SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The introduction describes the difficulties encountered in making a full-length study of Hasrat, how these difficulties were surmounted, and what new material this thesis presents. Hasrat's ancestry, his early life in Mohan and his school days at Mohan and Fatehpur are fully described in Chapter I. His life at the M. A. O. College and his activities there are covered in Chapter II. Chapter III describes his journalistic and political career which began with the publication of Urdu-i-Mu'alla in 1903 and covers the period from that date to 1916. Hasrat's second imprisonment began in 1916. Chapter IV describes the Indian political scene and Hasrat's role in the political events of India up to 1922. Chapter V gives the background of the break-up of Hindu- Muslim unity and reviews Hasrat's activities up to 1926 when he addressed the first All-India Communist Conference. Later events, up to his death in 1951, are described more summarily (in Chapter VI), for in this long closing period of his life he ceased, both as a poet and a political figure, to show any real development. Chapter VII contains a full discussion of Hasrat's poetry and prose works.