Sahir Ludhianvi was born into the wealthy family of a Muslim Syed as Abdul Hayee. His mother name was Sardar Begum. Sahir's parents had a very loose and estranged relationship. After Sahir's mother left his father when he was 13, fear and financial deprivation surrounded the formative years of this young man.
Upon matriculation, he joined the Satish Chander Dhawan Government College For Boys, Ludhiana. He was quite popular for his ghazals and nazms in the college. In 1943, after being expelled from college, Sahir settled in Lahore. Here, he completed the writing of his first Urdu work, Talkhiyaan (Bitterness). After his work was published, he began editing four Urdu magazines, Adab-e-Lateef, Shahkaar, Prithlari, and Savera He then became a member of the Progressive Writers' Association. However, inflammatory writings (communist views and ideology) in Savera resulted in the issuing of a warrant for his arrest by the Government of Pakistan. So, in 1949, he fled from Lahore to Delhi. After a couple of months in Delhi, he moved to and settled in Bombay where he rose to fame by writing lyrics for Hindi films.
Ludhianvi was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1971.