Garcin De Tassy, Forgotten Patron of Urdu Literature

Carl Sandburg, the famous American historian, poet and novelist says,

“When a nation goes down, or a society perishes, one condition may always be found; they forgot where they came from. They lost sight what had brought them along.”

It is often said that great nations do not forget their benefactors and patrons. A language not only establishes their unique identity, but also determines cultural, social and moral values of a nation. Hence, whenever, wherever and whoever renders his services in its promotion, he becomes the patron of that language.

Urdu has been the icon of the Muslims of the subcontinent since centuries. Born on 20^th January 1794 at Marseilles, France, Joseph Héliodore Sagesse Vertu Garcin de Tassy, famous as ‘Garcin De Tassy’, was one of those internationally renowned literary personalities and orientalist to the core who could not be forgotten owing to the immortal services they rendered for the promotion of Urdu language and literature.

Although it was an era when Mughal dynasty in India and Great Ottoman Empire were failing, their ruins were still glaring enough to stun the minds of other nations. The time was conducive and fertile for the growth and cultivation of interest in oriental studies. Under the spell of the zeitgeist, Garcin went to Paris and learned Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages. Upon completion of his studies, he was appointed as Administrative Secretary at Institut De France. Meanwhile, he founded and later became the president of the ‘Société Asiatique.’

To fulfil the aspirations of his mentor, Silvestre De Sacy, Garcin went to England to learn the Urdu language and consequently was awarded professorship for Indology at the ‘School for Living Oriental Languages’. He headed the institute till his death on September 2, 1878.

The establishment of this institute was opposed by the different religious and literary circles in France with the view that Sanskrit should be patronized instead of Urdu as the latter was the language of most of Muslims of the subcontinent and learning of Urdu language would not be very useful to serve the purpose of Christianity as it was very difficult to convert a Muslim.

Garcin preferred to throw light on Islamic culture and Urdu literature over Hinduism and Sanskrit. His articles “Language and Literature of Hindoustanies 1870-1878” was translated to Urdu and he kept on publishing from 1923 onwards in a magazine called “Urdu”. Afterwards, his articles were published in the form of books as ‘Khutbaat’ in 1935 and ‘Maqalaat’ in 1943.

When Pakistan came into being, Maulvi Abdul Haq wanted to publish new editions of these books. Meanwhile, Dr. Mohammad Hammedullah, who was settled in Paris, France wrote Maulvi Haq about the translations and indicated a number of flaws and mistakes present therein. Maulvi Abdul Haq gave him responsibility to review the translations so that a corrected version could be made public. Dr. Hameedullah took this responsibility and successfully accomplished his goal within six months. At last, all these ‘Maqalaat’ and ‘Khutbaat’ were republished in 1943 by Anjuman-e-Taraqui Adab Urdu Pakistan with the name “Maqalaat-e-Garcin de Tassy” in two volumes. The books included eight articles, and each article was titled after the year it was written (i.e Language and Literature of Hindoustanies Articles 1870-1877). Translations were made by various renowned academicians and intellectuals including Dr. Yusuf Husain (articles 1870, 1871, and 1872), Professor Aziz Ahmed (articles 1873, 1874), and Dr. Akhtar Husain Rai Puri (articles 1875, 1876, 1877).

During the years when Garcin started to write down the series of his articles, his country was in a turbulent situation following a political coup and the consequent establishment of democracy in France. Meanwhile, Germany attacked his country to avenge the previous aggressions of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Despite his devotion and remarkable work and services to Urdu literature, and, contrary to common belief, he never visited the subcontinent. Amongst the sources of his information about educational and literary activities, were the people from the subcontinent who visited him in Paris, all available Urdu printed materials and Garcin’s frequent correspondence with his contemporaries and peers in the subcontinent. He was reckoned as one of the most revered and esteemed personalities by his contemporaries. He enjoyed the most intimate and cordial fraternal relations with people belonging to the world of Urdu literature. Amongst the most prominent literary figures of the subcontinent, he met with Justice Amir Ali when the latter visited Paris. Justice Ali also mentioned the details of that parley in his autobiography.

Garcin was also conferred with the honorary membership of a number of educational and literary societies of subcontinent including Anjuman-e-Tehzeeb-e-Lakhnauw, the educational and literary societies of Muzaffarpur Bihar, Scientific Society of Aligarh and various literary and educational societies of Lahore.

Another very interesting fact is that although he knew a number of oriental and occidental languages including Urdu, Arabic, Persian, French, Turkish, Greek, Latin and English, he penned almost all of his literary work in his mother tongue French.

The significance of his articles published by ‘Anjuman-e-Tarraqi Urdu’ is evident by the fact that these articles narrate the literary and socio-political spirit of that era transpiring the trends, vogues and cultural dynamism in subcontinent in a period that stretches from 1850 to 1877 encompassing the whole third quarter of nineteenth century. This series discontinued after his death in 1878.

