Hasan Abidi (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

i journalist, writer, political activist and an

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Zafarabad,

Jaunpur district Jaunpur district is a district in the Varanasi Division of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The district headquarters is Jaunpur which is situated on the banks of the Gomti River. It is located 228 km southeast of the state capital Luck ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, and educated in

Azamgarh Azamgarh is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Azamgarh division, which consists of Ballia, Mau and Azamgarh districts. Azamgarh is situated on the bank of Tamsa River (Tons). It is located east of the st ...

and

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

(

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

) and after the

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

in 1947, he moved to

and settled in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

in 1948 and associated himself with journalism and writing. He became president of the

Karachi Press Club The Karachi Press Club (KPC @pressclubkhi) ( ur, ) is an organization of the community of the journalists. It also takes account of academics, business people and people from the public service. Karachi Press Club was the first press club that w ...

and held office in both the Karachi Union of Journalist and the

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) is a trade union federation of journalists in Pakistan. PFUJ is affiliated with the International Federation of Journalists. History The constitution of the PFUJ was first adopted in Karachi in A ...

. Hasan Abidi was an active trade unionist as well. He was also an active member of the ''Irtiqa forum''. Abidi started his journalistic career working for the Urdu language daily newspaper ''Afaq'' in 1955. He joined ''Lail-o-Nahar'' magazine in 1957 which was then edited by

Faiz Ahmad Faiz Faiz Ahmad ''Faiz'' (13 February 1911 – 20 November 1984; Urdu, Punjabi: فیض احمد فیض) was a Pakistani poet, and author of Urdu and Punjabi literature. Faiz was one of the most celebrated Pakistani Urdu writers of his time. Out ...

and

Sibte Hassan Syed Sibt-e-Hasan (Urdu: سید سبط حسن) (31 July 1916 – 20 April 1986) was an eminent scholar, journalist and political activist of Pakistan. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of Socialism and Marxism in Pakistan, as well as the mo ...

. Both belonged to the

Progressive Writers Association The Progressive Writers' Association or the Progressive Writers' Movement of India or ''Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Mussanafin-e-Hind'' (( ur, ) or ''Akhil Bhartiya Pragatishil Lekhak Sangh'' (Hindi: अखिल भारतीय प्रगति� ...

and influenced Abidi. Later, Abidi moved to Karachi to work for the ''Akhbar-e-Khwateen'' magazine and soon became its editor before moving on to work for Dawn newspaper.

Work

His collections of poetry are ''Navisht-i-Nai'' (1995), ''Jareeda'' (1998) and ''Farar Hona Huroof ka'' (2004). He had also translated fellow journalist

Eqbal Ahmed Eqbal Ahmad (1933 – 11 May 1999) was a Pakistani political scientist, writer and Academia, academic known for his Anti-war activist, anti-war activism, his support for resistance movements globally and academic contributions to the study o ...

's essays into Urdu and written stories and poems for children. Hasan Abidi wrote both ghazals and nazms. He was more in control of his craft in the traditional confines of the ghazal but chose another style and content for his nazms. Most of his nazms are a narrative of the socio-political aspects of the society. He persistently elegizes the changing value system that he finds alien and disconcerting. His collection of poems, Farar Hona Huroof Ka, was published in 2004, by Scheherzade, Karachi.

Death and legacy

Hasan Abidi died of a heart attack on 6 September 2005 in Karachi at age 76. He had handed in his latest column the previous evening at his workplace. He once suffered heart trouble in the 1970s, but had recovered well and continued his professional career with vigor until the last week of his life. Among the survivors were his wife and three children – a son and two daughters. On 18 September 2005, a couple weeks after Hasan Abidi's death,

and the

organized an event in Karachi to pay tributes to Hasan Abidi.KARACHI: Tributes paid to Hasan Abidi
Dawn (newspaper), Published 19 September 2005, Retrieved 31 August 2021

References

External links

Biographic Sketch by Dawn
1929 births Muhajir people Pakistani male journalists Pakistani poets People from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh Urdu-language poets from Pakistan 2005 deaths Journalists from Karachi Writers from Karachi 20th-century poets {{Pakistan-bio-stub

Work

Death and legacy

See also

References

External links