The Impact of Islamic Culture on Urdu Drama

Author(s): Jan Marek

Source: Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Bd. 23/24 (1984), pp. 117-128
Published by: Brill
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1570666
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 Die Welt des Islams XXIII-XXIV (1984)

THE IMPACT OF ISLAMIC CULTURE ON URDU DRAMA

BY

JAN MAREK

Prague

The previous papers have dealt with literatures of those countries

in which Islam has been the ruling religion for centuries. Let us now
briefly examine the impact of Islamic culture on Urdu literature which
developed in a country where Islam was only confessed by a minority of
the population. One may perhaps raise the question whether it is not
paradoxical to speak about the influence of a basically iconoclastical
socio-religious system on drama-a branch of literature which was
successfully cultivated in ancient India but did not attract much attention
in the Islamic countries. Professor Chelkowski already pointed out that
the assertion that Islam was totally antagonistic to drama and theatre,
was simplistic and wrong. He said that in many Islamic countries, despite
of the strong objections of mollds to all representational arts, there
existed the indigenous theatrical forms, such as puppetry, shadow plays,
passion plays etc. for centuries. The people simply circumvented religious
limitations and developed their favourite theatrical forms.
This development of creative and visual arts was enabled by a certain
relaxation of the strict rules of Islamic orthodoxy in some countries
and by a relatively uninhibited development of heterodoxical religious
trends, primarily by the establishment of the Shi'a as the official religion
in Iran and by various Sufi streamings in South West Asia. The evolution
of fine arts including theatre among Muslims in this part of the world
was closely connected with the history of heterodoxy and religious
syncretism. Where austere orthodoxy was ruling, only folk art traditions
-in the dramatic art primarily the shadow and puppet theatre-could
flourish. For a proof of the vigour of these traditions we may point to the
popular Karagoz (Black Eye) plays which travelled from their Turkish
home to Arab countries.

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118 JAN MAREK

It was not a mere chance that the modern Urdu drama came into
existence at a provincial Shiite court in the North Indian city of Lucknow
where Wajid'Ali Shah (1847-56), the last nawdb of Oudh, was ruling in
the middle of the last century. Lucknow has always been an important
center of the Indian Shi'a where religious processions (ta'ziyas) combine
with stage performances were regularly held to commemorate the death
of Shiite martyrs in the battle of Karbala.1
The popularity of the Shi'a folk plays in Northern India goes back to
the middle of the 16th century when the Mughal Emperor Humayun
returned from his temporary exile in Iran and initiated a steady flow of
Persian artists from the Shiite Safavid kingdom to the Indian Muslim
courts.2 Hymns in honour of the Shiite imams and lamentations abou
the sad fate of the Prophet's grandsons form an important part of th
works of almost all the Indo-Islamic poets. In order to intensify the effect
of the spoken word and to illustrate the recitations of the Karbala story,
the narrative was performed in the shape of religious plays staged in
public squares and later in special permanent buildings called imdmbdrd
(imam's garden).
Such folk plays based on legends about the Prophet's family were
acceptable to Muslim theologians and easily gained reputation. Th
acquisition of stage properties and scenery therefore presented no
difficulties. The most important requisites were the tdbut (Husain's
catafalque), arms and banners. As for horses and camels which were
needed to add splendour to the show, any rich Shiite was glad to lend out
his beasts. The wealthy also paid the expenses of the performance as well
as the actors' wages.3
The Shiite passion plays reached their peak at the end of the 18th
century when the religiously minded nawdb Asafuddaula (1775-98
shifted his capital from Faizabad to Lucknow. It was he who established
the Twelver Shl'a as state religion in Oudh. Strange manifestations o
piety became popular under his rule; not only was the martyrdom o
Husain dramatically represented, but even the birth of the imdms, th

For a description of the ta'ziya processions at Lucknow, see e.g. Syed Husain Ali
Jaffri, Muharram Ceremonies in India, in: Ta'ziyeh. Ritual and Drama in Iran (ed. by
P.J. Chelkowski), New York 1979, pp. 222-227.
2 Cf. Alessandro Bausani, Storia delle letterature del Pakistan, Milano 1959, pp. 160,
169.

