Urdu is a hybrid language that is based on the spoken languages of Northern India with a generous overlay of Arabic and Persian words. ‘Urdu’ is a Turkish word, which means a camp. When Muslims from ...

Urdu poetry is often considered synonymous with love. Various shades of love, ranging from physical to metaphysical; all the nuances of the experience of love, ranging from disappointment to ...

Renowned literary figure Amjad Islam Amjad in a recent live session with Tajdar Zaidi of Qissa Khwaan fame discussed the schism in Urdu poetry following the partition of the Sub-Continent. According ...

The Maharashtra Urdu Sahitya Academy celebrated its 50th anniversary with Bahar-e-Urdu, an evening filled with riveting ...

If you want to make high-brow small talk at one of President Barack Obama’s cocktail parties, don’t bother brushing up your Shakespeare. Try reading Urdu poetry. As POLITICO’s Ben Smith points out in ...

Jashn-e-Rekhta, celebrating Urdu culture, runs from Dec 5-7, 2025, featuring 200+ artists, performances, discussions, and a ...

Note: This story was originally published in October 2022 as part of Outlook issue 'Recasting Shiva'. It is being replugged on World Poetry Day 2023 as Outlook revisits the power of poetry in a world ...

There were several writers who grappled with these ideas in Urdu literature, however they were not formally conceptualised until Muhammad Hussain Azad, Altaf Hussain Hali and Shibli Nomani began to ...

That 300,000 people celebrated Urdu verse during a three-day festival was testament to the peculiar reality of the language in India. The inaugural day of the Urdu poetry festival Jashn-e-Rekhta in ...