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In search of a memorial to the Urdu legend Firaq Gorakhpuri

Hindustan Times, Gorakhpur | ByAbdul Jadid
Aug 28, 2019 09:59 AM IST

Laxmi Nivas, the old, two-storey building in Gorakhpur’s Turkmanpur area, where noted Urdu poet Raghupati Sahay, better known as Firaq Gorakhpuri, grew up and penned some of his immortal creations, is today Saraswati Shishu Mandir, the junior high school run by the RSS since 1980.

This is a story of two houses separated by 20 km and joined by one towering personality – Firaq Gorakhpuri.

Laxmi Nivas, the old, two-storey building in Gorakhpur’s Turkmanpur area, where noted Urdu poet Raghupati Sahay, better known as Firaq Gorakhpuri, grew up and penned some of his immortal creations, is today Saraswati Shishu Mandir, the junior high school run by the RSS since 1980.

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Born on August 28, 1896, in Banwarpar village under Gola Block of Gorakhpur, Firaq, a close friend of former prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, had moved to Laxmi Nivas with his father Gorakh Prasad, a lawyer and poet, in the decade of his birth and spent most of the time in this building with family, honing his poetry skills for decades.

For decades, the building remained a meeting point for writers, poets and freedom fighters for whom Firaq was an inspiration. Eminent People including Moti Lal Nehru, former PM Jawahar Lal Nehru and Rafi Ahmed Qidwai among others would visit Firaq and his father here. In the mid-1930s, following the death of his father, Firaq faced a financial crisis. On his young shoulders fell the responsibilities of marrying off a younger sister and to repay a heavy debt. With no option left, he was forced to sell off Laxmi Nivas before joining as English Professor at Allahbad University (1930 to 1959), said well-known litterateur Jugani Bhai of Gorakhpur.

“In 1934, Firaq Gorakhpuri registered the property in the name of Bala Babu Prasad, a RSS veteran, who later set up Sarasawati Shishu Mandir in the building. After Bala Babu’s death, his sons are looking after the management of the school,” said Atma Singh, a RSS worker, who has been associated with the school for long.

“Firaq’s soul resides in the heart of people of Gorakhpur, but unfortunately, his house (Laxmi Nivas) is yet to be declared as a national heritage,” said Firaq Academy director Anil Srivastava.

About 20 km from Laxmi Nivas, a dilapidated hutment in Banwarpar village is the lone memory of the Urdu poet, who spent 18 months in jail during the freedom movement. He cleared the PCS and ICS exams of British India and joined as a PCS officer. He quit his job during the Non-Cooperation Movement call given by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, and was consequently jailed. To keep his memory alive, a school in his name is being run by the Firaq Gorakhpuri Memorial Trust.

Village head Chhotey Lal Yadav, founder of the trust, said, “We also have a library which houses his selected work. “There is no match of his stature in Urdu poetry. Sadly, we don’t have a good memorial to Firaq, to let the younger generation know about his contribution to poetry, and to the freedom struggle. His couplets instil love, a sense of patriotism and honour towards the country, in the reader,” Yadav said.

Interestingly, though successive governments have made announcements to build a memorial for Firaq, one is yet to come up. In 2012, the SP Government had sanctioned 61 crore for setting up a community centre at his ancestral village, Banwarpar, but the project could not see the light of day. Similarly, last year, the tourism department, under the ministry of culture, had started a survey to develop Firaq’s hutment as tourist place but it couldn’t make any progress.

“Firaq’s stature in Urdu poetry is at par with Ghalib and Meer. The outstanding thing about Firaq was that he was a master of three languages. He was born in the Hindi heartland, became an eminent Urdu poet and went on to be an English professor. His father, Gorakh Prasad, was close to Moti Lal Nehru while Nehru and Indira shared good relations with him. Once Indira Gandhi offered him membership of Rajya Sabha but he declined politely while expressing gratitude,” said Jugani Bhai, as he recites Firaq’s couplet ‘Garaz ki kaat diye zindagi ke din ae dost, wo teri yaad me hon ya tujhe bhulane ko (Therefore I spent the days of my life: in your memory, or to forget you)’.

For his immense contribution to literature, he was conferred with the Sahitya Academy Award in 1961 and the Padam Bhushan in 1967.

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