Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi Sahar

Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi, pen name Sahar, was an Indian Urdu poet. The Times of India called him a "noted Urdu poet".

Personal life Sahar was born in Chak Bedi, Montgomery District, Punjab, British India on 9 March 1909. Montgomery District fell in Pakistan after partition of India-Pakistan and his family shifted to Fazilka, India. Montgomery District was later named as Sahiwal District. Chak Bedi is currently part of Pakpattan District, Punjab, Pakistan.

Career His poetry is varied and includes traditional themes of love and yearning but also themes of unity, peace between India and Pakistan and humor. His poetry is considered to belong to the same transreligious and transnational tradition as that of other well-known poets from the Indian subcontinent such as Muhammad Iqbal, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Ahmad Faraz.

Sahar's first book of poetry was T̤ulūʻ-i-Saḥar (1962) (translation "Advent of Daybreak"; the title is a play on words as pen name "Sahar", in Urdu means daybreak). In 1983, he published a collection of autobiographical poetry titled Yādon̲ kā Jashn ("A Celebration of Memories").

An international event to celebrate his poetry, called Jashan-e-Sahar ("A celebration for Sahar"), was held in the UAE in 1992.

Poetry An example of his use of humor to make a serious point is the following ruba'i:

Movies Kanwar Mohinder Singh Bedi was also involved in the Indian film industry and produced three movies: Man Jeete Jag Jeet (1973) (Kunawar Mohinder Singh Bedi also had an acting cameo in this movie as D C Sahib) Dukh Bhanjan Tera Naam (1974) Charandas (1977)

Kanwar Mohinder Singh Bedi Award

An award was created in his honor known as the Kanwar Mohinder Singh Bedi Award, presented by Haryana Urdu Akademi. In 2023 it carried a cash prize of INR 21,000, a shawl, a memento and citation.

Winners 1990: Yusuf Nazim 1991: Narendra Luther 1992: Raza Naqvi Wahi 1997: Mujtaba Hussain 2006: Ibn-e-Kanwal 2008: Dharmadev Swami 2009: Himmat Singh Sinha 2010: Kumar Panipati 2013: S P Sharma Tafta 2017: Krishna Kumar ‘Toor’ 2018: Sultan Anjum 2019: Naseeruddin Azhar 2020: Qamar Raees