The Dissident Voice

One of the major modern poets of the Urdu language in the twentieth century, N.M. Ráshed lived and wrote at a time of tremendous upheaval both within and outside the Islamic world--the period between the two World Wars. Viewed as anarchic for his passionate defense of democracy and individualism, Ráshed was responsible for spearheading a modernist movement in Urdu literature. His many critics failed to see that his apparent religious heterodoxy was itself a version of faith, often...
More Description

One of the major modern poets of the Urdu language in the twentieth century, N.M. Ráshed lived and wrote at a time of tremendous upheaval both within and outside the Islamic world--the period between the two World Wars. Viewed as anarchic for his passionate defense of democracy and individualism, Ráshed was responsible for spearheading a modernist movement in Urdu literature. His many critics failed to see that his apparent religious heterodoxy was itself a version of faith, often reflected in his verse as an intense, if tragic, spiritual struggle expressed in earthly terms. Attacking a tradition while remaining within it, Ráshed turned the ghazal, primarily a love lyric and itself a subversive verse form, into a powerful weapon of protest. A composite picture of the world and works of Ráshed is presented here for the first time in English translation with poems drawn from various collections of his verse.