3 Cf. Jiri Cejpek, Dramatic Folk Literature in Iran, in: Jan Rypka and others, History of
Iranian Literature, Dordrecht 1968, pp. 683-684.

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 THE IMPACT OF ISLAMIC CULTURE ON URDU DRAMA 119

bridal processions of Hasan's son Qasim and Husain's dau

etc. were made subjects of dramatic performances.4
The tremendous vogue and great extension of the religious
18th and early 19th centuries were, however, not only due t
enthusiasm of the Lucknow rulers and their subjects. The
of the great deeds and the sufferings of the Islamic heroes s
the self-consciousness of the inhabitants of India where the traditional
social order was breaking down and helped them to survive under the
increasing pressure of British colonial policy. The suffering heroes could
be taken for the oppressed Indians whereas Yazid and his tyrannic
helpers might represent the merciless foreign domination.5
The Shiite passion plays could not, however, be called "drama" in the
proper sense of the word. They only paved the way for modern theatrical
plays which appeared in the second half of the last century. Their
background was also religious. In the spirit of Indo-Islamic syncretism
they were based on sources of the indigenous tradition, mainly on the so-
called rahas, Sanskrit folk plays on mythological subjects taken from the
stories of the great Hindu epics. Like the ta'ziyas, these plays were also
performed with music and songs in the country fairs of Northern India,
particularly in the region around Delhi and Agra.6
The North Indian secular theatre was further influenced by perfor-
mances named after the play Shahzadi Nautanki (Princess Nautanki) the
plot of which resembled plots of the folk ddstdns (tales). Nautanki plays
were performed in Urdu; their stories were mostly based on Muslim
romantic legends.7
Very popular among broad masses of the people at that time were also
naqals (farces). The Urdu naqals, impromptu comic performances, were
improvised with the aim to excite laughter and to provide amusement.8
They were of Islamic origin, too; they originated from the religious

4 See Annemarie Schimmel, Classical Urdu Literature from the Beginning to Iqbal,
Wiesbaden 1975, pp. 188-189; A History of Indian Literature III, 3.
5 Ibid., p. 202.
6 A. Enayetullah, Theatre in Pakistan, in: Pakistan Quarterly XII, 4, Karachi 1964,
pp. 54-59.
7 Anna Suvorova, Sources of Urdu Drama, in: Proceedings of the Fourth International
Conference on the Theoretical Problems of Asian and African Literatures, Bratislava 1983,
p. 217.
8 On North Indian farces see e.g. M. P. Babkina, S. I. Potabenko, Narodnyi teatr Indii
(National Theatre of India), Moscow 1964, pp. 77-88 (in Russian).

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120 JAN MAREK

parodies or comic interludes which were performed during the ta'z

order to release emotional tension in the audience.
Such Shiite religious parodies or farces directed against the second
caliph 'Umar (634-44) were later staged independently on the ninth day
of the month rabi'u'l-awwal to celebrate the deed of 'Umar's murderer,
the Persian artisan Abu Lfilf Firuz. They were called 'Umar-kushdn or
Qatl-i 'Umar (the killing of'Umar) and contained practically nothing but
curses, insults and maledictions to the caliph. They flourished but for a
short time in the last century.9
The importance of singing and dancing in the early Urdu drama was
strengthened by the influence of the European operas imported from
France at the instance of the European courtiers of Wajid'All Shah. The
first Urdu play Indarsabhd (The Court of Indra)10 was written and
staged at the court of Oudh in 1853 by Agha Hasan Amanat (1816-59).
Some Pakistani writers tried to prove that Amanat was not the first to
write an Urdu drama. E.g. M.A. Quraishi asserts that the first Urdu
drama was staged at the court of Mughal emperor Shahjahan as early
as in 1634 and that the first printed Urdu play was Badr-e Munir by
Madari Lal.
Indarsabhd was allegedly performed on a stage designed
guest of the ruler of Oudh. It was a musical comedy
European lines, but its basic conventional plot was woven
Persian Muslim folklore, in the presentation of which the
heavily drawn on the masnawls of his two Urdu prede
Ghulam Hasan (about 1727-86) and Daya Shankar Nasim
Although the action takes place in the court of the Hindu god
characters bear Persian names (e.g. Prince Gulfam) and some of
taken from Persian mythology. The fairies (Nilam pari, La
pari) are presented not as Indian apsaras of the Hindu pant
paris who live in the mountain Qaf (Caucasus). The action i
its only role is to provide suitable occasions for the musical pe
of the paris. 2

