Fort William College ki Adabi Khidmat (Literary Services of Fort William College) by Dr. Abida Begum

Fort William College ki Adabi Khidmat

This academic work by Dr. Abida Begum provides a detailed historical and critical analysis of Fort William College, an institution established in Calcutta in 1800 that played a pivotal role in the development of Urdu prose. The book examines the college’s mission to train British officials in local languages and how this unintentionally sparked a literary revolution.

Dr. Begum explores the “services” rendered by the college, specifically the transition from complex, flowery Persianized styles to a simpler, more accessible Urdu idiom. She highlights the contributions of famous translators and writers like Mir Amman and Haidar Bakhsh Haidari, whose works laid the foundation for modern Urdu literature. This text is an essential resource for researchers and students of South Asian history and Urdu linguistics, offering a window into the era where the language evolved into a powerful medium for storytelling and intellectual discourse.