EDITORIAL
A right
to retaliate !
From American call
for 'restraint', Chinese 'advice' to contribute
'positively', to Britain crying about the
'nuclear threat' to parties inside the country
urging the Government to try out the dead-beat
diplomatic channels and the recent advice by
Sonia Gandhi to the Government to 'behave
responsibility' all show a willful
misunderstanding of India's right to reply to
persistent subversion being actively carried out
upon its territory. Clearly vested interests,
both within the country and outside it, are
trying to confuse India's right to retaliate
against the undeclared war unleashed against its
people and territory with war-mongering. Either
you deny that Pakistan has a hand there, or
accept that India has a right-- an inalienble,
undeniable right-- to reply, to retaliate, to
protect itself. There is no middling path there.
No country, no party, no interest can hold that
Pakistan is meddling in Indian affairs and then
call out to India tobe patient, to observe
restraint, to behave responsibly. It is
illogical, irrational, unjust to tie India down
while Pakistan goes on with the subversion.
Now the primary
point is whether Pakistan is meddling there or
not. For one thing Pakistan has never denied that
its hands are not dirty there. Musharraf even
talked of 'avenging Bangladesh' on his Agra
visit. Then there are the reports of British and
American intelligence agencies, which describe in
intimate detail how, when and where Pakistan
trained, armed and sent terrorists into the Jammu
and Kashmir state. There are tons of evidence
collected by Indian intelligence and security
personnel about the active involvement of
Pakistan army, intelligence and establishment in
the terrorism raging in Kashmir. Till WTC attack,
the Kashmir jihad was the national objective in
Pakistan. It still is, but the Pak Government is
not talking from the rooftops about, it now. Does
that change the reality? Does that tactical
silence exonerate Pakistan? Does it show that
Pakistan has desisted from playing the godfather
to these terrorists? Does the American
intelligence agency give Pakistan a clean chit?
If it did, then probably Indian evidence would
have to be weighed. But here we have independent
collaborating evidence of the Indian plaint.
Anybody who cares would find all about the Pak
hand in terrorist activities in India in any
Pakistan paper.
In one word, Pak
hand and involvement-active, continuing
involvement- in Kashmir is 'undeniable'. Had
Musharraf moved an inch in clamping down on these
terrorists, had the establishment there shown an
iota of sincerity in reining in the terrorists,
had it even just tried, there would have been a
case for restraint, or patience, or giving that
establishment more time to tackle the issue.
Pakistan Government is not proving very effective
in controlling the intra-State terrorism. It has
not been able to protect America, French or
British nationals or interests. But it is trying.
And that is reasonable, fair. Pakistan is working
side by side with the Americans to control the
terrorists there. It is committed to weeding out
'terrorists of America', and that is all that
matters. Pakistan is not committed, has not yet
committed itself, to controlling the terrorists
of India'. She is not even ready to do that. It
calls the Pakistani zealots of LeT and JeM,
'freedom fighters' for Kashmir to give them
alibis. Far from decrying them, the president,
his cabinet, his diplomats and army-men...all,
are inventing excuses for the terrorists out to
destabilize India. It is not 'tension' at border,
but subversion inside Indian Territory that
worries India. Would anybody, any sane, logical,
rational person denies India the right to
retaliate for this stark subversion? Would
anybody advise India to remain silent on this
clear, crass consistent invasion of her
sovereignty? Can anyone justly do that ?
Late
remembrance !
In those dark ages
selling and buying nations and states was a
commonplace thing. The Afghans during their
half-century of rule over Kashmir sold it dozens
of times to the highest bidder. Most of the time
the bidder had to be one of particularly mean
disposition so that he could 'teach the Kashmiris
good lessons' and make them behave towards their
Afghan masters. Except the half a decade of Raja
Sukhjivan's semi-independent and independent
rule, the sixty-six years after the mid of
eighteenth century were the darkest period of
Kashmir history. The tales of cruelty, despotism
, and raging tyranny unleashed upon Kashmiris
during the Afghan rule are the spine-chilling.
