Gopi Chand Narang - Career and Important Achievements

Career and Important Achievements

Right from the beginning he has been intrigued by the hybrid nature and plurality of Urdu language. As a response to the post-partition parochial politicalisation and communalization of the language, he systematically built a scientific discourse establishing the Indian cumulative unconscious roots of Urdu language and literature, and uncovered its deep-structure links with the Indian psyche and mind. This resulted in a set of three seminal inter-connected studies, namely, Hindustani Qisson se Makhooz Urdu Masnaviyan (1961), Urdu Ghazal aur Hindustani Zehn-o-Tehzeeb (2002) and Hindustan ki Tehreek-e-Azadi aur Urdu Shairi (2003), which are core books and considered landmarks in cultural studies. His related volumes on Amir Khusrau ka Hindavi Kalaam (1987), Saniha-e-Karbala bataur Sheri Isti’ara (1986) and Urdu Zabaan aur Lisaniyaat (2006) bear testimony of his tremendous sweep in socio-cultural and historical studies. His Amir Khusrau volume is based on the rare manuscript he discovered at the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin and contains 150 hithertofore unknown Hindavi Pahelis of the poet. His penchant for close study of the text by employing stylistics and semiotics made him one of the gifted disseminators of new literary theories. Professor Narang’s writings are not only aimed at suggesting possibilities in reading literature but also touch upon every genre from Ghazal to Masnavi, short story to novel and Arabic Persian poetics and Sanskrit poetics to structuralism and post-structuralism. He deftly applied his profound learning and speculative intelligence by roping in these approaches and insights to reexamine and reevaluate the whole range of Urdu poetry including Mir, Ghalib, Anis, Iqbal, Faiz, Firaq and a host of others. Sakhtiyaat, Pas-sakhtiyat aur Mashriqui Sheriyaat (1993) (Structuralism, Post-structuralism and Eastern Poetics) is a philosophical and rhetorical tour de force of his scholarship. The book not only provides a veritable overview but proffers a wealth of discussion on the concept of language and how it constructs reality. Professor Narang is at his most persuasive when he draws parallels between Saussure’s sound patterns of words and concepts “Psychological Phenomena” and ancient Indian thinkers’ and grammarians’ candid distinction between Prakrita dhvani (Psychological) and Vaikrita dhvani (physical). Narang connects Saussure’s view that in language nothing has value except in opposition to something else with the Apoha theory of the Buddhist thinkers who pointed out that meaning of a word is not in its positivity but in the contra-distinction of its correlates. The book attempts to set up a tripartite dialogue between Sanskrit Poetics, Arabic-Persian Poetics and Structuralism. Narang has quickened the relatively ignored Eastern Poetics with the glow of his probing mind and gleaned up early signs of contemporary literary theories from the dead past. The internal evidence is convincing in its precision and application. Having yoked Eastern Poetics with Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Narang initiates a rich discussion on the new model of criticism. The debate also explores the simultaneous quest for a universal and national identity. This work has been translated into many Indian languages. His recent work Fiction Sheriyaat: Tashkeel-o-Tanqeed (2009) (Poetics of Fiction: Formation and Criticism), proffers a perceptive discussion on how fiction readjusts innate human impulses. Contrary to the widely accepted romantic concept of the writer, Narang points out that the writer’s mind is firmly rooted in history and culture, and whatever he produces draws heavily from previous texts. He cogently delineates that culture is not an oppressive theological and monocratic concept, but subsumes different and divergent points of view, attitudes and ideological aspirations. In other words, a cultural system gives birth to a text, and the text produces various tissues of culture that fire human imagination. Professor Narang’s book Readings in Literary Urdu Prose (1968) published by the University of Wisconsin Press, popularly known as ‘Narang Reader’, is widely used at several Universities in UK, USA, Germany, Norway, Japan and Turkey as teaching material. Besides teaching, Professor Narang served many an institution in apex positions with rare zeal and dedication. He was Vice Chairman, Delhi Urdu Academy (1996-1999), Vice Chairman, National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language - HRD (1998-2004), Vice President, Sahitya Akademi (1998-2002) and President, Sahitya Akademi (2003-2007). Wherever he worked he strengthened the institutions, increased the pace and showed results. An accomplished litterateur Professor Narang has won awe-inspiring recognition the world over for his outstanding contribution to literature. Professor Narang was Indira Gandhi Memorial Fellow of the IGNCA (2002-2004), and Rockefeller Foundation Fellow for Residency at Bellagio, Italy (1997). He received Mazzini Gold Medal (Italy, 2005), Amir Khusro Award (Chicago, 1987), Canadian Academy of Urdu Language and Literature Award (Toronto, 1987), Association of Asian Studies, Mid Atlantic Region, USA Award (1982), European Urdu Writers Society Award (London, 2005), Urdu Markaz International Award (Los Angeles, 1995), Alami Farogh-e-Urdu Adab Award (Doha-Qatar, 1998).His invaluable contribution is acknowledged in the Dictionary of International Biography, Cambridge, UK. He is the only Urdu writer honoured by both the President of India and the President of Pakistan. In 1977, he got the President’s National Gold Medal from Pakistan for his illuminating work on Allama Iqbal. Back home his achievements fetched him Padma Bhushan (2004) and Padma Shri (1990). Three premier central universities of the country – Aligarh Muslim University, Maulana Azad National Urdu University and the Central University, Hyderabad, have conferred D. Litt. Honoris Causa on him in 2009, 2008 and 2007 respectively. He received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1995 and the Ghalib Award in 1985, Urdu Academy’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Award, Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award (both 2010), Madhya Pradesh Iqbal Samman (2011) and Bharatiya Jnanpith Moorti Devi Award (2012). Fully committed to pluralism and liberalism Professor Gopi Chand Narang has always raised his voice against parochialism, religious fanaticism and social injustice. He stresses the role of ideology but believes that literature goes beyond the narrow confines of ideology and literature’s essence is freedom. For him Urdu is the conduit language of interfaith harmony and has served as a bridge between Hindus and Muslims for centuries. In recognition of Professor Narang’s invaluable and seminal contribution to the advancement of scholarship in general and his meritorious service to the cause of Indian literature and Urdu in particular, the Sahitya Akademi conferred on Professor Narang its highest honour, the Fellowship in 2009.