Syed Akbar Hussain, popularly known as Akbar Allahabadi (16 November 1846 – 9 September 1921) was an Indian

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

in the genre of

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

Life and career

Akbar Allahabadi was born in the town of Bara, eleven miles from Allahabad, to a family of Sayyads who originally came to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

from

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

as soldiers. His father, Moulvi Tafazzul Hussain served as a Naib Tehsildar and his mother belonged to a

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

family of Jagdishpur village from the

Gaya district } Gaya district is one of the thirty-eight districts of the Indian state of Bihar. It was officially established on 3 October 1865. The district has a common boundary with the state of Jharkhand to the south. Gaya city is both the district head ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

. Akbar received his early education from his father at home. In 1855, his mother moved to Allahabad and settled in Mohalla Chowk. Akbar was admitted to the Jamuna Mission School for an English education in 1856, but he abandoned his school education in 1859. However, he continued to study English and read widely. On leaving school, Akbar joined the Railway Engineering Department as a clerk. While in service, he passed the exam qualifying him as a Vakeel (barrister) and subsequently worked as a

Tehsildar In India and Pakistan, a Tehsildar or Mamlatdar is a tax officer accompanied by revenue inspectors. They are in charge of obtaining taxes from a tehsil with regard to land revenue. A tehsildar is also known as an executive magistrate of the relev ...

and a munsif, and ultimately, as a

sessions court A Sessions Court or even known as the Court of Sessions Judge is a court of law which exists in several Commonwealth countries. A Court of Session is the highest criminal court in a district and the court of first instance for trying serious offe ...

judge. To commemorate his work in judicial services, he was bestowed with the title, Khan Bahadur. Akbar retired in 1903 and lived on in Allahabad. He died of a fever on September 9, 1921 and was buried in Himmatganj district of Allahabad.

Legacy

"Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa" is a popular ghazal, written by Akbar Allahabadi and most prominently sung by Ghulam Ali. Verses from his poetry also found their way into the famous qawwali “Tum ik Gorakh Dhanda Ho” by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. A number of Akbar Allahabadi's poems were used in the 2015 Hindi film

Masaan ''Masaan'' (; also known as ''Fly Away Solo'' in English) is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language independent drama film and starring Richa Chadda and Vicky Kaushal in lead roles. It is Kaushal's debut Hindi film, and is also the directorial debut of ...

. Explaining this as a conscious tribute, the film's lyrics writer Varun Grover explained that he wanted to show one of the female leads Shaalu (played by Shweta Tripathi) as a person whose hobby is to read Hindi poetry and Shayri.

References

External links

Akbar Allahabadi at Kavita Kosh
(Hindi)

Poems:_ {{DEFAULTSORT:Allahabadi, Akbar Indian male poets Urdu-language poets from India 19th-century Indian Muslims Writers from Allahabad 1846 births 1921 deaths Urdu-language writers from British India 20th-century Urdu-language writers 19th-century Urdu-language writers Urdu-language religious writers Urdu-language letter writers Urdu-language theologians 19th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian poets Poets from Uttar Pradesh 19th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian male writers