Raghupat Sahai Firaq is one of the major Indian poets of this century, both in terms of contribution he made to the enrichment of Urdu poetry and the influence he exercised upon his age. Sublimation of pain and celebration of human love are the characteristic features of Firaq's ghazal. Firaq's first collection of verse is Gul-e-Nagma (The Music Flower) won the Sahitya Academy Award in 1960.

Hindu poet of Urdu

There is a gross misconception that Urdu is the language of Muslims. There were, and are today, many good poets of Urdu, who are Hindus. The greatest amongst them was Raghupat Sahai (1896-1982), better known as Firaq Gorakhpuri. He was a Kayastha from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Besides being a good poet, he had other claims to fame. He had a good academic record, qualified for the Civil Service, resigned it to join the freedom movement, and spent some months in jail with Pandit Nehru. For four years he was Under Secretary of the Indian National Congress. He topped the list in the MA examination in English, taught English in Allahabad University and retired as Reader in 1958. In 1961 he won the Sahitya Akademy Jnanpith. He wrote in Hindi, Urdu and English, but finally opted for Urdu as a better medium of putting across his ideas. He moved in Urdu literary circles, and soon came to be sought after for mushairas — poetic symposia. His closest rival and friend was an equally good poet, the Muslim Josh Malihabadi. Besides the love of poetry, they shared a lot more much in common. Both were patriots, loved the good things of life, were connoisseurs of liquor, admirers of good-looking women and handsome men, and were celebrated pederasts. Many bawdy stories were told about them. Both had high opinion of their looks and talents, and boasted of their prowess as poets and lovers. Firaq made a disastrous marriage, and wrote a lot of nasty things about the poor woman who bore him two children. Their daughter died young, their son took his own life.

Firaq was one Urdu poet who instead of turning to Arabic and Persian vocabulary and imagery, as most other poets of the language did, injected a lot of Hindi words in his poems and instead of using Laila Majnun, bulbul and the rose, moth and the flame as symbols of eternal love used Radha and Krishna. Being a professor of English literature, he used a lot of the imagery of Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Tennyson in his compositions. All those aspects of Firaq’s poetry have been highlighted by R.C. Kaunda in his introduction to ‘Firaq Gorakhpuri:Selected Poetry’ (Sterling). Kaunda has also given examples of many other aspects of Firaq’s love poetry from the delicate allusions to female beauty to the erotic and the consummation of sex during nights spent making love: dishevelled hair but radiant smiles of fulfilment.

Firaq’s ideal of a female companion was as follows:
Maan aur behen bhee, Aur chehetee bhee
Ghar kee raani bhee aur jeewan saathee
Phir bhee voh kamini sarasar Devi
Aur Seyj par voh beswa kee putlee

(Mother, sister and a daughter I adore

Queen of my home, life-companion and more

Also much desired as a goddess as well

But when in bed, a voluptuous whore)

He was proud of the imagery he used and rightly remarked:

‘Ahl-e-dunya Firaq ko sun lo

Koi aisa sukhan-taraz nahin’

(O people of the world! Hear the verses of Firaq. There is no other poet like him)

Firaq’s poets, ghazals and rubaiyat (quatrains) are characterized by poetic grace and unique ideas. He was as much a poet of love and beauty as the sorrows of life.

Under the influence of the Movement he too composed quite a few poems promoting the socialist and progressive values. This however was not the original trait of Firaq’s poetic brilliance. Ghazal was Firaq’s forte and he excelled in it.

One of his popular ghazals was sung hauntingly by Chitra Singh in the late seventies:

‘Bohot pehle say un qadmon ki aahat jan laytay hain

Tujhe ay zindagi ham door say pehchan laytay hain’

His significance as a ghazal poet is because of his fresh thematic contributions to the long-established format of the genre. He has played a pivotal role in fusing the genre of ghazals that has been traditionally entrenched in Iranian culture with that of Indian culture. Firaq’s ghazal is deeply rooted in the sensuousness that is derived from the admiration of the female body and appreciation of all the gorgeous things in life.

He left his imprint on three important genres of Urdu poetry, ghazal, nazm and rubai. He wrote more than 40,000 couplets. His poems are published in three anthologies Rooh-e-Kaaenat, Gul-e-Raana and Naghmanuma.

When Josh Malihabadi decided to migrate to Pakistan because he could not find suitable husbands for his daughters in India, Firaq was a desolate being deprived of friend and rival with whom he could cross swords. When he heard of Malihabadi’s death, he is said to have made a wisecrack "Once again the fellow has beaten me to it". Firaq died a few days later.