Ali Sardar Jafri

Ali Sardar Jafri (29 November 1913 – 1 August 2000) was a prolific and versatile Urdu writer from India. He was also a poet, critic and film lyricist.

Ali Sardar Jafri was born into an aristocratic family in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, where he spent his formative years.

His early influences were Josh Malihabadi, Jigar Moradabadi and Firaq Gorakhpuri. In 1933, he was admitted to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) where he soon got exposed to Communist ideology and in 1936 he was expelled from the University for 'political reasons'. However, he graduated in 1938 from Zakir Husain College (Delhi College), Delhi University, but his subsequent postgraduate studies at Lucknow University ended prematurely following his arrest during 1940–41 for writing anti-War poems, and for taking part in political activities organised by the Indian National Congress as Secretary of the university's Students' Union.

Jafri embarked on his literary career in 1938 with the publication of his first collection of short stories called Manzil (Destination). His first collection of poems Parvaz (Flight) was published in 1944. In 1936, he presided over the first conference of the Progressive Writers' Movement in Lucknow. He also presided over their subsequent assemblies for the rest of his life. In 1939, he became co-editor of Naya Adab, a literary journal devoted to the Progressive Writers' Movement which continued to be published until 1949.

He was involved in several social, political and literary movements. On 20 January 1949, he was arrested at Bhiwandi, for organising a (then banned) Progressive Urdu writers' conference, despite warnings from Morarji Desai, the Chief Minister of Bombay State; three months later, he was rearrested.

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