asserts that ‘The world is bound up closely with that of the men of faith’. He further elaborates on the subject with a claim that ‘In every country, there is a man of piety who keeps it going and well. Although there might be a monarch in every country, yet it is actually under the protection of a fakir [Sufi sheikh].’12 The credit for the rapid spread of the Chishtī doctrine throughout the Indian subcontinent goes to Shaikh Nizamuddin Aulia (12381325).13 Born in Badaun, Shaikh Nizamuddin completed his initiation into the order under Shaikh Farid at Ajodhan (present-day Pakpatan in Pakistan) and established himself at a khānqāh constructed by one of his disciples at Ghiaspur, a village near Delhi, in 1258. The Shaikh witnessed the reign of seven sultans of Delhi, but never visited the darbār of any one of them personally. His representative at the Delhi

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court was his favourite pupil Amir Khusrau, a versatile genius who is considered the epitome of cultural synthesis in medieval Indian society.

The Multifaceted Genius of Amir Khusrau The most notable contributions to the development of syncretic culture in medieval India are undoubtedly those of Amir Khusrau (Abul Hasan Yaminuddin Khusrau; 1253-1325). His multifaceted genius is amply manifest in a rich literary and cultural legacy which continues to inspire Indians to this day. His copious literary contributions ensure his stature as a premier littérateur who ensured a glorious future for the Urdu language by fashioning its characteristic mass appeal. Among the many mantles that Khusrau donned, his pre-eminent position as the favourite disciple of Shaikh Nizamuddin Aulia earned him more respect than his services as a courtier to successive Delhi sultans for more than half a century. The creative canvas of Khusrau is incredibly wide and encompasses subjects ranging across the arts and sciences. He was a poet, musician, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, chronicler, musicologist, literary critic, political commentator and above all an innovator par excellence.14 His genius for synthesis brought together Persian and Indian traditions in poetry and music. The style of gāyakī created by Khusrau was so captivating that it tended to replace the traditional dhrupad as the chosen format of Indian classical music. A number of rāgas like Yaman, Ush’shāq, Zīlāf, Farghānā, Sarpada, Suhānā and Suhaylā are credited to his musical prowess as are also styles of rendition which include qawl, qabānā and tarānā, apart from the enduring and ever-popular khayāl.15 To enable rapid, quicksilver movements in the rendition of his mercurial and fast-paced compositions, Khusrau synthesized Indian and Iranian instruments to produce lighter and more easily manageable variants. The sitār is a synthesized derivative of the Indian vī]nā and the Persian tambūrā while modifications to the mridang resulted in the infinitely-more versatile tablā. It was inevitable that Khusrau’s obsessive quest for synthesis would impact his literary pursuits too and incline him towards dabbling in the mass medium. His poetical compositions abound with examples of mixed vocabulary and amalgamated idiom. The other notable trait that one comes across repeatedly in his writings is his

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fierce nationalism; its fervour rarely matched in the annals of Indian literature. Unfortunately, very few examples of Khusrau’s Hīndawī poetry are found in his own writings or contemporary anthologies as the language had till then failed to achieve a literary status. Even though the authenticity of many Hīndawī verses attributed to Khusrau is repeatedly challenged by critics, the lovers of his poetry remain steadfast in their belief, and refuse to tolerate any attempts at denial of credit to the master. The veracity of this claim to authenticity gains credence as repeated assertions in chronicles down the centuries note that Khusrau’s Hīndawī compositions were extremely popular amongst the masses.16 One therefore tends to agree that even if discounted for subtle alterations brought about due to changes in enunciation over the past eight centuries, the verses in essence retain enough characteristic nuances to be associated with Khusrau. A random selection from ‘authentic’ and ‘attributed’ verses is presented below to enable an understanding of the poet’s range and convictions: Persian couplets adulating Hīndawī and/or revealing Khusrau’s brazen patriotism; [02] Turké Hīndustānīam man Hīndawī gōyam jawab, Shakkaré Mīsrī nadāram, kaz Arab gōyam sukhan.17 [03] Chō man tutué hīndam ar rāst pursī, Za man Hīndawī purs tō naghz gōyam.18

Khusrau is considered a pioneer of mixed Persio-Hīndawī poetry. The genre often employs the use of alternating hemistiches in Persian and Hīndawī in its ghazal format. Gaining immense popularity, this novel creation eventually culminated in a mingling which was termed rékhta (implying the harmonious blending of two distinct entities to create a new one) during the Mughal period. The extract quoted below is from one outstanding example of Khusrau’s compositions in this genre:19 [04.1]

Zéhāl-é mīskīn, makun taghāful, durā-é naynā, banā-é batīyā