Tilok Chand Mahroom; a Well Known Urdu Poet

Tolok Chand Mahroom

Tilok Chand Mahroom (1885-1966) (Urdu: تلوك چند محروم ) was a famous Urdu Poet of India. He was born in the village of Mouza Noor Zaman Shah in the District of Mianwali, North West Frontier Province which has been renamed Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa on 1 July 1887 The village consisted of some 20-25 homes on the bank of Sindh Nadi (River Indus). It was under constant threat of flooding and was destroyed & rebuilt many times before his family gave up their small farm & shop and moved to Isakhel. 

At the age of 6/7 years he joined Vernacular Middle School where he topped the class every year and recieved scholarships in the 5th and 8th years. He passed the Matriculation examination with a first-class certificate in 1907 from Diamond Jubilee School, Bannu (there was no high school in Isakhel). Following this, he entered the Central Training College, Lahore where he trained as a teacher.

Tilok Chand's first posting as a teacher was at Mission High School, Dera Ismail Khan in 1908. He got a transfer to Isakhel for domestic reasons but he was concerned about the lack of clean water and its affect on his health here. This led to another move in 1924: to Kaloorkote as headmaster of the local middle school. 

Following his son Jagan Nath Azad's move to Rawalpindi in 1933 (for higher education), Tilok Chand sought a transfer there and accepted the post of headmaster at the Cantonment Board School. He worked there till his retirement in 1943.

Autograph

Soon after, he was appointed as lecturer in Urdu and Farsi at Gordon College. The partition of India put an end to his stay in Rawalpindi. He finished with the College in December 1947. (He did visit Gordon College again - when he was invited to the College's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1953.). 

On arrival in Delhi, he worked as Editor, Tej Weekly (literary section of Tej Daily) for a time.

Tilok Chand Mahroom

The University of Punjab was divided along with the country. To deal with the issue of adult education for refugees in India, the Government approved the University's proposal to open a college in Delhi. Camp College was established in Hastings School and Tilok Chand accepted the post of Professor of Urdu - taking classes in the evenings. He retained this post till his retirement in December 1957. 

Life History in a Nutshell Mahroom described the year April 1907 - May 1908 as one of mental anguish: during this period his father passed away.

Tragedy seems to have followed him. His first wife expired in Dera Ismail Khan in 1915, leaving a toddler Vidya. Working full time and looking after a child has its difficulties. So, he returned to Isakhel the follwoing year to join the family.

Jannath Azad

The same year he married Asha Devi. They had one son, Jagan Nath Azad and three daughters, Shakuntala, Savitri and Krishna. Shakuntala died at the age of two years. Vidya married in 1929 and had four children, but this period of joy was short-lived too. She committed suicide in 1935. This sad event had a profound and lasting effect on Mahroom's life and his poetry. 

Tilok Chand Mahroom breathed his last breath on 6 January 1966 after an illness of five weeks.

He was a disciplinarian, commanding respect from younger members of the family without losing his temper. He was methodical in his habits. He was particular about his diet. He loved nature in all its forms and was a keen walker, preferring to walk alone whenever possible.

Considering the environment Tilok Chand Mahroom grew up in, it is no less than wondrous that he developed a love of poetry and achieved such acclaim as an Urdu poet himself! 

There was no such thing as a 'library' in the schools of North West Frontier Province and access to literary works was limited. There was no opportunity of formal training or instruction. He found poetry collections of Mirza Ghalib and Mohammad Ibrahim Zauq during his 4 years in Bannu and read them eagerly. He had started penning simple couplets whilst still at primary school, but it was during his time at Bannu that he started taking his writing seriously.

Khidmat-e-Validain, a nazm that he composed when he was about 12/13 years old earned him the praise not only from the Divisional Inspector of Schools but also from the Director of Eduction.

Although the language of Bannu was Pushto, Mehroom's name as an Urdu poet was known to the Diamond Jubilee School teachers by the time he arrived there as a student. His poems were being published in Makhzan (Lahore) and Zamana (Kanpur) before he finished school. Once he moved to Rawalpindi, he became a frequent invitee to the annual mushairas organized by Khwaja Abdul Raheem in Lyallpur (regulars included Jigar Muradabadi and Hafeez Jullundhari among others). 

Tilok Chand Mahroom had no formal instruction for poetry writing. There was no opportunity for him to become a senior poet's shaagird (desciple). Ghalib and; Zauq's divans (poetry collections) were his introduction to Urdu poetry.

Lahore proved to be a source of inspiration. It was here that he wrote Noorjahan Ke Mazaar Par (on sighting it from the train coming into Lahore) and Kinaar-e-Ravi and here that he first participated in a mushaira.

His poetry composed in Dera Ismail Khan (1908 - 1916) was, to an extent, influenced by his friendship with Bhanjun Ram Gandhi (a fellow teacher and, later, Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan's friend and mentor). Literature of this period reflects the political unrest in the country - and his poetry is no exception (sample: (Bharat Mata Kyun Roti Hai)). The political climate of the country was such that poems of a political nature were often published in newspapers and magazines under an assumed name to avoid resulting persecution. 

There was a sense of mutual respect between him and Allama Iqbal. Their first meeting (in 1913, Lahore) soon turned to friendship - mainly conducted through correspondence (they only met three times). Although Tilok Chand was not a political activist, he did disagree with Iqbal's proposals for 'India's independence' at the Round Table Conference in London (1930-32).

Rawalpindi provided him with a near perfect environment: attractive location, pleasant climate and a literary atmosphere were all here.

Mahroom's poetry is a reflection of his environment and events in his life. In addition to his poems inspired by the political climate, he wrote about nature, love, life and death including the heart-rending elegies on his first wife and daughter Vidya) and religion. His works include translations of Shakespeare (from English), Umar Khayyam and Sa'adi Shirazi (from Farsi) and Bhagwad Geeta (from Sanskrit). He also composed poetry for children. 

The anuual Sahitya Samaroh (literary convention) of the Government of Punjab dedicated its 1962 session to Tilok Chand Mehroom for his "services to literature" and presented him with a robe of honor, a testimonial and a purse. (Foty-five years earlier, the contemporary Government of Punjab had awarded him a cash prize for his service to literature.).