Jaun Elia was born on December
14, 1931 in an illustrious family of Amroha, Uttar Pradesh. He was the youngest
of his siblings. His father, Allama Shafiq Hasan Elia, was deeply involved in
art and literature and also an astrologer and a poet. This literary environment
modeled him along the same lines, and he wrote his first Urdu couplet when he
was just 8.
Jaun was very sensitive in his early teen age. His preoccupations in those days
were his imaginary beloved character, Sophia, and his anger at the English
occupiers of India. He used to do dramatic presentations of the early Muslim
period, and hence his knowledge of Muslim history was recognised by many.
According to him, his early poetry reflected the dialogue nature of stage drama.
A close relation of Elia’s, Syed Mumtaz Saeed, recalled that Elia also went to
Syed-ul-Madaris in Amroha, a Madressah (Koranic school). “Jaun had a way with
languages. He could learn them effortlessly. Apart from Arabic and Persian that
he had learnt at the Madressah, he acquired great proficiency in English and a
smattering of Hebrew.”
During his youth, the united India was involved in a Muslim-Hindu feud, which
led to the partition of the country on religious lines once British rule ended.
Being a Communist, Elia was averse to the idea, but finally accepted it as a
compromise. Elia migrated to Pakistan in 1957, and made Karachi his home. Before
long, he became popular in the literary circles of the city. His poetry, which
bears ample testimony to his wide-ranging reading habits, won him acclaim and
approbation. Poet Pirzada Qasim said: “Jaun was very particular about language.
While his diction is rooted in the classical tradition, he touches on new
subjects. He remained in quest of an ideal all his life. Unable to find the
ideal eventually, he became angry and frustrated. He felt, perhaps with reason,
that he had squandered his talent.” He was a prolific writer, but could not be
convinced to publish his work. His first poetry collection Shayad (an Urdu word
which means “Maybe”) was published when he was 60. The poetry presented in this
collection added Jaun Elia’s name in the Urdu literary canon forever. Jaun
Elia’s preface in this collection provided deep insights into his works and the
culture within which he was expressing his ideas. The preface can also be
considered as one of the finest examples of modern Urdu prose. It covered his
intellectual evolution in different periods of time, and his philosophy of
poetry, science, religion, etc. The second collection of his poetry Ya’ani was
published posthumously in 2003 and the third titled Gumaan (an Urdu word which
means “Illusion”) in 2004.
An eminent Urdu literary critic, Dr. Muhammad Ali Siddiqui has called Jaun Elia
one of the three most eminent ghazal poets of Urdu of the second half of the
twentieth century.
Jaun Elia was an unabashed open anarchist and nihilist in generally a
conservative and religious society. His elder brother, Rais Amrohvi, himself a
poet and influential intellectual, was brutally murdered by a religious zealot,
and ever after his death, Jaun was conscious about what he would say in public.
Jaun was also involved in translation, editing and other activities. His
translation of various Mautazalite treatises, Hasan Bin Sabah, and various texts
about the Ismaili sect in Islam are a major contribution to the Urdu language.
His prose and translations are not easily available. Some of these can be found
at Ismaili centers and libraries.
He acquired encyclopedic knowledge of philosophy, logic, Islamic history, the
Muslim Sufi tradition, Muslim religious sciences, Western literature, and
Kabbala. He also synthesized this knowledge into his poetry that also
differentiates him from his modern contemporaries.
He also edited Urdu literary magazine “Insha”, where he came to know of another
prolific Urdu writer Zahida Hina, and finally married her. Zahida Hina, a
progressive intellectual in her own right, still writes for dailies, Jang and
Express, on current political and social issues. He had 2 daughters and a son
with her. Jaun and Zahida were divorced in mid 1980s. This left Jaun devastated
and alone. He became alcoholic and depressed.
Jaun Elia died at a friend’s place as his wife and children didn’t realise his
greatness. Zahida and her daughters gave bad reviews about him on a TV interview
but now all of them are keen to take benefit of his financial and the royalty
from Jaun Elia’s poetry collections. His fist collection ‘Shayad’ has gone into
its ninth edition, a record for any of his contemporaries in Ghazal poetry.
Jaun was a great person and loved his son “Zaryoon” (who is often seen at
various functions to felicitate Jaun Elia – to collect the cheques etc.) very
much but was an unlucky father who couldn’t find him around when he needed him
the most.
He died after a protracted illness on November 8, 2004 in Karachi.