With Gandhi’s coming, Urdu poets became optimistic. Here’s why – Prism

The charismatic figure of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi began to exert a spell on writers and poets of his age, even before stepping on Indian soil upon returning from South Africa.

On a sea voyage from London to South Africa in 1909, Gandhi had already written a remarkable document; this was the Hind Swaraj written in the form of a dialogue between him (as editor) and an imaginary reader.

In it, Gandhi had outlined his conception of Indian freedom, the need for "soul strength" and passive resistance to win the war against an adversary who was "splendidly armed."

This had been widely read in his English and Hindustani translations, and he had exercised the imagination of poets and writers of the time of the immense possibilities that the "Home Rule" could offer.

In fact, while Gandhi was still in South Africa, the Urdu poets had begun to position him as a beacon of hope. Brij Narayan Chakbast addresses Gandhi when he writes these lines:

Watan hain a duur par nigah kar laina
Idhar bhi aag lagi hai zara khabar kar laina

You are far from the country, but look at us
There's a fire here too, take care of us

How Gandhi changed the psyche of the Urdu poet

With the arrival of Gandhi in 1915, the tumultuous years of World War I (1914-1918), followed by Jallianwala Bagh in 1919, and the first non-cooperation movement in 1920, something changed in the psyche of the Urdu poet.

Melancholy and pathos, the search for a messiah, are replaced by robust optimism. The cries of revolution became stronger and the sense of nation stronger. In Awaz-e Qaum (‘The call of the nation ’), Chakbast speaks for a whole generation when he declares:

Zameen se arsh tak shor Home Rule ka hai
Shabab qaum ka hai zor Home Rule ka hai

From the ground to the heavens there are shouts of Home Rule
And the youth of nationalism and the impulse of autonomy

And in Watan Ka Raag ("Call of the Fatherland"), Chakbast acknowledges that he, like so many others, seeks inspiration in Gandhi:

Hamare waastey zanjeer-o tauq gahna hai
Wafa ke shauq mein Gandhi ne jis a pahna hai

For us chains and crickets are like ornaments.
Gandhi has used them as a badge of commitment

In Inquilab (& # 39; Revolution & # 39;), Asrar-ul Haq Majaz, the romantic poet turned revolutionary predicts a bloody end to imperial rule long before 1947:

Khatm ho jaane ko hai sarmayadaron ka nizam
Rang lane ko hai mazdooron ka josh-e inteqam

The government of the capitalists is about to end
The worker's passion for revenge is finally coming true

Gandhi's "gopis"

Akbar Allahabadi, the powerful "poet of the people" and virtually chronicler of his age, became a great admirer of Gandhi, the newly launched nationalist movement and the idea of ​​the Hindu-Muslim Unity.

Admitting his inability to join the popular mass movement of Gandhi until he is in the service of the government, and comparing the growing tribe of Gandhi followers with the gopis that are said to have gathered around Krishna, Akbar writes:

Madkhola Akbar na hota government agar
Uss ko bhi aap paate Gandhi ki gopiyon mein

If Akbar had not been part of the government
You would have also found it among the Gandhi gopis

Akbar "Gandhi Nama", a series of short poems published between 1919 and 21, is a hymn to syncretism, and a political movement for independence that could only be driven by Hindus and Muslims who play an equal role. Telling your readers to avoid the high poetry of the classic cannon, such as the Shahnamastart your Gandhinama So:

Inquilab aaya nayi duniya naya hungama hai
Shahnama ho chukka ab duur Gandhinama hai

Iqbal, the most powerful poetic voice of his time, writes about Gandhi like this:

Gandhi se eik roz yeh kehte thhe maulvi
Kamzore Ki Kamand Hai Duniya Mein Naa Rasa
Nazuk yeh saltanat sifat-e barg-e gul nahiin
Le jaaye gulistan urha kar jisse saba

the maulvi He addressed Gandhi one day like this:

The weak person's bond is ineffective in the world
This kingdom is not as delicate as the fragrance of a flower.
That the winds of the garden can fly it

The Khilafat movement.

Gandhi's growing popularity among the elite and illiterate, along with the encouragement of widely respected religious leaders (for example, Maulana Mahmoud Hasan, the venerable alim of Deoband issued a fatwa In 1920, granting a religious sanction to the non-violent non-cooperation movement launched by Gandhi in the same year) made it a natural subject for current Urdu literature.

