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Khan Mohammad Atif | |
|---|---|
| Born | Malihabad, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Occupations | Professor, writer and Persian scholar |
| Employer | University of Lucknow |
| Known for | Scholarship in Persian literature |
| Awards | President's Certificate of Honour (2012) |
Khan Mohammad Atif is an Indian Persian scholar, writer and former academic. He served as a professor and head of the Department of Persian at the University of Lucknow, where he taught from 1974 until his retirement in 2006.He also served as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, having been elected from the Bahraich Assembly constituency in the 1977 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election as a Janata Party candidate. He has written and edited works on Persian literature, Urdu literature and the literary history of Afghan and Pathan communities in India.
Atif was awarded the President's Certificate of Honour in 2012 for his contribution to the Persian language. He later announced that he would return the honour and its associated annual honorarium in October 2015, citing concerns about religious intolerance and attacks on free expression in India.
Atif was born in Malihabad, in present-day Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh. He is a grandnephew of Urdu poet Josh Malihabadi.
His later association with Malihabad included literary and agricultural activities. In 2015, The Indian Express reported that he was living in Lucknow and spent part of his time writing and attending to mango orchards and a nursery in his native Malihabad.
Atif joined the Department of Persian at the University of Lucknow in 1974. He remained associated with the department for 32 years and retired as its head in 2006.
His academic work has focused on Persian language and literature. The University of Lucknow has recorded academic activities involving Atif and lectures on the history and development of Persian literature in Awadh.
His book Tareekh-e-Zaban-o-Adabiyat-e-Farsi has been included in university-level Persian curricula as a recommended reference work. A syllabus issued by Guru Nanak Dev University lists the book among the recommended works for the study of Persian literature, identifying Atif with the Department of Persian at Lucknow University. The book is also listed in a Persian master's programme at the University of Mumbai as a reference work on the history of Persian language and literature.
Atif also participated in literary and academic events concerned with Persian literature in Lucknow. He was a member of a panel on Persian literature and Lucknow at the 2016 Lucknow Literary Festival.
Atif has written works in Persian and Urdu and has published books dealing with literary history, criticism and biographical and cultural subjects. His works include Pathan Shayrat Ka Tazkira, Urdu Shairi Mein Afghanon Ki Kilkariyan, Urdu Shairi Mein Pathan Shairat Ki Gul Afshanian, Tareekh-e-Zaban-o-Adabiyat-e-Farsi and Nizam-ul-Mulk Asif Jah Awwal.
The Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Research Library of the Ghalib Institute in New Delhi records Atif's Farsi Shayari Mein Tanz-o-Mizah, published in Lucknow in 1975.
The National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language lists Tareekh Zaban-o-Adabiyat-e-Farsi among its Persian-language books and identifies Atif as its author. The same catalogue records his address in Lucknow and classifies the work among Persian books.
His works on Afghan and Pathan literary history include Pathan Shayrat Ka Tazkira, a work concerning Pathan women poets writing in Urdu, and Urdu Shairi Mein Afghanon Ki Kilkariyan, a study of Afghans in Urdu poetry. The latter was published in 2010 and is described in the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language's publications records as a work of research and criticism.
Atif entered electoral politics in the 1970s. In the 1977 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, he contested the Bahraich Assembly constituency as a candidate of the Janata Party and was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
Atif subsequently became associated with the Muslim Majlis and served as its state president until 2008, according to an account published by The Indian Express. He also served as chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Handloom Corporation.
Atif was also involved in an initiative by Indian Pathans to promote dialogue concerning the conflict in Afghanistan. In 2009, Hindustan Times identified him as a former head of the Department of Persian at Lucknow University and reported his participation in preparations for a proposed jirga intended to bring together Afghan groups for peace talks.
Atif has also commented publicly on the demographic presence of Pathans in India. His estimate of the Indian Pathan population has subsequently been cited in discussions of the Pathan diaspora in India.
In 2012, Atif was among the scholars awarded the President's Certificate of Honour for contributions to the Persian language. The official list issued by the President's Secretariat names him among the three recipients in the Persian category for that year.
The distinction is awarded by the Government of India to scholars in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and Pali/Prakrit in recognition of substantial contributions to the respective languages.
In October 2015, Atif announced that he would return the certificate. He said that his decision was prompted by what he regarded as increasing religious intolerance and attacks on writers and free speech. He also announced that he would return the annual honorarium associated with the certificate, reported at the time as ₹50,000.
His decision was reported alongside similar actions by several Indian writers and intellectuals during the 2015 controversy over alleged rising intolerance in India. The Indian Express described him as one of the writers returning state honours during that period.