Jashn-e-Ghalib to pay tribute to Munshi Premchand through star poets, researchers

New Delhi: Munshi Premchand, one of the greatest story-tellers of the last century who bestrode both Urdu and Hindi and who touched many social issues, will be the theme of the annual Jashn-e-Ghalib celebrations that will be held from January 26 to 28, 2026 at the Ghalib Institute in New Delhi.

Ghalib Institute Secretary Professor Siddique-ur-Rehman Kidwai revealed the theme of the seminar which is, ‘Munshi Premchand: Mind, Time and Art’.

The keynote address of the seminar will be delivered by Professor Ali Ahmed Fatemi. The inaugural session will be chaired by Idris Ahmed, the Director of Ghalib Institute. The seminar will be inaugurated by Hindi litterateur Ashok Vajpayee while Professor Alok Rai, grandson of Munshi Premchand, will be the chief guest.

Professor Parshottam Agarwal and Professor Apurvanand will attend the inaugural session as guests of honour.

Rakhshanda Jalil will deliver the welcome address and Idrees Ahmed will express vote of thanks. After the inaugural session, a Ghazal (Kalam Ghalib) will be organised in the evening in which renowned Ghazal singer Vidya Shah will perform Ghazal.

Literary sessions will be held on December 27 and 28 from 10 am to 5 pm, in which intellectuals from home and abroad will present papers. The names of those invited to read papers in the seminar are as follows: Amir Mehdi (Birmingham), Yoruwa Sabahat and Habibullah (both from Tajikistan), Gulbastan Mamooty, Harish Trivedi, Sagheer Afrah, Shein Kauf Nizam, Pradeep Jain, Khalid Alvi, Ghazanfar, Irtza Karim, Shafi Kidwai, Tariq Chhatari, Kausar Mazhari, Abu Bakr Ibad, Sarwat Khan, Jitendra Srivastava, Nadeem Ahmed, Prabhat Ranjan, Sonia Gupta, Fawzan Ahmed, Safina Begum, Muhammad Mushtaq Tijarvi, Muhammad Kazim, Nazeer Ansari, Maqsood Danish, Mushtaq Sadaf, Musharraf Ali, Muhammad Akmal, Muhammad Faiz. Allah Khan, Niloofar Hafeez, Faizanul Haq, Javed Alam and Shahid Jamal.

The chairmen of the meeting will be: Sadiq, Khalid Mahmood, Mazhar Mehdi, Chandra Shekhar, Anwar Pasha, Khwaja Muhammad Ikramuddin, Shahzad Anjum, Aleem Ashraf and the moderators of the meeting will be: Javed Hassan, Abdul Razzaq Ziyadi, Ghazala Shirin, Shadab Shamim, Nadeem Ahmed, Muhammad Matar, Muhammad Ahmed, Noreen Ali Haq.

An international poetry competition will be organised on December 27 at 6 pm, which will be presided over by Waseem Barelvi and the special guests will be Amir Mehdi (Birmingham) and MF Farooqi.

The duties of the directors will be performed by Mansoor Usmani and Moin Shadab. The names of the poets to whom invitations have been sent are as follows:

Poets invited from abroad: Amir Mehdi (Birmingham), Parvez Muzaffar (London), Jalil Nizami (Qatar), Saqib Harooni (Nepal), Anwar Kamal (Bahrain)

Guest poets: Waseem Barelvi, MF Farooqi, Sheen Qaaf Nizam, Mansoor Usmani, Ijaz Popular Meerthi, Farooq Jayasi, Aqeel Nomani, Shakeel Azmi, Shams Tabrizi, Khurshid Haider, Afzal Mangalori.

Local poets: Saleem Shirazi, Rashid Jamal Farooqi, Zaki Tariq, Majid Deobandi, Iqbal Ashhar, Shahid Anjum, Malikzada Javed, Saleem Amrohvi, Moin Shadab, Ashqana Khanum ‘Kashf’ and Murad Ali.

On 28th December at 6 pm, ‘Hum Sab Drama Group’ will present the Urdu drama ‘Ghalib Ki Wapsi’ written by AR Kardar and directed by Abbas Haider Naqvi.

This time, an exhibition of Munshi Premchand’s books and photographs has also been organised on the occasion of the seminar, which will be inaugurated by Munshi Premchand’s grandson, Alok Roy. Ten new publications of Ghalib Institute will also be inaugurated.

(In picture: Secretary of Ghalib Institute, Professor Siddique-ur-Rehman Kidwai (left) and Director of Ghalib Institute, Idris Ahmed)  

Tags : Munshi Premchand, Ghalib, Waseem Barelvi, Jashn-e-Ghalib, Apurvanand