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Accepted Paper:

The exemplary modern man: Mirza Rusva's Sharif Zada  
Christina Oesterheld (South Asia Institute Heidelberg)

Paper short abstract:

The paper is dedicated to a book on the exemplary career of a Muslim male by the famous novelist Mirza Rusva (1857-1931). His "Sharif zada" (A man of noble birth) was written in 1900 and is a very detailed fictional account of the happy and contended l life of a man who adopts the new social virtues and turns into a successful enterpreneur. His success in life already suffices to illustrate the usefulness of the new values, nevertheless the message is also brought home in a number of reflexions of the main protagonist and in his discussions with the author/narrator.

Paper long abstract:

In the second half of the nineteenth century, new forms and new criteria of moral education came into being under the influence of the colonial presence and social changes in Indian society. The bulk of this advice literature in Urdu was concerned with the reform and education of women, comparatively less space was devoted to the moral education of man. For many readers it may be rather surprising that Mirza Rusva (1857-1931) who is mostly known for his novel "Umrao Jan Ada" and who wrote an impressive number of detective novels also produced a remarkable guidebook for a successful life in the new era. His "Sharif zada" (A man of noble birth, 1900) is perhaps the most comprehensive and consistent fictional account of a man's exemplary career. It comprises all new bourgeois virtues but also exhibits the ideal of an active, productive and enterprising life which would hardly be found in any other work of the same period. One of exceptional features of the book is the value it attaches to manual, bodily labour and its engagement with agriculture. As in "Umrao Jan Ada", the author's fictional alter ego appears as narrator and interlocutor, thus providing the opportunity to discuss cultural and social values.

The book remained part of the school syllabus until the middle of the twentieth century and thus can be regarded as quite influential.

Panel P15
Re-forming subjects: colonial and national approaches to moral education, 18th to mid-20th century
  Session 1