A Story of Setback: Angarey, an Urdu Book

The Urdu anthology ‘Angarey’ written by four authors Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmad Ali, Mahmudduzzar and Dr Rashid Jahan became one of the most controversial books in 1932 after it was banned by the Government of United Provinces in the following year. Despite being the beginning of the Progressive Writers Movement, ‘Angarey' is heinously criticized, especially by the Muslim Community for criticizing the norms, practices, and myths of the Muslim Community.

The authors of ‘Angarey' (L-R) Ahmad Ali; Dr. Rashid Jahan; and Sajjad Zaheer (Image Source: Outlook)

In 1932 with the publishing of the ‘Angarey’ (live embers), an anthology of short stories and plays, the history of Urdu literature was set on a tumultuous fire of controversy. The anthology was written by four authors, Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmad Ali, Mahmudduzzar, and Dr. Rashid Jahan from Lucknow who received a huge vent of anger and hysteric remarks and abuses from the masses which led the book to face the immediate ban on the following year. Even despite the imposition of a ban on 'Angarey’, the book is entitled the beginning of the Progressive Writer’s Movement in Indian Literature which was one of the most remarkable revolutionary movements in literature that mainly took place in India and Pakistan in pre-British India.

The Nizami Press where this book was printed was raided as per the orders of the city magistrate and the proprietor of the press Malik Ali Javed caved himself to avoid the public's rage. Later he even released an apology statement written on 27 February 1933 where he asked for his forgiveness for his unintentional motive of hurting the feelings of the Muslim community and even gave his word to give away all the unsold copies of the book to the Government.

The book was banned by the Government of the United Provinces on 15 March 1933 under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code. The remaining copies of the book were destroyed by the administration. Among the banned copies three of them are kept in the Keeper of Records in Delhi, now known as the National Archives of India. The remaining two copies were sent to the British Library’s Oriental and India Office collection in London. But despite the rage and censorship imposition, the Progressive Writers' Association came together and called for a rebellious movement against censorship which was the symbol of Colonial repression, Orthodoxy, and Religious conservatism. They released a manifesto that challenges Government oppression and censorship and in the Manifesto, the writers of the Progressive Writers' Association discussed certain points including the duties of Indian Writers towards their society and how they should assist the progression of the society, removing conservatism from Literature, addressing the social issues such as hunger, poverty and corruption, and lastly being critical about everything which will lead one to be organized and will help one to accept progression.

The authors of the book didn’t ask for an apology from their readers and they left it in the hands of the future to float or sink. They directly chose their religious community to criticize because they were born in it and have seen and experienced far closely. Several literary critics have observed 'Angarey’ as the earlier specimen of progressive writing in colonial India. The writers of ‘Angarey' were inspired by British writers including Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and D.H. Lawrence, and some from Marxist writers. The book discussed issues like enslavement, economic inequality, sexual desires and repression, religious myths and restrictions, oppression of Muslim women, and domestic abuse. The book might have set itself in front of the fire of grudges of the society but has received appreciation as well from a very handful of people back then because 'Angarey’ was then a dark and driven document of disquiet and stand as a mirror of the society.

The first translated version of ‘Angarey’ by Snehal Shingavi (Image Source: Bookscape)