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. His first collection of poems in urdu came in the year 1943 when he was of only 23 years of age, it was titled Talkhiyaan; this was followed by AaoKe Koi Khwaab Bunen published in 1971 and Gaata Jaaye Banjaara, which was the collection of his film songs. 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 wasa sort of an anti-anthem:

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?

Cheen-o-Arab humaara’ song ws a satirical take on two of Iqbal’s poems, ‘Taraana-e-Hind’ (Anthem of Hindustaan) and ‘Taraana-e-Milli’ (Anthem of the Community). The former goes ‘Saare jahaan se achcha, Hindustaan humaara’ (Better than the entire world is this India of ours), while the latter’s opening lines are the same as the song in Phir Subah Hogi, namely, ‘Cheen-o-Arab humaara’.

He was one of the founding members of the Film Writers Assocation that was formed in the year 1954 and registered as a Trade Union on 13.05.1960