They are told to this day with thankfulness for
Ranjit Singh's general who finally released the
Valley and its adjoining areas from this barbaric
grip. Maharaja Gulab Singh had also the credit of
consolidating this State in its present shape.
For the first time, Ladakh became part of this
northern State under the Dogra rule.
Yet Maharaja Gulab
Singh has been unloved for long for having
'bought' this State, especially the valley of
Kashmir from the English Amritsar Treaty had been
point and focus of 'freedom struggle' in this
State when we should have been acknowledging him
for getting the State out of the clutches of the
Afghans and the English. But history has its own
ways. Accordingly one of the greatest warriors
and rulers of this State remained virtually
unacknowledged. He easily did more for the State
than the wastrel Yousef Shah Chak. Though scions
of the Dogra family have enjoyed, and enjoy,
political power by virtue of belonging to
Maharaja Gulab Singh's family, the founder has
been willfully ignored. The decision of the State
Government to allot a site for erection of a
statue of Maharaja Gulab Singh is a late but due
recognition to one of the outstanding sons of
this State. It would, however, have been more
appropriate if his statue had been situated
somewhere nearer the city instead of the distant
Kunjwani.
|
 |
Electing
the first citizen of India
By Daya Sagar
Indian
polity over last five decades has shown
exemplary commitment and maturity while
electing the President of India.
Political parties in India have many a
time played the number games and have not
remained true to the cause and the faith
imposed by the voter. But when ever it
has been the question of extreme national
cause they have surprised the world and
this has surely been the case in case of
Elections to the highest office of the
President of the Indian Union. At no time
dirty politics and political gamesmanship
has taken the lead in this regard.
Constitution
is over People's verdict :
Responding
to the submission of Jayalalitha's
counsel that despite her conviction
people have overwhelmingly voted for her
party knowing well that if it came to
power, she would be the Chief Minister, a
five judge constitutional bench had said
on 6-9-01, ''We are not concerned with
the mandate of the people. Constitution
is supreme. That is what we are
interpreting, not the people's mandate''.
The bench comprising Justice S P
Bharucha, Justice G B Pattnaik, Justice
Ruma Pal andJustice Brijesh Kumar told Mr
K K Venugopal, ''restrict yourself to
law; people's verdict cannot be more
supreme than the Constitution.''
Constitution
places the President Exclusively :
Article
(53) of Constitution of India states that
the executive power of the Union shall be
vested in the President and shall be
exercised by him directly or through
officers subordinate to him in accordance
with the Constitution. Nothing in this
Article shall prevent Parliament from
conferring by law functions on
authorities other than President
(53-clause 3b). Supreme command of the
Defence Forces of the Union shall be
vested in the President (53-Clause 2).
Ordinarily the executive power
(functions) connotes the residue of
governmental functions that remain after
legislative and judicial fun ctions are
taken away subject to the provisions
Constitution or any law.
Under the
provisions of Article 58(2 clause)
(qualifications for election as
President) a person shall not be eligible
for election as President of India if he
holds any office of profit under
government of India or the government of
any State or under any local or other
authority subject to control of any of
said governments. It is to be noted
that holding an office of profit under a local
or other authority is not a
disqualification for the candidature for
membership of Union or State Legislature
(Article 102: 191) but it has been made a
disqualification for election as
President (Article 58) or Vice President
(Article 66).
He
is not member of Parliament :
Article
59- clause 1 (conditions of President's
office) lays down that the president
shall not be the member of either house
of a Parliament or of a House of a
Legislature of any State or if a member
of either house is elected as a President
he shall be deemed to have vacated his
seat in that house on the date on which
he enters upon his office as President.
The case is not so in the case of the
Elected Speaker of Lok Sabha, an office
supposed to be without any commitment of
the type of political affiliations.
The house
of the people or Lok Sabha under the
provisions of Article (93) of Indian
Constitution choose the speaker and
deputy speaker by majority vote of the
members present out of the members of the
House as elected and Speaker or the
Deputy Speaker shall vacate the office as
and when they cease to be members of the
House as laid down in Article (94) and
may be removed from office (Article 94
clause -9 c) by a resolution as passedby
the majority of all the members of the
house were he too has the right to vote
(Article 96-2) where as whenever Speaker
is in the Chair and any other resolution
is voted, the Speaker has only a Casting
vote in case of a need.
