The Orientalist-Literati Relationship in the Northwest

Abstract

Lahore emerged as a new intellectual centre in northwest India for British Orientalists and Indian intellectuals after the destruction of Delhi during the Great Revolt of 1857. Two prominent individuals who moved to Lahore at this time were Gottlieb Leitner, a philologist and Orientalist scholar, and Maulana Muhammad Hussain Azad, an Urdu poet, literary critic and teacher. Leitner, a naturalised British citizen who studied in Istanbul and completed higher education in Arabic and Turkish in London, became principal of the new Government College in Lahore in 1864. In this position, he exercised a deep influence on education in the northwest by promoting the development and study of vernacular (Urdu language) education, founding and leading a major scientific and literary organisation, the Anjuman-e Punjab. Having aroused strong British opposition, both to his ideas and his combative personality, Leitner’s support and assistance from the local literati allowed him to develop and implement his ideas. Leitner’s most significant partner was Muhammad Hussain Azad, also a new arrival to Lahore after fleeing Delhi in 1857. Leitner and Azad worked together in the Anjuman-e Punjab to promote their literary and social concerns. They became advocates of neo-Orientalist educational reforms through their public speeches and writing, including works in Urdu intended for, among others, the education of Maulvis. The bracketing of these European and Indian partners is conceptualised in this article through their roles as members of their respective communities as well as outsiders to these very communities. The analysis shows how their complex identities helped them to become highly influential figures in the new cultural environment of post-1857 Lahore.