IGNORING, and even ridiculing, Urdu poets native to regions other than North India is not unheard of. As put by Shamsur Rahman Farooqi, Urdu’s literary historiography had been so Delhi-centric that the authors of literary histories from North India, for instance, Mir Taqi Mir in his Nikaat-ush-Shuara, summarily dismissed poets from Deccan and Gujarat.

Muhammad Husain Azad, another colossus from the North, derided the poets from Deccan saying that if it was poetry, then Punjab, too, had produced dozens of poets, hence marginalising Punjab as well, says Farooqi. While this may be true to some extent and some individuals do seem too obsessed with authors from the North, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, some latter-day literary historians and critics have acknowledged Deccan’s contribution to Urdu literature.

Moulvi Abdul Haq, a towering literary figure from the North, for example, stressed Deccan’s pioneering role in Urdu literature. But still one feels that there are some authors and scholars of Urdu from other regions who were mostly ignored and forgotten, for instance, the ones hailing from Bengal.

The writers, poets, journalists, scholars, printers and publishers from Bengal, both East and West Bengal, played a vital role in the development of the Urdu language and literature when Urdu publishing and printing was at a nascent stage. The printers from Bengal must be credited for printing Urdu books in the early 19th century. Calcutta (now Kolkata) was the place where some of the earliest printing presses of the Indo-Pak subcontinent were established and there began printing of newspapers and books in Persian and Urdu. Some Urdu books were published at Calcutta’s printing presses as early as in 1802, wrote Ateeq Siddiqi in his Gilchrist Aur Us Ka Ehd.

Bengal has also produced some notable prose writers, poets, journalists and scholars of Urdu. Shanti Ranjan Bhattacharya in his books and articles introduced scores of authors belonging to Bengal, highlighting their contributions towards the Urdu literature, right from the earliest times till the last quarter of the 20th century. Bhattacharya himself is among the authors who kept Urdu’s flag flying in Bengal.

He was a critic, researcher, short story writer, novelist, translator and journalist. What makes him stand out in the league of unique writers of Urdu is his multilingualism with a rare combination: Urdu, Bengali, Hindi and English. Having an exceptionally high command of both Urdu and Bengali, he brought a unique perspective to the literatures of both languages. Shanti Ranjan is one of the few researchers and critics who highlighted Urdu in Bengal with ease and mastery because of his profound study of and vast exposure to both languages.

Born on Sept 24, 1930, in a village of the district of Fareedpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh), to Bengali parents, he was taught in a Bangla medium school till he was seven. Then he went to Hyderabad (Deccan) where his father was employed in Railways. In Deccan, Urdu was the dominant language as well as an official language, holding social and cultural prestige. At the school in Deccan, Shanti Ranjan learnt Urdu and some local languages, notably Telugu and Tamil. But Urdu fascinated him more and became his language of expression. He began contributing to Urdu newspapers and magazines at an early age. Because of his bent of mind, Shanti Ranjan joined the Communist Party in or around 1950. He had a job in Deccan’s transport department but was sacked for joining Telangana movement, an armed struggle launched by the peasants against feudal lords and this is reflected in his novel Dharti Se Aakaash Tak.

In 1956, Bhattacharya moved to Calcutta. Here he launched Film Weekly, an Urdu-language magazine published from Calcutta. In 1960, Bhattacharya’s two collections of Urdu short stories appeared. Many of his short stories, written in a Marxist perspective, have satirical undertones, depicting the abject poverty and the exploitation that the peasants suffered from in those days.

He penned numerous research and critical works on Urdu in Bengal and also translated works from Urdu into Bengali and vice versa, bridging the gap between the two languages.

Muhammad Farooq Azam in his book, Shanti Ranjan Bhattachariya: Hayat-o-Khidmaat (Delhi: 2013), has discussed Bhattacharya’s books, which include: Bengali Hinduon Ki Urdu Khidmaat (1963), Azadi Ke Baad Maghribi Bengal Mein Urdu (1973), Bengal Mein Urdu Zaban-o-Adab (1976), Maghribi Bengal Mien Urdu Zaban Aur Us Ke Masaail (1989), Bengal Ki Zabanon Se Urdu Ka Rishta (1989), Calcutta Mein Urdu Ka Pehla Mushaira (1992), Tazkira-i- Shuara-i-Tali Ganj (1993), Urdu Adab Aur Bengali Culture (2002, posthumous), Bengal Mein Urdu Sahafat Ki Tareekh (2003, posthumous) and some others.

Bhattacharya died in Calcutta on Sept 15, 1993.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2026