Raghupati Sahay (28 August 1896 – 3 March 1982), also known by his pen name Firaq Gorakhpuri, was an Indian
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
,
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
, and, according to one commentator, one of the most noted contemporary
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
s from India. He established himself among peers including Muhammad Iqbal,
Yagana Changezi
Yagana Changezi (1884–1956) was an Indian Urdu language poet who published several collections over a 30-year period.
Early life
He was born as Mirza Wajid Husain in 1884 in Patna, Bihar. He later settled in Lucknow writing under the name, Y ...
,
Jigar Moradabadi
Ali Sikandar (6 April 1890 – 9 September 1960), known by his pen name as Jigar Moradabadi, was an Indian Urdu poet and ''ghazal'' writer. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958 for his poetry collection "Atish-e-Gul", and was the secon ...
and
Josh Malihabadi
Josh Malihabadi (born Shabbir Hasan Khan; 5 December 1898 – 22 February 1982) popularly known as Shayar-e-Inqalab (poet of revolution) was a Pakistani poet and is regarded as one of the finest Urdu poets of the era of British India. Kno ...
.
Early life and career
Raghupati Sahay was born in Banwarpar village of Gorakhpur district on 28 August 1896 in a well-to-do and educated family. He finished his basic education and then completed his Master's degree in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
and English literature.
Firaq had shown early signs of excellence in Urdu poetry and had always shown attraction towards literature. His contemporaries included famous Urdu poets like
Allama Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...
,
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Faiz Ahmad ''Faiz'' (13 February 1911 – 20 November 1984; Urdu, Punjabi:
فیض احمد فیض) was a Pakistani poet, and author of Urdu and Punjabi literature. Faiz was one of the most celebrated Pakistani Urdu writers of his time. Out ...
,
Kaifi Azmi
Kaifi Azmi (born Athar Husain Rizvi; 14 January 1919 – 10 May 2002) was an Indian Urdu poet. He is remembered as the one who brought Urdu literature to Indian motion pictures. Together with Pirzada Qasim, Jaun Elia and others he participated ...
and
Sahir Ludhianvi
Abdul Hayee (8 March 1921 – 25 October 1980), popularly known by his pen name (takhallus) Sahir Ludhianvi, was an Indian poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described ...
. Yet he was able to make his mark in Urdu poetry at an early age.
He was selected for the Provincial Civil Service (P.C.S.) and the
Indian Civil Service (British India)
The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.
Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...
(I.C.S.), but he resigned to follow
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
's
Non-cooperation movement
The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance.
, for which he went to jail for 18 months. Later, he joined
Allahabad University
, mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees"
, established =
, type = Public
, chancellor = Ashish Chauhan
, vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava
, head_label ...
as a lecturer in
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
. It was there that he wrote most of his Urdu poetry, including his magnum opus ''Gul-e-Naghma'' which earned him the highest literary award of India, the
Jnanpith Award
The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian w ...
All India Radio
All or ALL may refer to:
Language
* All, an indefinite pronoun in English
* All, one of the English determiners
* Allar language (ISO 639-3 code)
* Allative case (abbreviated ALL)
Music
* All (band), an American punk rock band
* ''All'' (All a ...
. After a long illness, he died on 3 March 1982, in
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
.
Gorakhpuri was well-versed in all traditional metrical forms such as
ghazal
The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...
qat'aa
Qat'aa, a form of poetry, is a part of soazkhwani / mersiya-khwani. Qat'aa is also known as Ruba'ee and performed before marsiya-khwani. When Qat'aa, Ruba'ee, Soaz, Salaam and Marsiya
A marsiya ( fa, مرثیه) is an elegiac poem written to c ...
. He wrote more than a dozen volumes of
Urdu poetry
Urdu poetry ( ur, ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the cultures of South Asia. According to Naseer Turabi there are five major poets of Urdu which are Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810), Mirza Ghalib ...
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, as well as four volumes of
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
prose on literary and cultural subjects.
His biography, ''Firaq Gorakhpuri: The Poet of Pain & Ecstasy'', written by his nephew Ajai Mansingh was published by Roli Books in 2015.Books reflect a political fever ''Times of India''. 23 January 2015 The book included anecdotes from his life and translations of some of his work.
Jnanpith Award
The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian w ...
(First Jnanpith Award for Urdu literature)
*1970 –
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is a literary honour in India bestowed by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.Quote: "In his acceptance speech when India's National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) in 1997 conferred its h ...
*1981 – Ghalib Academy Award
Death and legacy
Firaq Gorakhpuri died on 3 March 1982 at age 85.Remembering the greatest Urdu poet since Ghalib, Firaq Gorakhpuri ''India Today''. 3 March 2016 Firaq fought for secularism all his life and played a key role against the then government's effort to label Urdu as a language of the Muslims.