THE Spectatoris one of the oldest magazines being published continuously in English.

Launched in 1928 from London, the weel(ly`s chief focus is on politics and culture.

As The Spectator was popular in British India back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it influenced the subcontinent`s journalism and literature subtly but profoundly. From Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who tried to model his magazines and newspapers on the lines of The Spectator to some 20th century Urdu writers who tried to emulate the understatement typical of the British many were inspired by The Spectator`s style and content. Some of Urdu`s humorists, too, are known for the influence the magazine exerted on them. Mehfooz Ali Badayuni was one of them.

It is often said that the British have a sense of humour based on understatement, irony and sarcasm. But Urdu literature is known for overstatement andhyperbole. Urdu humour is not an exception. In fact in the beginning, Urdu`s humour was largely coarse and some of the writings of Jafer Zatalli, the poet and prose writer credited with pioneering humour in Urdu, are boorish and others downright vulgar. Later, Oudh Punch, a humour magazine launched from Lucknow in 1877, did raise the standard quite a bit, but was at times pejorative and a far cry from the subtleties of English humour. In those days too, much of Urdu humour consisted of hyperbole or situational comedy.

Mehfooz Ali Badayuni was one of the humorists in whose writings one can find humour in all seriousness. Yes, humour is a business all too serious.

Satirising the government may have grave repercussions: Jafer Zatalli was put to death for composing a couplet spoofing Farrukhsiyar, the then ruler.

Zafar Ali Khan was banished from Hyderabad (Deccan) for writing `Walker Nama`, a poem lampooning the state revenue secretary Mr Walker. IbrahimJalees was imprisoned for mocking the infamous Public Safety Ordinance. Criticising the society has its fallout. But sagacious humorists criticise the society and yet society laughs with them.

Mehfooz Ali Badayuni, wrote Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqi, was one of the humorists who drove Urdu humour away from pejorative and coarse style peculiar to Punch magazines (that had mushroomed in those days) and introduced the kind of sober humour that The Spectator was known for. Yet, Mehfooz Ali has largely been forgotten and is rarely remembered these days.

Syed Mehfooz Ali Badayuni was born in Badayun (also spelt Budaun) on May 8, 1870. In Bareilly, Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauher and Maulana Shaukat Ali were his schoolmates. They got together again at Aligarh College. Mehfooz Sahib did his BA from Aligarh in 1895, the year when Moulvi Abdul Haq, Dr Ziauddin, and Maulana Zafar Ali Khan graduated from Aligarh College. In 1896, Mehfooz Sahib wasappointed as assistant judge in State of Khairpur (Sindh), but resigned in 1901. He did a brief stintas translatorintheprincely state of Deccan and in 1904 was sent to Somaliland as judge. In 1907, he came back to India and tried to start a business in Bombay (now Mumbai). The venture was a failure and he returned back to Badayun where he had ancestral agricultural land. His Africa Ka Musafir is reminiscent of the time he spent there.

Maulana Zafar Ali Khan and Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauher were close friends of his so when the Khilafat Movement began, Mehfooz Sahib took part in it and wrote many satirical and ironical pieces. But Mehfooz Ali Badayuni wrote many pieces under a penname. He used different pennames, such as Sham`a-e-be noor, Mulla-eSoomali, Mulla Ali Katib Budhamui, Mulla Ali Aaq-eSaqqal and some others. His articles would appear in Hamdard, Nageeb, Al-Nazir, Aligarh magazine and Deccan Review.Mehfooz Ali used to write a satirical column `Tajahul-ia`amiyana` in Muhammad Ali Jauher`s newspaper Hamdard.

His ironical style soon made him very popular.Ironyis not saying what you mean. Rather, it usesthe language that conveys the opposite meaning. This style was very conducive when Mehfooz Ali wanted to comment on the political situation and Hindu-Muslim differences, which were surfacing quite powerfully during the Erst quarter of the 20th century a period when numerous political and social movements had taken the subcontinent by storm.

Mehfooz Ali`s writings are a sort of historical record of the burning issues debated in those days,suchas the slaughteringof cows by Muslims, unnecessary use of the English language by the natives, the honorific titles given to the locals by the British and the tussle between western and eastern cultures in India.

His writings were collected in 1956 under the title Mazameene-Mehfooz Ali. A second and fuller text appeared in 1974, titled Mazameen-o-Mayaalaat.

Both were published by Anjuman Tarqqi-e-Urdu.

Mehfooz Ali Badayuni died in Badayun on October20,1943.

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