Gopi Chand Narang is an Indian theorist, literary critic and scholar who writes in Urdu and English. His Urdu literary criticism has incorporated a range of modern theoretical frameworks including stylistics, structuralism, post-structuralism and Eastern poetics.
Narang taught Urdu literature at St. Stephen's College before joining Delhi University, where he became a reader in 1961. In 1963 and 1968 he was a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, also teaching at the University of Minnesota and the University of Oslo. Narang joined Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi as a professor in 1974, rejoining the University of Delhi from 1986 to 1995. In 2005, the university named him a professor emeritus. Narang's first book was published in 1961, a sociolinguistic analysis of a neglected dialect spoken by indigenous workers and artisans Delhi. He has published over 60 books in Urdu, English, and Hindi.
Achievements
He has produced three studies: Hindustani Qisson se Makhooz Urdu Masnaviyan, Urdu Ghazal aur Hindustani Zehn-o-Tehzeeband Hindustan ki Tehreek-e-Azadi aur Urdu Shairi. Narang's related volumes—Amir Khusrow ka Hindavi Kalaam, Saniha-e-Karbala bataur Sheri Isti'ara and Urdu Zabaan aur Lisaniyaat —are socio-cultural and historical studies. In addition to teaching, Narang was vice-chairman of the Delhi Urdu Academy and the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language – HRD and vice-president and president of the Sahitya Akademi.
There have been allegations of plagiarism against Gopi Chand Narang for copying and translating from secondary sources major portions of his Sahitya Akademi award-winning book Sakhtiyat, Pas-Sakhtiyat aur Mashriqui Sheriyat but Narang has responded to it and now it has been proved that the allegations were baseless and a result of maligning campaign. Narang has scholarly exposed the Urdu modernism and claimed that it was an anti-liberal movement hence he was targeted by the propagators of Urdu modernism like CM Naim. Imran Shahid Bhinder and Prof. CM. Naim of Chicago University have provided textual evidence of plagiarism. There have also been allegations of corruption and controversial appointments under his Presidency of Sahitya Akademi, which he headed from 2003 to 2007. However, the fact is that the plagiarism charges have been countered in a recent article titled "How author and critic Gopi Chand Narang survived a maligning campaign". The same article, in fact, exposes both Imran Shahid and C.M.Naim that how and why they had carried out a negative campaign against Narang and how they failed. Similarly, in a recent interview, Narang has responded to allegations of corruption during his tenure as the President of the Sahitya Akademi. Narang has said that if he had done something wrong those who carried out false propaganda should have gone to the court. It was libelous and baseless allegations on the ground of personal animosity.
