‘Shairon ka shahr’: Poets who made Lucknow a hub of Urdu ghazal

Any discussion of Urdu ghazals, between connoisseurs, may bring up rival merits of “Dabistan-e-Dehli” and “Dabistan-e-Lakhnau”, or the Delhi and Lucknow schools of poetry, each with an array of accomplished master poets to boast of. But is the classification even valid, and if so, how can we distinguish between them? The role of both the cities in Urdu literature is beyond dispute, but did they develop a characteristic, exclusive literary style, given their similarities – royal courts (for patronage), a syncretic culture (the “Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb”), and a receptive citizenry, including a class of sybaritic aristocracy.
Urdu scholar Frances Pritchett holds the division was created by some early Urdu literary historians, and it was held Delhi poets’ work was simple, austere, chaste and dignified and that of Lucknow convoluted, frivolous, sensual, and decadent. However, this does not bear ground, as Delhi’s ‘Momin’ and ‘Dagh’ could be sensual too.
However, later, literary critics, especially Shamsur Rehman Faruqi, questioned the very classification, more importantly, for ignoring the contributions of various other bits of India, say Bihar, Bengal, Hyderabad, Punjab, etc.
Also Read Twelve percent reservations for the Muslims–Where art thou? But if “Dehlvi” or “Lakhnavi” are just seen as a sense of identification or how the poets are known to posterity, Lucknow and its surroundings, leave apart the other erstwhile Nawabi dominions, hosted a significant number, of poets right from when ghazals became predominant down to the present, cutting across caste, class, and creed.
But outside Urdu scholars and the painfully few bilingual aficionados, none is as familiar as Delhi’s Mir, Ghalib, Zauq, or Zafar — not even the last Nawab Wajid Ali Shah “Akhtar”. It is difficult to list all bearing the ‘Lakhnavi’ appellation but a representative selection — including those who kept the name of their city’s suburb — can be offered below.