Hasrat Mohani (1875-1951), a romantic poet of Urdu language, journalist, politician, parliamentarian and a fearless freedom fighter of Indian Sub-continent was remembered Monday on his death anniversary.
Syed Fazlul Hasan (Hasrat Mohani) was born in 1875 in Mohan near Unnao district of UP, India.
He participated in the struggle for Indian independence and was jailed for many years by the British authorities. He was the first person in Indian history who demanded ‘complete independence’ (Azadi-e-Kaamil) in 1921 as he presided over an annual session of the All India Muslim League.
He was also imprisoned for promoting anti-British ideas especially for publishing an article against the British policies in Egypt, in his magazine ‘Urdu-e-Mualla’.
Thereafter he chose to live in India instead of moving to Pakistan after the independence (1947) in order to represent left over Indian Muslims on various platforms.
In recognition of his efforts, he was made a member of the constituent assembly which drafted the Indian constitution which he never signed since he saw hypocrisy towards Muslim minorities in it.
Maulana Hasrat Mohani died on 13 May, 1951.
A few of his 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 (Observations in Prison).
