Poets Directory (شعرائے کرام)

Chaman Lal Chaman (1934–2019) was an Indian-British Punjabi and Urdu poet, lyricist and radio broadcaster based in London. Born on 15 May 1934 in Pasla, in Jalandhar district, he lost his mother as a child and was called by his father to Nairobi, where he became a presenter on The Voice of Kenya. Moving to Britain, he worked for the BBC's Asian service and Panjab Radio, started London's first Indian commercial radio programme, *Geetmala*, and anchored weekly programmes on BBC TV One and BBC Radio Four in the 1990s. His lyrics were sung by Asha Bhosle and Jagjit Singh — his Punjabi song "Saun da Mahina" (1979) remains his best-known lyric — while his Urdu ghazals, including those in *Shora-e-London* (1985) and the collection *Phool Khile Chaman-Chaman* (2010), carry a quieter, city-wise voice. He received the Asian Achievers Gold Award in London in 2010 and died in London on 4 February 2019.

Chandar Bhan Kaifi Dehelvi (1878/79–1941) was a Delhi poet of the late classical tradition, educated in Persian and Urdu, who taught Persian for a long period of time. Known for poems on interesting topics as well as patriotic poems, he carried classical discipline into the colonial era: his ghazals hold personal longing beside national consciousness, and his nazm "Nai-Dehli" mourns and questions the new capital rising over old Delhi's ruins. Thirteen of his ghazals and ten of his nazms survive, with Risala-e-Qaumi Nazm (1908) among his books and Khumnistan-e-Kaifi published posthumously in 1951. He died in 1941.

Chandra Parkash Jauhar Bijnauri (1923–1995) was a traditional-style Urdu poet and beloved mushaira voice, born at Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, in 1923. His father, though not a poet himself, was a connoisseur who loved listening to poets in mushairas, and in that atmosphere the young Bijnauri found his calling, taking counsel on his ghazals from Izhar Hussain Khan Izhar Rampuri. After Partition he made his life in Lahore, where his clear, musical ghazals — of love, separation, the sorrows of the age and the praise of Urdu itself — won him a devoted mushaira following. His collection Auraq-e-Gul appeared in 1986. He died in 1995, leaving 21 ghazals that still carry the traditional ghazal's grace without stiffness.

Chiragh Hasan Hasrat (1904 – 26 June 1955) was a Kashmiri-born poet and journalist, famous for his humorous columns. Born at Poonch in Kashmir, he learned Arabic, Persian and Urdu at home, matriculated from Poonch and took his B.A. from Lahore. He worked for *Zamindar*, *Insaaf* and *Ehsaan*, edited *Fauji Akhbar* during the Second World War, and wrote beloved humorous columns — as Columbus in *Nai Dunya*, as Koocha Gard in *Asr-e-Jadeed*, and as Sindbad Jahazi in the daily *Imroz*. In 1926 he launched his own journal *Aftab* from Calcutta. He wrote sixteen books, including the long poetical narrative *Saguzasht-e-Islam* and studies of Jinnah and Iqbal, though no collection of his poetry was ever published. He died at Lahore on 26 June 1955.