The Bittersweet Entanglement of Love and Alienation in the Poetry of Sahir Ludhianvi

Abstract

The present research paper explores the bittersweet entanglement of love and alienation in the poetry of Sahir Ludhianvi. He is one of the most celebrated poets of modern Urdu poetry. His poetry holds a different place where deep emotional longing intertwines with social and political disillusionment and personal alienation. Rather than presenting love as a source of fulfilment or enjoyment, he portrays it as an experience characterized by incompleteness. Thus, this paper is an attempt to describe how love in Sahir’s works turns into a space where intimacy and isolation go side by side. This study also describes how alienation in Sahir’s poetry moves on romantic, social, and existential levels. Love in Sahir’s poetry emerges as a profound awareness of loss and injustice. He mixes personal emotions and feelings with collective suffering and transforms romantic expressions into social critiques.