Forum Pakistan

Danish, Ahsan (1914-82)
Poet. Ahsan-ul-Haq (his real name) was an Urdu language poet. From a poor family, Ahsan Danish did not receive a formal education. He visited many Indian cities in search of employment, and worked as a porter, day labourer, gardener, printer and street vendor. He first published his verse in the early 1930s. Shortly before 1947 he moved from Delhi to Lahore, where he started his own business - "Muktaba-i-Dcnish', His poetry depicted the everyday life of workers and his emotional verse expressed strong social protest, similar to the work of poet Nazir Akbarabadi. Danish was influenced by the poetry of Josh *Malihabadi and Muhammad *Iqbal. He has ten collections of verse to his name: Hadis-i-Adab ('Literary Hadis'), Chiraghan ('Illumination '), lada-i-Nau ('New Way'), Nafir-iFitrat ('The Trumpets of Nature'), Nawa-i-Kargar ('The Voice of the Toiler'). His poetry includes "ghazals, *rubai, "masnawi and both rhymed and unrhymed *nazms. He published his autobiography, Jehan-i-Danish, in 1973 in Lahore.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: N. Glebov, A. Sukhochev, 'Urdu Literature' Moscow, 1965; Abdul Wahid, 'Jadid Shuara-i-Urdu', Karachi (s.a.); 'Jam-i-Nau', Ahsan Danish Number, ed. Mazhar Khairi, Karachi, November 1974.