Biography of Maulana Hasrat Mohani

(1878 -1951)

Maulana Hasrat Mohani is undoubtedly the greatest Urdu poet of the Pre-Independence era. The credit for providing a wide horizon to ghazal goes to revered Hasrat Mohani.

Maulana Syed Fazlul Hasan Hasrat Mohani was born in 1878 at Mohan in Unnao. Being born in a Muslim family, his education was mostly done in Arabic and Persian. In 1894, he passed the middle school examination and stood first in the whole province. Thereafter, he passed his matriculation examination with distinction in 1899.

In 1903, he began publishing a newspaper 'Urdu-I-Moalla. Being associated with the ongoing freedom struggle he changed the course of Urdu poetry by giving due place to political view and observation in his poetry. He could delineate, elaborate and expound even a subtle thing or idea, retaining its freshness and effectiveness. His idiom was spontaneous and romanticized, bringing a unique sense of lyricism, which evoked down-to-earth images for poetic communication.