Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (30 September 1935 – 25 December 2020) was an Indian

Urdu language Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

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 wri ...

, author, critic and

theorist A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be ...

. He is known for ushering

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

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 ...

. He formulated fresh models of literary appreciation that combined western principles of literary criticism and subsequently applied them to

after adapting them to address literary aesthetics native to

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

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

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Shabkhoon.'' Faruqi received the

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

, India's fourth highest civilian honor in 2009. He was also a recipient of the

Saraswati Samman The Saraswati Samman is an annual award for outstanding prose or poetry literary works in any of the 22 languages of India listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India. It is named after the Hindu goddess of knowledge, Saraswati. The Saras ...

, an Indian literary award, for his work ''Sher-e-Shor Angez'' in 1996, and 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 1986 for ''Tanqidi Afqar.''

Early life and education

Faruqi was born on 30 September 1935 in Pratapgarh, in present-day

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 ...

, and was raised in Azamgarh and

Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Rapti river in the Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometers east of the state capital Lucknow. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur dis ...

. He studied at Wellesley High School in Azamgarh and graduated from the Government Jubilee High School in Gorakhpur in 1949. He finished his intermediate education in 1951 from Mian George Islamia Inter College in Gorakhpur. He received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree from Maharana Pratap College in Gorakhpur, and his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

(MA) degree in English literature from

Allahabad University , mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees" , established = , type = Public , chancellor = Ashish Chauhan , vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava , head_label ...

in 1955. He pursued a doctorate in English symbolism and French literature with the poet

Harivansh Rai Bachchan Harivansh Rai Bachchan (; 27 November 1907 19 December 2002) was an Indian poet and writer of the Nayi Kavita literary movement (romantic upsurge) of early 20th century Hindi literature. He was also a poet of the Hindi Kavi Sammelan. He is be ...

as his supervisor, but dropped out after a disagreement with Bachchan.

Career

Faruqi began his writing career in 1960. He founded the Urdu literary magazine '' Shabkhoon'' in 1966, and was its editor and publisher for more than four decades. He was a visiting professor at the South Asia Regional Studies Center at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He was additionally employed by the

Indian Postal Service India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings ...

until his retirement as a

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...

and a member of the Postal Services Board in 1994. An expert in classical prosody and ''‘ilm-e bayan'' (the science of poetic discourse), he contributed to modern literary discourse with a profundity rarely seen in contemporary Urdu critics. He was described as "the century's most iconic figure in the realm of Urdu literature". Some of his notable works included ''Tafheem-e-Ghalib,'' a commentary on Urdu poet

Mirza Ghalib ) , birth_date = , birth_place = Kala Mahal, Agra, Maratha Confederacy , death_date = , death_place = Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, Delhi, British India , occupation = Poet , language ...

'', Sher-e-Shor Angez,'' a four-volume study of 18th century poet Mir Taqi Mir ''and Kai Chand Thay Sar-e-Asmaan.'' Faruqi is noted for ushering in

into Urdu literature through his works. He formulated fresh models of literary appreciation, while absorbing western principles of literary criticism, and subsequently applied them to

after adapting them to address literary aesthetics native to

, and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Through his works, he wrote about the Indian–Muslim way of life through the 18th and 19th centuries. A progressive himself, he spoke against the

burqa A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Examp ...

, hijab, and skull cap worn by conservatives, while continuing to emphasize the need for minority communities to express their own identity within democracies. He considered himself to be an outsider in the Urdu literary establishment, challenging the position of incumbent progressive writers for stifling other writers. He also emphasized the need for language to be a binding force for culture and communities and expressed his concerns that language had been reduced to a tool of identity. He said in an interview, "It is sad that language has become a tool of ownership and hegemony; not the thread that binds people together." His magazine, '' Shabkhoon'' () between 1966 and 2006, aimed at publishing modernist Urdu literature and authors aiming to break the hegemony of the incumbent progressives. Faruqi also translated many of his own works to English. His 2013 novel, ''The Mirror of Beauty,'' was a translation of ''Kai Chand The Sar-e Asman,'' his 2006 Urdu novel. The book chronicled the life of Wazir Khanum, mother of late-19th-century Indian Urdu poet Daagh Dehlvi, and was set in that time's Delhi. The book was shortlisted for the

DSC Prize for South Asian Literature The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is an international literary prize awarded annually to writers of any ethnicity or nationality writing about South AsiaNote: South Asia for the purposes of the prize is defined as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka ...

