Sobhraj Nirmaldas Fani


Sobhraj Nirmaldas Fani was a Sindhi language prose writer and poet. He wrote very vauable books on History and archaeological sites of Sindh. He was also a scholar of Arabic and Persian languages.

Biography

Sobhraj Nirmaldas was born in a literary Hindu family of Hyderabad, Sindh on 27 February 1883. His father Nirmaldas Fateh Chand was a renowned scholar of Arabic,Persian and Sindhi languages, who wrote a number of historical novels in Sindhi language. Sobhraj got early education from Hyderabad and passed matriculation examination with first class first position. He started his career as a Mukhtiarkar and retired as a Deputy Collector in 1937.
He died on 15 March 1956.

Contributions

Sobhraj began to compose small poems at the age of 10. He has used his pen name "Fani" in his poems. He was one of the best Ghazal poet during the 1920s to 1950s. Like his father, he was a scholar of Arabic, Persian, Sindhi and Sanskrit. As an essayist, he has mainly written reflective and thought provoking essays. He collected history of 80 cities and towns of Sindh and wrote very valuable scholarly articles on historical sites of Sindh. Most of his articles are scattered in various magazines which are needed to be collected and compiled in book from.
In 1940, G.M. Syed, the then Education Minister of Sindh constituted Central Advisory Board for Sindhi Literature. There were 12 members of this Board. Sobhraj Nirmaldas was one of those board members.

Published Books

Some of his published books are listed below: