Niranjan Bhagat

Niranjan Bhagat, (Gujarati: નિરંજન ભગત, Hindi: निरंजन भगत) is a Gujarati poet and commentator who won the 1999 Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati language for his critic Gujarati Sahiyta-Purvardha Uttarardha. He is also an English poet, and has written over a hundred poems in English, most being written in the style of Gitanjali.

Niranjan Narhari Bhagat was born on 18 May 1926 in Ahmedabad. Born to mother Mena and father Narhari Bhagat, his birth took place in a 'pol' next to a famous vaishnav temple. His original last name was Gandhi. His father was a businessman, and his grandfather was a member of Bhajana Mandali, due to which he came to be known as Bhagat, which his descendants adopted as their surname. His primary education was in a municipal school, the time which he refers as le vert paradis des amours enfantines (the green paradise of childish loves).

His life's most tragic event happened when he was 10; his father renounced his home. As a result, the poet had to spend seventeen years of his life with his maternal family.

Niranjan Bhagat did his Intermediate Arts in L.D. Arts College from 1944 to 1946, after which he enrolled for B.A. in English literature at Elphinstone College, Mumbai. Later he completed his M.A. in 1950 and joined L.D. Arts College as a lecturer. Later he moved as a Professor of English to Saint Xavier's College, Ahmedabad in 1975 and retired from there. He served as the president of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad in 1997-98. He also served as a member of Advisary Board for Gujarati, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi from 1963 to 1967.

Bhagat has been deeply inspire from Rabindranath Tagore, the author of Gitanjali. He also went forward to learn Bengali language in order to read Tagore's works in their original text. He also tried to write in Bengali himself.

• Kumar Chandrak in 1949.
• Narmad Suvarna Chandrak in 1957
• Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak in 1969.
• Premanand Suvarna Chandrak in 1998
• Sahitya Akademi Award in 1999
• Sachchidanand Sanman in 2000
• Narsinh Mehta Award in 2001

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• ^ "Sanskrit Sahitya Akademi Awards 1955-2007". Sahitya Akademi Official website. Archived from the original on 2008.