Born in 1875 at Mohaan village in the Unnao district of present-day Uttar Pradesh, poet-politician Maulana Hasrat Mohani remained eclectic to the point of nihilism in his political orientation. His poetry immortalised him, but history has forgotten him as a political activist—he coined the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad”. After completing his education at MAO College, known as Aligarh Muslim University today, he joined the Congress party and sided with its radical section led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak. However, Mohani did not remain with the Congress for long and joined the Communist party. He inaugurated its first party office in 1925 and “waved the red flag”.
He was the president of the reception committee in the first All India Conference of Communists held in December the same year at Kanpur. After getting expelled from the Communist party, he organised his own “Azad Party”. He also became part of the Muslim League but left it in 1936 after rejecting the two-nation theory. He never wished to go to Pakistan, newly formed in 1947.
Mohani can be understood as a combination of paradoxical actions with respect to his political affiliations. Still, he remained primarily committed to the values he defined as
— source newsclick.in | Paramjit S. Judge | 03 Jan 2022