For the last few days, Indians have been having a field time on social media, particularly X, engaging with Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, in unique ways—from having unfiltered conversations in colloquial Hindi to asking ideologically loaded questions as a part of their political agenda.
One such question that caught the eye of thousands of social media users was in a screenshot shared by RJ Sayema, an inveterate fake news peddler often exposed for sharing Islamist propaganda posts.
The screenshot shared by Sayema had an X user asking Grok to answer which of the two—Indian Muslims or the RSS had a larger role to play in India’s independence.
Grok is anti-national. pic.twitter.com/0VF93hEHEL
— Sayema (@_sayema) March 16, 2025
While such binary queries on complex historical figures are seldom sought to slake one’s intellectual curiosity, the intriguing response offered by Grok brought to the fore the role of a controversial personality who wavered from once being a staunch advocate of complete independence to a passionate proponent of Two Nation Theory and creation of Pakistan.
Maulana Hasrat Mohani: From supporting complete independence to advocating the creation of Pakistan
Maulana Hasrat Mohani (1875–1951) was a unique and multifaceted figure in the history of South Asia—an Urdu poet, Islamic scholar, and a “freedom fighter” as per left-leaning historians. Mohani was amongst the earliest supporters of the divisive Two-Nation Theory—that Muslims and Hindus are two separate nations with irreconcilable differences—the idea which later formed the bedrock for the formation of Pakistan.
Yet, in a remarkable twist, despite supporting Pakistan’s ideological foundation, Mohani chose to remain in India after partition. He died in 1951 in Lucknow, India. His paradoxical stance has made him one of the most complex and contested figures in contemporary Indian history.
However, much before his avowed support for Pakistan and Two Nation Theory, in 1921, Mohani echoed Lokmanya Tilak’s clarion call for Poorna Swaraj or complete independence and demanded Indians be handed over the complete governance of their country. He was also a founding member of the Communist Party of India and played a significant role in shaping socialist thought in the country.
As a poet, Hasrat Mohani was deeply influenced by classical Urdu poetry, particularly the ghazal tradition. He is most famous for the ghazal ‘Chupke chupke raat din’, which was later picturised in the 1982 Bollywood movie ‘Nikaah’ and sung by Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali. His poetry reflects themes of love, revolution, and mysticism. He skillfully blended romance with resistance, using traditional poetic forms to express both personal emotions and nationalist sentiments.
Support for Ottoman Caliphate, Moplah Jihad, and TNT: A more radicalised version of Allama Iqbal?
Maulana Hasrat Mohani is often compared to Allama Muhammad Iqbal due to their shared passion for Urdu and Persian poetry, their deep support for Islamism, and their political activism for Muslim rights. However, Hasrat Mohani could be seen as a more radical and uncompromising version of Iqbal in many respects.
Mohani was more revolutionary of the two, for instance, he openly advocated for political upheaval and social justice while Iqbal leaned toward introspection and the revival of Islamic civilisation. Like Iqbal, Mohani also championed Muslim empowerment and solidarity for Ummah, as evidenced by his writings for an Urdu newspaper he established to mobilise Muslim subjects of British India to rally in support of the “most valued institution of Islam”—The Ottoman Caliphate.
However, the most controversial aspect of Mohani’s legacy resides in his unabashed justification of Moplah Jihad, claiming that Muslims in Malabar were right in asking Hindus to choose between the Quran and sword as changing one’s religion to save their life is a voluntary and not forced conversion.
Iqbal and Mohani also shared similarities in their support for the creation of Pakistan. While Iqbal is considered the philosophical father of the state, Hasrat Mohani backed the Two-Nation Theory from a practical standpoint—yet he did not migrate to Pakistan when it was created.
Hasrat Mohani was an early advocate of the Two-Nation Theory, which argued that Muslims and Hindus were two distinct nations requiring separate political identities. Long before the Muslim League formally adopted this ideology, Mohani believed that Muslims needed their own space to govern themselves according to Islamic principles, free from Hindu-majority domination.
