- A Weeping Bust in Datiaby chaman1934
- MUST WE PUNISH THE CHILD FOR THE FATHER’S SINS?by chaman1934It all began on September 14, 2021, when ‘@Settler Scholar’ launched a 22 Tweets thread, titled ‘Settler Scholarship,’ describing itself in the final Tweet as ‘a group of Kashmiri activists, students & researchers who are concerned about these issues. We are angry & also scared. The only way we could raise these issues publicly is by… Read more: MUST WE PUNISH THE CHILD FOR THE FATHER’S SINS?
- A Season of Betrayals by Qurratulain Hyder – Translated & Introduced by by C.M. Naimby CM NaimQurratulain Haider. A Season of Betrayals: A Short Story and Two Novellas. Translated and Introduced by C.M. Naim. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1999. Titles include: The Sound of Falling Leaves, Sita Betrayed, and The Housing Society Click here for download PDF
- Inspector Matadeen on the Moon: Selected Satires by Harishankar Parsai (Translation)by CM NaimHarishankar Parsai. Inspector Matadeen on the Moon: Selected Satires. Translated by C.M. Naim. New Delhi: Manas: 1994 Click here to Download PDF
- ابوالکلام آزاد کی ایک تاریخی تقریرby CM Naimابوالکلام آزاد کی ایک تاریخی تقریر (۱) تعارف: کچھ عرصہ ہوا مجھے دوستوں نے بتایا کہ یو ٹیوب پر مولانا ابوالکلام آزاد کی جامع مسجد دہلی میں کی گئی تاریخی تقریر خود انکی آواز میں مہیا ہے۔ میں نے چیک کیا تو پتہ چلا کہ ایک ہی جعلی رکارڈنگ کو متعدد لوگوں نے طرح طرح… Read more: ابوالکلام آزاد کی ایک تاریخی تقریر
- Old Book Catalogsby CM Naim(The following appeared as the ‘Preface’ in a book in Urdu—Fihrist-e Kutub,Siddīq Bukdepo, Lakhna’u (Delhi: Dilli Kitab Ghar, 2016)—that I jointly put together with Dr. Abdur Rasheed of Jami’a Millia University, New Delhi.) Though Urdu books had started to appear in printed form much earlier book printing in Urdu properly took off in the early… Read more: Old Book Catalogs
- Rest in Peace, Ram Bhaiby CM Naim(CM Naim, Saleem Kidwai (standing), Ram Advani and Aslam Mahmud). When I first visited it in the final months of 1949, the shop that would go on to become an iconic landmark occupied a small area within the vast and mostly empty Gandhi Bhandar in the heart of Lucknow’s Hazratgunj. And the sign proudly… Read more: Rest in Peace, Ram Bhai
- Let Sonu Nigam Sleep, Please!by CM NaimWhen I was growing up in the small town of Barabanki in the 1940s, the mosques had no loudspeakers. Those abominations would appear at the political rallies, and then disappear. Even in our Eidgah, where hundreds of people came from all parts of the town to pray together on the two Eid festivals, no… Read more: Let Sonu Nigam Sleep, Please!
- Publish and Perishby CM NaimI have long been familiar with the adage that governs so much in American academia—Publish or perish—but now I have learned a new truth: publish and perish. It began some weeks back when I got a pleasant surprise from Professor Narayani Gupta of Delhi. She informed me that an enterprising young scholar named Rana Safavi… Read more: Publish and Perish
- India’s National Library Goes Digital – Sort ofby CM NaimIn April 2014, The Guardian published a longish piece by Samuel Gibbs entitled, “The most powerful Indian technologists in Silicon Valley.” It opened: “Ever since waves of Indian graduates poured into Silicon Valley in Northern California in the 1970s and 1980s, talented Indians have made breakthroughs, pushed boundaries and held positions of power in the… Read more: India’s National Library Goes Digital – Sort of
- A Treasure in Gujranwalaby CM NaimThe first Urdu printing press in Lahore, Matba’-i Koh-i Nur, was established in 1849, the year the city was fully brought under the authority of the East India Company. Printing presses were an essential need of the new political system — it needed rulebooks to train and guide its indigenous staff in the mechanics of… Read more: A Treasure in Gujranwala
- Sherlock Holmes in Urduby CM NaimSherlock Holmes, the most widely known detective in the world, is perhaps also the most widely recognized fictional character in the world—at par with Hamlet, who appeared amongst us four hundred years ago. Holmes, however, made his debut more recently, in 1887, in a novella titled A Study in Scarlet. The author was a twenty-eight… Read more: Sherlock Holmes in Urdu
- The Nonpareil Translator: Munshi Tirath Ram Firozepuriby CM NaimI begin by invoking Sa’adat Hasan Manto. Presently his name is much in the air presently. An endorsement from him should count for a lot with many readers, particularly who are still reaching for 40. Here is what Manto wrote in a sketch of Agha Hashr Kashmiri, the ‘Shakespeare of Urdu,’ in his wonderful book… Read more: The Nonpareil Translator: Munshi Tirath Ram Firozepuri
- Mir’s ‘Lunacy’by CM NaimA new Pakistani film has just come out—Mah-i-Mir—invoking Mir’s name and his ‘lunacy.’ Some of its viewers may find interesting the following, included in my book Zikr-i Mir: The Autobiography of the Eighteenth Century Mughal Poet: Mir Muhammad Taqi ‘Mir’ (Oxford, India: 1999). It is, of course, quite prosaic, and in no way should be… Read more: Mir’s ‘Lunacy’
- God Bless A. R. Rahmanby CM NaimIn 2017 we shall celebrate the 200th birthday of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the Indian Muslim who was declared a kafir by the mullahs of India on more counts than any other person before him or after. Here is a partial list of the reasons why some mullah or other thought Sir Syed was beyond… Read more: God Bless A. R. Rahman
- Meet Bibi Ashrafby CM NaimShe was born Ashrafun Nisa Begum in September 1840, in a Shia family that held a small zamindari in Bahnera, a small town in Bijnaur district, north-east of Delhi. She died in May 1903 in Lahore, where she was widely known as ‘Ustani Sahiba.’ Here we shall equally respectfully refer to her as ‘Bibi Ashraf,’… Read more: Meet Bibi Ashraf