Urdu literature refers to the literature in the Urdu standard of the Hindostani language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ghazal غزل and nazm نظم, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of the short story, or afsana افسانہ. Urdu literature is mostly popular in Pakistan, where Urdu is the national language and India, where it is a recognized language.
Mirza Beg Asadullah Khan (1797–1869), also known as Mirza Ghalib, was an Indian poet. He was popularly known by the pen names Ghalib and Asad. His honorific was Dabir-ul-Mulk, Najm-ud-Daula. During his lifetime, the already declining Mughal Empire was eclipsed and displaced by the British East India Company rule and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian Rebellion of 1857; these are described through his work.
Raghupati Sahay, also known by his pen name Firaq Gorakhpuri, was an Indian writer, critic, and, according to one commentator, one of the most noted contemporary Urdu poets from India. He established himself among peers including Muhammad Iqbal, Yagana Changezi, Jigar Moradabadi and Josh Malihabadi.
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi was an Indian Urdu language poet, author, critic, and theorist. He is known for ushering modernism to Urdu literature. He formulated fresh models of literary appreciation that combined Western principles of literary criticism and subsequently applied them to Urdu literature after adapting them to address literary aesthetics native to Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Some of his notable works included Sher-e-Shor Angez (1996), Ka’i Chand The Sar-e Asman (2006), The Mirror of Beauty (2013), and The Sun that Rose from the Earth (2014). He was also the editor and publisher of the Urdu literary magazine Shabkhoon.
Gopi Chand Narang was an Indian theorist, literary critic, and scholar who wrote in Urdu and English. His Urdu literary criticism incorporated a range of modern theoretical frameworks including stylistics, structuralism, post-structuralism, and Eastern poetics.
The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is a literary honour in India bestowed by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters. It is the highest honour conferred by the Akademi on a living writer, the number of fellows at no time exceeding 21. Elected from among writers thought by the Akademi to be of acknowledged merit, the fellows are sometimes described as the "immortals of Indian literature."
Syed Ali Jawad Zaidi was an Indian Urdu poet, scholar, and author of over 80 books in several languages. He was also an Indian independence activist, lawyer and later, a civil servant, but is best known for his work in Urdu literature.
Malik Ram Baveja (1906–1993) was a renowned Urdu, Persian and Arabic scholar from India. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his monumental work Tazkirah-e-Muasireen.
Zahid Hussain, better known by the pen name Wasim Barelvi, is an Indian Urdu-language poet. He was born in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. His ghazals, many sung by Jagjit Singh, are very popular. He has been awarded with the "Firaq Gorakhpuri International Award", the Kalidas gold medal ; the Begum Akhtar Kala Dharmi award; and the Naseem-e-Urdu award. Barelvi is Vice Chairman of the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL). He has also performed at Culrav 2012. He is also Member of Legislative Council of Uttar Pradesh since 2016.
Abdul Qavi Desnavi was an Indian Urdu language writer, critic, bibliographer and linguist. He wrote many books on Urdu literature. His works included about Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Mirza Ghalib and Allama Muhammad Iqbal. He was awarded with several awards for his literary works.
Pavan K. Varma is an Indian diplomat, politician, and author who served as an ambassador to Bhutan and Cyprus.
Syed Taqi Hassan Abedi is an Indian-Canadian physician who is also poet and scholar of the Urdu language.
Rehana Khatoon is an Indian scholar, teacher of Persian language, former Head of the Department of Persian, University of Delhi and the author of Encyclopaedia of Persian Language and Literature . She was honoured by the Government of India, in 2014, by bestowing on her the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her contributions to the propagation of Persian language and literature. Rehana Khatoon is the first woman alumni of the Aligarh Muslim University to be awarded the Padma Shri.
Nazir Ahmed (1915-2008) was an Indian scholar, writer, and teacher of the Persian language. He was honoured by the Indian Government in 1987 with the Padma Shri. He received this award for his contributions to the propagation of Persian Language and literature.
Ahmad Ali Barqi Azmi was an Indian poet in the Urdu language. His poetic collections included Rooh-e-Sukhan. Professionally, he served in the Persian service of All India Radio, New Delhi. He devoted his life to furtherance of the Urdu language and its literary culture.
Ale Ahmad Suroor (1911-2002) was an Urdu poet, critic and professor from India. He is best known for his literary criticism. In 1974 he was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award by the Government of India for his literary critic work, Nazar aur Nazariya. In 1991 he was also awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award. He was awarded a special gold medal by the President of Pakistan on the centenary of the birth of Muhammad Iqbal.
Syed Hasan was an Indian writer, scholar and professor of Persian language and literature from Patna, Bihar. He was a great scholar "steeped into Persian". He headed the Persian Department of Patna University from 1972 to 1978. In 1954–55, he was awarded a scholarship under the Government of India Foreign Languages Scholarships Scheme for Studying in Iran.
Shamim Hanafi was an Indian Urdu critic, dramatist and a proponent of modernist movement in Urdu literature. His books on modernism include The Philosophical Foundation of Modernism and New Poetic Tradition. He was associated with the Jamia Millia Islamia to the extent of becoming a professor emeritus.
Syed Hasan Askari was an Indian historian. His literary work was recognized by the Indian government and focused on medieval Sufism, the regional history of Bihar, and aspects of cultural history of medieval India. He authored, edited and translated more than 250 articles, research papers, forewords, prefaces, and book reviews, which have been awarded by the Indian government and published in multiple journals, books and proceedings.
Rekhta is an Urdu literary web portal started by Rekhta Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Urdu literature. The Rekhta Library Project, its books preservation initiative, has successfully digitized approximately 200,000 books over a span of ten years. These books primarily consist of Urdu, Hindi and Persian literature and encompass a wide range of genres, including biographies of poets, Urdu poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. The collection originates from public and research libraries in the Indian subcontinent. It serves content in multiple scripts such as Devanagari, Roman and, primarily, Nastaliq. It hosts books from centuries earlier and is recognized as the largest website in the world for the preservation of Urdu literature.
