Urdu Political Poetry during the Khilafat Movement Author(s): Gail Minault Source: Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 8, No. 4 (1974), pp. 459-471 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/311865 . Accessed: 31/01/2014 10:09
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This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ModernAsian Studies, 8, 4 (I974), pp. 459-47I. Printedin GreatBritain. UrduPotiticat Poetry during the Khitafat Movement
GAI L M INAU LT
Universityof Bexas,Austin, fexas
THE Khilafat movement,which took place among Indian Muslims immediatelyfollowing the First World War, was so called becauseit was a politicalagitation designed to pressurethe Britishgovernment to preservethe defeated Ottoman Empire and its ruler, the Caliph of Islam. The Khilafat movement was also, more fundamentally,a campaignto unite IndianMuslims politically by meansof religiousand culturalsymbols meaningful to all strataof the community.The move- ment gained added significancebecause it took place simultaneously, and cooperatedfully, with Gandhi'sfirst non-violent non-cooperation movementagainst British rule. Muslimand Hindu were thus engaged in parallelpolitical activity: the broadeningofnationalpoliticalpartici- pation fromthe elite to the massthrough new techniquesof organiza- tion and communication. The resultsof the Khilafat and non-cooperationmovements were disappointing.Their following was massiveonly in relationto whathad gone before,Hindu-Muslim cooperation proved ephemeral,and the OttomanCaliph was consignedto the scrapheap, not by the British, but by the Turksthemselves. Still, the Indianpolitical scene had been irrevocablychanged. No longerwas the nationalistmovement confined to the councilhouses and bar associations;it had movedinto the streets, the bazaars,temple fairs, and mosques.Orderly debate on constitu- tional questionscontinued, but was eclipsedin the popularmind by flag-wavingprocessions of khadi-cladvolunteers, tinselled triumphal arches,poetic recitations,and endlessemotional stump speeches. In a culturerich in popularpageantry, its use for political purposescannot be discounted,though it is difficultto say exactlyhow muchit counted. Newspaperaccounts mentioned that processionsbrought out crowds,
This paperwas preparedfor presentationat the WesternRegional Conference of the Associationfor Asian Studies,Salt Lake City, 9-I I NovemberI972. I am indebted to IftikharAzmi of Lucknowand Nazir Ahmad Khan of Aligarhfor their help in translatingthe poeticexcerpts, and to Dr M. A. R. Barkerfor his interestand advice on the translations.
459
This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 460 GAIL MINAULT that poeticlaments brought tears to theireyes,l but one cannotmeasure exactlythe effectof these techniqueson political action. Urdupolitical poetry was just one of manytechniques used during the Khilafatmovement for conveyinga political messagein termswhich were traditionallyfamiliar and acceptable.As statedabove, it is virtu- ally impossibleto estimateits impacton the popularmind in termsof actualideas conveyed or numbersswayed. What can be discussedis the importanceof poetryin the body of Urdu literature,the natureof its traditionalimagery, and the waysin which this imagerywas informed with politicalmeaning 2 Urdu has a long and distinguishedpoetic tradition, inherited from its Persianancestry. The formsof Urdu poetryare the sameas for Persian: the romanticlyric or ghazal,the lengthynarrative poem or masnazJi,the ode or qasida,and others.Poetry) both in Persianand Urdu, was the occupationof a literaryelite and was essentiallyan oral form, meant for recitationin poeticgatherings or mushai'ra.Urdu poetic composition floweredin the late Mughalperiod, but Urduprose was late to develop. Persianremained the languageof the courtand the administratisnuntil the I830S, and thereafterUrdu prose forms graduallyemerged, re- stricted at first to religious tracts, and, among the newly western educatedelite, to journalismand a few didacticnovels.3 The elite natureof the Urdu poetic traditionpresupposed courtly patronagefor poets and lordly manorsfor the assemblyof musha'iras; the ability to composea competentghazal was the markof a cultured gentleman.After the society which suppliedpatronage to professional poets had declined,the poet still lurkedwithin every Muslimgentle- man, whateverhis occupation.For all its elitist tradition,however, Urdu poetrywas still composedmainly for recitation.This character-
