Sahir Ludhianvi

Sahir Ludhianvi or Abdul Hai was a hindi lyricist and an important member of the Progressive Writers Association. Prior to partition in 1947 he left for Lahore from Ludhiana but then came back to India in the year 1949 to avoid persecution by the Pakistani state which thought his writings in Journal Savera inflammatory and settled in Bombay. Sahir made his debut as a lyricist with the film "Azadi Ki Raah Par" in 1948 and his first song was "Badal Rahi he Zindagi", he made a mark for himself by writing songs for movies like Naya Daur/The New Age (1957) and Phir Subha Hogi/Morning Will Come (1958). On October 25th, 1980, Sahir Ludhianvi died due to a massive heart-attack. The story goes that Nehru had given a speech in which he had remarked ‘I am proud of India.’ Guru Dutt asked Sahir to work this line into the refrain of the song. The result was:

Ye kooche, ye neelaam-ghar dilkashi ke

Ye lut-te hue kaarvaañ zindagi ke

Kahaañ haiñ, kahaañ haiñ, muhaafiz khudi ke?

Jinheñ naaz hai Hind par voh kahaañ haiñ?

These streets, these auction houses of pleasure These looted caravans of life Where are they, the guardians of self-hood? Those who are proud of India, where are they?