Karamat Ali Karamat (1936–2022) was an Indian Urdu poet, author, literary critic, and mathematician. Karamat is known for collecting and introducing Odisha's Urdu literature to the Urdu-speaking world. His works include Aab e Khizar (1963), Shu'aon Ki Salīb (1972), Izāfi Tanqīd (1977), Lafzon Kā Aasmān (1984), and Lafzon Kā Ākāsh (2000). Karamat received the 2004 Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize for his Urdu translation, Lafzon Kā Ākāsh.
Early life and education
Karamat was born in Odia Bazar, Cuttack, on 23 September 1936, to Rahamat Ali Rahmat (1891–1963) and Wazeerun Nisa.[1][2][3] Karamat's father was a year ahead of Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945) at Ravenshaw Collegiate School, and Bose and Rahmat placed first in their respective classes.[4] Rahmat was a mathematician, an intellectual, and an Urdu poet.[5]
Karamat learned to read the Quran, basic Urdu, and Persian from Muhammad Kāzim Sūngravi. He also learned Persian from his father, learned science and Odia literature from tutor Jadumani Rath, and developed a command of mathematics (particularly geometry).[4][6] After finishing his primary education, Karamat completed his ninth standard at Khallikot Collegiate School in Berhampur[7] and passed his 10th standard (matriculation) in the first division of Ravenshaw Collegiate School in Cuttack in 1952.[8] In 1954, he passed the intermediate examination in the first division at Ravenshaw College in Cuttack.[9][10] Karamat received Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Ravenshaw College in 1956 and 1958, respectively,[11][12][13] and received a gold medal in addition to his master's degree.[14][15]
In 1978, he began doctoral studies at Sambalpur University under the supervision of Mahendranath Mishra. Karamat's thesis on probability theory in mathematics was entitled "Some Properties of Random Equations", and he received his Ph.D. on 13 November 1982.[8][16] American mathematician Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid included Karamat's research formulas from his thesis in his own book, Random Polynomials.[17][18]
Teaching career
Karamat joined the Odisha Educational Service as a lecturer in mathematics on 8 September 1958, and was a lecturer at S. K. C. G. College, Paralakhemundi.[8][16] On 13 July 1959, he became a permanent lecturer in the department of mathematics at Ravenshaw College in Cuttack for a year.[11][19] Karamat was a lecturer at S. K. C. G. College, Paralakhemundi, from 1961 to 1963, and lectured at Science College, Angul, from 1963 to 1966.[20] He returned to Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, in 1966 as a lecturer and remained there until 1969.[20] From 1969 to 1979, Karamat was a reader and chaired the department of mathematics at Sundargarh College in Sundargarh.[21]
Karamat married Zubaida Ali, the second daughter of Abdur Rafiq Khan of Talpatak,[17][23]Jagatsinghpur district,[24] on 23 May 1959.[17] They had one son, Qutub Kāmran, and three daughters: Sanobar Sultāna, Durr-e-Shehwār, and Rafī'a Rabāb. They also had five grandsons: Sārim Ali, Āsim Ali, Khurshīd Ālam, Adeeb Salmān, and Naqeeb Salmān, and three granddaughters: Saltanat Jahān, Pārsa Ambarīn, and Ramīza Faizi.[23][25] In January 2005, he and Zubaida made Hajj. Zubaida died on 26 January 2020.[9]
Literary works
Poetry and criticism
Karamat had been interested in literature since he was a college student. Among his poetry teachers were Rehmat Ali Rehmat and Amjad Najmi.[26][27][28] Karamat learned Arabic prosody from Manzar Hasan Desnavi at Ravenshaw College,[29][10] and Mazhar Imam was his advisor for Urdu prose literature in Cuttack.[30][31]
He wrote his first ghazal on 15 February 1953, and his first nazm (poem) on 31 December 1954.[32] At the initiative of Mazhar Imam, Karamat collected poems by Odisha's Urdu poets and short biographical sketches and introduced them to the Urdu world in Aab e Khizar in 1963.[30][31][33] In June 1965[34] (a year before the publication of Shabkhoon), he published the bi-monthly magazine Shakhsar in Cuttack; it was edited by Amjad Najmi.[30][35]
Karamat presented Urdu criticism in a novel, rational way;[36][37][38] his critical-essay collections include Izāfi Tabqīd (1977) and Naye Tanqīdi Masāʼil Aur Imkānāt (2009).[9] He presented the theory of relativity, expanding the theory of relative criticism first used in Frederick Albert Pottle's book The Idiom of Poetry (1946).[37][38][39] Pottle considered poetry as absolute and criticism as additional; however, Karamat considered both poetry and criticism to be additional.[37][38]
Wahab Ashrafi wrote that Karamat has a special place in literature as a poet and critic, and his commitment to mathematics gives his criticism a new dimension.[1]
According to Unwan Chishti, Karamat's poetry has the colour and harmony of "contemporary awareness", which he has expressed by making the development of science and technology a part of consciousness.[40]Gopi Chand Narang said that he has long been a believer in and admirer of Karamat's poetry, agreeing with Firaq Gorakhpuri that his writings compel reflection.[41]
