UPHESC Assistant Professor Urdu 2025 PYQs

Concept: Karbal Katha (1732) by Fazl Ali Fazli is regarded as the first prose book of North Indian Urdu.

1. It is a translation of Rauzat-ush-Shuhada on the events of Karbala.
2. Nau Tarz-e-Murassa (Tahseen), Darya-e-Latafat (Insha, 1807) and Ajaib-ul-Qasas (Shah Alam II) are later.

Short trick: First North Indian Urdu prose = Karbal Katha (1732).

Concept: Faryad-e-Daagh is Daagh Dehlvi's masnavi, about his love for the singer Munni Bai Hijab.

1. Gulzar-e-Daagh and Yadgar-e-Daagh are his diwans (ghazal collections).
2. Insha-e-Daagh is a collection of his letters.

Short trick: Faryad (complaint) = the love-story masnavi.

Concept: Masood Husain Khan (Muqaddima-e-Tareekh-e-Zaban-e-Urdu) held that old Urdu was formed directly under Haryanvi influence.

1. He located the birthplace in the Delhi–Meerut region where Haryanvi and Khari Boli meet.
2. Sherani = Punjab; Zor = Hindustani Lisaniyat (Punjab/Delhi region via Prakrit).

Short trick: Masood Husain Khan → Haryanvi.

Concept: Urdu belongs to the Indo-European family (Indo-Aryan branch).

1. Arabic is Semitic, Turkish is Turanian/Altaic, Tamil-Telugu are Dravidian.
2. Urdu borrows Arabic-Turkish words but its grammar is Indo-Aryan.

Short trick: Grammar decides the family: Urdu grammar = Indo-Aryan.

Concept: Naqsh-e-Farang by Qazi Abdul Ghaffar is a travelogue of his journey to Europe ("Farang").

1. Qazi Abdul Ghaffar is also known for Laila ke Khutoot and Majnoon ki Diary.
2. "Farang" = Europe — a hint that it is a safarnama.

Short trick: Naqsh-e-Farang = impressions of Europe = safarnama.

Concept: The passage is from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's Ghubar-e-Khatir (letters written in Ahmednagar Fort jail, 1942–45).

1. The philosophic tone — restlessness is life, rest is death (the wave image) — is typical of these letters to Habibur Rahman Khan Sherwani.
2. Nairang-e-Khayal is Muhammad Husain Azad's; Si Para-e-Dil is Khwaja Hasan Nizami's.

Short trick: Prison letters full of philosophy = Ghubar-e-Khatir.

Concept: Sahil aur Samundar is the travelogue of Prof. Syed Ehtesham Husain (his journey to Europe/America).

1. Ehtesham Husain was a leading Marxist critic of Lucknow.
2. Shibli wrote Safarnama-e-Rum-o-Misr-o-Sham.

Short trick: Critic Ehtesham → travelogue "Sahil aur Samundar".

Concept: Urdu-e-Mualla (1869) is a collection of Ghalib's Urdu letters.

1. Ud-e-Hindi (1868) was the first collection of his Urdu letters; Urdu-e-Mualla followed.
2. His Persian letters are in Panj Ahang.

Short trick: Ud-e-Hindi + Urdu-e-Mualla = Ghalib's Urdu letters.

Concept: Si Para-e-Dil is a collection of essays (mazameen) by Khwaja Hasan Nizami.

1. Hasan Nizami was famous for short, lyrical essays on ordinary things (e.g. "Jhingur ka Janaza", "Diya Salai").
2. His other works include Begmat ke Aansu and Gadar ki Subh-o-Sham.

Short trick: Hasan Nizami = mazmoon-nigar → Si Para-e-Dil = essays.

Concept: Musafir ki Diary is the travelogue of Begum Hasrat Mohani (Nishatun Nisa), wife of Hasrat Mohani.

1. She accompanied Hasrat on his journeys and recorded them; her letters and travel accounts have been published together.
2. She is counted among the early women travel-writers of Urdu.

Short trick: Hasrat = traveller-politician; his wife wrote the "Musafir ki Diary".

Concept: Altaf Husain Hali wrote the essay "Akhbar-navisi aur uske Faraiz" (the journalist and his duties).

1. It is part of Hali's collected essays (Maqalat-e-Hali).
2. Hali stressed truthfulness, public welfare and responsibility of the press.

Short trick: Hali = reformer → duties of a journalist.

Concept: "Aadam ki Sarguzasht" is an essay by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, published in Tahzib-ul-Akhlaq.

1. Sir Syed's moral-reformist essays include Umeed ki Khushi, Guzra hua Zamana, Bahs-o-Takrar and Aadam ki Sarguzasht.
2. Azad's allegorical essays are in Nairang-e-Khayal.

Short trick: Tahzib-ul-Akhlaq essays = Sir Syed.

Concept: Sheesh Mahal is a collection of humorous pen-portraits (khake) by Shaukat Thanvi.

1. Rashid Ahmad Siddiqui wrote Ganha-e-Giranmaya; Manto wrote Ganje Farishte; Fikr Taunsvi was a satirist-columnist.

Short trick: Sheesh Mahal — Shaukat Thanvi; Ganje Farishte — Manto.

Concept: Akhtar-ul-Iman's autobiography "Is Abad Kharabe Mein" was serialised in Saughat, the Bangalore journal edited by Mahmood Ayaz.

1. It was later published as a book (after his death in 1996).
2. Saughat was a leading modernist magazine.

Short trick: Saughat (Bangalore) → Akhtar-ul-Iman's life story.

Concept: Khatuniya is a character of Ilyas Ahmad Gaddi's novel Fire Area (1994), set in the coal-mines of Jharia (Dhanbad).

1. The novel depicts the exploitation of mine workers; its characters are local labourers and their families.
2. Udas Naslen (Abdullah Hussain) and Khuda ki Basti (Shaukat Siddiqui) have urban/Partition settings.

Short trick: Coal-belt rural name → Fire Area.

Concept: Habib Tanvir's play Agra Bazar, on the life and poetry of Nazir Akbarabadi, was written and first staged in 1954.

1. It used real street people and folk performers of Okhla/Delhi.
2. It is a landmark of modern Urdu/Hindustani theatre.

Short trick: Agra Bazar 1954 — Nazir's bazaar on stage.

Concept: Mere Bhi Sanam Khane (1949) is Qurratulain Hyder's first novel.

1. Then Safina-e-Gham-e-Dil (1952), Aag ka Darya (1959), Kar-e-Jahan Daraz Hai (1977–79), Chandni Begum (1990).

Short trick: First = Mere Bhi Sanam Khane (1949); masterpiece = Aag ka Darya (1959).

Concept: The protagonist of Manto's "Toba Tek Singh" is Bishan Singh, a Sikh inmate of the Lahore asylum.

1. He is called "Toba Tek Singh" after his village; he dies in the no-man's land between India and Pakistan.

Short trick: Bishan Singh = "Toba Tek Singh".

Concept: "Grahan" is a famous story of Rajinder Singh Bedi (and the title of his collection, 1942), not of Manto.

1. Thanda Gosht, Toba Tek Singh and Namrood ki Khudai are Manto's stories.

Short trick: Grahan — Bedi; Thanda Gosht — Manto.

Concept: Dilaram is the jealous rival of Anarkali in Imtiaz Ali Taj's drama "Anarkali" (1922).

1. She exposes Anarkali's love for Prince Salim to Akbar.
2. Yahudi ki Larki is Agha Hashr's; Aseer-e-Hirs is also by Agha Hashr.

Short trick: Anarkali's rival = Dilaram.