Dr Akhtar Husain (1912-1992 ur, اختر حسین) also known as Dr Akhtar Husain Raipuri was a Pakistani
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
,
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
and lexicographer. He is also the author of the book ''The Dust of the Road: A Translation of Gard-e-Raah'' that was translated into English many years after his death.
Early life
Akhtar Husain was born in the district of
Raipur
Raipur ( ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is also the administrative headquarters of Raipur district and Raipur division, and the largest city of the state. It was a part of Madhya Pradesh before the state of Chh ...
Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...
,
Republic of India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. He was born to Saiyyed Akbar Husain, an engineer stationed in Raipur. His mother Mumtazunnisa was a publisher in women's journals. She died at age twenty-six when Akhtar was just three.
As a child, Akhtar became fond of reading and saved money to buy books in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
Perso-Arabic script
The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran ( Western Persian) and Afghanistan (Dari Persian) since the 7th cent ...
) as fluently. At age twelve, his school teacher asked him to help organize the school library, and his command over Hindi was so strong that, apart from reading it, he began writing in the language, and "his first story “Parajit” (Defeated) was published in Madhuri, a reputed literary journal, when he was only 16 years old."
Outside Urdu and Hindi, other languages he'd master are Sanskrit, Bengali, Persian, English and French. Later in his life he'll have a command over Spanish as well.
Education and career
Husain moved to
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
to pursue advanced studies which at the time was also a major center for publication in
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
, Hindi and Urdu. But after leaving there in 1932, Husain went on to translate popular works from Bengali poet
into Urdu. According to Husain, Babu Moolchand and Maulvi Abdul Huq as his two major life influences.
He also became acquainted with friends with the poets
Saghar Nizami
Saghar Nizami (1905–1983), also known as Samad Yar Khan, was an Indian poet and writer of ghazal and nazm in Urdu. He was one of the earliest disciples of Seemab Akbarabadi (1882–1951) and was a recipient of the third highest Indian honour ...
and
Majaz Nizami
Asrar-ul-Haq (19 October 1911 – 5 December 1955), better known as Majaz Lakhnawi, was an Indian Urdu poet. He is known for his romantic and revolutionary poetry. He composed ''ghazals'' and ''nazms'' in Urdu. He was the maternal uncle of po ...
. Huq upon reading Husain's works encouraged him to increase his attention to literature rather than journalism. Huq encouraged Husain to assist him in the development of an English–Hindi dictionary and the publication of the Urdu journal. After Husain agreed, the two of them moved to Aurangabad where they started '' Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu'' and worked for about two years. During that time, Husain also reviewed Urdu books under the pseudonym "Nakhuda". Over this time bonds between Husain and Abdul Haq.
By 1935, Husain married Hamida, daughter of police officer and
crime fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
novelist
Zafar Omar
Zafar may refer to:
* Zafar (name)
* Zafer Stadı, a multi-purpose stadium in Guzelyurt, Northern Cyprus
* Zafar, Yemen, an ancient Yemeni city
* Zafar, an ancient port city whose main ruins lie in the Al Baleed Archaeological Park
* Zafar (anti-s ...
. Akhtar Husain witnessed the historic 1936 meeting of
Sahitya Parishad
Sahitya literally means literature in Sanskrit. It is also used to refer to the lyrics of a Carnatic music
Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South ...
in which
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
declared that
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
upon independence.
Upon this, Haq stopped all his works in Hindi, including the development of the English-Hindi dictionary, and Husain left Aurangabad for
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
where he had difficulty settling for a career as a result of his application being rejected.
He then applied to Sorbonne where he pursued a PhD in ancient life in the Indian subcontinent based on Sanskrit texts. His thesis adviser was
Marc Bloch
Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (; ; 6 July 1886 – 16 June 1944) was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France ov ...
. He also briefly worked as a translator to support himself financially. He also later worked in news bulletins to write news analysis. He also worked with the Radio's Dictionary Committee.
By 1942, Husain became
Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College
Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College ( ur, Madrasatul Uloom Musalmanan-e-Hind, italics=yes) was founded in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, initially as a primary school, with the intention of taking it to a college level institution, known as Muhammed ...
,
Amritsar
Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...
. Mutually, he also translated a three volume autobiography of Gorky. He also continued to write short stories (''Zindagi ka Mela''). By 1945, Husain worked as an assistant in the education department at Simla, where he also got the opportunity to work for
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following Ind ...
.
Independence and the end of British Rule
Two years within the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and the end of the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
, Husain and his family relocated to
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...
,
Sindh
Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. It was around this time it was reported that violence between Brahmans and Muslims intensified.
In Pakistan, Husain continued working in the educational fields, where he worked as secretary. Dissatisfied with the political direction Pakistani society had headed for, he took up a job at UNESCO where he retired from in 1972.
Bibliography
Some of his major works include:
*''La société dans le drame sanscrit''. PhD thesis written in French for the Sorbonne, in 1939, 'on the society in Sanskrit drama'.
*''Adab aur inqilāb''. A critical study on prominent Urdu authors and their works.
*''Ḥabash aur At̤āliyah''. History of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
and
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
.
*''Payām-i shabāb''. Translation of Bengali poetry from Kazi Nazrul Islam.
*''Roshan mīnār : tanqīdī maẓāmīn kā majmūʻah''. Essays on
Urdu literature
Urdu literature ( ur, , ) is literature in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ''ghazal '' غزل and ''nazm '' نظم, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of t ...
.
*''Tāsh ke patte''. Urdu translation from the English of
James Hadley Chase
James Hadley Chase (24 December 1906 – 6 February 1985) was an English writer. While his birth name was René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, he was well known by his various pseudonyms, including James Hadley Chase, James L. Docherty, Raymond ...
's ''The Joker in the Pack''.
*''Śakuntalā''. Urdu translation from the Sanskrit of
Kālidāsa
Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and t ...