In Supreme Court Hearing On Article 370, A Mention Of Maulana Hasrat Mohani

An unusual name popped up during the current hearing of the Article 370 case before the Supreme Court. It is that of Maulana Hasrat Mohani.

On Thursday, the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta stated that on October 17, 1949, the draft of Article 306 (A), which is the present Article 370, was debated in the Constituent Assembly.

Mehta says Gopalaswami Ayyangar was chiefly involved in drafting Article 370 and he gave a speech regarding the accession of the state (J&K) on October 17, 1949, in the Constituent Assembly.

Quoting from Gopalaswami Ayyangar's speech: "As the House is also aware, Instruments of Accession will be a thing of the past in the new Constitution. The States have been integrated with the Federal Republic in such a manner that they do not have to accede or execute a document of Accession for the purpose of becoming units of the Republic, but they are mentioned in the Constitution itself; and, in the case of practically all States other than the State of Jammu and Kashmir, their constitutions have also been embodied in the Constitution for the whole of India." "All those other States have agreed to integrate themselves in that way and accept the Constitution provided."

Mehta, after reading Ayyangar, mentioned that it was Maulana Hasrat Mohani who asked Ayyangar, "Why this discrimination, please?"

"We are pausing for a minute here so that the debate doesn't get boring. Maulana Hasrat Mohani was an eminent Urdu lyricist of his time. Most of us have heard the song ‘Chupke chupke raat din aasoun bahana yaad hai’. It is by Maulana Hasrat.” He also wrote several good ghazals and nazams.”

The Solicitor General of India, however, stated that the question posed by Mohani is very important. “Why discriminate between people from one state and another? He then again brought Gopalaswami Ayyangar's response to Hasrat Mohani’s question to the fore: “The discrimination is due to the special conditions of Kashmir. That particular State is not yet ripe for this kind of integration. It is the hope of everybody here that in due course even Jammu and Kashmir will become ripe for the same sort of integration as has taken place in the case of other States. (Cheers) At present, it is not possible to achieve that integration. There are various reasons why this is not possible now, I shall refer again to this a little later.”

While the Solicitor General of India confined Maulana Hasrat Mohani to Urdu poet, who wrote several good ghazals and nazams” and his question in the Constituent Assembly debate about Article 370, Mohani had asked several questions and spoke at length on that day during the same debate, indicating his ideological moorings. 

Excerpts from volume 10, Oct 17, 1949 debates of the Constituent Assembly of India:

Hasrat Mohani: Sir, I want to make it clear at the very outset that I am neither opposed to all these concessions being granted to my Friend Sheikh Abdullah, not am I opposed to the acceptance of the Maharaja as the ruler of Kashmir. And if the Maharaja of Kashmir gets further powers and concessions I will be very glad. But what I object to is this. Why do you make this discrimination about this Ruler ? My. Ayyangar has himself admitted here that the administration of Kashmir State is not on a very good basis ………

N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar: That is a wrong statement. I never said so.

Hasrat Mohani: That it will assume independence afterwards. But may I ask a question? when you make all these concessions for Kashmir I most strongly object to your arbitrary act of compelling the Baroda State to be merged in Bombay. The administration of Baroda state is better than the administration of many other Indian Provinces.  It is scandalous that you should compel the Maharaja of Baroda to have his raj merged in Bombay and himself pensioned off. Some people say that he himself Voluntarily accepted this meger. I Know it is an open secret that he was brought form England and compelled against his will………

President: Maulana, we are not concerned with the maharaja of Baroda here.

Hasrat Mohani: Well, I would not go into any detail. But I say that I object to this sort of thing. If you grant these concessions to the Maharaja of Kashmir you should also withdraw your decision about the merger of Baroda into Baroda into Bombay and allow all these concessions and many More concessions to the Baroda ruler also.

The Volume 10, Oct 17, 1949 debates say that the Constituent Assembly of India met in the Constitution Hall, New Delhi, at 9 a.m. with the President Dr. Rajendra Prasad in the Chair.

At one point, Hasrat Mohani comes up with an amendment that shows his socialist bent of mind. “Mr. President, I move: “That in the preamble, for the words ‘We, the People of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Democratic Republic,’ the words ‘We, The People of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Union of Indian Socialistic Republics to be called U. I. S.R. on the lines of U. S. S. R.’ be substituted”.

Who was Maulana Hasrat Mohani?

Maulana Hasrat Mohani was born on January 1, 1875, in Qasba Mohan of the Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh. His real name was Syed Fazal-ul-Hasan. "Hasrat" was his takhallus, which refers to a pen name or pseudonym used by poets, especially in classical Urdu and Persian poetry. Being born in Mohan, the title ‘Mohani’ became associated with Hasrat. 

Unsung Hero

The Ministry of Culture, Government of India, has put him in the category called “Unsung Heroes Detail, Paying tribute to India’s freedom fighters.”

The Ministry says after completing his initial studies, he joined the Aligarh Muslim University, then Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, for studies. During college, he joined revolutionary movements and, was imprisoned in 1903. Hasrat Mohani started publishing a magazine named 'Urdu-e-Mualla' from Aligarh. This magazine published articles against the oppression and wrong policies adopted by the imperialists.

In 1907, Maulana was jailed again. “The British had understood the power of his pen. Fearing his activism, his magazine was banned. He was one of the active members of Congress. He remained associated with Congress until the year 1907. Maulana left the Congress soon after Bal Gangadhar Tilak left the party. He was one of Tilak's close associates,” the Ministry website reads.

“According to a few historians, Maulana Hasrat Mohani wrote the slogan 'Inquilab Zindabad' in 1921. This is the same slogan that Bhagat Singh immortalized forever in the memory of the nation. Maulana's collection of poetry is famous as 'Kuliyat-e-Hasrat'. Maulana further played an important role in giving a new status to Urdu Ghazal. The notions of love, society, politics, and freedom are seen in his poetry,” says the Ministry. He was also a founding member of the Communist Party. Mohani died May 13, 1951 in Lucknow.
 
Chupke chupke raat-din aansu bahana yaad hai
Ham ko ab tak ashiqi ka woh zamana yaad hai