Mahfil, vol. 1, no, 1 EDITORIAL Students of South Asia have long recognized the need for a magazine of Indo-Pakistani vernacular literatures in English translation^ Although the need is recognized^ little has been done to meet it. With this first edition of MAHFIL, we come one step closer to realizing the necessity of understanding, communicating, and interacting with the vast corpus of South Asian vernacular literature, the greater part of which seldom gets beyond the borders of India and^ Pakistan^ Literally^ the word mahfil. y from the Arabic, medfcs "a gathering 5" in the case of this quarterly magazine, a gathering of Indo-Pakistani vernacular liter atures^jLn English translation. The purpose of MAHFTL is quite simple: to present to the English-speaking reader tr-ansla-tlons of the most outstanding and most significant literary texts by the most important and most influential writers in the various South Asian languages. We also recognize the English language as a legitimate medium of Indian and Pakistani literary expression^ thus, we will give due attention to outstanding and significant Indisji and Pakistani literature written in English, The bulk of literary material will be drawn from the modern and contemporary literary scene^ this is not to say, however, that we shall be prejudicedto the publication of new translations of older literary works. Due to the limitations of space, we shall be confined, for the most part, to the smaller literary genres: short stories, poetry, and critical articles. The predominance of Urdu material in this issue is sLnply due to the fact that Urdu material was most available to us at the time of editing, and not to any particular prejudice or predisposition to that language on our part, In addition to translations of Indo-Pakistani vernacular literature, we will also publish original critical articles and bibliographies of English sources on various aspects of these literatures. Reviews of books dealing wibh these vernacular literatures will also appear occasionally, Contributions may be addressed to this magazine, Box 39? Foster Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago 37, Illinois^ A blank for a charter subscription to IIA1IFIL will be found on the last page of this issue, THE EDITORS