This book is a comprehensive volume on the life and works of Joginder Paul, a well-known Urdu fiction writer and thinker. It presents a selection from the writer’s oeuvre – a few of his short stories, extracts from his long fiction, samples of his micro-fiction, personal reminiscences, and some of his incisive critical essays written in Urdu as well as in English that lay out his ideas on the role of the writer and the art of writing. The volume also contextualises his work within the Urdu literary tradition and beyond through some critical essays on him from across time and geography. It situates Paul as a notable fiction writer and an essayist who broke convention in his writing and crafted his own individual style. It shows how he was received in Urdu while also placing him as an important creative voice within a larger pan-Indian literary context.
The book also focuses on Paul’s efforts to effect a change in how fiction should be perceived, particularly by his readers who he considered the most important ally-participant in his effort to create stories. This volume will help to evolve a deeper understanding of the thematic subtleties in his fiction, as well as the critical perspectives he offers in his non-fiction.
Part of the Writer in Context series, this book will be indispensable to scholars and researchers in literature, history, sociology, language and creative writing, Partition studies, translation studies, Indian writings, Urdu literature, postcolonial studies, and South Asian Studies.
Introduction
Chandana Dutta
SECTION I
IMAGING UNIVERSES: FICTION BY JOGINDER PAUL
a. Traversing Creative Universes: Selected Short Stories
Chapter 1: “The Slump”
Translated by Chandana Dutta
Chapter 2: “Phool”
Translated by Keerti Ramachandra
Chapter 3: “Parayi”
Translated by Keerti Ramachandra
Chapter 4: “The Flight of the Doves”
Translated by Nirupama Dutt
b. Of Roots and Memories: Extracts from Novels and Novellas
Chapter 5: The Story of India
Translated by Krishna Paul and D.R. Goyal
Chapter 6: Blind
Translated by Sukrita Paul Kumar and Hina Nandrajog
Chapter 7: Sleepwalkers
Translated by Sunil Trivedi and Sukrita Paul Kumar
c. A Flock of Birds: Selected Afsanche or Flash Fiction
Chapter 8: Afsanche or Flash Fiction
SECTION II
THE CARTOGRAPHY OF CREATIVITY, ON BEING A WRITER: ESSAYS BY JOGINDER PAUL
a. On the Art of Fiction Writing: Essays in Urdu by Joginder Paul
Chapter 9: New Urdu Fiction: Issues of Language and Expression
Translated by Ambar Ahmad
Chapter 10: Fiction: A Critique
Translated by Ambar Ahmad
b. On Fiction and Fellowship: Essay in English by Joginder Paul
Chapter 11: Fiction: Fellowship in Suffering
c. The Writer on Other Writers: Essays in Urdu by Joginder Paul
Chapter 12: Premchand: The Precursor of the Modern Urdu Short Story
Translated by Abdul Naseeb Khan
Chapter 13: Wazir Agha: The Writer of Inshaiya
Translated by Mohammad Asim Siddiqui
SECTION III
MAPPING CREATIVITY: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON JOGINDER PAUL AS A WRITER
a. The Art of Joginder Paul: Essays
Chapter 14: On Joginder Paul's Nadeed
Wazir Agha
Translated by Jai Ratan
Chapter 15: Joginder Paul’s Short Stories
Wahab Ashrafi
Translated by Mohammad Asim Siddiqui
Chapter 16: The Art of Joginder Paul
Qamar Rais
Translated by Abdul Naseeb Khan
Chapter 17: The Creative Process in Joginder Paul’s Fiction
Sharib Rudaulvi
Translated by Ambar Ahmad
Chapter 18: A Speech on Joginder Paul: Some Insights
