Maulana Ghulam Rasool Mehr

Maulana Ghulam Rasool Mehr (13 April 1893 – 16 November 1971) was a journalist, historian, biographer, researcher, translator, poet, scholar of Ghalib and Iqbal and an editor who played a very distinct role in shaping the public opinion during an all-important period of pre-independence.

He was born in Phoolpur, a village in the district of Jalandhar and received his early education in Jalandhar. he enrolled at Islamia College (Lahore), where he developed a fondness for the city. He found Lahore to be culturally different from Delhi and Lucknow. Maulana felt that while Delhi and Lucknow were steeped deep in Eastern culture, Lahore was a happy blend of the East and the West.

Maulana Mehr also spent some time in Hyderabad and it was in Hyderabad that he turned his attention from poetry to prose. This practice proved helpful when he started his journalism career with an editorial published in the Daily Zamindar (newspaper). Soon Maulana joined the paper and was in the thick of the battle going on in the name of freedom and Tehrik-i-Khilafat (Khilafat Movement). He had already joined Hizbullah, an organisation started by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. In fact, Azad was an important influence on Maulana Mehr and the latter drew inspiration from what was published in Al-Hilal (newspaper).

Mehr and Abdul Majeed Salik, his colleague at ‘Zameendar’ with whom he later founded a new newspaper ‘Inqelaab’ in Lahore. He has been travelling from Middle East to Europe and recorded his accounts about historical events in muslim world as well as in west. He accompanied Allama Iqbal during 2nd Round Table Confrence as a Journalist and recorded his views on it in Daily Inqalab. He also wrote a biograpy of Mriza Ghalib.

During his last days, Maulana Mehr decided to record his life for the benefit of future generations that was compiled and brought out by Mohammad Hamza Farooqi with title "Mehr Beeti". Maulana Mehr has made a brief survey of different movements, political as well as religious, which were going on in those times, and given his judgments on them, offering a lot from literature to politics. Circumstances did not allow him to complete his memories He died in Lahore on November 16, 1971.