The Maulana Who Loved Krishna: by CM Naim
Hasrat Mohani was not just a maverick when it came to publicly championing the radical thinking of Tilak. He also wrote verses expressing deep love for Krishna, and often went to Mathura to celebrate Janmashtami. He was a true maverick. In 1908 he published an anonymous article in his modest Urdu journal, Urdū-e-Mu’allā (circulation 500), which severely criticized the British colonial policy in Egypt concerning education. The authorities in India promptly charged him with “sedition.” Refusing to disclose the name of the author, he took sole responsibility for the article; consequently, he had to spend over 12 months in “Rigorous Imprisonment”—i.e. hand-grinding with another “C” class prisoner one maund (37.3 kgs) of grain every day.
In 1921 three major political parties held their annual meetings in the same week at Ahmedabad. At the All India Khilafat Conference, he succeeded in getting a resolution passed that called for India’s total freedom from the colonial rule, but the next day, not surprisingly, the delegates quickly repudiated themselves. He then tried his luck in the Subjects Committee of the Indian National Congress, but the Mahatma, rushing back from another meeting, made sure the resolution was firmly defeated. Finally, at the meeting of the All India Muslim League, he forcefully expressed his call in his presidential address, but wisely abstained from asking for a vote.
Hasrat Mohani with B.R. Ambedkar at Sardar Patel’s reception in 1949
He was perhaps the only prominent Muslim of his generation to publicly champion the radical thinking of Tilak, writing glowingly about him in his journal. He also wrote many verses praising him, including the following at his demise:
In 1921 three major political parties held their annual meetings in the same week at Ahmedabad. At the All India Khilafat Conference, he succeeded in getting a resolution passed that called for India’s total freedom from the colonial rule, but the next day, not surprisingly, the delegates quickly repudiated themselves. He then tried his luck in the Subjects Committee of the Indian National Congress, but the Mahatma, rushing back from another meeting, made sure the resolution was firmly defeated. Finally, at the meeting of the All India Muslim League, he forcefully expressed his call in his presidential address, but wisely abstained from asking for a vote.
Hasrat Mohani with B.R. Ambedkar at Sardar Patel’s reception in 1949
He was perhaps the only prominent Muslim of his generation to publicly champion the radical thinking of Tilak, writing glowingly about him in his journal. He also wrote many verses praising him, including the following at his demise:
jab tak wo rahe dunyā meN rahā ham sab ke diloN par zor unkā
ab rah ke bahisht meN nizd-i-khudā hūroN pe kareNge rāj Tilak
So long as he lived he ruled our hearts, and now in Paradise,And when the first Indian Communist Conference was held at Kanpur in 1920, he was one of its organizers as well as the President of the Reception Committee. Some think that on that occasion he also coined the slogan, Inqilāb Zindabād, as a translation of the English, “Long Live the Revolution.” Later in a verse he described himself as a “Sufi Believer” (sūfī momin) and a “Communist Muslim” (ishtirākī muslim), whose chosen path was Revolution (inqilāb) and Unworldliness (darweshī).
Nearer to God, Tilak shall rule over the Houris.
darweshī-o-inqilāb maslak hai merā
sūfī momin hūN, ishtirākī muslim
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He was born Fazlul Hasan in 1878, in a modest zamindar family of Mohan, a qasbah in Unnao, U.P. After matriculating with distinction when he arrived at the Mahommedan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh, in 1899, he got down from the ekka wearing flared pajamas and his wedding sherwani, and holding a pāndān (“betel-leaf container”) in one hand. The smartly turned-out boys of the college immediately nicknamed him khālajān (“aunty”). But in short time his personal integrity and his talent for poetry—he chose Hasrat (“Longing”) for his takhallus—won him their affection and respect. By the time he passed away in 1953, most of India had long known him simply as Maulana Hasrat Mohani...read more:
