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Summary Famous Urdu poet Josh Malihabadi has been remembered on his death anniversary on Wednesday.
Josh Malihabadi was born as Shabbir Hasan Khan on 5th December 1898 in Malihabad which was, at that time, part of British India. He adopted the name Josh and later Josh Malihabadi (Josh of Malihabad).He studied at St Peter’s College in Agra and later at Tagore’s University. As well as English and Urdu and the other standard subjects of the day he also studied Arabic and Persian. In 1925, he was a translator at Osmania University in Hyderabad but was subsequently exiled for writing against the Nizam of Hyderabad.Following his exile, he became publisher and editor of the Urdu magazine Kaleem in which he openly advocated independence from British rule. His fame soon spread and he became known as Shaayar-e-Inquilaab (Poet of the Revolution).His obvious political ideas earned him the friendship of the leaders of the day, especially Jawaharlal Nehru who later became the first Prime Minister of India.Following the granting of independence, he edited a magazine Aaj-Kal but he became dissatisfied with the status of the Urdu language in India feeling that it was being swamped by Hindi and he emigrated to Pakistan in 1958 against the protests of Nehru.Josh had a masterful command of Urdu and was quite passionate about its usage. The first collection of his poetry was published in 1921. His books include Shola-o-Shabnam, Junoon-o-Hikmat, Fikr-o-Nishaat, Sunbal-o-Salaasal, Harf-o-Hikaayat, Sarod-o-Kharosh & Irfaniyat-e-Josh.He also wrote songs for films.Josh remained in Pakistan until his death on February 22, 1982 in Islamabad but he was unhappy with the lack of status accorded to himself and his views.His autobiography is titled Yaadon ki Baarat.
