Manglesh Dabral

Dabral was married and had a daughter and a son. He died from COVID-19 complications at AIIMS New Delhi on 9 December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. He was 72. Dabral was undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Ghaziabad for the few days before being admitted to AIIMS, where his condition deteriorated, suffering a cardiac arrest.

He was a vocal critic of the Indian government, and his works reflected dissent. He returned his Sahitya Akademi Award in 2015 in a protest that saw many Indian writers returning their awards. His final work, Naye Yug Men Shatru (transl. foes in the modern world), was considered a poetic commentary on the nation's current affairs.

He received the Sahitya Akademi Award given by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, in 2000 for his poetry collection Ham Jo Dekhte Hain. Dabral's poetry has been translated in all major Indian languages, and a number of foreign languages, including English, Russian, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Polish and Bulgarian. He was the recipient of the World Writers Program fellowship at the University of Iowa, in the United States.

Moving to Delhi in the late 1960s, Dabral worked at the vernacular newspapers Hindi Patriot, Pratipaksh and Aaspaas. He then moved to Bhopal, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh to work as an editor for Bharat Bhavan's Purvagrah. He went on to work for Amrit Prabhat published from Allahabad and Lucknow before going on to being the editor of Jansatta and later at Sahara Samay. He also worked with the National Book Trust as an editorial consultant, and with the Hindi monthly magazine Public Agenda as its editor. He was noted as the editor of Jansatta's Sunday magazine, Ravivari where he mentored a generation of Hindi writers. In his roles he was described as a key link between literature and journalism.

Manglesh Dabral (16 May 1948 – 9 December 2020) was an Indian Hindi poet and journalist. He was associated with Hindi-language newspapers including Jansatta, Hindi Patriot, and Purvagrah. Some of his popular works include Pahar Par Lalten (transl. lamp on the hills), Ghar Ka Rasta (transl. the way home), and Kavi Ka Akelapan (transl. loneliness of a poet). He was a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2000 for his anthology Ham Jo Dekhte Hain (transl. what we see).

Dabral was born on 16 May 1948, in the village of Kaphalpani, Princely State of Tehri Garhwal (now in the Indian state of Uttarakhand). He completed his education in Dehradun.