Ali Sardar Jafri Ali Sardar Jafri was born in Balrampur in 1913 in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, into a devout muslim family of landlords. His early influences were Josh Malihabadi, Jigar Moradabadi and Firaq Gorakhpuri. By the 30s, he was a well-known poet. Jafri was one of the pioneers of the Progressive Writers’ Movement which was founded in 1936. In 1942 he left for Bombay and spent most of his life in this metropolis. A friend of revolutionary Turkish poet Nazim Hikmat and Nobel Prize winner Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, Jafri remained the leader of progressive Urdu writers till the end. Jafri also came to be respected as an editor of critical editions of the works of Mir Taqi Mir and Ghalib, the two poets who influenced the course of Urdu poetry the most. He also edited the works of Kabir and Meera. Jafri wrote erudite introductions to all these books, establishing himself as an unusually insightful critic. Ali Sardar Jafri was honoured by many awards, some of them the highest in the land. The Government of India conferred upon him the PadamShri. He also received the Iqbal Samman, the highest award of Madhya Pradesh and ultimately he was honoured with the utmost mark of distinction for literature the Gyanpeeth Award. In 1986 the same Aligarh University that had expelled him on account of his participation in the freedom struggle, conferred on him the D. Litt. (Dr. of Literature). He was also honoured by the Government of Pakistan with the governments Iqbal Award. Ali Sardar Jafri was steeped in the best traditions of secularism and symbolized the essential unity of mankind. He died in August 2000.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 19:38:28 +0000
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