CM Naim, professor of South Asian languages wrote – in the 200th anniversary of the publication of the first Urdu modern newspaper, Jam-i Jahan-Numa – that the influence of Urdu among non-Muslims has been undergoing a tragic decline in the 21st century. A language, he argues, that had once been a space for the inclusion of diverse cultures has now been cornered in particular religious echelons. He concludes, “There is not a single non-Muslim essayist, literary critic, literary researcher, or fiction writer of significance in Urdu.
” This mournful outlook toward a contemporary discourse on Urdu is being felt equally by writers like Rahman Abbas, Rakhshanda Jalil, and Noor Zaheer among several others. Dastan-e-Ishq Rahman Abbas’s 2024 novella On the Other Side , translated from the Urdu by Riyaz Latif, takes language and twists it into a rhythmic tale of love, passion and writing. It follows the first-person narration of a writer who’s attempting a biography of Abdus-Salam Kalshekhar.
The book reads like a diary or a journal of the unnamed writer/narrator who is collecting details of Salam’s life. Moved by his experiences of love and desire, Salam had planned a seven-volume “Saga of Passion” before his death. The narrator investigates the Dastan-e-Ishq , the three volumes out of the planned seven Salam could complete in his lifetime.
But what the narrator discovers through people known to Salam and his diaries reveals a whole other narrative beyond the pages of.