9 Cf. Jiii Cejpek, op. cit., pp. 685-686.

1O Published with a German translation and annotations by Friedr
Indarsabha des Amanat, Leipzig 1892; this text later served as a basis for th
German operetta by Paul Lincke, Im Reiche des Indra.
'1 Muhammad Aslam Quraishi, Drdme kd tarikhi wa tanqidipasmanzar
and Critical Background of Drama), Lahore 1971, p. 271 ff. (in Urdu).
12 For a detailed analysis of the contents, see R.B. Saksena, A His

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 THE IMPACT OF ISLAMIC CULTURE ON URDU DRAMA 121

The Perso-Arabic mythology,, love poetry and legends furnished m

stories for dramatization to later Urdu playwrights as well. Pe
mythology, especially folk plays on Rustam and Sohrab perform
groups of Parsi actors, gave an impetus to the development of p
sional Urdu theatre. The itinerant theatrical companies led by
enterprising members of the Parsi community who realize
promising commercial possibilities of the theatre, started to per
popular plays in Urdu, as this was the language intelligible to most o
people.
Initially they staged plays written by their own playwrights who
depended heavily on the will of their masters. They chose preponderably
themes drawn from mythology, history and folklore of the Islamic
countries, such as Laild wa Majnun, Hdtim Td'i, Farhdd wa Shirin etc.,
because an intimate contact with the Muslim civilization has already
familiarized the people of India with them. However, these theatrical
pieces never attained the dignity of literature. They were of composite
character and besides the emphatic declamation of dialogues they
contained mainly music and dance in the framework of an interesting
story.13
In general, the Parsi theatre tried to copy the spectacular form of the
early 19th century Western theatre, without approaching the broad
human plane of the contemporary European drama. About 1870,
Pestonji Framji started his "Original Theatrical Company", in 1877
Khurshidji Balliwala opened the "Victoria Theatrical Company" in
Delhi and even took out his troupe once to Britain. These early ventures
were followed by commercial successes of other companies which
flourished in the principal cities of Northern India right up to 1930
and of which one of the few survivors was the "Minerva Theatrical
Company" of Calcutta after World War II.14
Urdu theatre of this period was, in the words of A. Suvorova, "the
meeting point of local traditions and external influences, native sub-
stratum and multinational superstructure; while some causes made it
deeply rooted in its mother culture, others attached it to the world

Literature, Allahabad 1927, pp. 351-353, or Muhammad Sadiq, A History of Urdu

Literature, London 1964, p. 394.
13 M. Sadiq, op. cit., pp. 395-396.
14 Cf. J. C. Mathur, Hindi Drama and Theatre, in: The March of India IX, 3, Delhi 1957,
p. 27.

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122 JAN MAREK

literary process. ... The literary basis of Urdu drama, the

'scenario', was in the majority of cases connected with Indo-I
classics, as well as folk legends and fairy tales".'5
In the Parsi theatre a number of Urdu plays appeared which
sented a strange conglomerate of European subjects and I
traditions, beliefs, practices and characters. The impact of Islamic
was so strong that the European plots could hardly be recogni
not much of the original story remained. The Islamic influences w
course transmitted through various Arabic, Persian and Turkish li
channels.
Of the numerous plays thrown up by the Muslim authors of the Parsi
theatre very few have survived the test of time. The most prolific and
noteworthy among Urdu playwrights was Agha Hashar Kashmiri (1879-
1935), the founder of the moder Urdu theatre who adapted a number of
Shakespeare's plays for the Urdu stage, setting them into the Indo-
Islamic milieu.

