Syed Akbar Hussain, popularly known as Akbar Allahabadi (16 November 1846 – 9 September 1921) was an Indian poet, regarded as one of the greatest

satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Early satirical authors *Aes ...

in Urdu literature. The most popular of Akbar's verse poked fun at the cultural dilemma posed by the onslaught of

Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...

. His ire was mostly directed towards the natives he considered to be outlandishly pseudo-western. In the Indian community he became known as 'Lisanu'l-Asr' ().

Life and career

Early life

Akbar Allahabadi was born in the town of Bara, in the district of

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

, to a family of Sayyads who originally came to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

from

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

as soldiers. His grandfather, Sayyid Fazl-i-Mohmmad, had Shia leanings but his three sons, Wasil 'Ali, Waris 'Ali and Tafazzul Husain were all Sunnis. Akbar's father, Moulvi Tafazzul Hussain served as a Naib Tehsildar to his brother Waris ' Ali, who was the Tehsildar, and his mother belonged to a

zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

family of Jagdishpur village from the Gaya district in

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. Akbar received his early education in Arabic, Persian and Mathematics from his father at home. In 1855, his mother moved to

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.

Career

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 Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, a tehsildar, talukdar, or mamlatdar is a land revenue 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 a ...

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 of ...

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

. To commemorate his work in judicial services, he was bestowed with the title, Khan Bahadur.

Marriage

Akbar's first marriage was at the age of 15 and arranged by his parents. His wife's name was Khadija Khatun, who was four years older than him. This was not a successful marriage and Akbar took no pleasure in it despite having two sons with Khadija named Nazir Husain and Abid Husain. After divorcing their mother, Akbar didn't really pay these three any attention and they had to make do with a sum of forty rupees a month, which he gave as alimony. Both of these sons due to lack of support from their father, didn't fare well in life and not much is known about them. His second marriage to Fatima Sughra (died 1910) was a lot more successful and brought him a lot of happiness. Together they had two sons, Ishrat Husain and Hashim Husain. Ishrat was sent to England for three years to become a lawyer but didn't return even after six. but he barely passed his B.A from Cambridge and never sat for the Bar examinations. Instead he fancied himself a person of the arts and applied to be a playwright and an actor without any success. This he attributed to the prejudice against Hindustanis in England of that time. He became too Anglicised in his ways of thinking and living for Akbar's liking. Later in life Ishrat became a Collector. The Younger son Hashim pleased his father and stayed with him until his death in 1921.

Death

Akbar retired in 1905 and lived on in

. He died of a fever on September 9, 1921 and was buried in Himmatganj locality of

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 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (, ; born Pervez Fateh Ali Khan; 13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997), also known by his initials NFAK, was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. Khan was primarily a singer of qawwali, a form of Sufi devot ...

. A number of Akbar Allahabadi's poems were used in the 2015 Hindi film Masaan. 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)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allahabadi, Akbar Indian male poets Urdu-language poets from India 19th-century Indian Muslims Writers from Prayagraj 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