India, Oct. 11 -- Apart from the short-lived 'Lakhnau Akhbar', first published in 1847, the growth of print journalism in Awadh gained momentum following the British annexation of the region in 1856. One of the earliest notable publications of this period was 'Tilism-e-Lakhnau', popularly known as 'Tilism', which began publication in 1856 under the editorship of Maulvi Yakub Ansari. This was followed by 'Oudh (Awadh) Akhbar', launched by Munshi Nawal Kishore in 1859, and 'Oudh Punch', founded by Mohammad Sajjad Hussain in 1877. In 1886, Abdul Halim Sharar brought out 'Dil Gudaz', further enriching the region's literary and journalistic landscape. We now turn to the life and struggles of Pandit Brij Narayan Chakbast, who was born in Faizabad in 1882 into a Kashmiri family. He emerged as a distinguished nazm poet associated with the Lucknow school of Urdu poetry, drawing inspiration from literary giants such as Mirza Ghalib and Mir Anis. Brij Narayan also participated in the freedom movement and was actively involved in socio-political movements of his time. In 1905, Chakbast published an edition of a 'masnavi' (a kind of poem written in rhyming couplets on the Sufi tradition) called 'Gulzar-e-Nasim' by Pandit Daya Shankar Kaul 'Nasim.' Sharar responded vehemently against this in 'Dil Gudaz' with other writers and editors taking sides. Sharar apparently wanted to exclude the 'Kashmiri' element from chaste Urdu literature, which he felt should be confined to Lucknow and nearby areas. In an era where ethnic, linguistic and religious identities were assuming importance during colonial rule, this rivalry soon spread wide, with writers and printing presses from Kanpur and even Hyderabad joining the fray. The 'Awadh Akhbar' chose to stay away from the controversy, but 'Awadh Punch' remained at the forefront of this debate. Young Chakbast gained a certain amount of notoriety in this whole episode, due to his confrontation with Sharar, a much senior and distinguished writer and journalist during that period. One of the fallouts of this controversy between the Sharar and the Chakbast was that as the debate got more acrimonious, many personal skeletons started emerging from cupboards. Sharar was at the receiving end of all this. Sajjad Hussain of 'Awadh Punch' wrote deprecatingly of Sharar, labelling him as a writer who was 'easily able to create historical events about which it is impossible to find historical witness, but his 'Khayal' (imagination) was so strong that it was not difficult to create strange and wondrous events in this head of his.' Sharar had tried to advance the premise that the 'masnavi' in question was the work of Atish, and simultaneously, it also fell short of the language of Lucknow. Thus, Sharar's faulty logic not only downplayed Chakbast and Nasim - according to him, Atish had also failed to express himself in the 'Lakhnavi andaz' in the debated masnavi. In those days, Sheikh Imam Baksh 'Nasikh' and Khwaja Haider Ali 'Atish' were considered to be the founders of the Lucknow school of poetry. Thus, Sharar's allegations were unacceptable to the public. Sharar had been known for his respectable lineage in the erstwhile Nawabi court, both at Lucknow and Metia Burz, Calcutta, as well as his connections in the state of Hyderabad. 'Awadh Punch' being a journal devoted to satire, took this opportunity to lampoon Sharar, drawing upon his roots in Kursi (an area then on the outskirts of Lucknow, with the dubious reputation of having slow-witted inhabitants). Today, Sharar is best known for his series of articles on Lucknow, published in 'Dil Gudaz' in which he had described the history of Lucknow and the lifestyle of its people. The articles were later compiled into a single volume called 'Guzishta Lucknow', its English translation being titled as 'Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture'. Although Sharar's writings had earned him fame and respectability, disclosures about his rustic origins and propensity to write in hyperbole, rendered his accounts of Lucknow's former Nawabi court as debatable. Despite being acknowledged as the 'cultural biographer' of Lucknow, it is important to note that Sharar had been born in 1860 and had not personally witnessed or lived the 'Lakhnavi' experience he so vividly espoused, given that Lucknow's Nawabi phase had ended in 1856. On going through the observations of his detractors above, one is compelled to ponder as to how much of Sharar's narrative on the famed heritage of Lucknow was authentic, and how much was overstatement, gathered from secondary sources. It is also ironic that in present times, a prominent road originating from the western 'Lakhi' Darwaza of Qaiserbag leading to Balrampur Hospital is named after Chakbast; but there are no memorials or monumental references for the city's 'cultural biographer' in Lucknow....