Shamim Karhani was born in a 'Zamindar' family to Syed Muhammad Akhtar and Ummat ul Zehra on 8 June 1913 in village 'Karhan' district Mau, UP in India. His real name was 'Syed Shamsuddin Haider', yet he adopted 'Shamim Karhani' as his pen name ('Takhallus'), following the tradition among Urdu poets to append a place's name as a suffix.[1][2] Later, this pen name of his became so famous that once, at an interview, when he was asked his name, he himself had to pause for a moment to remember his real name! He completed his secondary education from Aligarh Muslim University and also did 'Maulvi Kamil Munshi'. For his profession, he chose to be a teacher.[3] He worked with Dayanand Anglo-Vedic Schools System, Kaumi Awaz and Anglo Arabic School (New Delhi). [3][4][5] He was a scholar of the Persian language; however he did all his poetry in Urdu. [6]
Poetry and India's freedom struggle
Shamim had a taste in poetry since he was a kid. He composed his first couplet at the age of eight.[3] He now was aware what he was born for. He started writing and was adored all over Uttar Pradesh. This was the era when India was vehemently trying to get out of snare of British rule. Being an Indian he started writing poems that conveyed the moral of adhesion to one's own country. These poems became so influential that his popular revolutionary 'Nazms' and 'Naghmas' ('Geets') were sung in the 'Prabhat-Pheris' taken out on the streets of cities like Lucknow and Varanasi during the freedom struggle.
Letter from Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime minister of India, to Shamim Karhani. It reads:A poet should make his life itself a poem. Shamim Karhani has sung of India's freedom. I hope he will continue to do so and enjoy this freedom
Soon Shamim Karhani's nationalist and revolutionary poetry started attracting the attention of both the common people and the literati. It was through this nationalist platform that he joined the Progressive Writers' Movement.[7] In 1948 he composed a poem entitled Jagao Na Bapu Ko Neend Aa Gayi Hai just after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.[8] The above poem had such an emotional appeal that it spread like the jungle fire. [3] Once, Shamim Karhani had the opportunity to recite the poem in the presence of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. Nehru, after listening to the poem, got impressed by Shamim's work and asked him to come to Lucknow to recite his poems in Congress election meetings. Later, after independence, Nehru asked Shamim to come to Delhi. He migrated to Delhi in 1950 and met Nehru at 'Teen-Murti'. Nehru asked him to compose an epic in Urdu on the freedom movement of India[9] and started giving him a stipend for the job from his personal pocket.[6] On 7 February 1950 he wrote in Shamim's diary:
"A poet should make his life itself a poem. Shamim Karhani has sung of India's freedom. I hope he will continue to do so and enjoy this freedom"[10]
His collection entitled "Roshan Andhera" was entirely devoted to the "Quit India Movement".[11]
Award from Government of India for his collection ‘Ranga Ke Geet’[13]
Notes
^Zaidi, A. (2020). Bread, Cement, Cactus. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
^Raza, Moonis. “Indian Muslims in Their Homeland.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 29, no. 39, 1994, pp. 2540–42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4401819. Accessed 14 June 2024.