A
defender of Constitution :
Under
Article 60 of constitution of India every
President has to make and subscribe an
oath or affirmation before entering the
office that ''I will faithfully execute
the office of the President of India and
will to the best of my ability preserve,
protect and defend the constitution and
law and that I will devote myself to
service and well being of people of
India.''
Article
(72) of Indian Constitution empowers the
President to grant pardon, reprieves,
respites or remissions of punishment or
to suspend, remit or commute the sentence
of any person convicted of any offence
and the power of the president to commute
any sentence is not subject to any
constitutional or judicial restraints
except that it can not be used to enhance
the sentence.
Decisions
taken still hold :
And to add
to it under Article (71) all doubts and
disputes arising out of or in connection
with the election of the President or
Vice-President shall be inquired and
decided by the Supreme Court whose
decision shall be final and the clause
(2) of the said article further says that
if the elction of the person is declared
void by the supreme court, the acts done
by him in the exercise and performance of
the powers and duties of the office of
President or Vice President, as the case
may be on or before the date of the
decision of supreme court shall not be
invalidated by reasons of that
declaration.
Impeachment
not so easy :
And to add
to this when a President is to be
impeached for violation of the
Constitution provision exists under
Article (61). The charge could be
preferred by either house of the
Parliament but no such charge shall be
preferred unless the proposal to prefer
such charge is contained in a resolution
which has been moved after atleast
fourteen days notice in writing signed by
not less than one fourth of the total
members of the House has been given for
their intention to move the resolution
and such resolution has been passed by a
majority of not less than two thirds of
the total (not as present )membership of
the House, and when the charge has been
preferred by either house of the
Parliament the other House shall
investigate the charge. President shall
have the right to appear and to be
represented; and then if a result of the
investigation the resolution is passed by
the House by two thirds of the total
membership of the House by which the
charge was investigated, such resolution
will have the effect removing the
President from his office from the date
the resolution was passed.
President
has been provided extreme immunities :
His person
before entering the office of President,
during the days he is in the office and
even after he retires from office has to
be undisputed socially and
constitutionally, he has to be
uncontroversial, guiding elderly and
representative of National values.
Carrying
hardest responsibility :
So when
ever the politicians have to elect a
President they have to carry hardest of
the responsibilities, more particularly
in the days that the 10th Lok Sabha and
thereafter have seen. No principles are
carried; only wishes to oppose the other
group are carried through the numbers.
Fortunately so far the Election to the
office of President has been left out of
the simple number game.
Indians
so far could be proud :
And of
course Indians should be proud of the
maturity as shown by Indian politicians
in this regard over the years. Those
seated in the Chair have stood to
expectations and the honour of India.
They have handled the difficult issues in
an elderly manner and remained away from
the controversies while in office and
even after leaving the office.
How
could it be so
How could
it be so when this day the same
politician who is so disliked by the
people in general in view of his
(politician) selfish and irresponsible
behaviour as shown outside as well on the
floor of the Legislature selects elects
the President? one would so simply ask,
rather whole world mutely wonders. Surely
many lessons are contained in it.
Atleast
selfishness and wickedness that the
political system has shown many a time
has been found nearly absent from the
minds of the Indian Political leaders
while making a choice for the President
and Vice President of India. The immunity
to political and public criticism as is
provided to the Office of President of
India is nearly ultimate and the person
of those holding this office has to be
seriously observed before trying the
hands of the citizens on their back in
providing immunity to the person of
President.
Still
not so easy to dream :
Rather in
President we install an elder friend,
philosopher, guide, command-cell and
almost a symbol of moral as well as
national integrity. He has to be non
controversial all along his service in
office and for this his career prior to
taking the seat can not be left untouched
since his acts of past, his associations
and contacts of previous years, his
statements and views expressed regarding
major issues of national interest at
earlier occasions, and opinions one
carried even in personal capacity would
provide opportunities for some to
question and comment and this has be kept
to any of even the remotest possibility.
