• Mamta Gupta

The novel is a genre that was given to us by the European colonials and in Urdu we had to wait a long while for it to emerge. Poetry was the dominant mode of writing and the autobiography and travel writing were also popular with the Muslims but not the novel. The great writers of Urdu before Mirza Ruswa were all poets. Mirza Ruswa’s Umrao Jaan has been hailed as the first novel in Urdu and its privileged position has been disputed by other scholars. Whatever Umrao Jaan was it certainly was the most popular single book to be published in the late nineteenth century in the Urdu language. The courtesans were an important part of the late Moghul culture and in Lucknow they gained unprecedented popularity. The Nawabs of Lucknow after the uprising of 1857 had clearly accepted their secondary position in the scheme of things and the domination of the English was complete. Hindustani culture as carried by the Urdu language has had deep roots and these roots could not be shaken by the colonial influences. Courtesans were far above the ordinary people and it was extremely difficult for the common folk to know much about them. This novel claims to be a true story and this claim was made by none other than Mirza Ruswa himself though it has been disputed because it has been argued that Ruswa used his imagination to make things fall in place, especially the meeting of Umrao with Ram Dei and Dilawar Khan’s arrest towards the end.

Ruswa’s Umrao Jaan and Lucknawi Culture

"Ruswa’s Umrao Jaan and Lucknawi Culture", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 8, page no.a174-a177, August-2022, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2208022.pdf

"Ruswa’s Umrao Jaan and Lucknawi Culture", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 8, page no. ppa174-a177, August-2022, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2208022.pdf