1920s Urdu Illustrated Alphabet Wall Chart for Classroom Instruction
DESCRIPTION
A rare early twentieth-century Urdu alphabet classroom chart, printed in Calcutta, during late colonial period of British India, with no closely comparable examples currently documented in institutional or market collections.
The chart presents the Urdu alphabet letter by letter, with each character rendered in bold calligraphic form and paired with a simple illustrative image. Familiar objects, animals, and everyday scenes are used to reinforce pronunciation and word recognition, allowing students to associate letterforms with spoken sounds through visual memory. Mounted on original wooden rollers and now stabilized with linen backing, the chart was designed to be hung and used repeatedly in a group teaching environment.
Instructional Method and Use
The pedagogical method utilized here emphasizes visual association rather than rote memorization, a widely adopted approach in early twentieth-century South Asian education. By introducing letters alongside images and short example words, the chart helps students grasp pronunciation and meaning simultaneously, easing the transition into reading and writing. Such charts were especially effective in classrooms with limited resources, where a single wall chart could serve an entire group of learners.
Production and Publication
The imprint identifies the chart as printed at Mufeed Press, located on Circular Road in Calcutta, British India, and notes it as a Second Edition, with distribution linked to Karachi. Calcutta was one of the principal centers of Urdu-language printing during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, supplying textbooks, primers, and educational materials across the subcontinent. The fibrous, uncoated paper, lithographic printing with hand-applied color, and roller-mounted format all point to production in the early twentieth century, most likely between the 1910s and 1930s.
Historical Context and Rarity
Historically, alphabet charts like this were fundamental tools in Urdu education in schools, madrassas, and home classrooms during a period of expanding literacy under British rule. Because they were exposed to constant handling, sunlight, and environmental wear, most were discarded once outdated or damaged. As a result, large-format Urdu classroom charts from this period are rare survivors, and examples with intact imagery, legible imprints, and original hanging formats are infrequently encountered in the market or institutional catalogs today.
CONDITION
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