Destiny is
made to rest in him, may be for a day,
but does rest. So the office of President
of India should not be so easily dreamt
of though the election rests in the
number game.
|
US
alarmed by July 4 threat
By B L Kak
The US
administration, the CIA in particular,
has been thrown into a fix, with
the threat of yet another attack by
Islamic terrorists. Terrorist attack is
being planned against a US nuclear power
plant to coincide with the July 4
celebrations. US officials are taking the
threat seriously, even as they are of the
view that it is not necessarily wholly
reliable.
A plot, US
intelligence sources have been quoted as
saying, has been hatched against America
by Al-Qaeda. And the claims of the plot
were obtained by US intelligence agencies
in the first week of May. It coincides
with other recent reports indicating that
two Al-Qaeda terrorists are planning an
attack inside the United States using
radioactive material in a conventional
bomb.
The
nuclear plant threat indicated that an
unidentified Islamic terrorist group is,
according to the US media reports,
planning to attack the Three Mile Island
(TMI) nuclear facility in Pennsylvania,
or another nuclear facility in the region
or elsewhere in the Northeast. The
Washington Times gave a clearer
picture: The intelligence on the nuclear
plant targetting followed earlier
intelligence obtained from Abu Zubaydah,
31, who was wounded in a shootout with
Pakistani police on March 28. Zubaydah
was captured during a raid on a terrorist
safe haven in Pakistan. He is considered
a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden and
the organizer of terrorist training camps
inside Afghanistan.
There are
66 nuclear power facilities in the United
States. The TMI plant is located 10 miles
southeast of Harrisburg. The Beaver
Valley nuclear facility, about 17 miles
west of McCandless, and Peach Bottom
nuclear facility, near Lancaster, are
also located in Pennsylvania. The TMI
facility was the site of a serious
nuclear accident in 1979. A malfunction
in a water system used for steam
generators caused meltdown within a
reactor core, setting offthe release of
radioactive gas. However, despite a
national frenzy of fear and speculation,
there were no injuries due to radiation
exposure.
The
captured Al-Qaeda operations chief
revealed that two of his terrorists were
operating in a secret cell within the
United States and were planning an
attack. Zubaydah, who is also known for
his anti-India feeling, disclosed that an
American and an African national were
planning to construct a radiological
bomb-a conventional bomb fortified with
radioactive material to increase its
lethality-for the attack. The men were to
obtain radioactive material covertly from
a nuclear power plant or other nuclear
waste or weapons facility.
Does
Zubaydah want to enhance his credibility
by supplying some good information? Or
could it be part of a larger deception
effort? These two questions have engaged
the attention and energy of the CIA and
FBI. Some specialists from these two
agencies believe that the African
national described by Zubaydah is already
in custody. He was among the hundreds of
people arrested in the United States
after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The attack
on the nuclear plant was initially
scheduled for May 1, but no attack was
carried out on that date. Later
intelligence reports indicated that the
mission was set to be carded out on July
4. TMI was one of the places named in the
threat warnings. The problem is that the
date keeps changing, some American
officials have admitted. They say that
there have been at least two instances in
the past several weeks where Middle
Eastern nationals were spotted
‘easing’ US nuclear facilities.
In one, an Arab couple with a child was
seen photographing a building housing
regulators of nuclear power plants. A
second instance involved an outdoor
gathering of Arabs near a nuclear power
facility.
The
intelligence report, naturally, led to a
recent warning to FBI counter-terrorism
units around America and to US nuclear
power facilities to be on the alert for
possible strikes related to nuclear
plants. The US Defence Secretary, Mr
Donald H Rumsfeld, has already let it be
known that US military forces
‘control’ Zubaydah and have
provided him with medical care. And Mr
Rumsfeld’s disclosure: "We
intend to get every single thing out of
him to try to prevent terrorist acts in
the future".
It is an
open secret that the US Government has
been engaged, since September 11, in
major emergency planning for a
large-scale terrorist attack inside the
nation.
"Everything
we are planning for involves a future
attack with weapons of mass
destruction", The Washington
Times quoted an official as saying.
