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One of the brightest Urdu scholars and linguists Professor Gopi Chand Narang passed away at the age of 91 following a brief illness at Charlotte in North Carolina Wednesday, June 15.
Narang had devoted his life to analyzing the works of Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir and later Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Firaq Gorakhpuri beyond their thematic and typical literary output, while he penned 60 books in his attempt to keep Urdu beyond the machinations of religious strife.
“Bhasha ka koi mazhab nahin hota (Language has no religion),” he would often say.
He is survived by his wife Manorama, two sons Arun, Tarun and grandchildren.
Born in 1930 in the Baluchistan’s Dukki, located on the AfPak border, Narang came to India following the partition and lived in a peon’s house in Delhi’s Karol Bagh area. He was introduced to literature during his early life in Baloch by his father, proficient in Baluchi, Pashto, Sanskrit and Persian.
After joining the Masters in Urdu program in Delhi University, Narang grew close to Professor Khwaja Ahmed Faruqi (who helped him get a research fellowship from the Ministry of Education) and later Dr Zakir Husain (later President of India), Dr Tara Chand and Dr Syed Abid Husain among others.
Armed with the fellowship he earned his doctoral degree in Urdu literature from Delhi University in 1958. Narang then joined the prestigious St. Stephens College, which proved to be a segue to a permanent place in the Delhi University’s Urdu department a year later.
In his long and distinguished career in academia, Narang was a visiting scholar to universities abroad, like the Wisconsin University at Madison, Minnesota University in Minneapolis and Norway’s Oslo University. After Delhi University, he joined the Jamia Milia University as head of the Urdu department. He preferred to live in India where the Urdu language is still spoken.
Urdu Ghazal aur Hindustani Zehn-o-Tehzeeb (Urdu Ghazal and Indian Mind and Culture), considered one of his major treatise explores the origins of the Ghazal, as it comprised the intellectual viewpoints of Hindus and Muslims alike, and not merely restricted to love poetry. The 1968 volume of Readings in Literary Urdu Prose is considered a textbook for teaching of the language.
The Indian government honored him with the Padma Bhushan award in 2004. Earlier, in 1995 he was conferred with the Sahitya Akademi and Ghakib awards. The Pakistan government gave the Sitara-e-Imtiaz award to him in 2012.
The Pakistan-based novelist and short story writer Intizar Husain once said, “When he comes to Pakistan, Professor Gopi Chand Narang represents India in one piece. I can’t say this about anyone else. When he occupies the stage, we feel that India in its entirety is addressing us.”
He held the Professor Emeritus position at the universities of Delhi and Jamia Milia. He also held the position of vice-chairman of the Delhi Urdu Academy, from 1996 to 1999 and the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language from 1998 to 2004. He was the vice-president of the Sahitya Akademi from 1998 to 2002 and its president from 2003 to 2007.
The Jnanpeeth awardee writer Qurratulain Haider had once described him as a “renaissance man” of Urdu.
Urdu magazines and periodicals have dedicated special issues to celebrate the life and works of Narang. Documentaries on his work have been made by Doordarshan and BBC. In recent years, Naran along with author and translator Surinder Deol translated the works of Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib and others.
Hindi writer Kamleshwar said every language needs one Gopi Chand Narang.
“Do paon se chalta dariya, ek paon pe thehri jhill, jhill ki nabhi pe rakhi hai, Urdu ki roshan qindill (A river moving on two legs, a lake balanced on one foot, settled on the navel of the lake is this bright paper lantern of Urdu),” said poet-filmmaker Gulzar.
“Sad to know about the demise of Prof Gopi Chand Narang, well-known Urdu scholar and author. Always an animated conversationalist, with a deep understanding of the history of languages,” tweeted Delhi-based historian S Irfan Habib.
