Literary Past
Many famous writers of Hindi and Urdu literature have a connection with the city. Notable amongst them are Munshi Premchand, Mahadevi Varma, Sumitranandan Pant, Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Upendra Nath 'Ashk' and Harivansh Rai Bachchan. This is the literary Hindi heartland. The culture of Allahabad is based on Hindi literature. Maithili Sharan Gupt was also associated with this literary Hindi soil in many ways.
The famous English author and Nobel Laureate (1907) Rudyard Kipling spent time at Allahabad working for The Pioneer as an assistant editor and overseas correspondent.
Another landmark of the literary past of Allahabad was the publishing firm Kitabistan, owned by the Rehman brothers, Kaleemur Rehman and Obaidur Rehman. They published thousands of books, including those by Nehru. They became the first publishers from India to open a branch in London in 1936.
Sanskrit scholars like Ganganath Jha, Dr. Baburam Saxena, Pandit Raghuvar Mitthulal Shastri, Professor Suresh Chandra Srivastava, and Dr. Manjushree Srivastava were both students and teachers at the University of Allahabad. The most prominent Arabic and Persian scholars included Dr. Abdul Sattar Siddiqui and his colleague Muhammad Naeemur Rehman who was known for his well organized personal library of tens of thousands of books, which was open to all.
A noteworthy poet is Raghupati Sahay, better known under the name of Firaq Gorakhpuri. Firaq was a major Urdu poet and literary critic of the 20th century. Both Firaq and Harivansh Bachchan were professors of English at Allahabad University. Firaq Gorakhpuri and Mahadevi Varma were awarded the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in the Republic of India in 1969 and 1982 respectively. Akbar Allahabadi is one of the most well-read poets of modern Urdu Literature. Other poets from Allahabad include Nooh Narwi, Tegh Allahabadi, Raaz Allahabadi, Firaq Gorakhpuri, and Asghar Gondvi. Professor A. K. Mehrotra, former head of English department at the University of Allahabad, has been nominated for the post of professor of poetry which was earlier held by poets like Matthew Arnold and W. H. Auden.
Short story writers Azam Kuraivi, Ibn-e-Safi, and Adil Rasheed are all from Allahabad. Critics like Dr. Aijaz Husain, Dr. Aqeel Rizwi and Hakeem Asrar Kuraivi also hail from Allahabad. Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, who edits Shabkhoon, is known all over the Urdu world as a pioneer in Post Modernist literature. Rajendra Yadav, Mamta and Ravindra Kalia, Kamaleshwar, Namwar Singh, Doodhnath Singh and many other new age literary writers and critics began their literary careers in Allahabad. The city is also home to many young and upcoming literary figures. It has also been one of the biggest centres of publication of Hindi literature; examples are Lok Bharti, Rajkamal and Neelabh.
Dr. Rajesh Verma is working on a book about eco-feminism, which will be the first major work on environment-related issues to be published in Allahabad. Allahabad has also produced a great lyricist, Virag Mishra, who recently won the Stardust Award for Standout Performance by a lyricist, for "Zinda Hoon Main".
Read more about this topic: History Of Allahabad
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—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)
“Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month’s labor in the farmer’s almanac, to restore our tone and spirits.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)