URDU

Urdu as an International Language - Nand Kishore Vikram's Role

Yogendra Bali in The Times of India, 17 July, 1996

Nand Kishore Vikram of Delhi, writer, literary historian, journalist and translator, is a one-man achieves of world Urdu literature. Since he started his Alami Urdu Adab, an annual publication encompassing the global world of Urdu literature, he has singlehandedly accomplished which the Government of India and Pakistan, both swearing by Urdu when it so suits them, have not been able to accomplish. He has preserved and projected the best of Urdu writer's and scholars works and provided personal and literary data and documentation as part of his one-man literary crusade which is incomparable.

An example of Vikram's devotion and daring was the 1994 issue of Alami Urdu Adab with the famous non- conformist "people's poet" of Pakistan, Habib Jalib as the theme personality. The book was published and released in New Delhi to mark the first death anniversary of Jalib in March 1994, among a select group of Indian friends and admirers of the poet. For some reasons the Pakistani literary circles could not accomplish what Vikram did.

Among the famous men and women of contemporary Urdu work, whom Nand Kishore Vikram managed to persuade to contribute, through original or published works, were Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Intezar Hussain, Anwar Sadeed, Tauqeer Chughtai, Zahinda Hinna, Zohra Nigah, Sibte Hasan, Wazir Agha, Altaf Gauhar, Ameen Mughal, Saeeda Gazdar, Prem Pal Ashk, Fahmeeda Riaz, Saleema Shahid, Mohsan Bhopali and Baksh Lyallpuri.

The Alami Urdu Adab had also managed to publish rich tributes to Jalib by Altaf Hussain Qureshi, Rasheed Misba, Zia Alig, Feroze Mukerjee, Qateel Shifai, Shaukat Chaudhari, Qamar Yorish, Yusuf Hassan and Yunus Adeep. This trans-continental literary effort would have been' impossible for anyone else. But he managed to do it.

What is Nand Kishore Vikram, the most significant among the "masters of the special number" up to now? In an informal chat he took time off to confide that his next issue of the Alami Urdu Adab would be themed around the famous Urdu poet Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, an icon in both Indian and Pakistani literary circles.

He also talked with deep concern about the disintegrating value system of the society and about Unneeswan Adhyay or the 'nineteenth Chapter'. That is the work he had been dreaming to create for many years which is now a reality. The blurb for the book had said that the great epic on life and death, Geeta was created during the great war of Mahabharata, almost 4,500 years before today. It ran into 18 chapters. Now Nand Kishore Vikram presents in his Unneeswan Adhyay, a critique and analysis of events, life and environment in our own times.

He is not new to the art of writing, translation or journalism. Born in Rawalpindi on September 17, 1929, he was forced by the partition to abandon his home and come as a migrant to Ambala where he started his literary life. For some time, he was associated with the newspaper Qaumi Akhbar and Amrit. In 1953-54 he edited the monthly magazine, Nai Kahani. He came to Delhi in 1954 and joined the government service in 1957. From 1964 o 1979 he was associated with the Urdu journal Aaj Kal as Assistant Editor and Inter served with Press Information Bureau as an Assistant Information Officer. But bureaucratic responsibilities did not kill his literary soul. It flourished and flowered in his 1961 novel "Yaadon Ke Khandhar" published in Hindi and Urdu. In 1969 his work Ghalib, Hayat-O-Shairi was published and it was followed by the publication of his translation of Grihdah by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay. His works Cooperative Dairy and Safed Inqilab won him a lot of acclaim and awards. He also selected, arranged and edited Pahelian aur Rang Birange Phool for children, on behalf of the Publications Division.

Is living in the world of "Special Number" more profitable than other remunerative jobs like translation or public relations or journalism...? Nand Kishore Vikram said, "Not more profitable, but much more rewarding. You feel that you are collecting and leaving for the future generations a wealth of literature and literary documentation which they would need and which would otherwise be lost".

Urdu: State-wise Status, 1981

 (Source: Ministry of Welfare, GOI’s Annual Report,1995-96)