Legendary Urdu litterateur Gian Chand Jain died at Porterville (California) in America on Saturday night. He was 85.

An authority on Ghalib and a linguist par excellence, Jain was born in Seohara town in Bijnore district in 1923. He had written his first ghazal under the pen name ‘Ghaafil’ in 1937.

Jain’s latest book ‘Ek Bhasha, Do Likhawat’ had invited the collective ire of Urdu world. Urdu writers and readers were hurt with Jain’s sudden outburst and especially the charges of bias againt non-Muslim writers in Urdu. All his life he got tremendous respect from across the Urud world.

Another Urdu legend Shamsur Rahman Farooqi had written a scholarly piece, exposing the frivolous nature of charges. However, many scholars felt that Jain, who was ailing, had been used by vested elements, in his old age to create the unsavoury literary controversy. Such errors (found in the book) were not expected of an erudite person like him.

Gyan Chand Jain was a recepient of umpteen Urdu awards. He was Head of Department, Urdu, at Hamidia College. Later he taught at Jammu, Allahabad and Hyderabad. He shifted to Lucknow and later to USA.

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