Forum Pakistan

Insha, Ibne (1926-78)
Writer. A satirical author writing in Urdu who was educated in Lahore and Karachi. His poems express the dreams of common people (the collection Chandnagar'Lunar Town'). He made an important contribution to the renovation and aesthetic perfection of verse. His satirical bent was expressed with particular force in his numerous Safar-name ('Travel Books'): Ibn Batuta ke Taaqub men ('Chasing Ibn Batuta', 1974), Dunya Gol he ('The Earth is Round', 1972), Awaragard ki Diari ('Diary of a Tramp'), and in his book of humorous sketches: Urdu ki Akhri Kitab ('The Last Book of Urdu'). An accomplished stylist, Ibne Insha exerted a telling influence on many contemporary Urdu writers.

Poet. Insha was an *Urdu language poet. The son of a court physician, he served at the courts of everal *nawabs of Oudh and, as a person of great wit, he set the tastes at the court. He had to his credit *diwans in Urdu and Farsi, humorous verses and riddles and a treatise on grammar and rhetoric entitled Darya-i-Latafat ('The Sea of Elegance', 1807, in co-authorship with Mirza Qatil). Insha was engaged in formal literary experiments: his narrative Kahani Rani Ketki aur Kunwar Udaibhan ki ('Tale of Princess Ketki and Prince Udaibhan') is written without a single Arabic-Persian borrowing despite the rules of the 'lofty style' in *Urdu literature. He was one of the first to work in the style of *rekhti poetry, i.e., written in the name of a woman and in the Zanana idiom, the language of the female part of the house. The history of Urdu literature has recorded many instances of Insha's competitiveness with Mushafi.

WORKS: 'Kulliayat-i-Insha', Lahore, 1969; 'Kalam-i-Insha', Allababad, 1952; 'Insha, Dariya-i-Latafat', Aurangabad, 1935.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Abdul Ali Barlas, 'Hayat-i-Insha', Lahore, 1959; Aslam Parwez, 'Inshallah-Khan Insha, ahd aur jan', Delhi, 1961; (ed.) Ahmed Ali, 'The Golden Tradition. An Anthology oj Urdu Poetry', New York, 1973; Abid Peshawari, 'Inshallah Khan lnsha', Lucknow, 1985.