A Weeping Bust in Datia
CM Naim
Archived Website of Prof CM Naim (3 June 1936 - 9 July 2025)
Latest Posts
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MUST WE PUNISH THE CHILD FOR THE FATHER’S SINS?
It all began on September 14, 2021, when ‘@Settler Scholar’ launched a 22 Tweets thread, titled ‘Settler Scholarship,’ describing itself in the final Tweet as ‘a group of Kashmiri activists, studen...
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A Season of Betrayals by Qurratulain Hyder – Translated & Introduced by by C.M. Naim
Qurratulain Haider. A Season of Betrayals: A Short Story and Two Novellas. Translated and Introduced by C.M. Naim. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1999. Titles include: The Sound of Falling Leaves, Sita...
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Inspector Matadeen on the Moon: Selected Satires by Harishankar Parsai (Translation)
Harishankar Parsai. Inspector Matadeen on the Moon: Selected Satires. Translated by C.M. Naim. New Delhi: Manas: 1994 Click here to Download PDF
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ابوالکلام آزاد کی ایک تاریخی تقریر
ابوالکلام آزاد کی ایک تاریخی تقریر (۱) تعارف: کچھ عرصہ ہوا مجھے دوستوں نے بتایا کہ یو ٹیوب پر مولانا ابوالکلام آزاد کی جامع مسجد دہلی میں کی گئی تاریخی تقریر خود انکی آواز میں مہیا ہے۔ میں نے چیک ک...
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Old Book Catalogs
(The following appeared as the ‘Preface’ in a book in Urdu—Fihrist-e Kutub,Siddīq Bukdepo, Lakhna’u (Delhi: Dilli Kitab Ghar, 2016)—that I jointly put together with Dr. Abdur Rasheed of Jami’a Mill...
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Rest in Peace, Ram Bhai
(CM Naim, Saleem Kidwai (standing), Ram Advani and Aslam Mahmud)
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Let Sonu Nigam Sleep, Please!
When I was growing up in the small town of Barabanki in the 1940s, the mosques had no loudspeakers. Those abominations would appear at the political rallies, and then disappear. Even in our Eidgah,...
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Publish and Perish
I have long been familiar with the adage that governs so much in American academia—Publish or perish—but now I have learned a new truth: publish and perish. It began some weeks back when I got a pl...
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India’s National Library Goes Digital – Sort of
In April 2014, The Guardian published a longish piece by Samuel Gibbs entitled, “The most powerful Indian technologists in Silicon Valley.” It opened: “Ever since waves of Indian graduates poured i...
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A Treasure in Gujranwala
The first Urdu printing press in Lahore, Matba’-i Koh-i Nur, was established in 1849, the year the city was fully brought under the authority of the East India Company. Printing presses were an ess...
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Sherlock Holmes in Urdu
Sherlock Holmes, the most widely known detective in the world, is perhaps also the most widely recognized fictional character in the world—at par with Hamlet, who appeared amongst us four hundred y...
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The Nonpareil Translator: Munshi Tirath Ram Firozepuri
I begin by invoking Sa’adat Hasan Manto. Presently his name is much in the air presently. An endorsement from him should count for a lot with many readers, particularly who are still reaching for 4...
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Mir’s ‘Lunacy’
A new Pakistani film has just come out—Mah-i-Mir—invoking Mir’s name and his ‘lunacy.’ Some of its viewers may find interesting the following, included in my book Zikr-i Mir: The Autobiography of t...
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God Bless A. R. Rahman
In 2017 we shall celebrate the 200th birthday of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the Indian Muslim who was declared a kafir by the mullahs of India on more counts than any other person before him or after. He...
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Meet Bibi Ashraf
She was born Ashrafun Nisa Begum in September 1840, in a Shia family that held a small zamindari in Bahnera, a small town in Bijnaur district, north-east of Delhi. She died in May 1903 in Lahore, w...
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Tarana, Naghma, Anthem—what’s in a name?
Jagan Nath Azad was the son of Tilok Chand Mahrum. Both were good enough poets, famous and much respected while they lived, but now largely forgotten. Azad was also an informed admirer of Iqbal, a...
