Researchers, writers, poets descend on Ghalib Institute for International Ghalib Festival

New Delhi: The three-day International Ghalib celebrations organised by Ghalib Institute were inaugurated on December 26, 2025 at Ghalib Hall.

On the second day of the celebrations, four technical sessions of the seminar ‘Munshi Premchand: Mind, Times and Art’ were held.

The first session was chaired by Professor Aleem Ashraf, Head of the Department of Persian, Delhi University.

During his presidential address, he said that the leaders of Ghalib Institute deserve congratulations for having taken the initiative to quench the thirst for knowledge. The merit of this session is that it shows a process of new discovery, moving away from the outdated statements of Premchand criticism.

In this session, Shein Kauf Nizam presented papers titled ‘The Art of Fiction and Premchand’, Professor Sarwat Khan presented papers titled ‘Premchand and Today’s Reader’ and Javed Alam presented papers titled ‘Premchand and Hindi Criticism’.

The session was moderated by Muhammad Matar. The second session was chaired by Professor Chandra Shekhar, Former Head of the Department of Persian. He said that language has always been a tool of politics, so the British gave Urdu the status of the official language instead of Persian as a result of the fear that internal forces would not get external support in their rebellion against them.

Premchand's era was full of changes, so it is not appropriate to understand it separately from his era. In this meeting, Professor Habibullah presented papers on the popularity of Premchand, Professor Harish Trivedi on 'Politics of Language and Premchand', Pradeep Jain on 'Research Discussions on Premchand Studies', Professor Irtaza Karim on 'Some Important Corners of Premchand Studies', Khalid Alvi on 'Understanding Premchand in Urdu and Hindi', and Professor Tariq Chhatari on 'Technical Features of Premchand's Fiction'.

The meeting was moderated by Ghazala Shirin. Before the meeting, the literary services issue of 'Sadae Ansari' of Ghalib Institute and the book 'Suzwatan' by Professor Ali Ahmed Fatemi were launched.

The third session was chaired by Professor Shahzad Anjum, Director of Premchand Archives, Jamia Millia Islamia. In his presidential address, he said that it is not true that Premchand migrated from Urdu. If we look at his entire life, we will know that he dedicated his entire life to the service of Urdu. After reading some of Premchand’s weak stories, people kept giving the impression that his art was weak, but it is a fact that he has given Urdu fiction an everlasting and unparalleled role.

In this session, Professor Ghazanfar presented papers titled ‘Our Creative Relationship with Premchand’, Professor Sonia Sarbhi Gupta presented papers titled ‘Translations of Premchand in Spanish’, Professor Kausar Mazhari presented papers titled ‘Premchand’s Speech – Presidency’ and Safina Begum presented papers titled ‘Feminine Role of Gaudan’. This session was moderated by Javed Hassan.

The fourth session was chaired by Professor Khalid Mahmood. In his presidential address, he said that he is very happy that this time the seminar of Ghalib Institute is on fiction instead of poetry. In this way, the seminars held here cover the entire Urdu literature.

Premchand is an artist with whom the relationship is never broken from school days to retirement. If this is not the pinnacle of his art, then what is it? In this meeting, Mushtaq Sadaf presented papers on ‘Premchand’s style’, Muhammad Akmal on ‘Premchand’s critical consciousness’ and Niloofar Hafeez on ‘Premchand and contemporary issues’.

The meeting was moderated by Muhammad Ahmed. After this meeting, an international poetry competition was held which was chaired by Professor Waseem Barelvi. Amir Mehdi attended as the chief guest and Pervez Muzaffar, Saqib Farooqui and Anwar Kamal attended as the guests of honour and Muzaffar Ali attended as the guest of honor.

The competition was moderated by Moin Shadab. The names of the poets who presented their poems are as follows: Amir Mehdi (Birmingham), Parvez Muzaffar (London), Jalil Nizami (Qatar), Saqib Harooni (Nepal), Anwar Kamal (Bahrain), Professor Waseem Barelvi, Sheen Kaaf Nizam, Ijaz Popular Merthi, Farooq Jaisi, Aqeel Nomani, Shams Tabrizi, Khurshid Haider, Afzal Mangalori, Saleem Amrohvi, Rashid Jamal Farooqi, Zaki Tariq, Majid Deobandi, Iqbal Ashhar, Syed Nazm Iqbal, Shahid Anjum, Malikzada Javed, Moin Shadab, Ashqala Khanum ‘Kashf’, Murad Ali.

The remaining sessions of the international seminar will be held on December 28 from 10 am to 5 pm. At 6 pm, the Urdu drama ‘Ghalib Ki Wapsi’ will be presented. Written by AM Kardar and directed by Abbas Haider Naqvi.

(Pictured from right: Professor Rajab Habibullah, Dr. Ghazala Shireen, Professor Tariq Chhatari, Dr. Pradeep Jain, Professor Harish Trivedi, Professor Chandra Shekhar, Dr. Khalid Alvi, Professor Shafi Kidwai)

Tags : Ghalib Institute, Mirza Ghalib, Munshi Premchand, Fiction, Waseem Barelvi, Amir Mehdi