A year earlier, in 1919, Gandhi had been convinced by the Ali brothers that the Khilafat was a more beloved cause than the life of the Indian Muslims, and for the next four years, the Khilafat movement spread through India like a tornado , becoming the first revolutionary mass movement for Indian Muslims, with the words & # 39; Gandhi & # 39; and & # 39; Khilafat & # 39; becoming close synonyms, and both poets and publicists write alike.

Other Gandian concerns

As the Khilafat movement vanished, Urdu writers articulated other issues raised by Gandhi, whether it was agrarian anguish or the plight of the so-called "untouchables." Premchand, for example, was personally heavily influenced by Gandhi. His stories Swarajya Y Lal Pheeta and novel Rangabhumi It shows the extent of that influence.

Other contemporary prose writings were somewhat ironic Swarajya ke Liye by Saadat Hasan Mantle, and the bleakest Gul Kharistan by Sudarshan.

Many poets, popular and prolific in their time but lost in the veils of today's time, wrote about Gandhi. Here is Aaftab Rais Panipati writing about Gandhi Baba with vim and vigor, and a huge nationalist pride:

Swaraj ka jhanDa bharat men gaḌva diya Gandhi baba ne
Dil qaum-o-vatan ke dushman ka dahla diya Gandhi baba ne

Gandhi Baba has hit the swaraj pennant on the floor of Bharat
Gandhi Baba has terrified the hearts of the enemies of our country.

Gandhi's death and a flood of pain

Gandhi's death in 1948 caused an outbreak, a virtual flood of anguish and pain that spread across the literary landscape in the years following his murder.

Every community outrage is a reminder of the terrible price the country has already paid. Asar Lakhnavi, comparing Gandhi with a lotus flower, one that concealed innumerable secrets that were lost forever in the world, when the bullet fired by an evil person found its mark:

Apna huwa nishana, har shaatir zamana
Your phool hai kanwal ka, asraar ka khazana

Anand Narain Mulla, the jurist-poet, does not lose his words when he writes the funeral song Mahatma Gandhi ka Qatl ("The murder of Mahatma Gandhi") evoking a feeling of immense pain and irreparable loss:

Insaan woh uttha jis ka saani sadiyon mein bhi duniya jan na sakii
Murat woh mitti naqqash se bhi jo ban ke dobara ban na sakii

Another such will never be born again in the world like the one that was lost.
Even the sculptor can never recreate a clay idol again.

Sahir Hoshiyarpuri (1913-1972) writes with unbridled affection for this fakir, piling this on this paikar-e ikhlas (personification of sincerity), ruh-e rasti (essence of truthfulness):

Naam tha Gandhi magar that we did naam hain
Ek mai-ḳhana hai jis mein har tarah ke jaam hain

His name was Gandhi but he had a thousand names.
It is a tavern that has all kinds of wine glasses.

Gandhi continues to inspire Urdu poets

Gandhi continues to inspire modern Urdu poets in different ways. Syeda Farhat, writing about Gandhi having shown the way of truthfulness, the right way:

Sachchi baat hamesha kahna sachcha.i ke raste chalna
Bapu ne samjhaya hai Bapu ne samjhaya hai

With the arrival of October, the poet found new occasions to remember Gandhi and the many ways and reasons why his legacy should be celebrated. Here is Kanwal Dhibhaivi (1919-1994) writing in Gandhi Jayanti, claiming Gandhi's property, drawing enormous pride in saying "Gandhi hamare thhe" ("Gandhi was ours"):

Uthi charon taraf se jab ki zulm-o-jabr ki andhi
Payam-e-amn le kar aa gae ruh-e-zaman Gandhi

When the storm of cruelty and tyranny rose from the four directions
Gandhi, the spirit of his time, came with the message of peace.

And here is Aale Ahmad Suroor lamenting the loss that will never fade into a jewel "Pir-e Mughaan ki Yaad Mein" ("In memory of the saint of the tavern"):

Ai Meer e karvaan e watan, Ai Shaheed e qaum
Tere lahu apna shaman lalazaar hai
Tere hii dam qadam bayabaan mehak gaye
Apne gulon mein jo bhi hai teri bahaar hai
Sidq-o sifa ko tujh se mili chashm-e mohtabar
Amn-o amaan ka dahar mein tujhse wiqaar …

---

The article was originally published in The Quint and has been reproduced with permission.