RBSE SS Urdu Literature cheat sheet

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: 'Asar-us-Sanadid' and 'Khutbat-e-Ahmadiya' are landmark prose works; his style is persuasive, reformist, and Quranic in tone.

Allama Iqbal's prose: 'Ilm-ul-Iqtisad' (1903) is his earliest Urdu prose book on economics; 'Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam' is in English.

Maulvi Nazir Ahmad: 'Mirat-ul-Uroos' (1869) is the first Urdu novel; 'Binat-un-Nash' and 'Tauheen-e-Nas' follow; themes are female education and social reform.

Abdul Halim Sharar: 'Firdaus-e-Bareen', 'Hasan-o-Angelin', and 'Merey Mehman' combine history, romance, and moral instruction; he edited 'Dil Gudaz'.

Shibli Nomani: 'Mawazna-e-Anis-o-Dabir' is comparative literary criticism; 'Seerat-un-Nabi' is scholarly biography; his prose is ornate and Arabicized.

Muhammad Husain Azad: 'Aab-e-Hayat' (1880) is a history of Urdu poetry with biographical sketches; his prose is imaginative and idiomatic.

Nazeer Ahmad's 'Mazameen' and 'Rasool-e-Akram' show simple, conversational Urdu; 'Mirat-ul-Uroos' uses domestic dialogue for reform.

Prem Chand's Urdu short stories ('Shatranj ki Bazi') and novels ('Godan') depict rural poverty and feudal exploitation; he wrote in both Urdu and Hindi.

Altaf Husain Hali: 'Muqaddama-e-Sher-o-Shairi' (1893) is a manifesto of natural poetry; 'Yadgar-e-Ghalib' is a biographical-critical memoir.

Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui's 'Guzishta Lucknow' is a cultural memoir of Awadh; his essays are humorous, nostalgic, and idiomatic.

Ghazal couplets are independent in theme; each sher (couplet) must be read as a self-contained unit, not as a continuous argument.

Mir Taqi Mir: 'Khuda-e-Sukhan' - his ghazals dwell on grief, betrayal, and Delhi's decline; his diction is simple and conversational.

Mirza Ghalib: dense Persianized diction, philosophical doubt, and wordplay; 'Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi' and 'Dil-e-Nadan' are frequently prescribed.

Allama Iqbal: 'Bang-e-Dara' (1924), 'Bal-e-Jibril' (1935), 'Armughan-e-Hijaz' (1938); 'Shikwa' and 'Jawab-e-Shikwa' are dialogue poems of complaint and reply.

Faiz Ahmad Faiz: 'Naqsh-e-Faryadi', 'Dast-e-Saba', 'Zindan Nama'; his nazm blends romantic love with political resistance; 'Mujh Se Pehli Si Mohabbat' is a key text.

Nazm forms: 'nazm-e-mu'arra' (blank verse), 'azad nazm' (free verse), and 'nazm-e-musalsal' (continuous narrative); 'paband nazm' keeps strict metre.

Josh Malihabadi: 'Shab-e-Tar' and 'Ruhi-o-Inquilab' - revolutionary, declamatory nazms; he is called 'Sha'ir-e-Inquilab'.

Hasrat Mohani: 'Kulliyat-e-Hasrat' - simple diction, patriotic and mystical themes; he coined the slogan 'Inquilab Zindabad'.

Talat Afshan: 'Nazm-e-Jadeed' - a collection of modern Urdu nazms; represents the progressive movement's free-verse experiments.

Progressive Writers' Movement (1936): founded in Lucknow; advocated literature of social realism; Sajjad Zaheer's 'Angare' (1932) is a precursor anthology.

Urdu's origin: rooted in the Delhi region's 'Dehlavi' or 'Hindvi' speech; 'Rekhta' was the early name for Urdu poetry.

Periods: early Dakani (14th–17th c.), Delhi school (18th c.), Lucknow school (19th c.), Aligarh/reformist (late 19th c.), Progressive (1936–), and modern/post-modern (1960–).

Dakani poets: Nusrati, Wali Dakani, and Siraj Aurangabadi; Wali's 'Diwan' (1700s) is credited with shifting Urdu poetry's centre to Delhi.

Delhi school: Mir, Sauda, Dard, and Ghalib; Lucknow school: Anis, Dabir, Nasikh, and Atish - ornate marsiya and ghazal.

1857 revolt and its aftermath: Delhi's literary decline; Aligarh Movement (Sir Syed) promoted modern education and simple prose.

Progressive Writers' Movement: 1936, Lucknow; 'Angare' (1932) by Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, Rashid Jahan, and Mahmud-uz-Zafar.

Halqa-e-Arbab-e-Zauq (1939, Lahore): modernist circle; promoted free verse and experimentation; associated with Meeraji and Miraji.