The first real Urdu translations of European dramatic authors

appeared much later. The best of them were prepared by Imtiyaz'Ali Taj
(1908-70) who wrote some original plays as well. His pseudo-historical
drama Anrkali (Bud of the Pomegranate Tree, 1921) about the tragical
love of the Mughal emperor Jahangir to the beautiful dancing-girl
Anarkali brought to the Urdu stage the character, habits and everyday
life of the Muslim rulers of India.
This tradition of writing historical plays on the Islamic past has been
established earlier by the commercial plays of the Parsi companies about
Sultan Ala'uddin and other Muslim conquerors and was later success-
fully carried on by many Muslim authors. Let us mention at least one of
them, Rifat Sarosh, whose musical drama on the Mughal princess
Jahanara stressed the tendency of the Mughal royal families towards
siufism and was supposed to be the first modern Urdu opera.16
At the time when India gained independence and the Islamic state of
Pakistan appeared on the map of the world, Urdu theatre practically
ceased to exist because of the rapid development of the film industry. The
film has completely driven out the drama. The aim of the popular theatre
was to provide the people with a cheap sort of amusement and to give

15 A. Suvorova, op. cit., p. 213.

16 For reports on the presentation of Jahanadr in Delhi, see The Times of India 8.1.1970,
or The Indian Express 9.1.1970.

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 THE IMPACT OF ISLAMIC CULTURE ON URDU DRAMA 123

them three or four hours of relaxed viewing and listening.

not have higher ambitions and the audiences did not requ
is why the Urdu theatre was brought to a rapid end by t
could cater to the needs of the audience better and cheap
In 1947, the theatre was not existent in Pakistan. Few
were written and fewer still were stage-worthy. No prop
school of dramatic art existed anywhere in Pakistan an
only be produced on amateur stages where the producer
indescribable difficulties. There was no suitable theatre hall with the
necessary equipment, there was very little enthusiasm for dramatic art
among the broad public and the ruling classes generally considered the
drama unworthy of serious attention.
It was only fifteen years later when this sad state of affairs started
to change. The authorities of the new state gradually realized the
importance of the theatre for the cementing of national integration in the
spirit of Islam and for strengthening the unity of the country. They
started to support the theatrical art officially in a firm belief that it could
go a long way in propagating the ideals of Islam which received the status
of an official ideology in Pakistan as well as in bringing together the
population of various regions in a state which was composed of two
remote and completely different provinces.
The founding of a national theatre of Pakistan was planned in the
early sixties. A trust was established whose aim should have been "to
promote dramatic art and literature, revive and build the movement of
drama in the country and achieve for drama its rightful place in the social
and cultural life of the nation".17

After the founding of the Pakistan Council for National Integration in

March 1963 several plays have been written with the purpose to
strengthen the Islamic unity of the population. The most remarkable of
them, entitled Rishta (Relationship), written by an anonymous author,
was staged for the first time in spring 1965 at Karachi. It contained both
Urdu and Bengali dialogues and tried to prove that the difference in
language or the geographical distance could never be a barrier to the
unity of the people of East and West Pakistan who were united by the
strong bonds of Islamic religion.

17 Jalaluddin Ahmed, The Year's Work in Theatre, in: Pakistan Quarterly XI, 1,
Karachi 1962, p. 29.

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124 JAN MAREK

The canvas of the play is Karachi. The story revolves around t

of two middle class families living as neighbours side by side. One
is West Pakistani, the other East Pakistani. In their struggle t
decent Islamic life amidst so many problems common to the de
countries, the two families love, quarrel and again re-unite a
citizens of an Islamic country the future of which lies on a path t
towards complete national integration. At the slightest distress
the other discards his hostile attitude, throws away all his fals
and comes to the rescue of the other and they face the calamity to
as true Muslims and brothers.18
This intentionally ideological play was obviously not of a high artistic
merit and therefore not very persuasive. Other plays that have been
written a few years earlier under the direct impact of the Pakistan
movement, were able to defend the cause of Islam in the South Asian
subcontinent more convincingly. Their author was Khwaja Mu'inuddin
(b. 1924), a talented playwright, founding member of the Karachi Arts
Theatre Society, president of the Drama Guild and a believing Muslim
who performed hajj in 1968.
He came to Pakistan as a refugee from India in 1948 and three years
after, allegedly inspired with a speech of the Prime Minister Liaqat'Ali
Khan on the Kashmir question, wrote a drama on the sad fate of
Kashmiri Muslims, entitled Nayi nishdn (The New Target). After a few
performances in 1952, a ban was imposed on it in response to a protest
raised by the Government of India against the highly biassed anti-Indian
presentation of the Kashmir issue. It could be staged anew as late as in
1967 with a changed title Wddi-e Kashmir (The Valley of Kashmir) and
with slight modifications.
The plot of the play is simple. Its main figure is nawdb Mu'azzam, a
descendant of the Mughal nobility settled for many generations in the
valley of Kashmir. Although the Hindu mahdrdja cooperates willingly
with British colonial rulers, the nawdb thinks there cannot be any danger
to him and other Muslim families. He keeps aloof from the political
struggle of Muslim organizations as he does not understand their slogans
and continues to play chess with his old friend. The chess game is used
with irony as a metaphor about the relationships between the Hindus

