Umrao Jan Ada: A Chilling Exposition of Social Issues in Nineteenth-Century Lucknow

Abstract

As we all know that novels work as a mirror of the society, so did the novel which I am going to discuss in this paper. The present paper will deal with the novel Umrao Jan Ada by Mirza Mohammad Hadi Ruswa. It is a chilling exposition of many social issues that were prevailed in nineteenth-century Lucknow. Today India is struggling with a large number of social issues as child labor, illiteracy, corruption, child marriage, the social status of women, dowry system, poverty etc. In Umrao Jan Ada, Hadi Ruswa is discussing the major social issues of his era that are dowry system, child abduction, child marriage, the existence of prostitutes and prostitution, moral hypocrisy of patriarchal society etc. This paper is an analysis of all these problems especially the problems faced by the women and how they were forced to go on the wrong path. The novel is the biggest satire on the hypocrisy and crookedness of the then society.