Gopi Chand Narang: Ambassador of Urdu passes away

Parbina Rashid

Bhasha ka koi mazhab nahi hota” was the line which eminent Urdu scholar, linguist, literary critic and former Chairperson of Sahitya Akademi Gopi Chand Narang would often quote. He established what he believed in with one of his most prominent works, “Urdu Ghazal Aur Hindustani Zehn-o-Tahzeeb”, which traced the origin of ghazal, underlining how the genre evolved with contributions from both Hindus and Muslims.

Cultural divide and decaying of Urdu in the name of religion was on his mind when Chander Trikha, Deputy Chairman, Haryana Urdu Akademi and Director of Haryana Sahitya Akademi, talked to him over the phone four months back.

Narang died on June 15 at the age of 91. He was living with his son Tarun Narang in Charlotte, North Carolina.

So passionate was he about popularising Urdu that he wrote 10 books under title “Let’s Learn Urdu” in English and Hindi for children. He wrote about 60 books. But it was his one of the early works, “Urdu Readings in Literary Urdu Prose” (1968) that made him the most prominent name in Urdu literature.

“Besides being a sensitive and authoritative voice in Urdu, Narang had a cracking sense of humour,” recalls Shams Tabrezi, Urdu poet and writer, who calls Narang his Ustad. The bond was forged between 1981-83 when Narang was the head of the Urdu Department at Jamia Millia Islamia and Tabrezi was a student.

“The best part of Ustad ji was his observation power which was not just reflected in the vast body of his work, but also in the teacher-student relationship he promoted. He was on personal terms with each and every student. It’s a big loss for the already dying Urdu literature,” adds Tabrezi.

Narang was instrumental in introducing generations to the works of Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir and later Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Firaq Gorakhpuri. He was popular among the masses as well as scholars and his contribution to Urdu was recognised by the Government of India with a Padma Bhushan and by the Government of Pakistan with the title of Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) in Pakistan.

The loss has been felt across the nation as Javed Akhtar tweeted, “Prof Narang, the giant of a scholar of Urdu, the ultimate authority on Urdu language, has passed away leaving behind a void which will never be filled.”

Born at Dukki, a village in Balochistan, Narang moved to Delhi after Partition. He joined the Masters in Urdu programme at Delhi University.