اردو ادب کی ایک اہم سائنسی تفسیر

An important scientific commentary on Urdu literature

Abstract

This research presents a scholarly examination of the emergence and development of scientific criticism in Urdu literature, tracing its evolution from traditional review-based commentary to systematic, evidence-based analytical frameworks. The study demonstrates that Urdu criticism underwent a significant transformation under the influence of European critical thought, particularly through the works of Altaf Hussain Hali and Muhammad Hussain Azad, who introduced rationalist approaches in response to colonial critiques of Urdu poetry. The Progressive Writers' Movement of the 1930s further accelerated this trend, shifting the focus from aesthetic appreciation to socio-economic analysis, while critics such as Ehtsham Hussain, Kalimuddin Ahmad, and Gopi Chand Narang developed more rigorous methodological approaches incorporating linguistic, psychological, and structural frameworks. Contemporary scholarship has expanded this tradition to include computational analysis of narrative structure, linguistic models derived from Saussurean semiotics, and comparative studies of scientific consciousness in classical Urdu poetry. The research also highlights the critical role of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in modernizing Urdu prose and promoting scientific discourse as a medium of intellectual expression. By examining both historical and contemporary critical practices, this study contributes to understanding how Urdu literary criticism has developed a distinct scientific character while maintaining its cultural specificity and addressing the unique challenges of a rapidly modernizing literary tradition. The findings suggest that scientific criticism in Urdu is not merely an imported methodology but an indigenous evolution reflecting the dynamic interplay between tradition, reform, and intellectual modernity in South Asian literary culture.