During an annual session of the Congress Party in 1921, two men moved a resolution calling for complete independence from the British rule in a secular country called ‘India.’ One of these person who demanded this ‘Azadi-e-Kaamil’ was none other than Syed Fazl-ul-Hasan, the same person who coined the clarion call ‘Inquilab Zindabad!’

Better known by his pen name Hasrat Mohani, the activist, Urdu poet and freedom fighter is still greatly revered after his demise on May 13, 1951 in Lucknow. His legacy leaves its traces in various forms like the establishment of Hasrat Mohani Memorial Library and Hall Trust in Karachi, Pakistan. Or the Maulana Hasrat Mohani street in Maharashtra’s Mumbra town or a Maulana Hasrat Mohani Gallery at Bithoor Museum, Uttar Pradesh. A hostel in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is also named after him.

The last two mentions are particularly significant considering the personality’s birth at Mohan in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh and later education at the AMU. Although he completed his Bachelors degree at the esteemed university, Mohani was particularly interested in the historical struggle unfolding before his generation.

Thus, soon after his graduation, he threw himself into the independence movement, making his mark in history not only as a freedom fighter but also a journalist who started the Urdu-i-Mualla journal. He also started the Mustaqil Urdu newspaper.

Further, before turning into a God-fearing Communist, Mohani worked for the Indian National Congress party, the Muslim League and the Jamiat-ul Ulama-i-Hind. In fact, Mohani was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India. Safe to say, the man saw the inside of the prison many times for dissenting against colonial rule.

However, history may most distinctly remember him for his work during the formation of independent India, while working as one of the Constituent Assembly members that drafted the Indian Constitution. Mohani staunchly opposed the partition of India. The declaration of the Partition Plan on 3 June 1947, sparked his resignation from the All India Muslim League and when the Constitution was finally drafted, he refused to sign the document citing hypocrisy towards Muslim minorities.

Rather than a partition, he had hoped for a confederal constitution in India, similar to the USSR with six federations: East Pakistan; West Pakistan; Central India; South-eastern India; South-western India; Hyderabad Deccan. Failing this, he chose to stay in India and speak for the Indian Muslims.

Aside from partition he also contributed to other aspects of the documents relating to issues like federalism, the Preamble, religious reservations, Zamindari abolition. His proponents fondly remember him as the politician who refuted all government allowances and opted to stay in mosques. He is even reported to have commuted to the Parliament in a tanga and covered long-distances in the third-class train compartment because “there is no fourth class.”

Remembering Hasrat Mohani on his seventieth death anniversary, it would be remiss not to mention his poetic prowess. Mohani created ghazals, nazms, etc. from a young age. He later gained popularity for combining values of classical and modernist styles of composition. According to Rekhta Foundation, he kept the ghazal form alive especially at a time when it was being marginalized. Along with themes of love and romance, he also talked of socio-political subjects in his poems. Following is a sher from one of his most famous poem:

“chupke chupke raat din aañsū bahānā yaad hai

ham ko ab tak āshiqī kā vo zamānā yaad hai”

His other books are Kulliyat-e-Hasrat Mohani (Collection of Hasrat Mohani’s poetry), Sharh-e-Kalam-e-Ghalib (Explanation of Ghalib’s poetry), Nukaat-e-Sukhan (Important aspects of poetry) and Mushahidaat-e-Zindaan which he wrote during his imprisonment by the British.

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The post Remembering Hasrat Mohani, who coined the clarion call ‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In a Facebook post by literary historian Rakhshanda Jalil, she reminded people about notable freedom fighter and Urdu poet Hasrat Mohani and his love for Lord Krishna on the occasion of Janmashtami. Mohani is known as the person who coined the term ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ in 1921.
 
“Janamashtami Mubarak… reminded of the Urdu poet Hasrat Mohani and his great love for Hazrat Krishan ji Maharaj,” she wrote in her post.
 
