Urdu poets (Ihsan Danish)

Ihsan Danish (or Ehsan Danish or Ahsan Danish; 1914 - 1982) (Urdu: احسان دانش), was a prominent Urdu poet from Pakistan. His life marked the struggle of person who didn’t have more than a primary level of education, who worked as ordinary laborer for years in odd jobs, and finally became a poet of excellence. His autobiography Jahan-i-Danish is a classic now and has motivated many.

Ehsan Danish has written more than 80 books and hundreds of articles on poetry, prose, linguistics, philology, autobiography and the famous interpretation of "Diwan-e-Ghalib". Only 5% of his works are published till now and the remaining books are still left unpublished either in the manuscript form or published only once.

Maulvi Saeed talks of Ihsan Danish, the poet. He recalls:

In 1928, when we lived in Mozang I happened to be present at a gathering in the street adjoining ours where a short-statured but a well-built darkish young man recited a naat in a voice which kept the audience spell-bound. The poet was Ihsan-bin-Danish (now Ihsan Danish, for ‘bin’ though in Arabic stood for ‘son of’, in Hindi meant ‘without’). The poet had come from across the Jamuna in search of employment — and perhaps recognition, too. Lahore gave him both; employment which hardly did any credit to this city, recognition, of course, which it never held back.

Ihsan was seen in the evening at the mushairas; in the morning, at the building sites with a brush in one hand and the lime-bucket in the other; or doing a gardener’s job on the Simla Hill. He has recorded the experiences of his early days in a fascinating autobiography — Jehan-i-Danish. In the realm of poetry, he was not a mere labourer, but a master architect.

Works:

1. Jahan-i-Danish
2. Jahan-i Diger
3. Tazkir-o-Tanis
4. Iblagh-i-Danish
5. Tashrih-i-Ghalib
6. Awaz sy Alfaz tk
7. Fasl-i-Salasil
8. Zanjir-i-Baharan
9. Abr-i-Naisan
10. Miras-i-Momin
11. Urdu Mutaradifaat
12. Derd-i-Zindagi
13. Hadis-i-Adab
14. Lughat-ul-Islah
15. Nafir-i-Fitrat