Ralph Russell
SI () (21 May 1918 – 14 September 2008) was a British scholar of
Urdu
Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
literature and a
Communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
.
Biography
Russell was born in
Hammerton,
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...
, England, and grew up in
Loughton
Loughton () is a suburban town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. The town borders Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell, Chingford, and Buckhurst Hill, and lies north-east of Charing Cross. For statistical purposes ...
,
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
. He was educated at
Chigwell School, and later at
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...
, where he read classics and geography, graduating in 1940 with an
ordinary degree. He learnt Urdu while serving in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
on attachment to the Indian Army during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, achieving "considerable fluency at the level of everyday communication with my
sepoys
''Sepoy'' () is a term related to ''sipahi'', denoting professional Indian infantrymen, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire and the Maratha.
In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its Europ ...
."
During the war he had "no opportunity of making the acquaintance of Urdu literature", but following demobilisation he was awarded a scholarship to study at the
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...
(SOAS),
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
, where he took a degree in Urdu (with Sanskrit as a subsidiary subject) in 1949.
Upon graduation Russell spent a year on study leave at
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh Muslim University is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Kh ...
in India, before returning to teach Urdu and Urdu literature at SOAS.
Although he remained at SOAS for the rest of his career, he continued to lecture and conduct research at universities in both India and
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
. He wrote articles and essays in Urdu and
English, and attended literary seminars and workshops on the subject of his specialization.
For much of his life Russell was a member of the
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
. He later explained his commitment as "want
ngto meet the needs of the people whom the communist movement is supposed to exist to serve."
The historian
Eric Hobsbawm
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...
, a fellow communist who attended Cambridge at the same time as Russell, remembered him as a "working-class classics student of steely
bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
demeanour" who had been nicknamed 'Georgi' after the then Secretary of the
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
,
Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; ) also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1933 t ...
.
Russell was awarded the
Sitara-e-Imtiaz
The Sitara-e-Imtiaz () also spelled as Sitara-i-Imtiaz, is the third-highest (in the order of "Imtiaz") honour and civilian award in the State of Pakistan. It recognizes individuals who have made an "especially meritorious contribution to the ...
in recognition of his services to Urdu language and literature by the
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, con ...
.
Loughton Town Council installed a
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
to Russell at his boyhood home on 6 Queen's Road in that town, which was inaugurated with a reception given by the present owners for family, friends and colleagues on 15 July 2013.
Books
* ''Three Mughal Poets'', 1968
* ''Ghalib, life and letters'', 1969
* ''New course in Urdu and spoken Hindi for learners in Britain'', 1997
* ''The pursuit of Urdu literature'' 1992
* ''Selections from the Persian Ghazals of Ghalib with Translations'' 1997
* ''An Anthology of Urdu Literature'' 1999
* ''How not to write the history of Urdu literature'' 1999
* ''The Famous Ghalib'' 2000
* ''The Oxford India Ghalib: Life, Letters and Ghazals'' 2003
* ''The Seeing Eye: Selection from the Urdu and Persian Ghazals of Ghalib'' 2003
* ''Urdu in Britain'' (Ed), 1982
* ''Ghalib: The Poet and his Age'' (Ed) 1997
* ''A Thousand Yearnings: a Book of Urdu Poetry and Prose'' (Trans) 2017
Autobiography
* ''Findings, keeping: Life, Communism and everything'' 2001
* ''Losses, Gains'' published by Three Essays, New Delhi, 2010
In Urdu
* ''Urdu Adab ki Justuju'' (Urdu translation of ''The Pursuit of Urdu Literature/Curiosity about Urdu literature''), by Muhammad Sarwar Rija (2003)
* ''Juyinda Yabinda (Urdu translation of his autobiography, by Arjumand Ara)'', City Press, Karachi, 2005
See also
*
David Matthews
References
External links
Ralph Russell's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Ralph
1918 births
2008 deaths
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Urdu-language writers
Linguists from the United Kingdom
Linguists of Urdu
British literary critics
British critics
Recipients of Sitara-i-Imtiaz
Communist Party of Great Britain members
People from the Borough of Harrogate
People from Loughton
20th-century British linguists