Rediscovering the nonconformist

Urdu poetry graduated from matters of the heart, or rather unrequited love, to contemporary social and political issues with Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911 to 1984). Poets before him seldom found the inspiration to write on people and society. Ghalib (1797 to 1869), the greatest of all poets, lived during gardi ka waqt when the India of old lost ground to the British, yet in his couplets the turbulence of the times seldom comes across, though he wrote long letters on it to his favourite shagird, Hargopal Tafta.

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