Poet of Humanity: Life and Works of Anand Narain Mulla

Anand Narain Mulla is undeniably an important poet of Urdu. The book critiques his poetrywhilst appraising his works of prose. Mulla defies categorisation within which most Urdupoets are usually classified. He does not belong to the traditional poets who cling to poetictraditions that had their sway in the nineteenth century. Although many of his poemsthematically resonate the kind of poetry popularised by most of the progressives and theprominent critics have also counted him as a progressive poet, in his own estimation hedemurs to be exemplified as the poet having correlation with the Progressive WritersAssociation. Altogether, he has been a bitter critic of the type of poetry forked out by theostensible modern school. Mulla has been a class in himself who has written insightful poemsusing all forms and styles which are in existence in Urdu. So far as his ideological standpointis concerned he venerates all the salubrious, optimistic and positive values which are thecharacteristics of a humane society. The overriding theme in the poetry and prose of Mulla is humanism. In quite a few of hispoems, ghazals and essays, he openly scoffs at the divisive standards that are prescribed byalmost all religions. Instead he uphold humanity as the core value that alone can tie up all thehuman beings together and as a consequence dispense with almost all the tribulations thatexasperate our existence. Human values are cherished by almost all the Urdu poets but forMulla humanity is an article of faith on which he never compromises. The book encompassesa detailed analysis of Mulla’s works of poetry and prose.