Ghalib Academy, New Delhi


Ghalib Academy is an educational and cultural institution of national importance in India. It was founded in 1969 by Hakeem Abdul Hameed and inaugurated by former president of India Dr. Zakir Hussain in Nizamuddin West area, Delhi. The Academy has been established in the memory of the 19th century Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. The Academy is situated in the vicinity of the tomb of the 13th century Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya.

About

The Academy consist of a museum in memory of the poet, a research library, an art gallery, an auditorium and a computerised calligraphy training center in collaboration with the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language. The Academy is visited by thousand of Indian as well foreign scholars, writers, poets and academicians. The academy claims to have a wide and rich collection of books which are not available anywhere else. The Academy today engages in the development and promotion of the Urdu Language. It organizes literary and cultural programs on famous Urdu Poets like Ghalib and Allama Iqbal etc. to further the cause of Urdu Language. It also organizes seminars, workshops, exhibition and literary meets etc. The mausoleum of Mirza Ghalib is just next to the Academy building. It lies in the attached courtyard of the building just on the way to the Dargah of Nizamuddin. The Humayun's Tomb is also at a walking distance from the museum.

History

In the middle of the twentieth century in order to keep alive the memory of the Indian poet Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, Hakeem Abdul Hameed formed a society named Ghalib Academy which was later joined by many other influential people of the time. This society had its registered office at Hamdard Manzil Lal Kuan Delhi. The Society president Hakeem Abdul Hameed purchased two plots adjacent to Ghalib's Mazar in Nizamuddin Basti and got the Ghalib Academy building constructed there. It was formally declared open by the then President of India Dr. Zakir Hussain on the occasion of the Ghalib Centenary on 22 February 1969.

Aims and objectives