Firaq Gorakhpuri: The Modern Master of the Ghazal
فراق گورکھپوری
Updated
Firaq Gorakhpuri (فراق گورکھپوری, 1896–1982), born Raghupati Sahay, was one of the great renewers of the Urdu ghazal in the twentieth century. He brought to it a modern sensibility and a warm, Indian imagery, and he was the first Urdu writer to receive India's highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award.
Life
Firaq was born in Gorakhpur in 1896. He was selected for the civil service but joined the independence movement instead and was imprisoned in the early 1920s. For most of his working life he taught English literature at Allahabad University, where he was famous as a brilliant and eccentric talker. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Padma Bhushan, and in 1969 the Jnanpith Award for his collection Gul-e-Naghma. He died in Delhi in 1982.
Poetry
Firaq's ghazals speak of love, night, loneliness and the ache of separation (firaq itself means separation) in a voice both classical and intimate. His rubais, collected as Roop, celebrate beauty and domestic love with imagery drawn from Indian life. He also wrote criticism and essays. His work is still in copyright, so we describe rather than quote it here.
Questions and answers
What was Firaq Gorakhpuri's real name?
Raghupati Sahay. Firaq, meaning separation, was his pen-name.
Which award did Firaq Gorakhpuri win?
The Jnanpith Award in 1969, for Gul-e-Naghma, as well as the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Bhushan.
More guides
- What Is a Ghazal? The Urdu Ghazal Explained · How a ghazal is built, what it is about, and who wrote and sang the greatest ones.
- Faiz Ahmad Faiz: Poet of Love and Revolution · The poet who made the ghazal's language of love speak for justice.
- The Great Urdu Poets: From Wali and Mir to Faiz and Faraz · Three centuries of Urdu poetry in one list, with where to read each poet.