The Oxford India Anthology of Modern Urdu Literature

The [Oxford India] Anthology of Modern Urdu Literature: Fiction spans a period of almost one and a half century, and includes the writings of some of the most representative figures in modern Urdu literature. Apart from offering a judicious selection of a vast number of writers starting from Muhammad Hadi Rusva and Rashidul Khairi in the mid-nineteenth century, and Premchand and Hijab Imtiaz Ali in the early twentieth to Salam Bin Razak and Syed Muhammad
Ashraf in the late twentieth centuries, the anthology includes within its fold short stories as well as extracts from novels and novellas. The chronological listing of works by authors enables the
readers to develop a sense of evolution of various genres and sub-genres across the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries while savouring this veritable feast of material. The post-Partition selection of writers includes authors from both India and Pakistan, thus giving a holistic picture of modern Urdu literature as it developed in the two countries after 1947. The volume begins with Muhammad Hadi Ruswa (1857-1931), then features such celebrated practitioners of the genre as Premchand, Ghulam
Abbas, Krishan Chander, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Intizar Husain, Qurratulain Hyder, Abdullah Hussein, Naiyer Masud, and finally ends with Syed Muhammad Ashraf (1957-).This anthology will appeal
equally to general readers, as well as students and scholars of literature in general and Urdu literature in translation in particular.