 As the first world war intensified, things began to heat up in India as well. The 1916 session of the Indian National Congress at Lucknow passed a resolution demanding home rule. The setting up of modern industries from the close of the 19th century at Bombay and Calcutta had led to the gradual rise of a trade union movement. Active political participation of artists, writers and poets was to become a major feature of the struggle for freedom from then on. The intelligentsia and the working class drew inspiration from the 1917 Soviet Revolution and its impact was to soon become visible on contemporary Urdu writing. The growing mobilization of the people found an almost simultaneous echo in Urdu journalism. The future education minister of independent India, Abul Kalam Azad with Al-Hilal and Al-Bilag and the poet Hasrat Mohani with his paper Urduvay Muala emerged as major influences in this field. It was Hasrat Mohani who at the 1921 session of the Congress moved the resolution for complete independence. Though rejected at the time, this resolution proved very popular with the people and later was a great help in mobilizing the people in their quest for freedom. And it was Hasrat again who raised the slogan, in kalab zindabad long lived the revolution, later popularized by Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries. While the political leadership was fighting for freedom, a group of young men met in London. The meeting, held in the backdrop of the rise of fascism in Germany, decided to set up the Indian Progressive Writers Association or the PWA. Most of the writings of this period give expression to the frustration, the anger, the revulsion of a civil society against the senseless uprooting of millions of people and the macawar dance of death across newly formed borders that was drowning in blood, anything and everything of value. It could not be any other way. Urdu owed its very existence to the coming together of diverse cultural streams and thus it rose to the defense of the values of tolerance and coexistence, the fountainhead of both Hindi and Urdu. The 50s and 60s were hectic times of nation building, industry, education, agriculture, social sectors, received a big fillip. Urdu also played an important role. Institutions like various Urdu academies, universities and research centers came into being to cater to millions of Urdu-loving people. Jammu and Kashmir made Urdu its official language, while it became the second language in several states. The fact that today Urdu newspapers boast of a combined circulation of over 8 million, the second highest among all Indian languages and that forms of poetic expression like Mushayras, the Ghazal and the Kavali continue to draw large appreciative audiences is proof that this expression born of the fusion of diverse streams and currents, linguistic, cultural and spiritual continues to live and prosper.