MAKHDOOM MOHIUDDIN BIRTH CENTENARY
Birth Centenary Celebration (Montreal, Canada)
Makhdoom Mohiuddin (Abu Sayeed Mohammed Makhdoom Mohiuddin Qudri)
February 4, 1908-August 25, 1969
“Makhdoom was a glowing flame as also cool drops of dew.
He was the call of revolution as also the soft tinkling of payal.
He was knowledge, he was action, he was wisdom.
He was the gun of the revolutionary guerrilla and also the sitar of musician.
He was the odour of the gun powder and also the fragrance of jasmine.”
Khwaja Ahmed Abbas (from New Age, February 10, 2008)
«Aap ki yaad aati rahi raat bhar «
chaandni dil dhukhati rahi raat bhar
Gaah jalti hui, gaah bujhti hui
shamma-e-gham jhilmilati rahi raat bhar
Koi khusboo badalti rahi perahan
koi tasveer gaati rahi raat bhar
Jo na aaya ussey koi zanjeer-e-dar
har sadaa par bulatee rahi raat bhar
Eik umeed se dil bahlta raha
ek tamanna satati rahi raat bhar »
Faiz Ahmed Faiz (Makhdoom ki yaad mein)
“The CPI-led Hyderabad Student Union was the dominant force among the college students and its leaders were the best of students both in studies and morality. In fact, the gracious, highly elitist culture apart, the cultural and intellectual tone of the town was set by the Communists of which the tremendous influence and towering standing of Makhdoom Mohiuddin was the best example.
“Mohit Sen in “A Traveller and the Road: the journey of an Indian communist)
MAKHDOOM MOHIUDDIN (In brief, based on an article by Anil Rajimwale in New Age, February 24, 2008,
Daya Varma
Revolutionary Urdu poet Makhdoom Mohiuddin (Abu Sayeed Mohammed Makhdoom Mohiuddin Qudri) was born on February 4, 1908 in a lower middleclass family in Medak district of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh. In his twenties, Makhddom came to Hyderabad. Those were times of world fascism. He was deeply disturbed by the Italian fascist invasion of Abyssinia (current Ethiopia) and wrote his first anti-fascist poem. Makhdoom joined the Comrades’ Association in 1930’s, which became crucial in his future development. After Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Makhdoom resigned from his post as a lecturer in City College Hyderabad and became a whole timer of the Communist Party of India (CPI). He along with Ravi Narayan Reddy (who polled the highest number of votes in the 1952 parliamentary elections in India, far more than Nehru) founded the Hyderabad unit of CPI. Makhdoom also joined the trade union movement and was chosen as workers’ representative in the dispute of the Vazir Sultan Tobacco (manufacturer of Charminar cigarettes) factory in 1941. Makhdoom became the President of the All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress (AHTUC) a branch of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in 1946. CPI was driven underground after its call to observe anti-repression day on October 17, 1946 and Makhdoom was asked to go to Sholapur from where he went to Bombay and wrote his famous poem “Telangana” and soon after “Yeh jung hai jung-e-Azadi”. Makhdoom attended the Fourth Conference of the Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) in Bombay (May 22-25, 1943). Hundreds of thousands were dying in the Great Bengal Famine. Its dynamic leader PC Joshi then led the CPI. The Indian Peoples’ Theatrical Association (IPTA) was founded in Bombay. Makhdoom was elected to leadership of IPTA.
Makhdoom was one of the main leaders of the Great Telangana Peasant Armed Struggle (1946-1950). Makhdoom inaugurated the “Paritala Republic” in a Nizam of Hyderabad enclave. Makhdoom was arrested in 1951 and wrote the poem “Qaid” (captivity). He was released in 1952 and contested the first general election, which he lost from Hyderabad city but won in a bye-election in Huzurnagar. Makhdoom was elected to the National Council of CPI in 1958. He was the CPI leader in the Andhra legislative council.
Makhdoom became part and parcel of the Indian literary, artistic, cultural and social life. He became a common name among the film and cultural fields and left a mark on Indian cinema. He wrote many lyrics, poems and songs for the films, stage and drama. His writings displayed the ethos of sacrifice, labor, struggle and pain of the common people.
The Communist Party of India is celebrating Makhdoom’s birth Centenary this year. It was inaugurated in Hyderabad. Present among others were, Dr. Ali Javed, AB Bardhan (General Secretary, CPI) and Habeeb Tanveer (Noted theatre personality).
Makhdoom Mohiuddin died on August 25, 1969 in Delhi of heart attack. He had come to attend the meeting of AITUC and the National Council of the Communist Party of India.
BIRTH CENTENARY CELEBRATION (MONTREAL, CANADA)
MAY 4, 2008, 2 P.M. AT 3270 PARK AVENUE, MONTREAL
Program:
Makhdoom’s poems (Original lyrics) by Hita Raghunathan
Life and Times of Makhdoom Mohiuddin – Dayaram Varma
Screening of Hyderabad episode of the Documentary “Mamoo Jaan ki Diary” (In Urdu) -Feroz Mehdi
Refreshments
All welcome – Free
Organized by:
CERAS (South Asia Research and Resource Center) and PCSQ (Pakistani Canadian Society of Quebec) and Alternatives, Montreal