Longstone Books - Ralph Russell

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Ralph Russell

Ralph Russell (1918 – 2008) was the leading scholar and interpreter of Urdu literature in the west. Born in 1918, he grew up in a village in Yorkshire and in Loughton, Essex, and won scholarships to a public school and Cambridge, where he studied classics and became a major figure in the student communist movement. During the Second World War he was sent to India where he learnt Urdu and began a life-long engagement with Indian society and politics.

For over thirty years he headed the Urdu department at the School of Oriental and African Studies, inspiring generations of students through his teaching, and writing widely on Urdu literature and culture. He pioneered the teaching of Urdu to English-speaking teachers, social workers and others, and was prominent in a movement to encourage the teaching of minority community languages in schools.

For more information see Ralph Russell's website.

His writing on Urdu includes An Anthology of Urdu Literature (Carcanet Press) and published by Oxford University Press, India, Three Mughal Poets; How not to write the history of Urdu Literature; and three volumes on the 19th century poet: Ghalib, Life and Letters; Ghalib, the poet and his age & The Complete Oxford India Ghalib.

by this author

	The Pursuit of Urdu Literature The Pursuit of Urdu literature combines an introduction to one of the major literatures of the Indian sub-continent, with the refreshing insights of a man who has spent a life-time studying Urdu and interacting with Urdu speakers. Find out more...

	Findings, Keepings Absorbing and entertaining insights into life through three decades. A Yorkshire country childhood in the 1920s - the scholarship-boy outsider at a public school - communist students in 1930s Cambridge - war time India. Everywhere it is the man himself we meet - his infectious enthusiasm, his irreverent questioning, his enjoyment of simple things. Find out more...

	Losses, Gains This book continues the story of Ralph Russell’s life from 1945 when he returned from the war in India, to 1958. It provides a fascinating introduction to a complex period of social and political change. Find out more...

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