Overview

In seventh-century Arabia, Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussain, sacrificed his life and his family members and companions in the desert of Karbala, Iraq, to resist the debauched ruler Yazid. In twentieth-century India, when the communal conflict was at its peak, Premchand wrote a play about this pivotal event of Islamic history and transformed it into a nationalist narrative. This first-ever English translation of Premchand's outstanding play Karbala (1924) is an illuminating blend of historical facts and imagination. It reveals Premchand's profound understanding of the communal conflict in early twentieth-century India and his unique way of imagining the nation, in tune with Gandhian principles of communal harmony and co-existence of religions.

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9780190132637

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Reviews

A marvel of Urdu-Hindi literary spheres, Premchand's Karbala serves both as a brilliant historical imaginaire and a captivating devotional treatise on martyrdom and Indian nationalism. (It) is complemented further by a remarkable flair for highlighting and elevating cross-linguistic conversations within and around the text. - Syed Akbar Hyder, Associate Professor Nishat Zaidi's expert translation brings Premchand's unique Indian version of the tragic killing of Hussain in the Karbala battle to the Englishreading public. - Hans Harder, Professor of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures, Heidelberg University.

Author Information

Dr Nishat Zaidi is Professor and Head, Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Languages, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi.

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