UPHESC Assistant Professor Urdu 2025 PYQs

Concept: Syed Agha Hasan Amanat's Inder Sabha, the first popular Urdu stage play (musical), was composed in 1853 in Wajid Ali Shah's Lucknow.

1. Characters: Raja Inder, Gulfam, Sabz Pari, Kala Dev, Lal Dev.
2. It is written in verse with songs, thumris and ghazals.

Short trick: Inder Sabha 1853 — four years before 1857.

Concept: Ibn-e-Insha, the humorist, jokingly called Mumtaz Mufti's huge autobiographical novel "Ali Pur ka Aili" (over 1000 pages) the "Granth" of Urdu.

1. Mumtaz Mufti and Ibn-e-Insha were contemporaries in Pakistan's literary circle.
2. The others are Indian humorists (Mujtaba Husain, Yusuf Nazim, Nusrat Zaheer).

Short trick: Big book + Pakistani humorist friend = Ibn-e-Insha.

Concept: Both titles belong to the qasidas of Mirza Rafi Sauda; Tazheek-e-Rozgar is his famous satirical qasida on a starving, broken-down horse.

1. Mirza Rafi Sauda is the master of Urdu qasida and hajv (satire).
2. Mohsin Kakorvi is known for the na'tiya qasida "Simt-e-Kashi se chala".

Short trick: Horse satire (Tazheek-e-Rozgar) = Sauda.

Concept: Zauq's famous couplet: "In dinon garche Dakan mein hai bari qadr-e-sukhan / Kaun jaaye Zauq par Dilli ki galiyan chhor kar".

1. "Par" here means "but" — though poetry is honoured in the Deccan, who would leave Delhi's lanes?
2. Zauq declined an invitation to Hyderabad out of love for Delhi.

Short trick: "garche … par" = "although … but".

Concept: Critics group the themes of the Urdu marsiya into three categories.

1. (1) narrative of the events of Karbala (waqiat), (2) heroic/martial themes — rajaz, jang (razmiya), (3) lamentation — bain and shahadat (grief).
2. These themes are spread over the structural parts (chehra, sarapa, rukhsat, aamad, rajaz, jang, shahadat, bain).

Short trick: Themes 3 (story–battle–lament); parts 8.

Concept: Mirza Rafi Sauda is the greatest qasida-writer of Urdu; he enriched the language with new compounds and vocabulary.

1. His qasidas cover praise, satire, nature and social conditions — showing Urdu could handle every theme.
2. Nusrati and Ghawwasi were Dakhni poets; Shah Mubarak (Abru) an iham-go ghazal poet.

Short trick: Qasida = Sauda (then Zauq).

Concept: Like classical masnavis, Sehr-ul-Bayan opens with hamd (praise of God).

1. Order: hamd → na'at → manqabat → praise of the patron (Asaf-ud-Daula) → the story.
2. Ta'alli and complaints are not the opening.

Short trick: Masnavi opening = hamd first.

Concept: Rajab Ali Beg Suroor prepared Shabistan-e-Suroor, an abridged Urdu version of Alf Laila, at the request of Munshi Shiv Narayan (Aram) of Agra.

1. It belongs to Suroor's later period, after Fasana-e-Ajaib (1824).
2. Wajid Ali Shah was not the patron of this work.

Short trick: Shabistan-e-Suroor → request of Munshi Shiv Narayan.

Concept: Nasir Nazir Firaq Dehlvi (1865–1933), a prose-writer and poet, rendered Mir's masnavi Shola-e-Ishq into Urdu prose.

1. Firaq Dehlvi wrote many prose works and retold classical stories.
2. Zauq, Momin and Sauda were poets who did not do such prose renderings.

Short trick: This "Firaq" = Firaq Dehlvi (prose), not Firaq Gorakhpuri.

Concept: Syed Waqar Azeem, the critic of Urdu dastan and fiction, described Mir Amman's prose in Bagh-o-Bahar as "zinda nasr" (living prose).

1. Mir Amman wrote in the everyday spoken idiom of Delhi, which keeps the prose fresh.
2. Waqar Azeem wrote Hamari Dastanen and studies of Fort William prose.

Short trick: Dastan critic Waqar Azeem → "zinda nasr".

