Ihsan Danish

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Ihsan Danish (or Ahsan Danish; 1914 - 1982) (Urdu: احسان دانش), was a prominent Urdu poet from Pakistan. His life marked the struggle of person who didn’t have more than a primary level of education, who worked as ordinary laborer for years in odd jobs, and finally became a poet of excellence. His autobiography Jahan-i-Danish is a classic now and has motivated many.

[edit] An excerpt

Maulvi Saeed talks of Ihsan Danish, the poet. He recalls:

In 1928, when we lived in Mozang I happened to be present at a gathering in the street adjoining ours where a short-statured but a well-built darkish young man recited a naat in a voice which kept the audience spell-bound. The poet was Ihsan-bin-Danish (now Ihsan Danish, for ‘bin’ though in Arabic stood for ‘son of’, in Hindi meant ‘without’). The poet had come from across the Jamuna in search of employment — and perhaps recognition, too. Lahore gave him both; employment which hardly did any credit to this city, recognition, of course, which it never held back.

Ihsan was seen in the evening at the mushairas; in the morning, at the building sites with a brush in one hand and the lime-bucket in the other; or doing a gardener’s job on the Simla Hill. He has recorded the experiences of his early days in a fascinating autobiography — Jehan-i-Danish. In the realm of poetry, he was not a mere labourer, but a master architect. [1]