subject: Josh Malihabadi: A beautiful chapter of Urdu! [print this page] Josh Malihabadi: A beautiful chapter of Urdu!
Shabbir Hassan Khan is the name that you might have never heard of. However you are familiar with this personality for sure, if you have been into the Urdu literature or if you are Urdu poetry reader. Most of the world knows this great personality as Josh Malihabadi, who was born on December 5, 1894. The great personality died on February 22, 1982.
Josh Malihabadi was a noted Urdu poet who was born in British India. He remained in India till 1958 and then he migrated to Pakistan and settled in Pakistan for the rest of his life. The great poet wrote ghazals and nazm with his poetic name Josh. Josh in Urdu means passion or intensity. As depicted by his literary or poetic name, he was an intense and passionate person who had great love and respect for the Urdu language.
Malihabadi is another identity of this great poet. Malihabad is the place where Josh was born. It was located in the united provinces of British India. Josh got his early education at the St. Peter's College in Agra. He passed his senior Cambridge examination in the year 1914. He also studied Arabic and Persian at his college, but unfortunately he had to prevent him from undertaking college education after his father's death.
As far as his career is concerned, he started his career as a translator at Osmania University in the year 1925. He was then exiled from the state of Hyderabad, when he wrote a Nazm against the nizam of Hyderabad. Hyderabad was a princely state at that time and the then ruler of the sate exiled him. Josh then founded a magazine called Kaleem. In this magazine he openly wrote articles against the British Raj and in favor of independence. For his work for freedom he was then called shayare-e-inqlaab. This was the start of his political career. In his struggle for freedom, he came closer to different politicians like Jawahar all Nehru.
After the independence, Jawahar Lal Nehru became the editor of the popular publication of that time Aaj-Kal. In 1958 Josh finally migrated to Pakistan. Jawahar opposed his decision of moving o Pakistan because with him moving to Pakistan, a great treasure of Urdu was moving out of the hands of India. Josh on the other hand side, was of the view that Hindu being in the majority in India will use Hindi more than Urdu, and so he didn't see Urdu's future in India. Josh then settled in Karachi, which was and is the land of Urdu speaking majority. He served rigorously for the betterment of Urdu and therefore served in Anjuman-e-Tarakkiy-e-Urdu with Maulvi Abdul Haq.
The great personality died in Islamabad. One of the closest companions of Josh was Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Syed Fakhruddin Balley. The death of this gem of Urdu was a great loss for the Urdu language, which has created a hollow space, which can never be fulfilled. May Allah bless him in his grave! (Aameen)
