UPHESC Assistant Professor Urdu 2025 PYQs

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.

Concept: Firaq's collection of "shringar ras" rubaiyat, Roop, is dedicated to his friend and contemporary Josh Malihabadi.

1. Roop presents the Indian ideal of feminine beauty in the rubai form.
2. Josh, himself a master of rubai, was Firaq's close friend.

Short trick: Rubai master friend → Josh.

Concept: Khari Boli (and all Western Hindi dialects) developed from Shauraseni Apabhramsha.

1. Ardhamagadhi Apabhramsha → Eastern Hindi (Awadhi etc.); Magadhi → Bihari, Bengali; Maharashtri → Marathi.

Short trick: Shurasena = Mathura region = Western Hindi.

Concept: Aadmi Nama is written in stanzas of five lines — a mukhammas.

1. Each stanza: five lines ending "…so hai woh bhi aadmi", e.g. "Duniya mein badshah hai so hai woh bhi aadmi…".
2. Musaddus = 6 lines (e.g. Hali's Musaddus), murabba = 4, musallas = 3.

Short trick: Mukhammas = khams = 5.

Concept: In this couplet (from Ghalib's qasida) the rising sun is called "nigar-e-atishin rukh" — a fiery-faced beloved — but the sun itself is never named.

1. When only the thing compared-to (mushabbah-bih) is stated and the real subject (mushabbah, the sun) is dropped, the figure is istiara (metaphor), not tashbeeh; tashbeeh needs both sides (and usually a particle like "jaisa").
2. Kinaya (hinting at a meaning through its accompaniment) and majaz-e-mursal (a non-resemblance relation such as part–whole) do not fit; tajnees is a figure of sound belonging to ilm-e-badi, not ilm-e-bayan.
3. The correct answer, istiara, is not among the options, so no option is right as printed — the question is treated as a bonus.

Short trick: Both sides present → tashbeeh; only the image, subject hidden → istiara.

Concept: Kaghazi Pairahan (1955) is the first poetry collection of Khalilur Rahman Azmi.

1. His other collections: Naya Ahd Nama, Zindagi Ae Zindagi.
2. Shahryar: Ism-e-Azam, Khwab ka Dar Band Hai; N.M. Rashid: Mavara, Iran mein Ajnabi.

Short trick: Kaghazi Pairahan → Azmi (Aligarh).

Concept: The couplet "Faza tabassum-e-subh-e-bahar thi lekin / pahunch ke manzil-e-janan pe aankh bhar aai" is by Firaq Gorakhpuri (it is listed under Firaq on Rekhta).

1. The contrast — the whole atmosphere smiling like a spring morning, yet tears on reaching the beloved's door — is typical of Firaq's subtle, inward ghazal.
2. Jazbi, Faiz and Shahryar are progressive/modern poets of a different idiom; the couplet is not theirs.

Short trick: Joy outside, tears inside at the beloved's door → Firaq.

Concept: Ahmad Hamesh (1940–2013) belonged to Jadeediyat (modernism); he is regarded as a pioneer of the Urdu prose poem (nasri nazm).

1. His poem "Makhi" (1962) is cited as an early Urdu prose poem.
2. He edited the magazine Tashkeel.

Short trick: Prose-poem pioneer → modernism.

Concept: Halqa-e-Arbab-e-Zauq began in Lahore (1939) as "Bazm-e-Dastan Goyan", founded by Syed Naseer Ahmad Jami and friends.

1. It was renamed Halqa-e-Arbab-e-Zauq soon after; Miraji became its leading figure.
2. It stood for art and form against the Progressives' emphasis on ideology.

Short trick: Bazm + Dastan + Goyan.

Concept: Makhdoom Mohiuddin's first collection Surkh Savera was published in 1944.

1. Later: Gul-e-Tar (1961) and the collected Bisat-e-Raqs (1966, Sahitya Akademi award).

Short trick: Surkh Savera 1944 → Gul-e-Tar 1961 → Bisat-e-Raqs 1966.

Concept: Hali's Musaddus "Madd-o-Jazr-e-Islam" (Ebb and Flow of Islam) was written in 1879, at Sir Syed's suggestion.

1. A supplement (zameema) was added in 1886.
2. Sir Syed said it would be his answer if asked on Judgement Day what he had done.

Short trick: Musaddus 1879 — Muqaddima-e-Sher-o-Shairi 1893.