While Hindi literature and many other South Asian literatures are awash with bucolic elements, Urdu seems to be an exception in this regard. Phanishwar Nath Renu’s influential Hindi novel Mailā Ānchal broke the path for ānchalik literature in Hindi in the 1950s. Although Premchand had introduced the depiction of rural life to Hindi as well as to his Urdu stories much earlier, much of the Urdu writings since then have been stuck to the representation of urban settings. This paper attempts to reveal that Urdu writers of postcolonial era continued employing urban idiom of the language in their stories set in rural Punjab. Instances of rural aroma are hard to find among Pakistani Urdu writers. This paper seeks to find the reasons why regional literature failed to flourish in Urdu even after independence.

Ahuja, Sami. Ninānvē kē Pẖer mēṅ. Lahore: Sanjh Publications, 2014.

Ali, Mubarak. Pakistan: In Search of Identity. Karachi: Pakistan Study Centre, 2009.

Ayres, Alyssa. Speaking Like a State: Language and Nationalism in Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Bedi, Rajinder Singh. Majmūa-i Rājindhar Singẖ Bedī: Afsānē, Nāvil, Ḍrāmē, Maẕāmīn. Lahore: Sang-e-meel Publications, 2014.

Gayer, Laurent. Karachi: Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City. London: Hurst & Company, 2014.

Harder, Hans. “Die südasiatischen Neusprachen im vielsprachigen Kontext des indischen Subkontinents: ein historischer Abriss”. in Zeitschrift für Weltgeschichte (ZWG) 17, no. 1 (2016): 33-48.

Hussain, Intizar. Āgē Samandar Hai. Lahore: Sang-e-meel Publications, 2007.

Khan, Asad Muhammad. Ghuṣē kī Na’ī Faṣl. Lahore: Ilqa Publications, 2013.

King, Christopher R. “Images of Virtue and Vice: The Hindi-Urdu Controversy in Two Nineteenth-century Hindi Plays”. in Religious Controversy in British India: Dialogues in South Asian Languages. Albany: State of University New York Press, 1992.

Pandey, Indu Prakash. Regionalism in Hindi Novels. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1974.

Paul, Joginder. ‘Aṣari Ūrdu Kahānīāṅ. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2007.

Premchand, Munshi. Majmūa Munshī Premchand: Afsānē. Lahore: Sang-e-meel Publications, 2014.

Qudsia, Bano. Raja Gidẖ. Lahore: Sang-e-meel Publications, 2017.

Rai, Alok. Hindi Nationalism. London, Hyderabad: Sangam Books, 2001.

Sadeed, Anwar. Ūrdu Afsānē mēṅ Dehāt kī Paishkash. Allahabad: Urdu Writers Guild, 1997.

Tarar, Mustansar Hussain. Khas-o-Khāshāk Zamānē. Lahore: Sang-e-meel Publications, 2017.