“A long row of nearly a hundred bookstores used to stand queued here,” said Mohammad Rizwan, as he swung his hand across the air, from one end of the road to another. “Urdu Bazaar... sab khatam hai (Urdu Bazaar.. is over),” he said. Rizwan is the owner of Rizwan Book Depot, one of the five to six bookstores left in the once-teeming Urdu Bazaar of Old Delhi.
Novels and books are no longer the primary draw for customers. According to the booksellers in the area, they now stock items—such as toys, prayer beads, Quran covers, among other things— that “sell”. The area, located right before the Jama Masjid, is still alive and lively. However, these days, unlike Urdu literature, kebabs and Mughlai food drive the footfall.
Rizwan is the sixth generation bookseller, continuing this legacy business passed down to him in 1984.
“People still do buy Urdu literature,” he told THE WEEK. “We have a few loyal customers. Urdu readers do exist,” Rizwan said. But, he too, admitted to the bazaar witnessing a noticeable decline.
It’s been around six months since Mehfooz Alam became the caretaker of Maktaba Jamia Limited, one among few remaining bookstores. Alam, also the former editor of journals, Kitaabnuma and Payam-e-Taleem, expressed his dismay over the ceased publishing of the two Urdu-language periodicals published by Maktaba Jamia Limited. A number of journals used to be published by it, in collaboration with Jamia Millia Islamia before the press at Maktaba Jamia Limited was shut.
“Nowadays, you only see food stalls lined along the road,” he said.
As per the 2011 Census, around 5.07 crore people comprise the Urdu-speaking population in India—over 4 per cent of the country’s total population. Like Rizwan and Alam, many bookstore owners in the area blame extensive digitalisation as one of the causes of dwindling Urdu speakers and readers.
However, according to Ather Farouqui, secretary general of Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind) and 2012 Sahitya Academy winner, changing times have not largely impacted the sales of Urdu publications.
“Unlike Urdu poetry and novels, Urdu journals are not usually published for common people,” Farouqui told THE WEEK. “They comprise scholarly articles, especially curated for research publications.”
Farouqui is the editor of Urdu Adab, a quarterly magazine, and Hamaari Zaban, a weekly newspaper rolled out at Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind), New Delhi. Both the Urdu journals have been in publication for over 80 years.
Farouqui believes the decline of Urdu newspapers is a “repercussion of unmet public expectations in terms of content and aesthetic appeal”. On one hand, while technology has disrupted the book market, he presses that the concept of readily available “digital publications and audiobooks have simultaneously boosted the market, leveraging sales”.
While narrating the origins of the Urdu Bazaar, Farouqui said “the present-day Urdu Bazaar is not even the original one”. “The Jain Mandir, now situated right across the Red Fort, used to be called the ‘Urdu Mandir’,” he said. “The area adjacent to it had a bustling bazaar established there. It was the Urdu Bazaar.” He added that the Revolt of 1857 left the place in ruins, and the bazaar was later relocated to near Jama Masjid in the 20th century.
He pointed out that the readers majorly look out for alternatives or markets located in the closest proximity. “For instance, a person residing in Okhla wouldn’t find it feasible to travel all the way down to Urdu Bazaar and buy a book— especially when finding a digital alternative or a nearby bookstore is a better option,” Farouqui said. According to him, this is also one of the reasons for the bazaar’s downturn.
He also mentioned the Urdu readership remains unaffected despite the fading legacy of the Urdu Bazaar.