Ghulam Rasool Mehr (13 April 1895 – 16 November 1971) (غلام رسول مہر) was a Pakistani Muslim scholar and political activist born in Phoolpur, a village in the district of

Jalandhar Jalandhar is the third most-populous city in the Indian state of Punjab and the largest city in Doaba region. Jalandhar lies alongside the Grand Trunk Road and is a well-connected rail and road junction. Jalandhar is northwest of the state ...

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 ...

Early life

Mehr went to primary school in Khambra, then to Mission High School in Jalandhar City. He then enrolled at

Islamia College (Lahore) Government Islamia College Civil Lines ( ur, اسلامیہ کالج ), formerly called Dayanand Anglo Vedic College, is a government college in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded by Arya Samaj as the school of Dayanand Anglo Vedic on June 1, 1 ...

, where he developed a fondness for the city and its culture. He felt that while

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

were steeped deep in Eastern culture,

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

, was a happy blend of the East and the West, owing to its closer affiliation to the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

Career

Mehr was deeply involved in the developments on the Indian political front. The

Indian Muslims Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people identifying as adherents of Islam in 2011 Census. India is also the country with the second or third largest number of Muslim ...

, apart from their participation in the

Pakistan Movement The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the pe ...

, were agitated at what was happening, at that time, in the

Muslim world The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...

. Young Maulana Mehr, who had just completed his education and who had a passion to serve the cause of freedom and the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

'millat' (nation), began writing in the Daily

Zamindar (newspaper) ''Zamindar'' ( ur, ) was an Urdu newspaper. The founding editor of this newspaper was Maulana Zafar Ali Khan (1873 – 27 November 1956), a poet, intellectual, writer, Muslim nationalist and a supporter of the All India Muslim League's Pak ...

and eventually started working there. In Lahore, Mehr meet

Shibli Nomani Shibli Nomani ( ur, – ; 3 June 1857 – 18 November 1914) was an Islamic scholar from the Indian subcontinent during the British Raj. He was born at Bindwal in Azamgarh district of present-day Uttar Pradesh.Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk Kamboh Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk (born Mushtaq Hussain Zuberi; 24 March 1841 – 27 January 1917) was an Indian Muslim politician and one of the founders of All India Muslim League. Nawab Mushtaq Hussain or Nawab Viqar Ul Mulk was also the maternal unc ...

, who were members of a delegation from

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

. He also had the opportunity to listen to Allama

Muhammad Iqbal Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

recite his verses at the annual conference of

Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam ("The Association for the Support of Islam") or Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam ( ur, ) is an Islamic intellectual and social welfare organisation with branches both in India and Pakistan. It was founded in Lahore on 24 Sep ...

. Mehr also spent some time in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

. Though he did not succeed in getting a suitable job, living there gave him the opportunity to attain a 'political education' for himself. And it was in Hyderabad that he turned his attention from poetry to prose. This practice proved helpful, when he started his journalism career with an editorial published in the Daily

in 1921. Soon Maulana joined the paper and was in the thick of the battle going on in the name of freedom and Tehrik-i-Khilafat (

Khilafat Movement The Khilafat Movement (1919–24), also known as the Caliphate movement or the Indian Muslim movement, was a pan-Islamist political protest campaign launched by Muslims of British India led by Shaukat Ali, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Hakim Ajma ...

). He had already joined ''Hizballah'', an organisation started by Maulana

Abul Kalam Azad Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Husseini, Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian Indian independence movement, independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the ...

. In fact, Azad was an important influence on Mehr and the latter drew inspiration from what was published in

Al-Hilal (newspaper) ''Al-Hilal'' (Urdu: هلال "The Crescent") was a weekly Urdu language newspaper established by the Indian Muslim independence activist Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The paper was notable for its criticism of the British Raj in India and its exhort ...

. Mehr had made a brief survey of contemporary political and religious movements and his opinions of them. His circumstances did not allow him to complete his memoirs.

Death and legacy

Towards the end of his life, Mehr decided to record his life for the benefit of future generations. Mohammad Hamza Farooqi wrote the book ''Mehr Beeti'', published by Al-Faisal Nashran, Lahore., Dawn (newspaper), Published 23 Sep 2012, Retrieved 29 April 2018 Mehr dictated it to his son, Farooq Arshad Shaheen and daughter, Muneera Alvi. There is an introductory note written by them which says that they had the opportunity to see their father and listen to him only during lunch time. It was at their ardent wisth that he tell his, from the early years to the end, including his devotion to causes close to his heart. Mehr once wrote in a letter to a friend that his children were eager to know about their family origins, due to his family's migration at the time of

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, when they had to leave their land of birth, Phoolpur, a village in the district of

Books

He "wrote, compiled, edited and translated over 100 books", including: *''Sīrat-i Imām Ibn Taymīyah'', life and work of

Ibn Taymiyyah Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; ar, ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī ( ar, تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم � ...

, 1263-1328, Islamic scholar *''G̲h̲ālib'', life and works of

Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib ) , birth_date = , birth_place = Kala Mahal, Agra, Maratha Confederacy , death_date = , death_place = Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, Delhi, British India , occupation = Poet , language ...

, 1797-1869, Urdu poet *''Navā-yi surosh'', which has been described by critic

Rauf Parekh Rauf Parekh is an Urdu lexicographer, linguist, humorist and a Pakistani newspaper columnist. Early life and career Born in Karachi on August 26, 1958, Parekh was educated in Karachi. Having obtained MA and PhD degrees in Urdu from the Univer ...

as "the most voluminous of all commentaries on Ghalib’s Urdu divan."Rauf Parekh (19 February 2019)
"Literary notes: Of Ghalib’s fake ghazals and commentaries on Ghalib’s Urdu divan"
''Dawn News''. Retrieved 25 February 2019. *''Iqbāliyāt'', on the life and works of

Sir Muhammad Iqbal Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

, 1877-1938; collected articles *''Tārīk̲h̲-i Sindh'', on the

history of Sindh The history of Sindh refers to the history of the modern-day Pakistani province of Sindh, as well as neighboring regions that periodically came under its sway. Sindh was the site of one of the Cradle of civilizations, the bronze age Indus Val ...

*''Yawmīyāt riḥlah fī al-Ḥijāz, 1348 H / 1930 M'', impressions of pilgrimage to Mecca, in Arabic *''Sar ʻUmar Ḥayāt K̲h̲ān̲ Tavānah : savāniḥ ḥayāt aur un kī k̲h̲āndānī tārīk̲h̲ kā pas manẓar'', on the life of Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana, 1874-1944, renowned politician from South Asia, includes historical study of his family. *''siasiat e islamian hind.'' *''Azadi ki jang.'' *''Mukhtasar tarikh Islam.'' *''Sayyed Ahmad Shaheed.'' *''Sarguzhisht Mujahideen.'' *''1857 ke Mujahid.''

References

Maulana Ghulam Rasool Mehar " Hayyat Aur karnamay "" written By Dr. Shafique Ahmed

External links

Maulana Ghulam Rasool Mehr Interview
- From Audio Archives of archivist

Lutfullah Khan Lutfullah Khan (Urdu لطف الله خان) (25 November 1916 – 3 March 2012) was an author, collector, archivist, and hobbyist from Pakistan. He was best known for his rare collection of voice recordings of renowned artists, poets, writers ...