A MERE TEN WORDS
Fruits of Consistent Efforts

MAULVI LUTFULLAH was born on November 4, 1802 in the ancient city of Dharanagar, in Malwah (Madhya Pradesh). His autobiography, Autobiography of Lutfullah, Mohamedan Gentleman; and His Transactions with His Fellow-Creatures, written in English, was published in London by Smith, Elder and Company (3rd edition came out in 1858), though he had never set foot in an English school. He lived the life of an ordinary tutor, teaching Hindi, Persian and Marathi to British employees of the East India Company. He had over a hundred students, and contact with them over a period of time kindled an interest in him to learn their language. He soon embarked on a course of intensive self-instruction and, in a matter of eight years, gained a mastery of the English language.

He writes:

… I learned the English alphabet, and enabled myself to make out the words from dictionaries, and read Hindustani and Persian fluently in the Roman character. From this time until the end of 1829 I never went to bed without learning ten words of English by heart, and reading a few pages of the eminent Dr. Gilchrist’s grammatical works with full attention by myself. Thus, after the hard labour of full eight years, I learnt English, the most difficult language in the world. (p. 166)

Ten words a night may seem very few, but spread over a period of eight years, they were sufficient to turn him into a writer of the English language who could elicit praise from native writers and critics of the English language. Edward B. Eastwick, writing the preface of the books concludes: The reader will no doubt accord to Lutfullah some praise for composing so long a work in the, to him, foreign English language, with so much general accuracy.

How did Maulvi Lutfullah develop the talent to write such a book? The answer lies simply in his sheer determination and unstinting hard work.