Sharif Kunjahi

Sharif Kunjahi (Punjabi: شریف کنجاہی (Shahmukhi)) (1914 – 2007) was a leading writer and poet of Punjabi. He was among the first faculty members of the Department of Punjabi Language at University of Punjab in the 1970s and contributed to Punjabi literature as a poet, prose writer, teacher, research scholar, linguist, lexicographer and translator. Sharif was born on 13 May 1914 in Kunjah, a small town of Gujrat District in Punjab. His father was a school teacher. Shareef completed his matriculation in 1930 from a school in Kunjah and higher secondary in 1933 from Government Intermediate College, Jehlum. By that time he had started writing poetry and was known as a progressive writer sympathetic to the Indian National Congress. This affiliation became a hindrance for him to get police clearance for entry level jobs in the government service.