A handful of words can hold a universe of longing, a couplet can leave an entire story suspended between two lines, and a poet can give way to emotions that are difficult to express. But Urdu’s literary vocabulary is not confined to romance and melancholy. It has also carried the concerns of ordinary people, including those whose experiences have seldom occupied centre stage. It is this side of the language that Urdu Evenings will bring into focus with its eleventh chapter, Haashiye Par Log – Dalit Voices in Urdu Literature.

Munshi Premchand, Nazeer Akbarabadi and Jayant Parmar