Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Urdu litterateur Rashid Hasan Khan dies

Eminent Urdu researcher, critic and scholar of classical Urdu texts Rashid Hasan Khan passed away at his native Shahjahanpur on the night intervening February 25 and 26.

The famed scholar was talking to someone on phone when he died of a sudden cardiac arrest. A leftist his first job was in a factory in his native town. Khan had shifted to Delhi in 60s and joined the Delhi University. He dedicated himself to research and grew in stature steadily.

Khan Sahab had a classical bent of mind. Also, he considered critic at a higher pedestal than poet. He wrote several important books including Classical Urdu Farhang. His research works on Bagh-o-Bahar, Fasana-e-Ajaib, Gulzar-e-Nasim, Sehrul Bayan, Masnawiyat-e-Shauq are well-known.

He was the first Urdu litterateur to be conferred with Raja Ram Mohan Rai award. After retirement he returned to Shahjehanpur. On his death Rafat Sarosh said that if a researcher would have worked so hard in any other country and in any other language he would have received numerous honours.

But, unfortunately, he was the litterateur of Urdu. Also, Rashid Hasan Khan preferred solitude. He had returned to his roots after retirement, shifting back to his ancestral house, where he pored on old texts for hours at night.