Concept: Premchand is the epoch-making short-story writer of Urdu.

1. Assertion true: he gave the Urdu short story realism and the village/peasant world (Kafan, Poos ki Raat).
2. Reason true: he wrote social stories and, especially in his early phase (Soz-e-Watan, Prem Pachisi), romantic-idealistic stories.
3. So both statements are correct.

Short trick: Premchand: romantic idealism → social realism.

Concept: The mocking advice to Krishan Chander — "you are still a schoolboy; give up short-story writing as well as novel writing" — is answered in the standard view as a remark of Saadat Hasan Manto.

1. Manto and Krishan Chander were close friends and rivals; Manto's sketches and letters are full of such blunt, teasing jibes at contemporaries.
2. Askari, Ahmad Ali and M.D. Taseer wrote criticism in a formal register; the joking "aqibat kharab" tone fits Manto.

Short trick: Friendly sarcasm at Krishan Chander → Manto.

Concept: Mirza Dabir, the pupil of Mir Muzaffar Husain Zameer, perfected and elevated Zameer's new style of marsiya.

1. Zameer introduced the chehra, sarapa and battle scenes; Dabir developed his grandeur of diction and learned imagery.
2. Mir Anis was the pupil of his father Mir Khaleeq, a different school.

Short trick: Zameer → pupil Dabir; Khaleeq → son Anis.

Concept: Brij Narayan Chakbast edited and published Gulzar-e-Naseem with an introduction (1905).

1. This edition sparked the famous Chakbast–Sharar controversy (Maarka-e-Chakbast-o-Sharar) over the masnavi's language and authorship.
2. Aatish was Naseem's teacher, not its editor.

Short trick: Gulzar-e-Naseem edition → Chakbast vs Sharar debate.

Concept: In his masnavi Gulzar-e-Iram, Mir Hasan praised Faizabad and ridiculed the then-new Lucknow; these lines mock Lucknow's uneven, mound-ridden roads.

1. When Asaf-ud-Daula shifted the capital from Faizabad to Lucknow (1775), Mir Hasan, missing Faizabad, satirised Lucknow.
2. So the "uneven roads" description is of Lucknow.

Short trick: Gulzar-e-Iram: Faizabad = paradise; Lucknow = bumpy.

Concept: Daftar-e-Matam is the multi-volume collection of Mirza Salamat Ali Dabir's marsiyas.

1. Mir Anis's marsiyas are collected in Marasi-e-Anis.
2. Jameel Mazhari is a modern poet (Fikr-o-Jazba etc.).

Short trick: Dabir = Daftar-e-Matam (both start with "D").

Concept: Guzishta Lucknow by Abdul Halim Sharar is a cultural history of Lucknow (the last phase of Oriental culture).

1. It describes Nawabi Lucknow's food, dress, music, poetry, games and manners.
2. Firdaus-e-Bareen and Fateh Andalus are his historical novels.

Short trick: Guzishta Lucknow = cultural history; others = novels.

Concept: "Khayyam" (the study of Omar Khayyam, 1933) is by Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, so pairing it with Abdul Rahman is wrong.

1. Laila ke Khutoot — Qazi Abdul Ghaffar (correct).
2. Nashtar — Hasan Shah's novel, rendered into Urdu by Sajjad Husain (Anjum) Kasmandavi (correct).
3. Shahid-e-Ra'na — Qazi Sarfaraz Husain Dehlvi (correct).

Short trick: Khayyam → Sulaiman Nadvi.

Concept: Mirza Hadi Ruswa's novel Umrao Jaan Ada (1899) opens with this couplet.

1. Umrao recalls her past — the joyous tales have now become a prelude to grief, setting the novel's tone.

Short trick: Memory → grief = Umrao Jaan's life story.

Concept: The "mauzooi" (topic-based) mushairas of Anjuman-e-Punjab (1874) ran in this order: Barsat, Zamistan, Umeed, Hubb-e-Watan, Aman, Insaf…

1. 1st (May 1874) Barsat; 2nd Zamistan (winter); 3rd Umeed; 4th Hubb-e-Watan.
2. Hali read his masnavi "Hubb-e-Watan" in the 4th mushaira.

Short trick: B-Z-U-H: Barsat, Zamistan, Umeed, Hubb-e-Watan.