Renowned Urdu writer, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, passed away on December 25, 2020, due to complications from COVID-19. He was 85. He was one of the tallest figures in the world of Urdu letters and was considered a brilliant Urdu critic, poet, writer, and theorist. Faruqi formulated a modernist framework for evaluating Urdu literature. He introduced modernism in Urdu. He had a keen sense of history and was very appreciative of other people’s work. He was not just a mentor but the greatest resource person for all things that can be done with language, literature, history, poetry, and Indo-Persian history.
Faruqi served as a chief postmaster-general and member of the Postal Services Board in New Delhi until 1994. He was invited many times for the position of Urdu professor in India and abroad.
His Works His works ranged from literary history and criticism to poetry and fiction. Regarded as an authority on llm-e bayan (the science of poetic discourse) and classical poetry, he was also a noted lexicographer. At the age of 15, he had written his first novel, Daldal se Bahar, which was serialised in Meyar, a magazine published from Meerut. He founded a magazine, namely, Shabkhoon in 1966, that he edited for four decades. It gave space to writers who did not agree with the mainstream Progressive Writers’ Movement, and led to Faruqi being dubbed “an agent of the CIA and American-minded, and a person with borrowed ideas”. However, the magazine also gave space to progressive writers, such as Ali Sardar Jafri, Ismat Chughtai, and Rajinder Singh Bedi. He wrote four volumes, analysing the dastan called Saheri, Shahi, Sahibqirani, a feat of scholarship which became the base for the revival of Dastangoi, a form of storytelling. There is a long list of his books in Urdu as well as in English, including 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 Sun that Rose from the Earth (2014).
Faruqi’s novel Kai Chand Thay Sar-e-Asmaan (2006), written in the background of 19th century Delhi, began a new era in Urdu novel. It was translated into English as The Mirror of Beauty in 2013.
Awards He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1986 for his book Tanqidi Afqar, which focuses on modern theories of poetry appreciation. He was awarded the Saraswati Samman for his work Sher-e-Shor Angrez, a four-volume study of the 18th-century poet Mir Taqi Mir, in 1996. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009.