Ghalib’s Letters (Prose)

Mirza Ghalib’s literary genius was not only confined to verses but prose as well. His Urdu prose is mainly in the form of letters. He was a prolific letter writer and some scholars believe that, his place in Urdu literature would have been assured only on the basis of his letters. Hali in Yadgar-i-Ghalib, has even remarked that “wherever one looks, Ghalib’s fame throughout India owes more to the publication of his Urdu prose (i.e. his letters) than it does to his Urdu verse or to his Persian verse or prose.” Mirza Ghalib’s letters contributed immensely to the evolution of modern Urdu prose, as most were published in his lifetime. His letters provided the foundation to easy and popular Urdu. Before Ghalib, letter writing in Urdu was highly ornamental and artificial. Ghalib changed the whole course of Urdu letter writing by keeping it simple and replacing artificial with natural. He made his letters ‘talk’ by using words and sentences as if he were conversing with the reader. He once wrote to a friend “I have invented a new style through which correspondence has become conversation. From a distance of a thousand miles, you can speak through your pen, and enjoy company despite separation.” Although letters took some time to reach but until the institution of newspaper was introduced, it remained the most important source of dissemination of news. His letters were very informal and at times he would just write the name of the person and start the letter. This simple, direct and conversational style was definitely an innovation of Ghalib in Urdu letter writing. Urdu-i-Hindi and Urdu-i-Mualla are his two famous books of Collection of Letters.

Most of Ghalib’s letters were addressed to his friends and patrons, his shagirds (Pupils) and admirers, belonging to all sections and classes of society. Ghalib expended a great deal of time and effort in their composition as he considered this to be a literary pursuit. Interestingly, his Hindu shagird, Munshi Hargopal Tufta, was the recipient of the largest number (totaling 123) of his letters. Aspiring poets also sent him their compositions to seek his advice. In his replies, he invariably put in a couplet or two of his own and gave a detailed account of how the aspiring poet was faring. Free of conventional artifice, his letters contained vivid descriptions and witty dialogues, literary and lexicographical insights, political commentary and more - all in a simple and supple language.

Thematically speaking, Ghalib’s letters not only give an account of the happenings in the life of the poet but are also a live testimony to the tumultuous times that he lived in. He was a witness to the age of decline and end of the Mughal Empire and also lived to see the Revolt of 1857, and its bloody aftermath. Thus, apart from his literary significance, these letters also have a historical relevance as they provide a detailed first-hand account of the life and times of Delhi during that period. Ghalib’s letters, especially those after the revolt and re-capture of Delhi by the British, reveal the poignant pain and agony of a man who sees his city and also his way of life that he so loved and admired, brutally ravaged and destroyed by the British. But more than the absence of friends and familiar faces, what hurt Ghalib the most was the absence of people who could speak his language in intellectual and emotional terms. Thus, in 1861, in one such letter he wrote to his friend “Delhi people now mean Hindus, or artisans, or soldiers, or Punjabis or Englishmen. Which of these speak the language which you are praising? ........where is Zauq? Where is Momin Khan? Two poets survive: one Azurda- and he is silent; the other Ghalib- and he is lost to himself, in a stupor. None to write poetry and to judge its worth……” In this manner, his collected letters in Urdu, provide an interesting insight in to 19^th century colonial India.