. His 2014 novel, ''The Sun That Rose from the Earth'', detailed the thriving Urdu literature scene in the Indian cities of Delhi and

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

of the 18th and 19th centuries, and resilience amidst the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

. There is no doubt that he was an iconoclast who was sometimes termed as TS Eliot of Urdu Literature.

Dastaangoi

In addition to his contributions to

, Faruqi is credited with the revival of the Dastangoi, a 16th-century

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' oral storytelling Oral storytelling is an ancient and intimate tradition between the storyteller and their audience. The storyteller and the listeners are physically close, often seated together in a circular fashion. The intimacy and connection is deepened by ...

art form. The art form reached its

zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction ( plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location ( nadir). The zenith is the "high ...

in the Indian sub-continent in the 19th century and is said to have died with the death of Mir Baqar Ali in 1928. Working with his nephew, the writer and director

Mahmood Farooqui Mahmood Farooqui is an Indian writer, performer and director. He specializes in a type of story-telling known as '' Dastangoi''. Farooqui along with his uncle Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, noted Urdu poet and literary critic, revived Dastangoi, the anc ...

, Faruqi helped to modernize the format, and led its revival in the 21st century. Starting in 2004, Farooqui and his Dastangoi group performed in India, Pakistan, and the United States.

Awards

He received the

in 1986 for his book ''Tanqidi Afqar'', which focuses on modern theories of poetry appreciation. He was awarded the

, an Indian literary award, for his work ''Sher-e-Shor Angez'', a four-volume study of the 18th-century poet Mir Taqi Mir, in 1996. He was awarded the

, India's fourth highest civilian honor, in 2009.

Personal life

Faruqi met his future wife, Jamila Hashmi, when she was a student in Allahabad pursuing her master's degree in English literature. She later set up and ran two girls' schools focused on the economically marginalized. The couple had two daughters, Afshan and Baran Faruqi, both of whom are academics. Jamila died in 2007 of complications from hip replacement surgery. Reflecting on the role played by his wife in advancing his career, Faruqi acknowledged that without her influence he would not have been able to invest his efforts in his magazine and stated that in consequence, "my struggle to become a writer of my kind would never have ended." He died on 25 December 2020 in Allahabad due to complications from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. It was announced that he would be buried in the Ashok Nagar cemetery in Allahabad.

Bibliography

* ''Sher, Ghair Sher, Aur Nasr'', (1973) * ''The Secret Mirror'', (in English, 1981) * ''Ghalib Afsaney Ki Himayat Mein'', (1989) *''Tafheem-e-Ghalib'' *''Tanqidi Afqar'' (1982) * ''Sher-e Shor Angez'' (in 3 volumes, 1991–93) * ''Mir Taqi Mir 1722–1810'' (Collected works with commentary and explanation) * ''Urdu Ka Ibtedai Zamana'' (2001) * ''Ganj-i-Sokhta'' (poetry) * ''Sawar Aur Doosray Afsanay'' (2001) * ''Kai Chand Thay Sar-e-Asmaan'' (2006) *''The Mirror of Beauty'' (2013) *''The Sun that Rose from the Earth'' (2014) * ''Ajab Sehar Bayan Tha'' (2018) Published by M R Publications, New Delhi * ''Hamarey Liye Manto Sahab'' (2013) Published by M R Publications, New Delhi * ''Khurshid ka Saman e Safar'' (2016) Published by M R Publications, New Delhi * ''Tanqidi Mamlat'' (2018) Published by M R Publications, New Delhi * ''Majlis e Afaq'' main Parwana Saan (Collecction of Poetry- 2018) Published by M R Publications, New Delhi * ''Sorat o Ma'ani e Sukhan'' (2010, 2021) Published by M R Publications, New Delhi * ''Sahiri Shahi Sahib e Qarani —Dastan Ameer Hamza ka Mutalea - Dastan Dunya -2'', Vol. 5 (2020) Published by M R Publications, New Delhi * ''Afsaney ki Nai Himayat Main'' (2021) Published by M R Publications, New Delhi

References

External links

*

"A Conversation with Literary Critic and Novelist Shamsur Rahman Faruqi", ''New York Times''

Shamsur Rahman Faruqi's profile on Rekhta
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman 1935 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian poets 21st-century Indian male writers 21st-century Indian poets Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India 21st-century Indian Muslims Indian civil servants Jamia Millia Islamia faculty Linguists of Urdu Poets from Uttar Pradesh Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu Recipients of the Saraswati Samman Award University of Allahabad alumni Urdu critics Urdu-language non-fiction writers Urdu-language poets from India People from Pratapgarh district, Uttar Pradesh