Azad, a prolific writer, wrote in several genres successfully. Khaled Ahmed ( The Indian Express, June 12, 2015), which unquestioningly refers to Abdul Majid Sheikh’s assertion in his recent book, Lahore: 101 Tales of a Fabled City, that “the Lahore poet Azad was commissioned by Quaid-e-Azam to write Pakistan’s national anthem three days before the creation of Pakistan in 1947.” Not having seen Sheikh’s book I cannot say what his particular source of information was, but I have seen many articles in the Urdu press in the past making that same claim.Īt the base of all the fascinating verbiage is one sentence that Azad wrote forty-nine years back, and that too in an essay that had nothing to do with anthems. The latest repetition of that legend is the witty essay “Nationalism over Verse” by Mr. People keep mentioning Azad’s name in the same context as Pakistan’s national anthem, claiming that he was the first to write one-at the express order, a few even maintain, of the Quaid. Odd, I hasten to add, only because the columns are not about poetry. His name, however, recently keeps coming up in odd newspaper columns in India and Pakistan. Azad was also an informed admirer of Iqbal, and his writings on the poet are still worth a look. Both were good enough poets, famous and much respected while they lived, but now largely forgotten.
Jagan Nath Azad was the son of Tilok Chand Mahrum.
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