Post-Partition Urdu: migration, partition trauma, and diaspora themes; poets include Faiz, Faraz, and Parveen Shakir.

Literary awards and institutions: Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Urdu (1903, Aligarh); Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy; Sahitya Akademi Urdu awards.

Urdu word order is Subject–Object–Verb (SOV); the verb agrees with gender and number of the subject in intransitive sentences.

Two genders: masculine and feminine; no neuter. Gender is lexical and must be memorized with each noun.

Postpositions follow the noun: 'ghar mein' (in the house), 'mez par' (on the table); they govern oblique case.

Case: direct vs. oblique; oblique is used before postpositions and in plural forms (e.g., 'larke' → 'larke ne').

Ergative construction: transitive verbs in perfective aspect take 'ne' on the subject (e.g., 'us ne kitab parhi').

Verb aspects: habitual, progressive, and perfective; 'raha hai' marks progressive, 'ta hai' habitual, 'a hai' perfective.

Pronouns: 'main, hum, tu, tum, woh, aap' - 'aap' is the formal/respectful second person and takes plural agreement.

Numbers: 1–100 are irregular and must be memorized; compound numbers follow the pattern 'ikkis, bais, teis' (21, 22, 23).

Compound verbs: 'kar dena', 'kar lena', 'kar jana' add completion, benefit, or suddenness to the main verb.

Comprehension strategy: read the passage twice; identify the main idea, supporting details, and tone before answering.

Translation: render meaning, not word-for-word; preserve tense, gender, and register; idiomatic Urdu phrases beat literal English calques.

Inshaiya structure: 'tamheed' (introduction), 'matn' (body with 2–3 arguments), 'natija' (conclusion); one paragraph per idea.

Formal letter (darkhwast): sender's address, date, receiver's designation, subject line, salutation ('Hazrat-e-Ali'), body, and 'Aap ka mukhlis'.

Application (darkhwast-e-rafta): state the purpose in the first line; keep the tone respectful; end with 'Aap ki mehrbani hogi'.

Essay types: 'mazmoon' (expository), 'tanqeedi' (critical), and 'tanz-o-mizah' (satirical); match diction to the type.

Punctuation: 'danda' (۔) ends a sentence; 'kama' (،) separates clauses; 'alama-e-istifham' (؟) marks questions; 'alama-e-nida' (!) marks exclamation.

Summary (khulasa): reduce to one-third of the original; retain only the central argument and key facts; use your own words.

Simile (tashbeeh): explicit comparison with 'jaise', 'ki tarah'; metaphor (istiara): implicit comparison without a connector.

Istiara-e-musarraha (explicit metaphor) names the borrowed term; istiara-e-makniya (implicit) suppresses it.

Tajnees: punning repetition of similar-sounding words; 'tazad' is antithesis; 'mubaligha' is hyperbole.

Radif: the repeated word after the qafiya; qafiya: the rhyming word before the radif; both must be preserved across couplets.

Marsiya structure: 'chehra' (opening), 'sarapa' (description of the martyr), 'jawab-e-sawal' (dialogue), and 'rukhsat' (farewell).

Ghazal conventions: 'matla' (opening couplet with both lines rhyming), 'maqta' (closing couplet with the poet's 'takhallus').

Tanqeed (criticism): 'muwazna' compares two poets; 'taqreez' is a preface/review; 'istidlal' is reasoning from evidence.

Appreciation (pasand): judge a poem by its 'jazb' (feeling), 'fikr' (thought), and 'usloob' (style), not by the poet's fame alone.

Urdu uses the Perso-Arabic script, written right to left; 38 letters in the standard alphabet, including retroflex 'ṭ, ḍ, ṛ'.

Letter forms are positional: isolated, initial, medial, and final; some letters (e.g., ا, د, ڈ, ر, ز, و) never join the following letter.

Aspirated consonants: 'bh, ph, th, dh, kh, gh, chh, jh' are written with 'do chashmi he' (ھ) after the consonant.

Retroflex vs. dental: 'ٹ ڈ ڑ' are retroflex (tongue curled back); 'ت د ر' are dental; confusing them changes meaning.

'Hamza' (ء) marks a glottal stop; 'ain' (ع) is a pharyngeal consonant retained in Arabic loanwords.

Nun-e-ghunna (ں) marks nasalization; it changes meaning: 'hain' (are) vs. 'hai' (is).

Vocabulary layers: 'tatsam/tadbhav' (Sanskrit-derived), Persian, Arabic, and English loanwords; register shifts with the layer chosen.

Idioms (muhawara): fixed phrases whose meaning is not literal; e.g., 'aankh ka tara' (beloved), 'haath malna' (to regret).