Urdu Poetry in Australia

What is Urdu?

Urdu is a multicultural language and has great cultural and literary heritage. It is a combination of Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit, and has influences from many other Central Asian and sub-continent languages. Urdu is also the most widely spoken and understood language among the South Asian communities in Australia and around the world.

The tradition of Urdu poetry recitals stems from ancient Arabic ‘Qasidah’ tradition and later Persian ‘Ghazal’ recitals and was developed in the subcontinent during Mughal times. The custom of Mushaira is well and alive in India and Pakistan and in some cases over 30,000 people fill-up cricket stadiums to listen to poetry throughout the night.

Mrs Kaneez Fatima Kiran (known as Mrs Ali) first introduced the tradition of small local recitals in Sydney during the 1980s. Urdu writings and poetry in Australia has flourished ever since. The main credit goes to prominent writer and journalist Ashraf Shad and a group of dedicated writers who founded the Urdu Society of Australia in 1995 and formed the core of its founding committee.

Saeed was one of the first founding members of the Society and served as Vice President (Projects) from 2003-2008. He played a vital role in developing and transforming the society into a professional and respected outfit. He helped organise largest and some of the most memorable international recitals during his time as an executive.

These days, local and international poetry recitals also take place in other parts of Australia. In Melbourne, the Urdu Academy has been very active where Bazm-e-Adab, Canberra has also played a significant role in developing Urdu writings.

Australian Urdu writers to date have published over 20 Urdu books that include poetry collections, novels as well as short stories.