Maulvi Abdul Haq

Maulvi Abdul Haq (1870–1961), remembered as Baba-e-Urdu, the Father of Urdu, gave his whole life to the language — its words, its grammar, its history and its honour. Born on 20 April 1870 at Hapur, he was educated in the Punjab and at Aligarh, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1894, and fell under the influence of Sir Syed, Shibli and Hali. In 1895 he went to Hyderabad, where he taught, edited journals, headed the institute that translated history, science and philosophy into Urdu, and became the first head of the Urdu department at Osmania University. In 1912 he became general secretary of the Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu, the society for the progress of Urdu, and held that post until Partition. He edited the journal Urdu for more than three decades, gathered old manuscripts that rewrote the early history of the language, and produced some fifty volumes — among them his Standard English-Urdu Dictionary and his Urdu grammar — while pressing, all his life, for Urdu to be given its rightful place in public life. After migrating to Pakistan in 1948, he rebuilt the Anjuman in Karachi, founded the Urdu College there, and worked on until illness overtook him. He died at Karachi on 16 August 1961, leaving the language he had served with a dictionary, a grammar, a history — and a father's name.