In this sense, Hasrat Mohani was not just another Iqbal; he was a more radicalized, pragmatic, and politically involved version—one who was willing to push boundaries both in poetry and politics.
Unlike many Muslim leaders of that era who were inconsistent in their political views, Mohani remained steadfast in his belief that Muslims should uphold their distinct political identity. His support for Pakistan was driven not only by communal considerations but also by a strategic effort to safeguard Muslim interests.
Famous author Venkat Dhulipali in his seminal book ‘Creating a New Medina: State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India’ mentions how Muslim leaders like Mohani played a critical role in shaping the political and geographical contours of Pakistan, an idea that had hitherto largely remained abstract and difficult to conceive.
Mohani’s decision to stay back in India despite being a staunch advocate of Pakistan
However, his vision of Pakistan was very different from the state that emerged in 1947. So despite contributing immensely to the conceptualization and materialisation of Pakistan, the difference of opinions, especially with his commitment to socialist ideals, and growing disillusionment with the elite leadership of Pakistan, Mohani stayed back, not out of any love for secular India but apparently to fight for the rights of Muslims in a Hindu-majority India.
But even while staying in India, he never wavered in his belief that Pakistan was a justified political entity for Muslims. This dual stance—supporting Pakistan but refusing to migrate—has made his legacy both fascinating and controversial. Despite supporting the concept of a separate nation for Indian Muslims, his decision not to migrate to Pakistan does not make him a critic of the Two-Nation Theory. Instead, it reflects his opposition to the specific way India was partitioned and his commitment to advocating for Muslim rights while remaining in India.
A historical enigma and a contested legacy
Hasrat Mohani remains a polarizing figure in both India and Pakistan.
For a section of India that falls over itself to embrace every Muslim historical figure as a vindication of Muslim contribution towards India’s freedom struggle, Mohani offers them yet another metaphorical stick to beat their ideological opponents by partially leaning on his contested legacy and papering over his Islamic fanaticism.
This section celebrates him as a “freedom fighter” who coined the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad” (Long Live the Revolution), which became a rallying cry for the independence movement. While he is acknowledged as a patriot, his ideological leanings are often downplayed.
However, his support for Pakistan and the Two-Nation Theory makes him a somewhat uncomfortable figure in India’s nationalist historiography, which is not swayed by the Nehruvian-Marxist monopoly over history, and views complex historical figures for a tapestry of emotions, contradictions, paradoxes, and nuances they represent.
In Pakistan, Mohani is recognized as an early proponent of Muslim nationalism, but his decision to stay in India makes him an ambiguous figure in Pakistan’s nationalist narrative. His leftist and socialist ideology contrasts sharply with the more right-leaning nationalism that eventually dominated Pakistan’s political discourse. Unlike Iqbal and Jinnah, who are revered as founding fathers, Mohani remains a lesser-known and less celebrated figure, despite his early contributions to Muslim separatism.
Pakistanis, to this day, view him as a man with divided loyalty, unsure of celebrating his contribution towards the creation of Pakistan or condemn his “betrayal” for choosing to stay back in India. An anecdote allegedly from Mohani’s life as shared by a Pakistani commentator in the tweet below perfectly sums up the ambivalence about his legacy in Pakistan.
Video for the purpose of review and criticism only.
— Pak Un Fans (@fansofpakuntold) August 30, 2024
Maulana Hasrat Mohani refused to leave….
Credits- Raftar Tv pic.twitter.com/tBQ4MpELIc
Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a man of contradictions—an ardent supporter of Pakistan who chose to live in India, a deeply religious Muslim who was also a staunch socialist, and a poet whose love for revolution was as strong as his love for classical ghazals. His legacy does not fit neatly into the nationalist narratives of either India or Pakistan, making him a historical enigma.
If Jinnah is the father of Pakistan, Hasrat Mohani was the radical revolutionary who was among the earliest proponents of Pakistan. But unlike Jinnah and several Muslim League leaders of his time, Mohani was acutely aware of Pakistan’s many limitations and fragile moorings. His story reminds us that history cannot be compartmentalised into binaries of white and black—often, it is the gray areas that hold the most truth.