18 The content of Rishta is analyzed in Hameed Zaman, 7 Arts Miscellany, in Pakistan

Quarterly XIII, 1, Karachi 1965, pp. 70-79.

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 THE IMPACT OF ISLAMIC CULTURE ON URDU DRAMA 125

and Muslims. The nawab is shocked out of his complacen

attitude to life on June 3, 1947, when the liberation mov
Kashmiri people rises to a new level and he raises a call
Pakistan. The Muslim congregation in the mosque is drow
and a reign of terror is let loose by the armed volunteers of t
Hindu organizations.
The play relates the story of the awakening of the politica
ness in the nawdb during the crushing of the national u
Kashmiri Muslims in 1947. It is the rough reality of th
atrocities that brings the old nawdb to the awareness of thing
Cast out of his home because of his son-in-law taking part in
people's resistance, the nawdb, wounded and degraded, travel
Pakistan, kisses its soil on the border and dies.'9
A critic of The Pakistan Times has written about this p
"Khwaja Muinuddin is calling on those among us who ar
and shut their eyes from dangers lurking ahead, to get out o
There is terrifying bitterness in his soul and immense vi
tried to make use of both for keeping us reminded of the st
has been, and is, and is going to be".20
Apart from Wddi-e Kashmir, Khwaja Mu'inuddin wrot
successful plays dealing with the contradictions betwee
ideals which led to the formation of a new state for Indian M
the disappointing shape which these ideals took up when
into practice.
The first play, Ldl Qale se Ldlukhet (From the Red For
Field, 1952),21 is based on the historical migration o
Muslims from India into Pakistan and reflects their hop
sufferings and aspirations. It depicts the sad life of the India
(refugees), formerly dignified members of the upper strata
Muslim society who were deprived of their social status

19 The plays of Khwaja Mu'inuddin have never been published. For the
them with comments I am indebted to Mr. Samadani Naqvi, the secretary o
at Karachi.
20 The Pakistan Times, Lahore 7.11.1967.
21 In the preface to its provisional cyclostyled edition (Karachi 1952, in Urdu), th
author specially mentions that this play was written at the suggestion of Baba-e Urdu D
Maulwi'Abdul Haq. It was staged for the first time in November 1952 under his patronag
and supervision on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Anjuman-e
Taraqqi-e Urdu.

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126 JAN MAREK

pitiable panahguzin (shelter-seekers) in the promised hom

Though the play ends with an optimistic note, throughout it
satire on post-partition life in Pakistan which touches the he
social problems.
The other drama, Mirzd Ghalib Bandar Road Par (Mirza Gh
the Harbour Road, 1956), is undoubtedly the most remarkable
written in Pakistan. At a first glance, it may seem that it concen
the tragic fate of Urdu, the sublime language of Indian Muslims,
spoken nowhere and is not commonly understood in the
Muslim country. But below the surface the author goes much dee
offers a penetrating criticism of the infinite social contradiction
vast chasm between the passionately spoken words and the foul d
the ardent lip-service to the ideals of Islam which ring hollow be
violently un-Islamic conduct, and the absurdities and outrages
for the socio-political life in Pakistan.23
In the words of the critic Safdar Mir, "the whole play is a
prayer, not a requiem for the dead like Mirza Ghalib whose spirit
the central character of the play, but a prayer for the living
Pakistan. Its most important characteristic is the biting and lashi
of its dialogue. There is not much of a plot in the play. A t
storyline about the Urdu poet Ghalib's spirit coming to Kar
living among the common people and then going back to disc
the poet Mir Taqi Mir about his findings, is made to serve as t
on which the writer has hung his profound criticism of the social
Pakistan. But so absorbing is the vision contained in the dialog
sincere is the author's intention that one is not aware of th
technically well-made plot with which we ordinarily associate
The personalities of great Urdu poets like Mirza Ghalib
useful material for a number of Urdu playwrights. Perhaps t
noteworthy of them was Habib Tanvir, who chose two famo
poets as heroes of his plays. The first to appear was Agra baz
about Nazir Akbarabadi, the popular Urdu poet of 18th cent
lived and died at Agra, the old Akbarabad. It is an attempt to

