Saquib Salim
One fine day in 1951, Raj Kapoor, the showman of the Indian Film Industry, contacted Jab Dil hi Toot Gaya fame lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri (Asrar Ul Hasan Khan), asked him to write a song with words ‘Duniya banane wale kya tere man mai samayi’ and paid him Rs 1,000 as remuneration. The amount paid was almost four times the prevalent rates and the song was not for any movie. Why did Raj Kapoor pay such a high price for a poem? Majrooh recalled that at that time his wife was expecting their child, and he was on the run from the police. This was Kapoor’s way of helping Majrooh without hitting his self esteem.
Why was Majrooh, one of the finest lyricists of Indian Films, on the run from police?
His crime was standing for the Workers’ Rights during a strike. In one rally from the stage of Labour Union in Mumbai (then Bombay) Majrooh recited a poem:
Aman kaa jhandaa is dharti pe
kisney kahaa lahraane na paae
ye bhii koii Hitler kaa hai chelaa,
maar le saathii, jaane na paae!
Commonwealth ka daas hai Nehru
maar le saathii jaane na paae!
(Such unease with our flag of peace! Is it some protégé of Hitler, or a mere slave of the Commonwealth? It’s Nehru, my friends. Take him by the collar lest he gets away.
Majrooh Sultanpuri with Naushad, Dahir Ludhianavi, Jan Nissar Akhtar
This amounted to criticising the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and a warrant of arrest was issued against him. Majrooh went underground. His wife, Firdaus, was pregnant and he desperately needed money. Raj Kapoor came to his rescue.
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Majrooh would not have been arrested had he not gone to recite another poem at a public meeting held to protest against the arrests of Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Sajjad Zaheer. He was arrested from the stage, asked to submit an apology, which he did not do and lodged in Arthur Road Jail for one year. He was sentenced for two years but was released one year later before the 1952 General Elections.
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