Chiragh Hasan Hasrat ( ur, Born 1904, Poonch, Kashmir ) was a

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 wr ...

and

Journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He began composing poetry when he was still a student at school. He was born in Kashmir but after matriculation he migrated to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Early in his career Chiragh started teaching at various local schools in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. He wrote 16 Books. He was also associated with several

newspapers A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sport ...

like ''Insaa (انساں), Zamindar (زمیںدار), Sheeraza (شیرازہ), Shahbaz (شاہ باز)''. He used different pen names including ''Columbus'', ''Koocha Gard'' and ''Sindbaad Jahazi''.

Early life

In 1920 he joined a school at

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

as a Persian teacher where he met

Abul Kalam Azad Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al- Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following In ...

. He was impressed by him and soon left the school to meet him again in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

. Hasrat admitted that he had learned a lot from Azad, not only in the field of journalism but about

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...

Career

In 1925, Hasrat joined the newspaper ''Nai Dunya'' (the new world).Here he used to write a famous column ''Kalkatte ki baten'' under the penname of ''Columbus''. Due to this column he became very famous and most senior journalists appreciated him. After that he joined ''Asr-e-Jadeed'' as

assistant editor Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material ( copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual o ...

where he wrote a humor column ''Mataibaat'' under the penname of ''Koocha Gard'' and it further increased his reputation as a journalist and

humorist A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business ...

. In 1926 he launched his own literary journal ''Aftab'' from

. Hasrat also worked for ''Isteqlal'' and then ''Jamhoor'' running a campaign for India's independence.

Nehru Report

Hasrat was a supporter of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

and in 1928 he supported

Nehru Report The Nehru Report of 1928 was a memorandum All Parties Conference in British India to appeal for a new dominion status and a federal set-up of government for the constitution of India. It also proposed for the Joint Electorates with reservation of ...

writing many columns in favor of it. Since majority of

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abra ...

had rejected this report, backing it caused him to lose popularity among Muslims of India. Hasrat left Calcutta and joined

Zafar Ali Khan Zafar Ali Khan (1874– 27 November 1956) ( pnb, – ), also known as Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, was a Pakistani writer, poet, translator and a journalist who played an important role in the Pakistan Movement against the British Raj. He is genera ...

's newspaper ''zamindar'' in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest ...

Coming to Lahore

In 1929 he came to Lahore to work with Zafar Ali Khan. He wrote for various newspapers in Lahore and then launched his own newspaper ''Sheeraza'' in 1936. In 1940 he joined All India Radio, Delhi.

Army service

Soon after going to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...

Hasrat joined the army and rapidly rose to the rank of Major.

Death

He could not work anywhere for too long and looked for something different. But then his health deteriorated. Chiragh Hasan Hasrat died in Lahore on 26 June 1955.

Books

He wrote 16 books.unfortunately not a single poetic collection of him was ever published. Some of his famous books are: * ''Kele ka Chhilka'' * ''Mataibaat'' * ''Harf-o-Hikayat'' * ''Do doctor'' * ''Murdum deeda''

Reference list

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasrat, Hasan Urdu-language poets from Pakistan Urdu-language writers by century Urdu-language journalists Muslim poets 20th-century Urdu-language writers Urdu-language writers from British India 1955 deaths 1904 births People from British India