Talking about the Urdu Project, Ajmal Kamal, explains why there is an urgent need to map our Urdu heritage by making it available to all, free of cost. “Paper decays and perishes” and so what’s left of the old manuscripts, Kamal believes, “should be made a living part of our consciousness.”

About the speaker:

Ajmal Kamal is the editor of AAJ – the outstanding Urdu journal of world literature and ideas that he launched in 1981. His numerous translations into Urdu include works of international fiction, poetry, criticism and political and social analysis. In 1998, he founded an independent publishing house to bring out Urdu, Sindhi and English literary works under the imprint of AAJ KI KITABAIN. Another imprint, CITY PRESS, published books on contemporary social issues. He was made an Ashoka Fellow in 2002 for creating a voluntary civil society forum for the exchange of opinions and experiences about development issues and social concerns. He advises Urdu Project on the publication of Urdu language titles currently under consideration.