Iqbal As Political Poet

University of Alberta Iqbal’s Urdu Political Poems: The Writer Against Colonialism by Uzma Qazi A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Comparative Literature ©Uzma Qazi Spring 2013 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. To the memory of Zahoor Qazi and Khursheed Rizvi Dwellers of the City of the Blessed Abstract Sir Allama Mohammad Iqbal’s poetry and prose, despite their philosophical content and tone, are overtly political. This can be attributed to the political environment of British India in the late nineteenth and in the first half of the twentieth century; any intellectual of that period, whether Hindu or Muslim, could not help but join the struggle for freedom in their respective capacities. Iqbal’s oeuvre has always been treated as the sacred document of the Muslims’ demand for independence on both national and international levels. The field of Iqbal Studies is marked by unjustified political nuances imposed on his writings; each writer approaches Iqbal from his personal political agenda, and, as a result, we have Iqbal the sole originator of the Pakistan Plan, Iqbal the conservative, Iqbal the socialist, and Iqbal the liberal. I have found that this approach halts its search for meaning halfway through the hermeneutic circle. Scholars of Iqbal mostly make forays into his texts with political prejudices. This dissertation is an attempt to read Iqbal’s Urdu political poems closely to question the above-mentioned prejudices of most other Iqbal commentators. By completing the hermeneutic circle, I will be able to read Iqbal’s poems with fresh insight and prove that he was an outspoken critic of colonialism, whether Western or Asian. His poems served no other agenda except his own vision of a free society comprised of morally and intellectually strong individuals. The theoretical basis for this study comes from multiple sources such as colonial and postcolonial studies, subaltern studies, Orientalism, and revisionist historicism, to name a few. The combined use of these theoretical tools is most pertinent to the case of Iqbal, whose entire literary and political output is a significant example of eclecticism. This approach will enable me to engage in a genuine conversation with his poems, which successfully challenged the hegemony of the oppressor and furnished his people with a distinct identity. The dissertation begins with the examination of Iqbal’s challenge to commonly acclaimed authorities on both divine and human levels in his “Complaint” and “Answer.” The discussion moves on to the challenger himself, now ‘Mard-i-Khuda,’ who is the architect of the “Mosque of Cordoba.” Fashioned with Mard-i-Khuda’s identity, Iqbal’s man dismantles all prevailing political and social systems in “Satan’s Parliament,” the topic of my third chapter. The dissertation concludes with the socio-political will of Iqbal read in “Mehrab Gul Afghan’s Thoughts” to a youth who will inherit the wisdom of the speaker and will take control of his affairs in a free society after the departure of the British. To sum up, the poems and the eclectic approach adopted for this analysis will enable me to demonstrate that Iqbal made his cultural and religious identity as a site of resistance against the colonizers’ imperialistic plan. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere thanks to my professors, friends, and family without whose support this project would have been impossible: my supervisor, Dr. Jonathan Hart, whose unwavering faith in my ability always filled me with great enthusiasm toward my research and writing; Dr. Earle Waugh, whose deep insight into the subject kept me on the right track; and Dr. Saleem Qureshi, with whom I enjoyed many readings in original languages and scholarly discussions. I am also very grateful to my examination committee: Dr. Irene Sywenky, Dr. David Gay, Dr. Massimo Verdicchio, members of my supervisory committee, and the external examiner, Dr. Hafeez Malik. I would also like to thank Janey Kennedy, Barb Heagle, and the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Alberta for taking care of all the official matters. I am very thankful to FGSR and GSA for awarding me scholarships and grants for studies and research. My thanks are also due to Dr. Javid Iqbal for explaining some important aspects of Allama Iqbal’s work, and to Suheyl Umar for assisting me in my research at Iqbal Academy Lahore. Last but not least, my friends and family: Cindy Chopoidalo, I highly appreciate your suggestions and corrections; Permjit Bhavra, thank