نوآبادیاتی عہد میں اردو شاعری اور متغیر تانیثی تصورات (مولانا حالی، ز خ ش اور حسرت موہانی کا خصوصی مطالعہ)

Abstract

This article examines the transformation of feminist consciousness and the evolving representation of women in Urdu poetry during the colonial period in India. It situates Urdu poetry within the broader context of colonial modernity, intellectual reform, and socio-cultural change brought about by Western education and Enlightenment thought. Focusing specifically on the poetic works of Maulana Altaf Husain Hali, Zahida Khatoon Sherwania (Z. K. Sheerwaniya), and Hasrat Mohani, the study explores how changing perceptions of womanhood, gender roles, and female agency were articulated through poetic discourse.

The article analyzes Hali’s reformist poems Munajat-e-Bewah and Chup Ki Dad as foundational texts that combine moral persuasion, religious symbolism, and social critique to foreground women’s suffering and demand educational and social reform within an Islamic ethical framework. It further examines Zahida Khatoon Sherwania’s long poem Aaina-e-Haram, highlighting its protest-oriented feminist voice, its dialogic engagement with patriarchal authority, and its transformation of female silence into collective resistance. Her poetry is shown to expand feminist discourse beyond domestic concerns toward political consciousness and global Muslim solidarity.

In contrast, the study reads Hasrat Mohani’s ghazals as representing a subtler but equally significant shift in gender imagination. His portrayal of the beloved departs from the conventional passive and cruel figure of classical Urdu ghazal, presenting instead a socially grounded, emotionally responsive, and corporeally present woman reflective of emerging modern sensibilities.

The article argues that Urdu poetry of the colonial era played a crucial historical and aesthetic role in reshaping feminist thought by negotiating tradition and modernity, reform and resistance, ultimately contributing to a more humanized and empowered representation of women in South Asian literary culture.