Hasrat Mohani

Hasrat Mohani (1875-1951) was a freedom fighter, a founder-member of the Communist Party of India, repeatedly imprisoned, and generally credited with coining the slogan Inquilab Zindabad. He is also the author of the most tender ghazal in the language. He refused a seat in independent India’s first parliament’s privileges and travelled third class by choice. His verse reached a mass audience through Ghulam Ali’s recording and the 1982 film Nikaah.