One of the many pitfalls of Eurocentrism is that a theory or philosophy is often not recognized as such until it is acknowledged by Europe.
Jean-Paul Sartre, celebrated for existentialism, had a predecessor in South Asia: Mirza Ghalib.
Sartre, born on June 21, 1905, published his first major work, Nausea, in 1938. In contrast, Ghalib, born in 1797 and passed away in 1869, explored these ideas over a century earlier.
Na tha kuch tou Khuda tha kuch na hota tou Khuda hota Daboya mujhko honay ne ma hota main tou kya hota Hui muddat ke Ghalib mar gaya par yaad aata hai Wou har ik baat par kehne ke yun hota to kya hota
It translates to:
When nothing existed, God did; If nothing had existed, God would have; Existing has drowned me; What would have happened if I had not been? Ghalib died quite some time ago, But he is missed;
To say (or how he said) at everything (or at every occurrence), "How would it have been if it had not been this way?"
One could argue that what Nausée (1938) articulated in a novel: alienation, devotion and loneliness, Ghalib encapsulated in two couplets of Urdu poetry.
Interestingly, whilst Ghalib’s Persian Divan is several times longer than his Divan in Urdu, it is the latter which has become synonymous with his name.
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