Firaq Gorakhpuri was born Raghupati Sahay in the year 1896 at Gorakhpur
District of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Born to a family of aristocrats,
Firaq had a taste of Urdu poetry at very tender age. He started writing
poetry in Urdu in teens and developed his own niche in an era that was
marked by the likes of Sahir, Iqbal, Faiz and Kaifi. Although a left
leaning intellectual, Firaq was never an active member of 'Indian
Progressive Writers Association'.
After
a brilliant academic career he was selected into the Provincial Civil
Service but resigned and joined Allahabad University as a lecturer in
English. It was here he wrote most of his Urdu poetry and his
masterpiece 'Gul-e-ra'naa' that fetched him the Jnanpith Award. He
started adding pen name Firaq Gorakhpuri as traditional of the then
poets.
Firaq had been a champion of secularism all his life. He was a chief
crusader against the government's effort to brand Urdu as the language
of Muslim. He was also instrumental in the allocation of funds for the
promotion of the language. Jawahar Lal Nehru nominated him as the member
of Rajya Sabha for his efforts in the promotion of literature and
communal harmony. In his career spanning more than 50 years, Firaq wrote
hundreds of heart wrenching poetries. It included collections such as
Rooh-o-Qaayanat, Gul-e-Ra'naa and Nagma-numaa. This great nationalist
passed away in 1982 after prolonged illness.
