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By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Urdu Academy of North American held its monthly literary meeting on May 19, 2013 at the ornate Chandni Restaurant in Fremont/Newark, CA.
The first session of the event was dedicated to the life and work of great Urdu poet, Josh Malihabadi. The second session was dedicated to a prominent poetess Shabnam Shakeel.
Author, critic, journalist and poet, Ahmed Rahi, who happens to be visiting the Bay Area, was president of the first session. Aftab Ahmed, a literary personality, presided over the second session.
As usual, Urdu enthusiasts read Josh’s poetry. Among those who presented Josh’s poetry included: Asghar Ali Mandviwala, Asim Bajwa, Arvind Kumar, Hatim Rani, Ismat Kamal, Jafar Shah, Meraj Ghazali, Mobeen Khalil, Nagesh Avadhany, Syed Mujeeb Rahman, Talat Khan, Tasadduq Attari and Abdus Sattar Ghazali.
Dr. Tahir Mahmood, a senior member of the Urdu Academy, read a well researched maqala on Josh Malihabadi.
Josh Malihabadi was born as Shabbir Hasan Khan on 5th December, 1898 at Malihabad (UP) to a family of aristocrats and poets. He did his senior Cambridge from St. Peter's College, Agra in 1914. 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 afterwards launched his own magazine, ‘Kaleem’, in Delhi. About a year later, the magazine was merged with the Progressive Writers’ Association’s magazine, ‘Naya Adab’. He had a brief stint at Shalimar Pictures of Poona and then became editor of ‘Aaj Kal’, a magazine published by the Indian government. At the time of his migration to Pakistan in 1956, he was an adviser to All India Radio in addition to being the editor of the magazine.
Josh migrated to Pakistan in 1958 - despite Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's insistence against it - over what is generally believed to be his concern regarding the future of the Urdu language in India, where he thought the Hindu majority would encourage the use of Hindi rather than Urdu (Wikipedia). After migration, Josh settled in Karachi and rigorously worked for Anjuman-i-Tarraqi-i-Urdu with Maulvi Abdul Haq.
He remained in Pakistan until he died on February 22, 1982 in Islamabad.
The first collection of his poetry was published in 1921. The collection of his poetry include Shola-o-Shabnam, Junoon-o-Hikmat, Fikr-o-Nishaat, Sunbal-o-Salaasal, Harf-o-Hikaayat, Sarod-o-Kharosh & Irfaniyat E Josh (all Urdu titles).
Commenting on Farrukh Jamal Malihabadi, Josh’s (maternal) grandson’s book Josh: Mere Baba, Peerzada Salman wrote in Dawn (20th February, 2011): “Josh Malihabadi is perhaps the most misunderstood Urdu poet of the 20th century. He is also not read anywhere near as much as he deserves.”
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