One of Urdu’s Greatest Scholars, C.M. Naim, Passes Away

New Delhi: Barabanki-born scholar and one of the most respected experts on Urdu and other South Asian languages, professor C.M. Naim has died. He completed his Master’s in Lucknow University in 1955 before going to the University of California, Berkeley in the US, Naim was Professor Emeritus of South Asian Languages and Civilisations at the University of Chicago – a position which capped his decade-long association with the university where he taught from 1961 to 2001. He chaired the South Asian Languages and Civilisations department from 1985 to 1991.

A founding editor of many journals and prolific commentator, his voice resonated on all matters to do with Urdu language, culture and its politics as things got dire for Urdu in the sub-continent, the place of its birth.

He has been Consultant to the Asian Literature Program of the Asia Society, New York City, Princeton University Press, University of Chicago Press, University of California Press, Feminist Press, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He had also served as Member, South Asia Regional Council, Association for Asian Studies, 1976-79, of the Committee on Scholars of Asian Descent, Association for Asian Studies, 1981-84, then South Asia Regional Council, Association for Asian Studies, 1990-93. He has been on the Advisory Committee, Berkeley Urdu Language Program in Pakistan, University of California, Berkeley, as well as Member, Board of Trustees, America-Pakistan Research Organization, 1989-93 and also Member, Board of Trustees, American Institute of Pakistan Studies, 1993-95.

Naim unhesitatingly tackled political issues along with his serious work on pure literary debates. In 1989, after a visit to Palestine, he wrote powerful words on what he saw, words that are especially relevant today.

One of his more recent works, an example of his enduring connection to all that was Urdu, was Urdu Crime Fiction, 1890–1950: An Informal History  which came out in 2023.

How did Naim feel on his first day in the United States? His observations were recalled as friends and colleagues remembered his contributions and tributes poured in.

For The Wire, Naim wrote sadly on how there is now no major Urdu newspaper or magazine that is edited by a non-Muslim and how in the past 75 years, the culture of Urdu magazines read by families of all faiths has disappeared. In another piece full of characteristic edge, Naim gently chastised  brands for never using the letter ‘j’ while transliterating Urdu words.

Courtesy: The Wire