May 9, 2008...8:35 pm
Asraar ul Haq Majaaz Honoured By People Who Don’T Know Him
Strange are the ways of the government departments. This is a stamp issued to honour the anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist Asraar ul Haq Majaaz with a mosque in the background. He was honoured, but did anybody in the Postal department know anything about the great rebel and poet. Majaaz was romantic and agnostic and had nothing to do with a mosque. For our pseudo seculars Urdu = Muslims = mosques. This approach is not only unfair to the Tamil, Malayali, Telugu, Konkani, Gujarati, Bengali and Muslims who speak other languages but also takes the credit away from the Hindu and Sikh writers who have chosen to write in Urdu. Prem Chand, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Upendra Nath Ashk, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Krishan Chander, and large number of Hindus who are fond of Urdu literature, fall in this category.
Let us view what the opinion of the well informed and knowleable people was about the great Majaaz.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the preface to Majaz’s Aahang said- Majaz never beat the drums of revolution, he hummed revolutions!.
Asar Lucknawi said- A Keats was born in Urdu poetry too, but he was devoured by the conservative wolves.
Sahir Ludhianvi wrote- Majaz had gone insane twice, he is drunk all the time and wanders aimlessly. Majaz responded-
Kuch To Hain Mohabbat Mein Junoon Ka Asar
Aur Kuch Log Bhi Deewana Bana Dete Hain!
Majaz rebelled against the customs and traditions and wrote-
Yeh Majboori Si Majboori, Yeh Laachari Si Laachari
Ki Uske Geet Bhi Jee Kholkar Main Gaa Na Saka
Hade Woh Kheech Rakhi Hain, Haram Ke Pasbaanone
Ki Bin Mujrim Bane Paigaam Bhi Pahuncha Na Saka
He sounds like Kabir in the following lines baring the Hindus and the Muslims in the same breath.-
Masjidon main maulvi khutbe sunate hi rahe,
Mandiron mein barhaman ashlok gatey hi rahey
Ik na ik dar par jabeen-i-shouq ghisti hi rahi
Aadamiyat zulm ki chakki mein pisti hi rahi
Rahbari jaari rahi, paighambari jaari rahi
Deen ke parde mein jang-i-zargari jaari rahi.
(The mullah and the pundit keep sermonizing. People keep bowing at their door.They claim to show the way and the great messiahs came claim divinity.Their religions plunder turn by turn.)
He dared the politicians by saying-
Bakhshi hain humko ishq ne wo jurratein Majaaz
Dartey nahi siysat-i-ahl-i-jahaan se hum.
He claimed to have received this strength from love. He deserved every bit of the honour bestowed on him but people in power should know who they are dealing with.
17 Comments
May 9, 2008 at 8:41 pm
[...] Original post by Technorati Search for: poetry [...]
May 9, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Prerna: What a great read this post is!
My father’s - and I imagine your father’s - generation learnt Urdu as their first language. This pseudo-secularist ‘urdu = muslims’ equation must be this generation’s homage to yet another example of poor, incomplete comprehension and reductionist framing of complex issues. Sometimes however, as in this case, it is best if some people (read: babus etc) remain unfamiliar with history or implicit symbolism.
Thanks for a great post (and translations).
May 9, 2008 at 9:57 pm
That last couplet is superb. Politics and poetry in one breath.
May 9, 2008 at 10:38 pm
u have to tell us more about him, I had never heard of this guy
May 10, 2008 at 1:40 am
First of all I want to thank you for this great post. I claim myself a great admirer of Urdu Poetry but never heard of this great Poet.
In Urdu Poetry, there was this genre which is known as Taraqi Pasand Tehreek. Many rebel writers and poets like Manto, Faraz etc belong to this way of writing.
In Urdu poetry Habib Jalib is another poet whose rebellious poems are the part of the great archive.
May 10, 2008 at 2:24 am
Ammar: Taraqi pasand tehreek meaning ‘progressive movement/ revolution’, right? It would be great to hear more about these poets … Which ones might Prerna or I have heard of? Thanks for your thoughts.
Prerna: Thanks again for enabling this engaging conversation.
May 10, 2008 at 3:03 am
“… had gone insane twice, he is drunk all the time and wanders aimlessly.” I sincerely hope people can say something that cool about me someday.
May 10, 2008 at 7:45 am
That’s a beautiful post, Prerna. The couplets and Indian government’s decision brought to mind another incident re: China and Tibetan flag.
May 10, 2008 at 8:53 am
I havent heard of him, but the poetry is very touching - that govt official should also be a poet or poetry lover - great job.
May 10, 2008 at 8:49 pm
@Shefaly
I’m on it
May 11, 2008 at 11:30 am
Great post and poems.
May 12, 2008 at 1:31 am
Beautiful post. Have never heard of this poet. Thanks for sharing.
May 12, 2008 at 10:37 am
Hey, nice couplets you have posted. somehow I could not open the image in this post.
May 12, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Added you to the blogroll
May 12, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Thanks Shefaly and Ammar.
Ankur, Majaaz was the uncle of Javed Akhtar.As Ammar pointed out he was a part of Taraqi Pasand Tehreek( progressive writers) along with Faiz and Sardar Jafri.
@ Truthwalker, it is indeed very cool to get drunk all the time and wander aimlessly
Thanks Amit, JV, Poonam.
It is an honour Nova.
May 13, 2008 at 10:31 pm
[...] 13, 2008 · No Comments As my blog is India centric and i see a lot of bloggers including me writing local languages like devnagri in English, i get kinda saddened. Frankly i cant blame these folks because trying to type say in Hindi or [...]
May 13, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Very interesting post, maybe it is sweet revenge by the politicians , who are using him as a tool to forward their goals
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