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The “Magic-making” Mr. Reynolds
One of the earliest reviews of Mirza Ruswa’s Umrao Jan Ada appeared in Mi’yar (Lucknow) in 1899. It began: “Taken as a whole this tale is written on the same model that Mr. Reynolds used to write h...
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Getting Killed in Urdu in Pakistan
Urdu speakers take much pride in their language. They particularly flaunt Urdu’s allegedly unique ability to put into resounding words whatever spasm of politesse grabs them at any time. It’s often...
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Islamophobia and Blasphemy
I have huge respect for Javed Anand and the work he has been doing (with Teesta Setalvad) for a few decades. But I would like to raise some caveats concerning his piece ‘On the other side of fear’ ...
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Sheet Diplomacy?
Did you hear that the American Ambassador in Rome went and lit seven candles before the case containing the Shroud of Turin on behalf of President Barack Obama? Or, that the Secretary of State, Joh...
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English/Urdu Bipolarity Syndrome in Pakistan
An editorial—‘Into the Open’—in the Express-Tribune of December 16, 2014, begins: ‘There has been much speculation, frequently alarmist or simply ill-informed, as to the extent or otherwise that th...
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The ‘Shahi Imams’ of India
Saudi Arabia is a kingdom, and has had several Kings during the last 100 years, but it does not have a ‘Shahi Imam’, nor had one before. Even the men who lead the prayers at the Ka’ba in Mecca are ...
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Our Ungenerous Little World of Urdu Studies
Our Ungenerous Little World of Urdu Studies
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Two Verses of Ghalib
Two Verses of Ghalib
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Why do they do it?
Why do they do it?
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Narang Nama
In 2009 I wrote two essays concerning the issue of plagiarism that Mr. Imran Shahid Bhinder had raised concerning Prof. Gopi Chand Narang’s book Sakhtiyat, Pas-i-Sakhtiyat Aur Mashriqi Shi’riyat (“...
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Another Lesson in History
Another Lesson in History
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A Matter of History
C. M. Naim
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Modi and Gujarati Muslims: An Urgent Perspective
In July 2011, Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanavi was abruptly removed from his post as the Rector of the Darul Ulum at Deoband after just four months into the job. His ‘crime’ was to have made some ...
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Raja Rao to C. M. Naim: 12 Letters
**Raja Rao to C. M. Naim: 12 Letters**
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A Must See Film: The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall
It was sheer chance that I watched Rowan Joffe’s powerful film, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, at home the same night when Oscars were being awarded. In fact, my watching it was also by chance, s...
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From the La La Land (December 2012)
From the La La Land (December 2012)
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Discussing Books at the end of 2012
Usually year-end discussions or surveys are a bore, but the following in Dawn (Pakistan) serves up more than some good titles to seek and read; it informs us much about the reading public in Pakist...
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“Be crazy with God. . . .”
C. M. Naim
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Thinking About Manto
Muhammad Umar Memon has published an important essay on Manto in the Books section of Dawn today. An excerpt:
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Do we really need Jinnah’s Pakistan?
I wish this essay by Hussain Nadim had appeared in the Urdu press, for the debate he mentions rages most fiercely and incessantly in the columns and letters published in Pakistani Urdu newspapers. ...
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Adab and Civility: Some Tangential Thoughts
Some Tangential Thoughts on Adab and Civility*
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“The Treason of the Intellectuals” in Pakistan
Summer of 1970. Rochester, N.Y. I was teaching in the Summer School on South Asia at the University of Rochester. Noticing an announcement concerning a conference on Pakistan’s economy being held o...
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Limits of Naipaul’s antipathies
Concerning V.S. Naipaul — my apologies to those in India who can only call him Sir Vidia — it may be useful to remember the old Sherlock Holmesian insight about the dog that didn’t bark at night...
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Bad News
**The Indian Express** **Thu Nov 15 2012, 16:48 hrs**A Pakistani court has given the death sentence to a man from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province who was convicted for blasphemy for allegedly insulti...
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The Most Bizarre Column on Malala Yousafzai
[caption id=”attachment_19” align=”alignnone” width=”800”] یوم ملالہ[/caption]