Mohani kept his pen name after his birthplace Mohan in Unnao. He died in 1951 in Lucknow India but there are institutions and roads named after him in Pakistan as well.
 
Full text of Jalil’s post:
 
Janamashtami Mubarak… reminded of the Urdu poet Hasrat Mohani and his great love for Hazrat Krishan ji Maharaj…
 
Hasrat was a devout Krishna bhakt who went to Mathura often to celebrate Janamshthami and also wrote the most lyrical ballads devoted to Krishan ji Bhagwan. Some written in chaste Urdu others in the Awadhi dialect, these love songs to Krishna contain a combination of irreconcilables that melt away in the face of true piety. Calling the Blue God Hazrat Shri Krishna Alaihi Rahma (‘The Venerable Shri Krishna Blessed be His Name’), he shows how it is entirely possible for a panch-waqta Musalman, one for whom worship of any deity is kufr, to adore the ‘other’:
 
Maslak-i ishq hai parastish-i husn
Hum nahin jaante aazab-o-sawaab
 
The path of love leads to the worship of beauty
I know neither reward nor punishment
 
Offering a clue to the light of love that lit his path — be it to Mecca or Barsana, Medina or Mathura, Ajmer or Nand Gaon, he writes of the fragrance, the boo-i uns, that permeates both:
 
Irfaan-e ishq naam hai mere maqaam ka
Haamil hun kis ke naghma-i nai ke payaam ka
Mathura se ahl-i dil ko woh aati hai boo-i uns
Duniya-i jaan mein shor hai jis ke dawaam ka
Labrez-i noor hai dil-i ‘Hasrat’ zahe naseeb
Ek husn-i mushkfaam ke shauq-i tamaam ka
 
The name of my destination is Love’s Knowledge
The message of whose melodious flute I carry
The scent of Oneness wafts from Mathura to the people of heart
And suffuses the living world
It is Hasrat’s good fortune that his heart is brimful with the radiance
And love of that musk-scented Beautiful one
 
Seeing no duality between his assiduous roza-namaz and ardent krishn bhakti, this bearded, shervani-clad gentleman from Mohan in the Unnao district of western Uttar Pradesh, resorts to the more rustic Awadhi register to express his grand passion when the chaste Urdu meter fails him:
 
Mann tose preet lagai Kanhai
Kahu aur kisurati ab kaahe ko aayi
Gokula dhundh Brindaban dhundho
Barsane lag ghoom ke aayi
Tan man dhan sab waar ke ‘Hasrat’
Mathura nagar chali dhuni ramaye
 
My heart has fallen for you, Kanhai
How can it think of anyone else now?
I searched for him in Gokul and in Brindavan
I even went till Barsana looking for him
Having sacrificed everything for him, I Hasrat
Am now going to set up my abode in Mathura
 
Locked up in the Yervada Central Jail in Poona for his ‘seditious’ activities, with the coming of Janamashthami he cannot contain his longing to go to Mathura:
 
Mathura ka nagar hai aashiqui ka
Dam bharti hai arzu issi ka
Har zarra-e sar-zamin-e Gokul
Daara hai jamaal-e dilbari ka
Barsana-o Nand Gaon mein bhi
Dekh aayein hain jalwa ham kisi ka
Paigham-e hayaat-e jaavidaan thha
Har nagma-e Krishn bansuri ka
Voh noor siyah ya ki ‘Hasrat’
Sar-chashma farogh-e-aagahi ka
 
Mathura is the city of love
All my desires are centred on it
Every particle of the dust of Gokul
Possesses loveliness and comeliness
Even in Barsana and Nand Gaon
I have seen that certain someone’s splendour
Whose message of reality is eternal
As is every note from Krishna’s flute
Like a dark radiance or is it Hasrat
Like a spring of water gushing knowledge

Rakhshanda Jalil is an Indian writer, critic and literary historian. Author of Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments of India. Founder of Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture.
 

The post How an Indian freedom fighter and Urdu poet expressed his love for Krishna appeared first on SabrangIndia.