Gulam Rabbani was an Indian lawyer and poet of

Urdu literature Urdu literature ( ur, , ) is literature in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ''ghazal '' غزل and ''nazm '' نظم, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of t ...

who wrote under the nom de plume 'Taban'. He wrote several poems in Urdu, especially

ghazals 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 p ...

, and was known for his works, ''Zauq-i safar'', ''Nava-e-avara'', ''Poetics to politics'' and ''Saz-i larzan''. He received the

Sahitya Akademi award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in 1979 for his work, ''Nava-e-avara''. He was honoured by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

in 1971 with

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.

Biography

Gulam Rabbani was born at

Kaimganj Kaimganj is a town in Farrukhabad district in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. Kaimganj Railway Station is a major station between Farrukhabad and Kasganj on Rajputana railway link of North Eastern Railway. Description Kaimganj is just 10&nb ...

, a small hamlet in

Farrukhabad district Farrukhabad district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in Northern India. The town of Fatehgarh is the district headquarters. The district is part of Kanpur Division. Farrukhabad is situated between Lat. 26° 46' N & 27° 43' N and Lo ...

in the Indian state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

on 15 February 1914 in a rich family of

Zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

s. He did his early schooling at the local village school and passed the intermediate examination from

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Allygarh, and Kol) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district, and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capita ...

. He graduated from

St. John's College, Agra St. John's College is a constituent college of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University, located in Agra. It is a Christian college under the Church of North India. It was established by the Church Mission Society to Agra. The college admits both und ...

where he mixed with students most of whom were attracted to leftist ideology and took a degree in law. Rabbani started writing during the college days under the pseudonym, ''Farchat'' but later, changed it to ''Taban''. His leftist leanings got him into trouble with the British authorities and post independence, with the Indian law and order and he had to suffer incarceration on two occasions. Around this time, he joined ''Maktaba-e-Jamia'', a Delhi-based publishing group and took to serious writing. He stayed with the organization for a number of years as its general manager till his retirement in 1975. After retirement, he continued writing while engaging in journalism as well. The

awarded him the civilian honour of

in 1971. He received the

in 1979 for his anthology, ''Nava-e-avara''. Rabbani had three sons and three daughters. Azra Rizvi, one of his daughters, was among the trio of writers, the others being Ajmal Ajmali and Sughra Mehdi, who wrote Rabbani's biography published by Mahnamah Kitab Numa, New Delhi in 1993 under the name, ''Ghulam Rabbani Taban : shakhsiyat aur adabi khidmat''. He died in 1992.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taban, Gulam Rabbani Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu 1914 births 1992 deaths Indian people of Pashtun descent People from Farrukhabad district Poets from Uttar Pradesh 20th-century Indian lawyers Urdu-language poets from India Indian male poets 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian male writers

Biography

See also

References

Further reading

External links