My former teacher Asloob Ahmad Ansari, who has died aged 91, was a professor of English at Aligarh Muslim University, northern India, and a distinguished literary critic and editor.
Born in Delhi and brought up in Saharanpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh, Asloob was the son of Sana Ahmad, a member of a land-owning family who worked in a post office, and his wife, Zarifa Khatoon; his four siblings were all to migrate to Pakistan after partition in 1947.
Asloob was educated at a government school in Delhi, and then at Aligarh Muslim University, where he joined the English department as a lecturer in 1946. He retired in 1985, having headed the department for some 20 years. Asloob also obtained a BA from Oxford University (1956-58), where he began a lifelong friendship with his tutor, FW Bateson.
Shakespeare and William Blake were Asloob’s lifelong passions: he regularly attended the World Shakespeare Conference at Stratford-upon-Avon, and launched and edited two journals in English specialising in Shakespeare and Blake scholarship. He persuaded critics including FR Leavis, Wilson Knight, Kenneth Muir and Laurence Lerner to write for the Aligarh Journal of English Studies, which he started in 1976. He continued his editorial work even after retirement, in 1987, when he launched the Aligarh Critical Miscellany.
Asloob knew Urdu and Persian and edited Naqd-o–Nazar, a journal in Urdu that paid special attention to the poets Ghalib and Iqbal. He won many prizes for his contribution to Urdu literature, including the Sahitya Akademi award from India’s National Academy of Letters, the President of Pakistan award, the Ghalib award and the Mir Taqi Mir award.
Asloob always spoke very softly in the classroom, but was disciplined and hard-working, and never very keen on socialising. A diabetic for most of his life, he followed a strict diet and walked many miles each morning and evening. He also played badminton to keep fit.
A devout Muslim, he recited the Qur’an daily and rarely missed his prayers. To understand the Qur’an better, he learnt Arabic in his old age by hiring a private tutor.
In 1951, Asloob married Talat Ara. She survives him, together with their two daughters, Iffat and Roshan, and three grandchildren.
