Mehru Jaffer, a celebrated author, journalist and academician from Lucknow, passed away in Goa in the early hours of Wednesday. The eldest daughter of late veteran actor Farrukh Jaffar and freedom fighter Syed Muhammad Jaffar, she was a voice known for her deep and engaging literary contributions. She was in her mid 70s.
Event Context
Her cousin, senior career counsellor Naheed Verma, confirmed the news. “It was very sudden,” Verma said. “She was in Lucknow recently for a book reading and returned to Goa, where she had been living since her mother’s demise. She suffered an intestinal obstruction that led to sepsis, which spread very quickly. She fell ill only recently and was admitted to hospital, where her condition deteriorated,” Verma added.
Her cousin, Sadaf Jafar Abbasi, said she last spoke to Mehru on her birthday on July 18. “She will always be remembered as a groundbreaking journalist of her time.”
Author Jayant Krishna remembered her as “a woman of much substance” who brought a unique perspective to Lucknow’s cultural identity. Entrepreneur Jyotsna Kaur Habibullah described her as “a firebrand journalist” and “a soul author” deeply devoted to the city.
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Paying tribute, the UP Working Journalists’ Union described her as a pioneer in journalism who was among the key organisers of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists’ (IFWJ) Chitrakoot conference in 1978. Union president Haseeb Siddiqui and general secretary Devraj Singh, IFWJ president Gopal Mishra and secretary Vishwadev Rao, UP Press Club president Ravindra Kumar Singh, and the union’s Lucknow unit president Shiv Sharan Singh condoled her demise.
Former resident editor of Hindi Hindustan, Naveen Joshi, also remembered the veteran journalist, saying her legacy would live on.
Born and raised in Lucknow, Mehru devoted much of her life to academia and journalism. She taught courses on Islam in South Asia at Webster University and the University of Vienna. During her three decades in Europe, she also reported for BBC Hindi and contributed features to several leading Indian newspapers.
Her literary works include The Book of Muhammad (2005), The Book of Muinuddin Chishti (2006), The Book of Nizamuddin Aulia (2012), and From the Love Lanes of Lucknow: An Ode to Urdu Poetry (2024).
Friends and colleagues remembered her as a passionate journalist and a custodian of Lucknow’s cultural heritage.
Nawab Masood Abdullah also paid tribute by sharing a clip from Gulabo Sitabo, in which Mehru appeared alongside her mother and Amitabh Bachchan.
She is survived by her two sons, who are settled in Vienna, and her younger sister, Shaheen Jaffer, who lives in Lucknow.