Fikr Taunsvi
Translated by Ambar Ahmad
Chapter 19: Art and Aesthetics in Joginder Paul
Muhammad Ali Siddiqui
Translated by Sami Rafiq
Chapter 20: The Story of a Banyan Tree: Reminiscing the Life and Times of Joginder Paul
Ali Ahmad Fatmi
Translated by Huma Khalil
Chapter 21: Lamps of Insights: Joginder Paul’s Afsanche
Anwar Pasha
Translated by Mohammad Asim Siddiqui
b. Perspectives from Afar: Essays
Chapter 22: Subverting the Nation-State through Post-Partition Nostalgia: Joginder Paul’s Sleepwalkers
Amrita Ghosh
Chapter 23: On Joginder Paul’s Afsanche: An Apology
Christopher Merrill
SECTION IV
A CREATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS PAR EXCELLENCE:
CONVERSATIONS AND DIALOGUES
a. Art in Every Fibre of his Being: A Conversation with Joginder Paul
Chapter 24: A Conversation with Joginder Paul
Ateequllah and Sadique
Translated by Ambar Ahmad
b. On the Wordsmith: Conversations on Joginder Paul
Chapter 25: On Joginder Paul: Shamsur Rahman Faruqi
Conversation with Chandana Dutta
Chapter 26: On Joginder Paul’s Art and Fiction
Nizam Siddiqui in Conversation with Chandana Dutta
Translated by Chandana Dutta
Chapter 27: Joginder Paul: A Creative Consciousness Par Excellence
Intekhab Hameed Khan in Conversation
Translated by Punya Prakash Tripathi
SECTION V
NAVIGATING THE SELF: SCRIPTING THE LIFE OF A WRITER
a. The Restless Seeker: A Personal Perspective
Chapter 28: A Caravan of Memories
Joginder Paul
Translated by Girija Sharma
b. The Storyteller’s Journey: About Joginder Paul
Chapter 29: Only I Would Know
Krishna Paul
Translated by Chandana Dutta
Chapter 30: My Papaji
Usha Nagpal
Chapter 31: My Incomparable Baba: A Tribute to Joginder Paul
Zahir Anwar
Translated by Smita Mishra Chaturvedi
SECTION VI
FROM THE TRANSLATORS: PRESENTING JOGINDER PAUL TO HIS READERS
Chapter 32: Transfusion as Translation: Ek Boond Lahu Ki Becoming A Drop of Blood
Snehal Singhavi
Chapter 33: To See or Not to See: Some Thoughts, Some Notes
Sukrita Paul Kumar
Chapter 34: Trans-creating the Pain of Displacement and Denial: Khwabrau into Sleepwalkers
Sunil Trivedi
Chapter 35: From Paar Pare to Beyond Black Waters
Vibha S. Chauhan
Chapter 36: Translating Joginder Paul
Meenakshi Bharat
Chapter 37: Translating Joginder Paul: A Sleepwalker’s Dream
Keerti Ramachandra
SECTION VII
FROM THE ARCHIVES: DOCUMENTING JOGINDER PAUL
Chapter 38: “Study of a Literary Work: A Critical Practice” A Letter to the Editor of Tulu-e-Afkaar
Joginder Paul
Translated by Mohammad Asim Siddiqui
SECTION VIII
THE LOGS OF A LIFE
Chapter 39: Joginder Paul: A Bibliographical Chronology
Compiled by Abu Zahir Rabbani
Joginder Paul: A Detailed Bibliography
Biography
Chandana Dutta is an author, editor, and translator. She holds a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has been Assistant Director for Katha Vilasam, the publishing wing of Katha, an organisation that pioneered translations in India. She set up the publishing outfit Indialog of which she was Chief Editor. She was Editor of Indian Horizons, a quarterly journal on art and culture published by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi. She has been Adjunct Faculty for the Masters Programme in Publishing at the Ambedkar University Delhi. She translates from Hindi and Bangla into English. She is the author of My Other Half: Krishna Paul in Conversation with Chandana Dutta (2019) and co-author of a monograph on Joginder Paul (Sahitya Akademi 2021).
