Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi

Who was Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi?

Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi, also known as "Diptee" Nazir Ahmad, was an Urdu writer, social and religious reformer, and scholar. He was a pioneer of Urdu literature whose novels are today a basic part of the educational curriculum in the Indian sub-continent.

Ahmad came from a family of religious scholars, maulavis and muftis of Bijnor and Delhi.

His father was a teacher in a small town near Bijnore. He taught Ahmad Persian and Arabic, and in 1842 took him to study with Abd ul-Khaliq at the Aurangabadi Mosque in Delhi. In 1846, Ahmad had the opportunity to enroll at Delhi College. He chose its Urdu section, he later said, because his father had told him "he would rather see me die than learn English". He studied there until 1853. During this period he arranged his own marriage to Abd ul-Khaliq's granddaughter.

He began his career as a teacher of Arabic. In 1854 he joined the British colonial administration. In 1856 he became a deputy inspector of schools in the Department of Public Instruction in Kanpur, and at the end of 1857 he was appointed to a similar deputy inspectorship in Allahabad. Later, for his translation of the Indian Penal Code in Urdu, he was nominated for the Revenue Services. He was posted as deputy collector in what was then called the North-West Provinces, which is how he acquired the nickname "Diptee Nazir Ahmad" by which he is popularly known.