Underscoring the significance of his articles, it would be very much pertinent to go through some excerpts that have been translated into Urdu from the French language, elucidating the historical and literary values of the epoch that can be attributed as convalescence period for a nation that had suffered the aftermath of 1857’s political turmoil.

EXCERPTS

Summary and excerpts of various events that Garcin has narrated in his article “Language and Literature of Hindoustanies, Article 1870” are given here as follows;

– “While addressing the annual gathering of “Darul uloom” Delhi in 1869, Maulvi Mohommad Ali very fervently underlined the need to take lessons from the glory of Muslims in the past. He lamented the deterioration in the spirit of understanding Islamic history and culture. But Garcin noted that there was no reason to become so pessimistic as the books pertaining to Islamic civilization, Quran and Hadeedh were being published in much larger numbers as compared to the past”.

– “….a magazine “Urdu” had been publishing the details and proceedings of the various cultural and social events and gatherings held by “Literary Society of Delhi” regularly.

– “…Scientific Society of Bihar was based at Muzaffar Pur. Most of the members of that association were Muslims. The objective of the society was to re-establish the moral and ethical values of the community that were on the verge of collapse. Additionally, five schools were also being run under the auspices of that society. It must be noted that those schools were dispensing and disseminating the education to all the Hindus and Muslims without any discrimination. Whereas, on the contrary, Garcin revealed that a number of people in France and Ireland wanted to bring up their children in seminaries of their own sect, keeping them isolated from the children of the other sects.

Here, I would like to add that this shows that the Muslims were still tolerant enough to accommodate the people from other sects amongst them. Although those were the days when a number of events were coercing the Muslims to think that they were being politically, socially and culturally isolated and pushed aside, whereas all the trade and commerce had already gone in the hands of Hindu majority.

– “Meanwhile the dispute over the mode of writing of Urdu language, whether it should be written with its classical “Arabic-Persian” style or instead the “Devanagri” manner be adapted in the name of Hindi language, had reached its zenith. Unabated debates and frenzied discourse were witnessed throughout the subcontinent. This difference of opinion had drawn a line of demarcation between Muslims and Hindus, the two major communities who had raged together in a war of independence against the hegemony of British Empire just a couple of years before the emergence of this contention. The contours of two nation theory were becoming prominent under the intense heat of the matter. However, Garcin was of the opinion that Urdu was the only language that could be used as the only medium of communication for the purpose of trade and business ties and also for the conversation between various local communities who possessed their own indigenous languages.

– “On the other hand, the consistent scholarly work in Urdu language, not only by the Muslims but also by the people of other faiths, kept on replenishing the reserves of Urdu literature. T.W.Tolbort, another renowned orientalist, translated George Campbell’s “The Many Races of India” into Urdu. Babu Janum Jia Mitra compiled an allegory of the poets along with their few verses with the name “Nuskha-e-Dilkusha”, whereas Pandit Kashi Nath issued a magazine with the name of “Akhlaq” in Urdu language.

– “Including the new emerging newspapers of the year 1869 were Anwarus Shams, Mahawar Gazzet, Risala and Shamsul Akhbar. “Awadh Akhbar” was one of the senior and prominent newspapers already known to Garcin. This newspaper, comparatively, always gave more attention to literature. It published the poetry of young poet. Huzoor Bilgrami was a prominent young poet who had also won a reward from the Chief Minister of the state of Jodhpur.

– The concept of enlightenment and emancipation of women was gaining momentum in the society. In that regard, schools and training centres were being opened throughout the country and the people were sending their daughters happily to those institutions.

– He also pointed out some evil norms and traditions of the society including extraordinary expenses on nuptials made by relatives of the bride. Such families were sometimes indebted to the extent that they became unable to pay the loan. Being a Christian, Garcin suggested that only Christianity could help the people to get rid of such irrational cults and customs. In this context, he also praised the work of missionaries regarding their services in the subcontinent.

These excerpts have been taken out from Garcin’s yearly review “Language and Literature of Hindoustanies” and are more than enough to evince the significance of his other essays included in “Maqalaat-e-Garcin De Tassy”. These papers give a detailed account of the political, social and cultural growth and advancement in a depraved, subjugated and morally deteriorated society.

Garcin was appreciated across the world for writing a number of excellent books including, “The Day After the Koran and Islamism”, “Philosophical and Religious Poetry of the Persians”, “Language and Literature of Hindoustanies 1850-1869”, (to which he added from 1870-1878, an yearly review under the same title), “The Doctrine of Love”, “Memories on the Peculiarities of the Muslim Religion in India” and “The Adventures of Kamrup”. All the books had been written in French language and their names have been translated here for the sake of reader’s interest.

Garcin penned almost all the information that he got from any reliable source on every topic, stretching from progress in literature to the development of sensitive disputes over the mode of writing of Urdu/Hindi. He didn’t only recite the elegy of a dying civilization, but also eulogized the indigenous endeavours made by the people to bring betterment in their future.

The writer is an Assistant Inspector General of Police