Josh Malihabadi
(H/DR Adeeb Ahmed, Karachi)
Josh Malihabadi was born as
Shabbir Hasan Khan on 5th December, 1898 at Malihabad. He did his senior
Cambridge from St. Peter's College, Agra in 1914. In 1918, he spent about six
months at Shantiniketan. He studied Arabic and Persian. Due to the death of his
father, Bashir Ahmed Khan, in 1916, Josh was unable to avail of a college
education.
In 1925, Josh started work at the Osmania University, supervising translation
work. He was exiled from the state of Hyderabad for writing a nazm against the
Nizam. He then started the newsletter/magazine called the 'Kaleem' in which he
openly wrote articles in favour of independence and against the British. Soon,
he was being called "shaayar-e-inquilaab". He also got actively involved in the
freedom struggle and became close to quite a few of the political leaders of
that era, specially Jawahar Lal Nehru.
On the advice of director W.Z.Ahmed, he also wrote songs for Shalimar Pictures.
During this time, he was staying in Pune. After independence, he became the
editor of 'Aajkal'. He was later honoured with the Padmabhushan. Josh spent the
latter part of his years in Pakistan.He passed away on 22nd February, 1982 in
Islamabad. Some of Josh's important works are: Shola-o-Shabnam, Junoon-o-Hikmat,
Fikr-o-Nishaat, Sunbal-o-Salaasal, Harf-o-Hikaayat, Sarod-o-Kharosh. His
autobiography is titled "Yaadon ki Baarat".