Recommendation Letter from Principal Tara Singh, Government Intermediate College Lyallpur

Tara Singh. College recommendation letter from Tara Singh. Sept. 5, 1928. 1 p. 1 sheet. 6.5 x 7.7". Typewritten on brown paper. Written by Tara Singh, principal of Government Intermediate College, Lyallpur, in year of Rashed’s graduation. English. Box 1. Folder 14: College certificates and recommendation letter. 001. Digitized by Zain Mian. Catalogued by Pasha M. Khan. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. Full text here.

From 1926 to 1928, Nazr-i Mohammad Rashed matriculated from the Government High School in Akalgarh, and passed his Faculty of Arts examination at Government Intermediate College (now Government College University) in Lyallpur (now known as Faisalabad). The principal of the college, Sardar Tara Singh, appears to have written this as a letter of recommendation for the young Rashed (who would have been 18 years old when this document was written). The college had evolved out of a high school in 1924. Akalgarh (modern Alipur Chattha), where Rashed had been born, had no college.

Rashed was a "non-resident student" because his father Raja Fazl-i Elahi Chishti was posted to Lyallpur as Additional District Inspector of Schools from September 8, 1926 to September 27, 1928. Therefore he was able to live at home with his family while completing his education at the college.¹

According to the modern GCU Faisalabad's account, Sardar Tara Singh was the third and then the fifth principal of Government Intermediate College Lyallpur from April 11, 1927 to January 8, 1928, and again from October 2, 1928 to December 7, 1928. From the letter it appears either that this account is mistaken, or that Tara Singh depended upon his former or anticipated status to subscribe himself "Principal." In the interim Rai Bahadur Manmohan was principal at the college.²

As other items in the NMR Archive will show, the city of Lyallpur remained important to Rashed throughout his life, particularly since his sister Mumtaz and brother-in-law Chiragh Hassan, headmaster of M.B. High School, were resident there, as well as their sons Faruq and Aftab.

Keywords: #Government_Intermediate_High_School, #Government_College_Lyallpur, #Sardar_Tara_Singh, #Raja_Fazl-i_Elahi_Chishti, #Lyallpur, #Akalgarh, #Mukhtar_Hassan, #Chiragh_Hassan, #Aftab_Hassan, #Faruq_Hassan, #education, #letter, #typewritten, #recommendation_letter

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1 Khalid, Anwar Mahmūd. "N. M. Rāshid, Lā’ilpūr meñ." Draft paper in Noon Meem Rashed Archive, p. 2.
2 “College Era | GCUF.” http://gcuf.edu.pk/about/history-and-introduction/college-era/.

A Letter from Shamsur Rahman Faruqi to N. M. Rashed, May 22, 1968

Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. Letter from Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. To N. M. Rashed. May 22, 1968. 2 pp. 1 sheet. 4.6 x 7.3". Black pen on card. A crease in the center and identical marks at the top and bottom suggest this card was stapled shut for delivery. Urdu. Box 2. Folder 8: Letters of publishers and writers. 044. Digitized by Zahra Sabri. Catalogued by Zain Mian. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. Full text here.

Beginning in 1968, Rashed kept up a correspondence with Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (1935-). Today Faruqi is one of the most renowned critics of Urdu literature in the world, and the author of many works of criticism and literature such as the recent novel Ka’ī chānd the sar-i āsmān. See the 2014 interview with Faruqi, "The Last Ustad."

Faruqi had begun publishing his literary journal Shabkhoon (1966-2006) two years prior to the beginning of his correspondence with Rashed. At this time Rashed was in Tehran, working as Director of the UN Information Centre.

A summary of the letter:

From: Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, 23-D Thornhill Road, Allahabad -1, India. Written 05/22/1968.
To: N. M. Rashed (Tehran, Iran). Received 06/19/1968.

Faruqi begs pardon for contacting Rashed without any prior acquaintance. He has gotten Rashed's Tehran address from his friend Azizuddun Shakeel. Shakeel has sent Rashed a few copies of Faruqi's literary journal Shabkhoon and Faruqi hopes that Rashed will contribute something to it.

Faruqi writes that Rashed has had a great influence on the new generation of poets, along with Faiz, so much so that the Progressives (taraqqī-pasand) are bent on proving that Rashed and Faiz are two of their own number. Ali Sardar Jafri has warmed to Faiz despite previously having qualms about him. Iftikhar Jalib's book Na’ī shā‘irī is filled with mentions of Rashed, and Jafri considers it a point of pride that he has published Rashed's poetry.

Faruqi repeats his request that Rashed should contribute his poetry to Shabkhoon. He is sending 4 issues of Shabkhoon to Rashed via air mail, and will continue sending future issues.

The Urdu poet and critic Iftikhar Jalib had published his collection of "new" Urdu poems Na’ī shā‘irī: Ek tanqīdī mut̤āli‘ah two years previously in 1966.¹

According to Sean Pue, Rashed later sent Faruqi a copy of his poem "Ai samandar," which Faruqi published in the September 1969 issue of Shabkhoon.² Pue has made it available, and it can be seen on this site.

Keywords: #Shamsur_Rahman_Faruqi, #Ali_Sardar_Jafri, #Faiz_Ahmad_Faiz, #Iftikhar_Jalib, #Shabkhoon, #Progressive_Writers'_Association, #Tehran, #Allahabad, #reception, #handwritten, #letter, #Ai_samandar, #Safdar_Mir

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1 Jālib, Iftikhār. "Lisānī tashkīlāt" in Na’ī shā‘irī: Ek tanqīdī mut̤āli‘ah. Ed. Iftikhār Jālib. Lahore: Na’ī mat̤bū‘āt, 1966. pp. 247-274. For other references to Rashed in the same volume, see Safdar Mir's contribution "Bayābān-i junūn", pp. 5-22; and Fateh Muhammad Malik's essay "Na’ī shā‘irī aur jadīd shā‘irī", pp. 107-124.
2 Shabkhūn no 40 (Sept. 1969): pp. 3-4.