In addition to the 2004 Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize, Karamat was recognised for his contributions to poetry, literature, and mathematics by the Urdu Academies of Bihar, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh, the Najmi Academy in Cuttack, the All India Mir Academy in Lucknow, and the Odisha Mathematical Society.[25][50][51][52] Azizur Rehman Aziz received his doctoral degree from Ranchi University, supervised by Wahab Ashrafi. Aziz's thesis was entitled Karāmat Alī Karāmat Ka Fikr o Fan (transl. The Thought and Art of Karamat Ali Karamat).[53]
In 1990, A. Russell translated Karamat's Urdu poems into English in The Story of the Way and Other Poems[54][55][56][57] with Jayant Mahapatra, Laxmi Narayan Mahapatra, Rajinder Singh Verma, Prafulla Kumar Mohanty, Sailendra Narayan Tripathy, P. Asit Kumar, Kamal Masoompuri, Zohra Jabeen, and M. A. Ahad. Selected Poems of Karāmat Alī Karāmat was published in 2012.[58][55] Elizabeth Kurian Mona translated more of Karamat's poems in God Particle and Other Poems,[59][60][55][9][61] and Anwar Bhadraki translated his Urdu poems into Odia as Ekānta ra swara (transl. The Outcry of Loneliness).[9]
Aab e Khizar: A 1963 collection of selected poems by Odisha poets, with short biographical sketches
Shuāʻon Ki Salīb (1972)
Izāfi Tabqīd (1977)
Lafzon Ka Āsmān (1984)
Lafzon Ka Ākāsh (2002)
Shākh e Sanobar (2006)
Naye Tanqīdi Masāʼil Aur Imkānāt (2009)
Gulkada e Subh o Shām (2016)
Kulliyāt e Amjad Najmi (2017)
Māhir e Iqbāliyāt: Shaikh Habībullāh (2019)
Odia Zabān o Adab: Ek Mutālaʻah (2020)
Mere Muntakhab Pesh lafz (2021)
The Story of the Way and Other Poems (translated in 1990 by A. Russell)
Selected Poems of Karāmat Alī Karāmat (translated in 2012 by Jayanta Mahapatra and others)
God Particle and Other Poems (translated in 2021 by Elizabeth Kurian Mona)
Ekānta ra swara (translated into Odia by Anwar Bhadraki)
Death
Karamat died on 5 August 2022 in Cuttack, while his funeral prayer was performed at Qadam Rasool, Dargah Bazar, Cuttack on 6 August and he was buried in the cemetery of Qadam Rasool.[65][66][67][68][69][70][71]
^ abcdeMayūrbhanji, Md Rūhul Amīn (28 July 2022). "کرامت علی کرامت: حیات و خدمات" [Karāmat Alī Karāmat: Life and works] (in Urdu). qindeelonline.com. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
^Bharucha-Reid, Albert T.; Sambandham, M. (1986). "D. The Number of Real Zeroes: Coefficients Have a Symmetric Stable Distribution". Random Polynomials (1st ed.). Oval Road, London NW1: Academic Press Inc. Ltd. pp. 74–77, 100.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^Chishti, Unwan. "Shu'aon Ki Salīb". Harf e Barhana (in Urdu) (March 1989 ed.). Ansari Road, Muzaffarnagar: Rang Mahal Publications. p. 157-156. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
^Behera, Karuna Sagar; Paṭṭanāẏaka, Jagannātha; Das, H. C. (1990). Cuttack, One Thousand Years. Cuttack: Cuttack City Millennium Celebrations Committee, The Universe. p. 16. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
^Vikram, Nand Kishore (November 2009). "Sahitya Akademi ke Urdu Trājim par In'āmāt ki dastyāb tafsīl". Aalami Urdu Adab (Volume 29) (in Urdu). Delhi: Aalami Urdu Adab. p. 290. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
^Narang, Gopi Chand; Azmi, Abdul Latīf. ہندوستان کے اردو مصنفین اور شعرا [Urdu writers and poets in India] (in Urdu) (1996 ed.). Delhi: Urdu Academy. p. 433. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
^Office, LOC, ed. (1991). "About Karāmat". Accessions List, South Asia. 11. New Delhi: E.G. Smith for the U.S. Library of Congress Office: 1109. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
^Karāmat, Karāmat Alī; Mona, Elizabeth Kurian (2021). "Foreword 1 by Prof. Prafulla Kumar". God Particle and Other Poems (1st ed.). New Delhi: Educational Publishing House. p. 7. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
^Parveen, Farhat (October 2022). "Deaths". Aaj Kal (in Urdu). 81 (3). New Delhi: Publications Division, Delhi: 52.
^"مشہور شاعر و ادبی نقاد کرامت علی کرامت کا انتقال" [Famous poet and literary critic Karamat Ali Karamat passed away]. baseeratonline.com (in Urdu). Baseerat News Service. 6 August 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
^Farīd, Ashraf; Farīd, Tāriq, eds. (7 August 2022). "پروفیسر کرامت علی کرامت کی رحلت سے پورا ادبی حلقہ سوگوار" [The entire literary circle mourned the death of Professor Karamat Ali Karamat]. Qaumi Tanzeem Daily (in Urdu). 62 (112). Patna: Qaumi Tanzeem: 8.
^Alvi, Ahmed Ibrahim, ed. (7 August 2022). "پروفیسر کرامت علی کرامت کی رحلت سے پورا ادبی حلقہ سوگوار: آج نمناک آنکھوں سے کٹک کے قدم رسول قبرستان میں سپردِ خاک" [The entire literary circle mourns the death of Professor Karamat Ali Karamat: Today, with moist eyes, he was laid to rest in the Qadam Rasool cemetery of Cuttack]. Aag Daily (in Urdu). 16 (162). Lucknow: 12.
^"پروفیسر کرامت علی کرامت کی رحلت سے پورا ادبی حلقہ سوگوار" [The entire literary circle mourned the death of Professor Karamat Ali Karamat]. Akhbār e Mashriq Daily (in Urdu). 43 (213). Kolkata: Akhbār e Mashriq: 8. 6 August 2022.
