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| Home > Regional Literature > Urdu Literature > Modern Urdu Literature
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| | Modern Urdu Literature
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Modern Urdu literature covers the time from the last quarter of the 19th century till the present day and can be divided into two periods: the period of the Aligarh Movement started by Sir Sayyid Ahmad and the period influenced by Sir Muhammad Iqbal. However, Altaf Husain Panipati (1837-1914), known as Hali or `the Modern One`, is the actual innovator of the modern spirit in Urdu poetry.
Hindu writers of Urdu were not far behind, and among the earliest writers was Pandit Ratan Nath Sarshar (author of Fisana-e-Azad) and Brij Narain Chakbast (1882-1926).
One of the most famous poets of modern Urdu is Sayyid Akbar Husain Razvi Ilahabadi (1846-1921) who had a flair for extempore composition of satiric and comic verses. After 1936, Urdu picked up a progressive attitude and leaned more towards the problems of life.
Poetry, novels, short stories and essays were the avenues of the liberal expression. The main exponents of this new line of approach were the short story writers Muhammad Husain Askari, Miranji, Faiz Ahmad `Faiz`, Sardar Ali Jafari and Khwajah Ahmad Abbas. Munshi Premchand, the greatest novelist of Hindi, began writing in Urdu and later switched to Hindi.
Inspite of Urdu being considered a little tilted towards Islamic lines, there were some great Hindu writers who made Urdu their very own, like Krishan Chandar, Rajindar Singh Bedi and Kanhaiyalal Kapur. Unfortunately, the lyrical language of Urdu no longer enjoys the same position that it used to in the Mughal courts. However, Urdu is still encouraged in Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Hyderabad. Present day Hindi borrows a lot from Urdu - for grammar, diction and idiom.
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