MAULANA Ghulam Rasool Mehr’s biography of Ghalib was first published under the title Ghalib in 1936. It was followed by three editions one after the other, in 1941, 1944 and 1946. After that it receded into the background and remained so for nearly 64 years. Now, for the first time after Partition, its publisher, Sheikh Ghulam Ali and Sons, has brought out a new edition in 2014.
A revival of interest in Ghalib has resulted in much being written about him. Researchers and critics have not lagged behind. Painstakingly, they have dug out many new details about Ghalib’s life and verse writing. With the newly unearthed material at their disposal they wrote anew about his times.
In spite of all this, I feel that Maulana Mehr’s Ghalib still occupies a distinctive place amidst the numerous writings of Ghalibiyat. The distinction of this biography lies in the fact that the whole source of information about Ghalib’s life is Ghalib himself. Maulana Abdul Majeed Salik, who has written the preface to this book, writes, “there are two kinds of biography: the biography and the autobiography. But Mehr Sahib has invented a third kind of biography.”
He explains that in this case, Maulana Mehr has managed to elicit facts and events of the life of the poet from his own writings. Here the authenticity of what he has written is so certain that even the man whose biography has been written cannot dare to contradict it. So in this way Mehr Sahib provided us with the most authentic biography of Ghalib.
Maulana Mehr has written in his foreword to the book that since his early years he had a love for Ghalib. He delved deep into his writings, in his poetry, as well as in his prose. While undergoing this kind of deep study of the poet he discovered that the poet has recorded his whole life in his writings. Of course, he had recorded the events of his life in detail more in his letters written to his friends. But his verses too appeared to the Maulana as providing hints about his experiences of life. This led him to consider the possibility that there should be an attempt to compile a biography on Ghalib with the help of what he had himself recorded about this life and times. Of course, it required intensive study to keep an eye on each and every minute detail or even a hint related to his life story.
Maulana Mehr found himself well-prepared for this labour of love. Once more he delved deep into Ghalib’s writings and dug out rich material which he needed for his biography. One man helped him a lot in this project — Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. In fact, it was during the compilation of the second edition of the book that Maulana Azad chose to help him. He went to the extent of writing notes which appeared to Maulana a valuable store of information about the life and character of Ghalib. He incorporated this material into the second edition.
Maulana Mehr has chosen to quote extensively from Ghalib’s letters to his friends and from his stray statements traced from other sources. So the book gives the impression that a large part of it was written by Ghalib himself. One may say that the book is an autobiography in an indirect way.
As is known to us, Mehr Sahib was a very cautious researcher. He was in the habit of verifying each and every detail to his full satisfaction before he included it in his narrative. So this biography should be taken as the most authentic biography of Ghalib.
