Maulana Ghulam Rasool Mehr

Maulana Ghulam Rasool Mehr (13 April 1893 – 16 November 1971) مولانا غلام رسول مہر or (Ghulam Rasul Mehr) born in Phoolpur, a village in the district of Jalandhar, India^[1][2] is a well known Muslim Scholar from the Indian subcontinent. He was a Muhammad Iqbal and Mirza Ghalib Scholar as well as a Political Activist. He wrote his autobiography named Mehr Beeti, recalling his early years in Phoolpur, Maulana says, "I feel we were living in paradise. Suddenly uprooted from there, we had the feeling of wandering into a desert." Mehr Beeti provides graphic descriptions of Phoolpur’s culture and that of adjoining villages.^[3]

Early life and career

He got his basic primary education from a primary school of Khambra. Then he was educated at Mission High School in Jalandhar City. After his school years in Jalandhar, he enrolled at Islamia College (Lahore), where he developed a fondness for the city. He found Lahore to be culturally different from Delhi and Lucknow. Maulana felt that while Delhi and Lucknow reflected the Eastern culture, Lahore, on the other hand, was a happy blend of the East and the West.^[3]

At the same time, Maulana Mehr was deeply involved in the developments on the Indian political front. The Indian Muslims, apart from their participation in the Pakistan Movement, were agitated at what was happening, at that time, in the Muslim world. Young Maulana Mehr, who had just completed his education and who had a passion to serve the cause of freedom and the Muslim 'millat' (nation), began writing in the Daily Zamindar (newspaper) and eventually started working there.^[3]

It was in Lahore that Maulana Mehr had the opportunity to meet Allama Shibli Nomani and Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk Kamboh, who were members of a delegation from Aligarh Muslim University. He also had the opportunity to listen to Allama Muhammad Iqbal recite his verses at the annual conference of Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam.^[3]

Maulana Mehr also spent some time in Hyderabad. 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 Zamindar (newspaper). 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). He had already joined Hizbullah, an organisation started by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. In fact, Azad was an important influence on Maulana Mehr and the latter drew inspiration from what was published in Al-Hilal (newspaper).^[3]

Maulana Mehr had made a brief survey of different movements, political as well as religious, which were going on in those times, and had given his opinions on them. His circumstances did not allow him to complete his memoirs. So we might see his memoirs as a scattered autobiography offering us a lot from the fields of literature to politics.^[3]

Death and his legacy

Towards the end of his life, Maulana Mehr decided to record his life for the benefit of future generations. Mohammad Hamza Farooqi has compiled and brought out the volume called Mehr Beeti. It has been published by Al-Faisal Nashran, Lahore.^[3] Maulana had 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 appeal that he agreed to recount his life story, from the early years to the end, including his devotion to causes close to his heart. Maulana Mehr once wrote in a letter to a friend that his children were eager to know about their family origins. This desire, according to him, was the consequence of his family's migration at the time of Partition of India in 1947, when they had to leave their land of birth, Phoolpur, a village in the district of Jalandhar.^[3]

See also

• Pakistan Movement
• Allama Muhammad Iqbal
• Aligarh Muslim University
• Zamindar (newspaper)
• Al-Hilal (newspaper)
• Jalandhar
• List of Pakistani journalists

References