Sahir Ludhianvi was born Abdul Havee on 8 March 1921 in Ludhiana. Punjab. His father. Fazl Mohammed was a wealthy landowner who lived a decadent lifestyle. Sahir's mother. Sardar Begum. Was allegedly his eleventh wife. Tired of her husband's debauched wars. Sardar Begum legally separated from him. She took custody of her son, working extra hard to ensure that the song Adul never missed the luxury of his father's home. She sold her jewellery and even turned to her siblings for help in order to provide for her son.
The sympathetic tone that we see in Sahir's songs for women, or for the mother figure. like in "Tu mere paas rahega munne Trishul, 1978 is because he was witness to his mother's trials. Contrasting, when he writes about the morally corrupt behaviour of the landowning class in his poem Jaageer, it is a commentary on his father's perverse legacy
In his early 20s. Sahir published his first book of poetry. Talkhiyaan Bitterness. 190. The poems in this collection point to his keenness to speak on social issues and challenge the status quo. His defining nazm was 'Taj Mahal, where his critique of the existing. oppressive social order comes through in the lines 'Ek shahenshah ne daulat ka sahaara lekar. hum gareebon ki mohabbat ka udaaya hai mazaak' In emperor has used his wealth to mock the love of us hapless poor.
The refreshing quality about Sahir's poetry was that iubroached subjects concerning ordinary men and women without sounding esoteric. If we read any of his poems, be it Tarah-e-Tau’, ‘Sochta Hoon, Kuchh Baatein or Were Geet Tumhaare Hain. we can see they are brimming with rebellion, while asking the masses to remain optimistic in anticipation of a better tomorrow. Perhaps this is why every time he stood up to recite at a mushaira, the crowds hung on his every word. Appropriately, it was his feisty poetry that drove the Progressive Writers' Movement to give him the title inquilaabi shaavar the revolutionary poet. Perhaps the reason why he was able to write so intimately and profoundly about oppression, class inequality, the emancipation of women and the quest for communal harmony is because he lived these experiences first-hand.
Although Sahir first came to Bombay in early 1916, which is when he wrote four songs for his first Hindi film. Azadi Ki Raah Par 1918, the Partition forced him to leave the cili in search of his mother. He subsequently found her in Lahore. However. Sahir was never comfortable with the theocratic framework that Pakistan was founded on. His inflammatory writings did not go down well with the Pakistani authorities. Who issued an arrest warrant in his name, forcing him to flee the country in June 1948.
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