Josh Malihabadi (1895-1982) was hailed as a master of both poetry and prose, both of which he imbued with a rich and unique diction. After Iqbal's death, and because of espousing the cause of freedom, Josh came to dominate the Urdu literary scene. In all the types of poetry Josh composed, whether reflective, revolutionary or romantic, he was hailed as a consummate stylist. After his migration to Pakistan in 1956 Josh continued his struggle for political
emancipation. Accused of being a skeptic-Josh nevertheless composed devotional poetry which is dramatic in its effect and epic in its reach. Josh was an avid poet of nature, but he took time off to comment poetically on every significant political event from 1914 to 1974. His corpus is extra ordinarily large and
this selection has been made with extra care.