Sahir Ludhianvi

Sahir Ludhianvi or Abdul Hai was a poet, lyricist and an important member of the Progressive Writers Association. Before the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan he left for Lahore from Ludhiana but then came back to India and settled in Bombay in the year 1949 to avoid persecution by the Pakistani state which thought his writings in Journal Savera were inflammatory. In Bombay, he made his dubut in the film industry as a lyricist with the film "Azadi Ki Raah Par" in 1948 and his first song being "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 only 23 years, it was titled Talkhiyaan (Bitterness); this was followed by AaoKe Koi Khwaab Bunen(Come That We May Weave A Dream) published in 1971 and Gaata Jaaye Banjaara (The Gypsy Sings On), which was the collection of his film songs. He was one of the founding members of the Film Writers Association, formed in the year 1954 and registered as a Trade Union on 13.05.1960. Although he was not a member of the Communist Party of India but had marxist leanings and adopted the genre of socialist realism. Many of his songs for films set a tone for a social transformation or were a direct and sharp critique of the world around. His writings tried to give voice to the voiceless-the workers, the prostitutes, the lovers; addressed world politics-second world war, suez canal crisis, anti war movement, indo-pak relations.

In Pyaasa.... the song was a 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 for the film Phir Subha Hogi(1958) was 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’, Sahir turned the nationalist call into a call of the oppressed. In grand narrative of Iqbal is contrasted by the grim everyday life where the only recourse are the footpaths of the city.

The two songs penned by Iqbal reflect a change in his philosophical thinking. Taraana-e-Hindi was composed around the year 1903 when the hope was of a single composite nation and just one country-India. While the second song Taraana-e- Milli or the 'anthem of the community' was composed a few years later where Iqbal talks of the muslims as an international community characterised by Pan-Islamic philosophy.