Jagan Nath Azad - an authority on Iqbal

Jagan Nath Azad, who recently passed away in Jammu, was the senior-most Urdu poet, researchist and critic in India. Azad tried his hand at all sorts of writing in Urdu genres.
He was considered an authority on Iqbal, the estimates of him as a poet and thinker were penned with as subtle insight, enthusiasm and balance as shown by Dr Yousuf Husain Khan, Professor Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqi and Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi in their earlier carefully-cultivated works.
Though Iqbal had gained popularity through his "Sare Jahan Se Achha Hindostan Hamara", yet his ideas about a separate Muslim identity and call for the establishment of a new state evoked animus among the Hindu writers and politicians and after the partition of the sub-continent, Iqbal was almost a persona non grata in India, if not a thoroughly hated man.
Iqbal's poem was sung at the inauguration of the Parliament of free India in 1947 by Aruna Asif Ali yet the writers there were not prepared to accept him as a poet of the highest calibre. Belonging to a scholars' family the son of the famed Tilok Chand Mahroom boldly took up the challenge to remove the misgivings in the Hindu mind.
Initially Azad adopted a sympathetic attitude towards Iqbal to rebut the fulminations of those opposed to the Poet of the East but later his defence, in a genial, constructive and lucid way, compelled the Indians to understand and acknowledge his stature as a poet, the grace and charm of the verses were accepted as equal to those of Tagore and Bankum Chand Chatterjee.
No Hindu critic of Urdu, not even Dr Gyan Chand or Dr Gopi Chand Narang, would have gone to this length in support of Iqbal but Azad did full justice to the many-sided literary qualities of Iqbal and his whole poetry.
Though born and bred in a purely Hindu family and environment Azad had a humanist heart and came out against the razing of the Babri Masjid and later the carnage of the Muslims in India.
His dress, Sherwani and pyjama, showed how he represented the culture belonging to both Muslims and Hindus.
Azad was admired as an Urdu poet throughout South Asia His sincere thoughts in it were appreciated in literary sittings and Mushairas, where he was much respected and admired.
His demise has created a void in Urdu poetry and criticism, which seems hard to fill.
Born in Issa Khail of Mianwali district in 1918 Azad got his education in Pakistan. He passed matriculation from Mianwali and completed B. A. honours in Persian in 1942 from the Gordon College, Rawalpindi. He passed M.A. in Persian in 1944 from the Punjab University. Jagan Nath Azad also completed M.O.L from the same university. He began his journalistic carrier in 1941 from a renowned literary magazine, "Adabi Dunia."
Jagan Nath Azad secured a job as a lecturer at DAV College, Lahore. He migrated to India after partition. There he got a job in the Indian Press Information Department, and was posted at Srinagar. He worked there as an Information Officer rising to be Director of Public Relations. Keeping in view his ability and literary background, he was offered the professorship of Urdu in the Jammu University, where he worked from 1970 to 1980. He served as Head of the Urdu Department and Dean Faculty of Oriental Learning in Jammu University.
In recognition of his literary services he waas given about 100 awards.
He was also an essayist of English language. His works on Allama Iqbal in both the languages are commendable as Iqbal and his literary works remained a special subject of his research. His 11 books--both in English and Urdu--are on Iqbal.
"Iqbal aur Uska Ahad"(Iqbal and his age), "Iqbal aur Maghribi Mufakkireen" (Iqbal and Western thinkers), "Iqbal aur Kashmir"(Iqbal and Kashmir), "Iqbal Ki Kahani" (The story of Iqbal), "Iqbal-Shakhsiat aur Shairi" (Iqbal-personality and poetry), "Muraqqa-e-Iqbal" (The portfolio of Iqbal) and "Fikr-e-Iqbal Kay Baz Aham Pahloo" (Some important aspects of Iqbal's thinking) are some important books of Jagan Nath Azad on Iqbal having the status of research. He has tried to prove Iqbal as an international poet, not a poet of only Islam and Pakistan. It goes without saying that his assessment of Iqbal is very different from others. He has 55 books to his credit which include sketches, poetry and literary criticism. Azad was basically a poet and has published 13 poetic anthologies. His first poetic collection came out under the title of "Bekaran Sitaroon Say Rozan Tak" in 1949 with a preface of an avant-garde poet Firaq Gorakhpuri. Some of his poetic books are "Tabl-o-Alam", "Watan Main Ajnabi", "Nawa-e-Pareshan", "Boo-e-Ramida" and Gahwara-e-Elm-o-Hunar.
Azad has promoted the tradition of long poetry writing in Urdu. "Urdu", "Abul Kalam Aazad", "Matam-e-Nehru", "Shair Ki Aawaz","Ajanta", "Dehli Ki Jamia Masjid", "Rafi Sahab Kay Mazar Par" and "Matam-e-Salik are the names of his long poems.
Eight theses have been written on him for PhD degrees and about 15 books have also been written on him. Moreover, various literary magazines of Pakistan and India have published special editions on Jagan Nath Aazad.
Azad has also written travelogues. Of them two are on his foreign trips and the third one "Junubi Hind Main Do Haftay."
He had composed Hamds and Na'ats also and got awards for this literary service. He was given Seerat-i-Pak Award by Bradford Publications of UK. He was also given the prestigious Iqbal Medal from Pakistan, and awards from Qatar, Doha and almost every country of the world where Urdu is popular.
He was made President of Anjuman Taraqi Urdu in 1993 and continued on the post till his death.