Culture – Din Duniya, a Gentle Madness
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One man’s struggle to save a dying Urdu publication.
[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Dignity in the face of decline is rare. Consider a day in the life of 50-year-old Mr. Asif Fehmi, the writer, designer, editor, publisher, printer and owner of Din Duniya, a historical Urdu magazine, which in his own words is “financially unviable”.
Each morning Mr. Fehmi wakes up in his NOIDA Sector 41 bungalow, dresses up in a suit (tie included), drives to Jama Masjid, walks his way through Purani Dilli bylanes, and enters a haveli with a courtyard shaded by large Neem trees. There, Mr. Fehmi struggles, along with 15 employees, to produce the next issue of Din Duniya.
“Not many read a dying language like Urdu,” he says. Indeed, the 88-year-long journey of this magazine parallels the opulence and poverty of that language in India. Started as a weekly tabloid by Mr. Fehmi’s father in 1921, Din Duniya originally covered politics, films, and society gossip. The publication stopped for two years during the partition. Today, it is a monthly magazine that covers Islamic matters. And Islamic matters alone.
“We write on Muslim history, Hadith, and current affairs with a minority perspective,” says Mr. Fehmi. Such limited specialization has yielded a limited readership of around 4000 subscribers. There are hardly any photographs, few illustrations, and no advertisements. But the job has to be done.
From a garage-like room, off the courtyard, comes the whining of two printing machines (handfed machine, circa 1985; automatic, circa 1996), while Mr. Fehmi sits in an adjoining hall. Possessed by dogged dedication (call it a gentle madness), he busies himself writing editorials, checking proof copies, gulping down chai, and editing stories sent by two regular freelance writers.
Alas, all this passion produces no material wealth. The indulgence is subsidized by Khwaja Press, which Mr. Fehmi runs with the same two machines and which occasionally gets orders to publish academic books from Delhi and Kashmir Universities.
Else this Urdu magazine would have been long dead, something inevitable. Perhaps. For the owner’s only child is illiterate in Urdu. “What would happen to Din Duniya after you?” I ask Mr. Fehmi. “I really don’t know”, he says.
Contact Mr. Fehmi 9810115225
The dream prints on…
Mr. Asif Fehmi – Ruined by Urdu
so much for pluralism and liberty that capitalism brings in. thanks for the story!was reading a hindi text ydy and cudnt believe i was finding it tough…to read
Soofi sahab,Do you know of any person who can translate farsi (Persian) papers? It would be of much help.Regards
Lovely story. I read a book called The Last Mughal recently and most of the data in the book came from the archives of Delhi newspapers, urudu ones, from Delhi. I hope that you have more such stories.
Today, we are living in a materialistic hinglish world where we don’t have any place for Hindi ki saadgi and Urdu ki mithaas. We love fast food, Hip hop crazy music and we love to call overselves cool dude and hot gal. This is a new Din Duniya for us.Dear Mayank,I am a regular reader of your blog and I want to add your blog in my blog roll. Please provide your consent for the same.
Going along with what “Which Main? What Cross?” said, even I am reading that book these days and without a doubt it is one of the most detailed books about the fall of Mughal Empire; with inferences mainly drawn from the urdu and persian sources. Alas, our govt. doesn’t do much in educating newer generation that indeed urdu and persian has played a strong role in shaping Indian history….This whole article reminds me of a book by Anita Desai, In Custody, where too like Mr. Fehmi poet Nur becomes a prey to a fast changing “hindi” India….