Ali Sardar Jafri (English: Ali Sardar Jafri, born: November 29, 1913; death: August 1, 2000) was a famous Urdu language litterateur. He was honored with the Jnanpith Award in 1997.
November must have definitely been a memorable month for the famous poet Ali Sardar Jafri, who was born on 29 November 1913. Sardar was born in Balrampur village of Gonda district and received his education there till high school. For further studies he took admission in Aligarh Muslim University. Here he got the company of famous and emerging poets of that time, including writers like Akhtar Hussain Raipuri, Sibte-Hassan, Jazbi, Majaz, Janisar Akhtar and Khwaja Ahmed Abbas.
When was there any Sardar in your gathering before this?
Many Ahle-Sukhans arose, many Ahle-Kalams came.
This was the period when the freedom movement against the British had started and many youth had jumped into this movement. At the same time, Sardar was expelled from the university for leading a strike against the members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council. Continuing his studies further, he completed B.A. from Anglo-Arabic College, Delhi. Passed and later M.A. from Lucknow University. Got the degree. Nevertheless, his enthusiasm to participate in student movements did not diminish. As a result he had to go to jail. It was in this jail that he met Sajjad Zaheer of the Progressive Writers Association and got the opportunity to study the literature of Lenin and Marx. It was from here that his thinking and guidance also got solid ground. Similarly, due to his communist ideology, he joined the Progressive Writers Association, where he got the opportunity to know and understand the thoughts of Indian literary writers like Premchand, Rabindranath Tagore, Faiz Ahmed ‘Faiz’, Mulkraj Anand and foreign thinkers like Neruda and Louis Aranga. The effect of the association with many scholars was that Sardar became a poet in whose heart the sorrows and pains of the working people resided.
Wherever Sardar lived, his writing continued. As a result, apart from eleven poetry collections, four prose collections, two story collections and one play, he contributed many poems and prose to literary magazines. But his fame emerged as a poet who started the tradition of free verse poetry in Urdu poetry. That is why many of his creations; Like Parwaaz, Nayi Duniya Ko Salaam, Khoon Ki Lakir, Aman Ka Sitara, Asia Jag Utha, Patthar Ke Deewar and Mera Safar have gained fame. He has also made beautiful use of symbols, images and myths in his works. Although Sardar has used Persian more in his poetry, yet his poems reached the common people and were highly accepted. The prowess of his pen is recognized not only in the country but also in the international literary world.
This great poet used his pen throughout his life to highlight the problems of the oppressed and toiling poor, for which he also had to endure personal tortures. By the time he reached the age of 86, he was suffering from brain tumor in the last days of his life and struggled with death in a Mumbai hospital for several months.
