DR ATHER Farouqui is a restless soul. As secretary of Delhi’s Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu Hind (ATUH), he constantly undertakes tasks that demand inspiration as much as perspiration. Farouqui’s recent assertion — that Rahi Masoom Reza was fundamentally an Urdu writer rather than a Hindi one — has undoubtedly raised a few hackles in India’s literary circles. Unbothered by naysayers, Farouqui has authored several articles in both Urdu and English to argue his point: framing Reza as a Hindi writer based on his novels, particularly Aadha Gaaon (Half a Village), is at best a mistake, and at worst a historical erasure.

While the wider public remembers Reza for his iconic film songs, screenplays, and television dialogues —most notably for Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki and the seminal TV series Mahabharat — he was also an exceptionally gifted novelist and poet. Recently, his family granted access to his personal papers, revealing invaluable archives. Among them are the original handwritten Urdu manuscript of Aadha Gaaon, penned in 1964, and the complete script, screenplay and dialogues for Mahabharat, all written in Urdu, as Farouqui highlighted in a recent essay for the Hindustan Times.

Despite being composed in the Urdu script, Aadha Gaaon was first published in Devanagari in 1966 and categorised as a Hindi novel. It went on to sell over a million copies. Adding to the irony, when the novel was finally published in Urdu script in 2003, Aslam Jamshedpuri was credited on the title page as the “translator”, inadvertently reinforcing the misconception that the original text was written in Hindi.

This controversy has resurfaced as the ATUH launched large-scale celebrations for Reza’s centenary. The ATUH had originally declined to publish Aadha Gaaon in 1966. Farouqui believes it is the organisation’s responsibility to acknowledge past mistakes and clear the air. He maintains that Reza would never have been pushed toward Devanagari or categorised under Hindi had the ATUH published the original Urdu manuscript, as Reza had written nothing in Hindi prior to that moment.

Born Syed Masoom Reza Abedi — who insisted his surname be pronounced Reza, not Raza — he came from a well-to-do family in Gangauli, near Ghazipur, UP, on Aug 1, 1927. (While some sources record his birthdate as Sept 1, scholarly research points to August). His early education at a local madressah grounded him in Urdu, Arabic and Persian, shaping his perspective alongside eastern UP’s Muslim cultural traditions and the regional Bhojpuri dialect — influences that deeply enriched Aadha Gaaon.

Despite a bout with tuberculosis interrupting his schooling, Reza eventually earned an MA and a doctorate in Urdu, joining Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as a lecturer. However, Farouqui notes that Reza was dismissed from the university following his marriage to a woman from a prominent Rampur State family, which likely pressured the AMU. Rendered a literary pariah and unable to publish in Urdu, Reza moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) with his wife to write for Bollywood. Farouqui argues this forced exile from Urdu literary circles drove Reza to publish Aadha Gaaon in Devanagari.

The novel saw print in 1966 thanks to the efforts of Reza’s friend, Kunwar Pal Singh. However, Farouqui contends that nationalist and political pressures framed the book as Hindi literature. Heavy-handed editing aimed at making the text conform to standard Hindi stripped away much of the original Urdu’s nuance and tone. Because Aadha Gaaon is written in the local Bhojpuri-influenced register of Urdu, Farouqui argues it must be restored to the Urdu literary canon. For him, Reza’s centenary is an opportunity to defend Urdu’s script against cultural marginalisation in India.

Aadha Gaaon was later translated into English by Gillian Wright, initially published as The Feuding Families of Village Gangauli (1994) and reissued as A Village Divided (2003). To set the historical record straight, the ATUH now plans to publish the definitive, authentic edition in its original Urdu script.

Rahi Masoom Reza passed away in Bombay on March 15, 1992, but the battle over his literary legacy remains as active as ever.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2026