you for taking care of BOBO whenever I needed you, and Jamal and Atiq Ghani for their moral support. I am also grateful to Qazi Nooruddin and Sadia, Shariq Khan and Hafsa, Qasim Bangash and Fouzia for being my hosts on my research trips to Pakistan. Special thanks are also due to Khala Akhtar and Khala Munawar, whose prayers gave me strength. I cannot thank my parents enough whose love and care enabled me to carve out my future. Ammi, you could not survive to see my achievement, but you are behind each and every word I wrote here; and Abbu Ji, your blessings made the journey easier. And now special thanks to my husband, Wasiq, and my son, Avicenna: thank you for bearing with me; you both did a great job! Table of Contents 1. Abstract iii-iv 2. Acknowledgements v-vi 3. Introduction 1-15 4. Chapter One: “Complaint” and “Answer” 16 i. “Complaint” and “Answer”: Reading Between the Lines 17-38 ii. The Decline of the Ottoman Empire and its Impact on Indian Muslims 38-54 iii. The Literary Context for “Complaint” and “Answer” 54-59 5. Chapter Two: “Mosque of Cordoba”: From Politics to Metaphysics 60 i. Politics of the Round Table Conferences 61-70 ii. “Mosque of Cordoba” and Bergson 70-81 iii. Mard-i-Khuda 81-83 iv. Khudi or Self 83-91 v. Mard-i-Khuda as the Architect of the Mosque of Cordoba 91-101 vi. The Spain Poems: A Message of Hope 101-108 6. Chapter Three: Before and Beyond “Satan’s Parliament” 109 i. The 1930 Allahabad Address 110-132 ii. “Satan’s Parliament” 132-163 iii. Iqbal’s Correspondence with Jinnah 163-173 7. Chapter Four: Mehrab Gul Afghan’s Thoughts: Iqbal’s Socio-Political Will 174 i. Afghanistan 178-183 ii. Education in British India 183-190 iii. The Reconstruction and Thoughts 190-215 8. Conclusion 216-244 9. List of Works Consulted and Cited 245-259 1 INTRODUCTION The political content of Muhammad Iqbal’s poetry is one of the most fascinating and challenging aspects of Iqbal Studies: much has been written, and yet, much still needs to be explored. Except for a few poems, his entire poetic endeavour is tinged with the political concerns of his time; both domestic and international political events shaped his poetry. He not only responded to political events in his verse, but also inspired his fellow Indian Muslims, through his poetry, to find a way out of the political quandary in which the British colonial rule had put them. Perplexed and uncertain, the Indian Muslims definitely needed a leader who could help them aspire to a better future and guide them on the road to freedom; Iqbal performed this duty quite well. This dissertation explores Iqbal’s multi-nuanced response to British colonialism in India by concentrating on some of his Urdu political poems. The project is an attempt to liberate Iqbal’s image from strict stereotypical categorizations by emphasizing his keen sense of adaptability to changing political scenarios and political expediency without compromising personal integrity. I have realized that, in the absence of such an approach, Iqbal is either dubbed as the ‘Allama,’ ‘Architect of Pakistan,’ and ‘Hakeem-i-Ummat;’ or as the ‘nationalist,’ ‘British agent,’ and ‘apostate’. So, according to the first approach, Iqbal was the only Muslim leader in their struggle against British colonialism in India to present the concept of a free homeland for the Muslims. This is the most widely prevalent evaluation of Iqbal and the one endorsed by the official discourse of Pakistan since its inception in 1947. The second approach, 2 though again endorsed by institutionalized religiosity in the sub-continent, declares him the worst of the worst as he accepted a knighthood from the British when all of India was struggling against British supremacy. Both approaches, if observed closely, impose stereotypical images on Iqbal. On the one hand, the inquisitive mind stumbles upon certain positive or negative presuppositions such categories feed, and on the other, the presuppositions can spark a desire to evaluate Iqbal’s contribution to the history of Indian Muslims on unbiased, fair, and more humane grounds. My research belongs to this buffer zone (if I may say so), which enables me to evaluate Iqbal’s stature based on his poems and writings. This liberates me from the indoctrinating views of the extremists who used Iqbal as a poster child for their political gains, before and after the partition of India. Politics and philosophy combine in Iqbal’s poetry quite well; his vision is always poetic, even in some of his most famous political addresses.

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