And the unnamed official’s obvious
reference was to nuclear, chemical,
biological or radiological weapons in the
possession of Islamic terrorists.
A common
feature of Al-Qaeda terrorists working in
some 60 nations is that most of them
received military and terrorist training
in camps in Afghanistan, Zubaydah has
also been reported to have told US
intelligence officials that Al-Qaeda was
planning attacks on banks in the
northeastern United States and that
supermarkets and shopping malls are
targets.
At a time
when the US has intensified the drive
against Islamic terrorists, particularly
the ones associated with the Al-Qaeda
network, Washington has been confronted
with a controversy over arms for the
wrong war. In other words, the future of
the Crusader, a self-propelled, high-tech
cannon planned for delivery in 2008. It
is the most advanced artillery system in
the world. It can shoot 10 shells a
minute at targets more than 30 miles away
on battlefields where American air power
is limited b y advanced antiaircraft
weapons.
If the US
Army were still facing the Soviet Union
across Central Europe or contemplating
battle against a similar military power
in the coming decade, the Crusader would
be indispensable. But the threat has
changed and the Crusader programme, with
a price tag of 11 billion dollars, is not
needed. Some defence specialists want it
to be cancelled. Some 2 billion dollars
have already been spent on it. But that
is no reason to keep pouring money into a
system whose utility would be limited, at
best, when there are so many other
weapons needs that must be fulfilled.
Increased military spending in a
dangerous world makes sense, but it must
be for systems that can truly protect the
concerned country and its armed forces.
|
Gopi
Chand Narang: Eminent Urdu scholar and
writer
By Ashok
K Choudhury
Prof. Gopi
Chand Narang, one of the outstanding Urdu
scholars of the country, occupies a
prominent place among the critics and
linguists of Urdu for the impressively
wide range of his research. "He was
the first in India to apply stylistics
and structuralism to literary
criticism", says Ali Jawad Zaidi. A
Professor of Urdu and a National Fellow,
he is a many-sided scholar, writer, and
literary critic, linguist and academic.
Recognition
has come to him from many sides.
Recently, Majlis Farege Urdu Adab, Qatar,
announced its 7th Award for Prof Narang.
The Award carrying an amount of Rs 1.5
lakhs and engraved gold plaque and a
citation, will be presented to him at a
special function in Dhoa Qatar. The
prestigious award was earlier conferred
on eminent Indian litterateurs like
Quarraitulain Hyder, Ale Ahmed Suroor,
and Kalidas Gupta Raj.
His works
cover a wide range of interest from the
influence of Indian thought and culture
on Urdu poetry, and Indian folk-tales in
Urdu ‘Masnavis’
to modern Urdu poetry and fiction. His
literary criticism is marked by a high
degree of originality and depth of
thought. A distinguishing feature is his
application of stylistics and
structuralism to Urdu literary criticism,
by which he was provided new insights,
and a new awareness of tradition and
modernity in Urdu literature.
Muhiuddin
Zore was the first Urdu scholar to take
up phonetic analysis of Urdu sound in his
treatise in English entitled ‘Hindustani
Phonetics’ published
from Paris in 1930 and in Urdu entitled ‘Hindustani
Lisaniyat’ in 1993. Masud
Hussain Khan had published another
treatise in English entitled ‘Phonetic
and Phonological study of words in
Urdu’. Besides Masud Khan
and Zore, a number of substantial
articles on various aspects of Urdu
language and general linguistics were
contributed by many other scholars and
writers. However, Prof Narang, author of Karkhandari
Dialect of Delhi Urdu, has
written articles on stylistics and
established a new school of literary
criticism.
Over a
period of five decades, Prof Narang has
produced fifty books of erudite research
in Urdu, Hindi and English published in
India and abroad. These works fall into
two main categories: language and
linguistics, and criticism and research.
In linguistics, his ‘Karkhandari
Dialect of Delhi Urdu’ and Urdu Ki
Talim Ke Lisaniyat Pahlu, both
published in 1961, and his work in Urdu
Orthography are praiseworthy. His Hindustani
Qisson se Makhooz Urdu Masnaviyan,
a book of criticism, published in 1962
which is an important socio-cultural
study that brings to light the deep
involvement of our literature in Indian
themes and its rich cultural heritage,
won him the ‘Ghalib Prize’, for
doing the best research work of the year,
awarded by the U.P. Urdu Academy.