22 The sudden change of their social status is indicated by the title of the play
is the proud seat of the Great Mughals in Delhi, whereas Red Field is a poor
suburb of Karachi where refugee colonies were built.
23 Leader, Karachi 9.5.1963.
24 Safdar Mir under the pen-name Zeno, The Pakistan Times, Lahore 26.10

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 THE IMPACT OF ISLAMIC CULTURE ON URDU DRAMA 127

the life of a poet who chose the common man and his surrounding
main theme of his verses. It broke new ground in Urdu theatre as t
attempt to retrieve a lost theatre idiom. The play has a monu
quality-about 40 actors, singers, folk dancers and musicians h
attention of the audience for over two hours with the beautiful verses of
Nazir, around whom the play has been woven.25
Another great personality Habib Tanvir wrote about, was Mirza
Ghalib, as in the case of Khwaja Mu'inuddin. The play entitled Ghalib
mere age was staged on the occasion of Ghalib centenary at New Delhi
in 1969. It brought to the stage the sad atmosphere of the last days of
the Mughal rule in India, depicting emotionally the fate of the last
representative of the Persian literary tradition in the South Asian
subcontinent.
New facilities for the development of Urdu drama were supplied by
the newly introduced television. In Pakistan, a television corporation was
established in 1964 and the Urdu playwrights could enter a new field of
action which offered new possibilities for shaping the character of the
nation and for uplifting its moral values in the spirit of Islam. A number
of television plays inspired by various events of Islamic history appeared
in Pakistan in the late sixties.

One of the most remarkable of them was Maut se muldqdt (Encounter

with Death), written by Raf' Pirzada, an experienced author and
producer of radio plays. He has based its plot on a folk tale that has been
an age old fable of the limits of human justice in Islam. He has placed
its story in the context of classical Yemen-a kingdom which has taken
on in the folk mythology the character of the ideal Muslim state,
prosperous, happy and full of justice and goodness.
Having localised the story, the author goes about the classical indirect
style of exposition. The emir of Yemen and his brother are playing chess,
which is not only the accredited royal game but also a symbol of the
conflict of good and evil in the soul of man. As the game proceeds, the
young brother of the emir makes a declaration of the kind of character
that he is: "The words of my mouth and a move in my game of chess
cannot be taken back".

Two complainants bring a man who they say has murdered their
father and they want justice. The emir gives them his verdict. If they do

25 See an interview with Habib Tanvir, Link XIII, 18, Bombay 13.12.1970, pp. 33-3

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128 JAN MAREK

not agree to blood money, the man must die. But the murder
stranger, far from his people. He begs a respite for a month to
settle his affairs. Being a stranger, he must produce a guarant
younger brother of the emir stands surety for him. The emir is s
this. As the appointed time approaches, his anguish is boundl
man has not appeared. So the brother must die. In the nick o
however, the stranger arrives, having been detained by a skirm
robbers on the way.26
The examples of Khwaja Mu'inuddin and RafT' Pirzada show t
Muslim playwrights of Pakistan can no longer play the role of
observers of events. They must continue to absorb and transmit th
awareness of their environment and to pin-point the deficienci
life of the common man which still represent a serious obstacl
way towards a better future of the Muslims in Pakistan.

26 For a review of this television play see Zeno, Folk-Lore as Drama, in: Th
Times. Lahore 11.6.1967.

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