Agha Shorish Kashmiri (1917–1975; آغا شورش کاشمیری) was a Pakistani scholar, writer, debater, and a leader of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam party. He was a figure of the freedom movement in the British Raj, as well as the chief editor of the weekly Chattan magazine in Pakistan.^[1]

Early life and career

Kashmiri started his political career in 1935 when he delivered a historical speech at the Shaheed Ganj Mosque conference when Maulana Zafar Ali Khan was serving as the President of Ahrar Party, India. He was a student of Maulana Zafar Ali Khan but was disappointed by the violence at the Shaheed Ganj Mosque in 1935.^[2]

Kashmiri was impressed by Chaudhry Afzal Haq as well, who was a political leader of the Indian sub-continent, so he joined All-India Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam and the struggle for Ahrar Party. Kashmiri was also impressed by his religious and political teacher (teacher meaning murshad in the Urdu language) Ameer-e-Shariyyat Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari.^[3]

Kashmiri was elected as Secretary-General of All-India Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam in 1946. He played a role in Tehreek-e-Khatme Nabuwwat in 1974 during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's regime in Pakistan.^[4] In 2014, the Punjab governor in Pakistan, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar was speaking at a book-launching ceremony in Lahore. This book was written about the late Agha Shorish Kashmiri's life. The Punjab governor said that he was a great journalist who had exposed oppression everywhere. Journalists today can learn a lot from him. The governor said that Maulana Zafar Ali Khan's influence was reflected in Kashmiri's writings and Attaullah Shah Bukhari's influence in Kashmiri's speech.^[5]

Books

• Qaid-i farang, Maulānā Ẓafar ʻAlī K̲h̲ān̲ ke ayām-i asīrī, on Zafar Ali Khan قیدِ فرنگ -مولانا ظفر علی خان کے ایامِ اسیری
• Kulliyyāt-i Shorish Kāshmīrī, کُلیاتِ شورش کاشمیری his poetry collection
• Iqbāl aur Qādiyāniyat, اِقبال اور قادیانیات on the relations between Muhammad Iqbal and the Ahmadiyya
• al-Jihād va al-jihād الجِہاد والجِہاد , poetry about the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war
• Iqbal, payāmbar-i inqilāb اقبال پیامبرِ اِنقلاب , Collection of addresses and articles about Muhammad Iqbal
• Hindustān men̲ Ibn-i Taymiyah ہندوستان میں ابن تیمیہ, author's reminiscences on the life and eminence of Abul Kalam Azad
• Qalmī cihre قلمی چہرے, articles chiefly on literary and political personalities from South Asia
• Tahrik i khatm-i nubūvvat, 1891 se 1974 tak تحریکِ ختمِ نبوّت ۱۸۹۱ سے ۱۹۷۴ تک, on the history of the movement defending the finality of prophet-hood (1891-1947)
• Cih qalandarānah guftam, چہ قلندراں گفتم poetry
• Nau ratan : Lāhaur ke nau ṣaḥāfiyon̲ kā ijmālī taz̲kirah نو رتن: لاھور کے نو صحافیوں کا اجمالی تذکرہ, biographical study of nine journalists from Lahore
• Maẓāmīn-i Shorish مضامینِ شورش : Āg̲h̲ā Shorish Kāshmīrī kī g̲h̲air mudavvin adabī aur tāʼas̲s̲urātī taḥrīren̲ آغا شورش کاشمیری کی غیر مدون ادبی اور تاثراتی تحریریں, collection of literary articles by the author
• Mirzāʻīl; Qādiyāniyat kā siyāsī maḥāsabah مِرزائیل؛ قادیانیت کی سیاسی مہا بھاشا, on the Ahmadiyya
• Iqbāliyāt-i Shorish اِقبالیاتِ شورش , criticism and interpretation on the works of Muhammad Iqbal
• Sayyid ʻAt̤āʼullāh Shāh Bukhārī : savāniḥ va afkār سید عطاء اللہ شاہ بُخاری: سوانح و افکار, on the life and work of Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari
• Abūlkalām Āzād : savāniḥ o afkārابوالکلام آزاد: سوانح و افکار , on the life and works of Abul Kalam Azad
• Buay Gul Nala-E-Dil Dood-E-Charagh-E-Mehfil by Shorish Kashmiri
• Pase Diwar E Zindan by Shorish Kashmiri

References