Through
structural analysis, Prof Narang has
highlighted the poetical trend of the
symbolic use of the motifs and associated
with Karbala for expressing present day
socio-political concerns in Saneha-e-Karbala
Bataure Sher'ri Iste'are (1986).
His Saakhtiyaat,
Pas-Saakhtiyaat aur Mahriqi She'iryaat (1994)
is regarded as a major and significant
contribution to India literary criticism
in Urdu. It is a work of profound thought
offering indepth analysis of literature
and poetics. For the vastness of its
discourse, its critical examination of
various literary paradigms and its
polemical rigour, it won him the
‘Sahitya Akademi Award’ in
1995.
Prof
Narang’s Amir Khusrau Ke
Hindavi Kalam, which unearths a
hitherto unknown manuscript of
Khusrau’ Hindavi riddles found in
the Berlin MSS of the Sprenger
Collection, was published by the Amir
Khusrau Society, Chicago, in 1987. Its
first and second editions in 1991 and
third edition in 1992 were published from
Lahore and Delhi, respectively. Adabi
Tangeed aur Usloobiyaat (1989), his major
critical work, has received wide acclaim.
Urdu
Language and Literature: Critical
Perspective (1991), presents
select studies of Prof Narang on Urdu
literature, both classical and
contemporary. Earlier, his articles on
this subject were published in Indian
Literature, Journal of the American
Oriental Society, Hindustan Times, Indian
Poetry Today. Seminar, and the
Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern
Studies. The articles run
through a full gamut by touching upon
various phases of the development of Urdu
as a composite cultural expression of the
people in the subcontinent and as one of
the most popular vehicles of our national
freedom struggle.
The
studies range from the ghazal, the
masnavi, suffism, Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz,
Firaq Gorakhpuri and also carries a
substantial section in Urdu fiction and
includes his seminal study on the
metaphorical and mythical roots of
Rajinder Singh Bedi. Besides, it includes
a section of Urdu language comprising
studies in the place of Urdu in the Three
Language Formula, and the development and
use of writing system across cultures
discussing the unique problems involved
in adopting the Semitic - Iranian
orthographical model for an indigenous
Indo-Aryan language.
As an able
editor and compiler, Prof Narang has
edited and compiled many books for
various Institutions of national repute.
He has edited an Anthology of Modern Urdu
Poetry (1981) for the Indian Council for
Cultural Relations. He was the Editor,
Urdu Section, ‘Masterpieces of
Indian Literature’,
published in 1997 the National Book Trust
which was brought out as a special
offering to mark the Golden Jubilee
celebrations of India’s
Independence. He has also written Puranon
Ki Kahaniyan (1976) in the
National Book Trust’s Dr Zakir
Hussain Series, for which he was given a
National Award by NCERT in 1977.
Prof
Narang has edited three volumes of
selected stories, in the series of Urdu
fiction for Sahitya Akademi - in "Rajinder
Singh Bedi: Selected Short Stories (1989),
an attempt has been made by Prof Narang
to make the anthology fully
representatives of Bedi’s writing in
two genres. Unique in his delineation of
female characters, Bedi treats them a
Buddha - like compassion. There is a
strong suggestive element in his stories
which links him with the mainstream of
the Indian tradition and brings out the
Indianness in his stories. It runs
through the full gamut by touching upon
the various phase of Bedi’s
development.
In Kishan
Chander: Selected short stories (1990),
the second in the series, Prof Narang has
selected six short stories of the author
widely acclaimed as one of the finest in
Urdu after Premchand, who protests
against the exploitation of man by man,
and pleads passionately for harmony and
understanding. The third in the series, Balwant
Singh: Selected Short Stories (1996),
is a collection of 18 short stories of
the writer. The book is an attempt to
bring Balwant from out of the oblivion
and present to the readers some of his
best writings. Prof Narang has given an
erudite introduction on the ‘Art of
Balwant Singh’, followed by a
detailed life sketch of the author.
