The pioneers of Urdu literature

Urdu and Hindi may seem to be one language if we consider the style of speaking. However, the Urdu and Hindi literatures are different. The Urdu literature heavily draws its inspirations from the Persian literature and the Hindi literature is inspired from the Sanskrit scriptures.

The very first poetry in Urdu was by a Persian poet. His name was Amir Khusro. He wrote the Urdu verses in 13^th century. However, afterwards no Persian attempted at the Urdu poetry for nearly two centuries. Then poets of Deccan, Bijapur, and Golconda attempted at the Urdu poetry in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. 

Amir Khusro

The Urdu poetry took off in the 18^th and 19^th centuries with the poetry of the people like Insha, Juraat, Zauq, Ghalib, Hasrat, Momin, Iqbal, and Firaq. The earliest centers of the Urdu literature were Delhi and Lucknow.

Insha, Zauq, Ghalib, Hasrat, Iqbal, Firaq

The Calcutta was the centre of the Bengali literature and music activities. However surprisingly it also became the centre of the start of the modern Urdu prose. The fort William college of Calcutta started a translation program on a vast scale. As a result, too much literature from different languages was translated in Urdu language.

Deputy Nazir Ahmed

However, Deputy Nazir Ahmed knew that literature from no other language could represent the people of the subcontinent accurately. So he initiated to write Urdu novels. Most of the pioneer Urdu novels are written by Deputy Nazir Ahmed.

The holy Quran was translated into Urdu in 1803. However, now the Urdu literature is replete with religious matter.