Besides,
an Anthology of Urdu short stories,
edited by Prof Narang for at UNESCO’s
Collection of Representative Works:
Indian Series, has been
accepted by Sahitya Akademi for
publication. He was the Urdu
Editor-cum-Advisor for the Encyclopaedia
of Indian Literature (6 volumes),
a prestigious publication. Comprising
surveys of literary movements, trends and
notes on established authors and on
significant books in 25 Indian languages.
Along with
Mary Seidlinger, Prof Narang has compiled
A Bibliography of Urdu Short
Stories in English Translation,
which includes a supplement by her. He
has prepared Urdu teaching materials in
English for use at the University of
Wisconsin and the University of
Minnesota.
Prof
Narang, has also edited two books in
Hindi for Sahitya Akademi entitled Balwant
Singh Ki Shreshth Kahaniyan (1977) and
Samrachnavad, Uttar - Samrachnavad
even Prachya Kavyashastra (2000).
He has written another book in Hindi for
National Council for Promotion of Urdu
language entitled Urdu Kaise Likhen (How
to write Urdu) in 2001.
His
formidable scholarship and forceful
presentation make his studies a memorable
feast for the connoisseur. Alfaz, a
leading Urdu journal from Aligarh, had
brought out a special number of his
honour in 1987. Dr Manazir Aashiq
Harqanavi, a modern poet, who has written
free ghazals, has published a book on
Prof Narang entitled ‘Gopi
Chand Narang aur Adabi Nazariya Saazi
(1995) and Shahryar, who had made a mark
as a modernist of the sixties alongwith
Abul Kalam Qasmi, edited a book on him
entitled Gopi Chand Narang:
Shakhsiyat aur Adabi Khidmat (1995).
Bihar University, Muzaffarpur, has
awarded a Ph.D degree to Hamid Ali Khan
in 1962 for his thesis on Gopi
Chand Narang: Life and Work,
which was also published in 1995.
He joined
as Professor of Urdu in Jamia Milia
Islamia where he taught till 1986. Prof
Narang rejoined Delhi University in July
1986 as a Professor of Urdu till his
retirement in 1995. He was twice a
visiting Professor of Urdu language and
literature, department of Indian Studies
at the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
from 1963-65 and 1968-70 and was
visiting, Professor, South Asia
Institute, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, U.S.A. for some time during
1968-70. He was also the visiting
Professor, Department of East European
and Oriental studies, Norway University,
Oslo, in Fall Semester, 1997.
Prof
Narang is the recipient of numerous
awards and honours, including a Padma
Shri in 1990; ‘President of Pakistan
Special Gold Medal’ for his work on
the poetry of Iqbal in 1977, ‘Rajiv
Gandhi Award for Excellence in
Secularism’ by Rajiv Gandhi
Foundation, Kanpur Chapter, 1994;
‘Gahlib Award’ of Ghalib
Institute, New Delhi, for lifetime
achievement in 1985; ‘Urdu-Hindi
Sahitya Committee Academy of Urdu
Language and Literature Award’,
Toronto, in 1987. Urdu Academy
Award’, Delhi, for literary
scholarship and criticism in 1993;
‘Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Award’
of U.P. Urdu Academy for literary service
in 1994; ‘Maikash Award and
‘Khalsa Tri-Centenary Award’,
both in 2000.
He has
occupied several distinguished offices
like Vice-Chancellor (Acting) for a short
period in 1981; Dean, Faculty of
Humanities and Languages (1981-82), and
Director, Urdu Correspondence Course
(1975-85) in Jamia Milia Islamia, New
Delhi; Vice-Chairman, Urdu Academy, Delhi
(1996-99).
Presently
he is the Vice-President of the Sahitya
Akademi, the National Academy of Letters,
and Vice-Chairman, National Council for
Promotion of Urdu Language, Ministry of
Human Resources Development. Besides, he
is associated with a number of Indian and
foreign literary and learned bodies in
different capacities and associated with
activities in the field of Urdu
literature and language at regional,
national and international levels.-CNF
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