t Examplesare myriad;see, especially,accounts of meetingson KhilafatDay, I7 October I9 I9 in BombayChronicle, I8 Oct. I9 I9, and Independent(Xlahabad), 22 and 24 OctoberI9I9; or accountsof stumpingtours by Muhammadand ShaukatAli in Independent,II-I3 January I920, Lahore7Eribune, I4 January I920, and Bomba Chronicle,23-24 FebruaryI 92 I . 2 I am particularlyindebted to the worksof Ralph Russelland KhurshidulIslam forthe observationswhich follow. For a detaileddiscussion of the contentand imagery of Urdu lyric poetry and the societywhich producedthem, see Russell and Islam, ThreeMughal Poets (Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, I968), Chs 4-5; and Ralph Russell,'The Pursuitof the Urdu Ghazal',30urnal of AsianStudies XXIX, I (NovemberI969), I07-24. A detaileddiscussion of Urdu prosodyoccurs in M. A. R. Barker,'Urdu Poetics', in A Readerof ModernUrdu Poetry (Montreal: McGill UniversityPress, I968) App. I, pp. xiii-xx. 3 Forthe developmentof the Urdu novel,see RalphRussell, 'The ModernNovel in Urdu', in TheNouel in India,ed. by T. W. Clark(London: George Allen and Unwin I 970) pp I02-4I *
This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions URDU POLITICAL POETEtY DUEtING KHILAFAT MOVEMENT 46I istic renderedit accessibleto the illiteratemany as well as to the lettered few. As poetic recitationsbecame part of political mass meetings, poetry became a means of communicatingbetween the politicized elite andthe throngsin theiraudiences. Further) it wasa formof literary expressionthat spoketo the emotions.As such,it was an ideal medium for reachingthe heartsof many Muslimswho remainedunmoved by detailedpolitical discussion. ' The traditionalthemes and symbolsofs Urdu poetry were derived from Persianpoetics. In love lyrics,the loveris alwaysseparated from his beloved;he longsto be nearher, but it is impossible.In traditional Muslimsociety, with its rigidsegregation of the sexes,all romanticlove is of necessityillicit, its consummationeither impossible or dangerous. Hence the imageryused to describethese feelingscontains a sense of impendingdisaster. The moth and the candle are the lover and his beloved.The caged nightingaleis the lover imprisonedby his desire, yearningfor his nest or his gardenabode. His mistressis usuallypor- trayed as haughty'and distant, or as downrightsinister: a huntress come to entrap the bird and ravage his nest, or a flower-plucker, destroyingthe beauty of the garden. Common,too, is the imageryof conviviality:a caravan,an assemblyof comrades,or a wine-drinking partyrepresent the stateof beingin the companyof the beloved.In this case, she is doubtlessa courtesan,and thus once again someonewho can neverbelong to the poet alone.His feelingof emptinessin separa- tion from'her is describedin opposingimages: the vanishedcaravann leaving behind only footprintsin the shifting sands, the dispersed assembly,smoke still risingfrom a gutteringcandle. Similarsymbols were used in the poetryof religiousmysticism. The parallelsbetween sacred and profanelove were ever-present-inPersian ' Sufi poetry, where the devotee in searchof God was portrayedas a lover searchingfor his beloved.And just as illicit love in a segregated societycould be disastrous,SQ could devotionto God and the monistic quest for spiritualunity with Him be blasphemous.Sufism had em- braced monisticdoctrines, but in orthodoxIslam, unity of the indi- vidual soul with the transcendentGod is impossible.Thus Sufi poetry was ambiguous.It could be about earthly'love, or divine, or both simultaneously.4 It is but a short step to informsuch ambiguousimagery'with yet anotherlevel of significance,a politicalone. Forexample, the devastated gardenand the vanishedluxury and convivialityof wine-bibbingbe- came the vanishedglories of Islamic rule. The huntress,at first the
4 Russell,'The Pursliitof the Urdu Ghazal',pp. I I4-I6.
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4b2 GAIL MINAULT oppressorin tove, now becamea political oppressor.The nightingate in the cage becamethe patriotyearning for freedom,or later and even moreliterally, the imprisonedpolitical leader. An excellentexample of this transformationof lyric imageryis the M1lsaddas:Madd o jfatr-e- Islamby Hali, a contemporaryof Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the bard of the Aligarh movement. Consideringthe rise and fall of _ * * * * C
When autumnhas set in over the-garden, Why speakof the springtimein flower? When shadowsof adversityhang over the present, Why harp on the pomp and glory of the past? Yea, these are things to forget; But how can you with the dawn Forgetthe scene of the night before? The assemblyhas just dispersed; The smokeis still risingfrom the burnt candle; The footprintson the sandsstill say A gracefulcaravan has passedthis way.5
The gutteringcandle the autumnalgarden, the footprintsof a vanished caravanin the shiftingsands, symbols of unrequitedlove have become symbolsof the declineof Islam. The poetry of Iqbal was more overtly political, but the spirit had changed.Following laments over the decay of Islam Iqbal's call was for Muslimself-confidence an(l self-assertion:
Beyondthe starsmore worlds:Love's grace Has other trialsyet to face- Not void of life thosefar-oS deeps, Wherethousand caravans run their race; In other gardensother nests- Be not contentwith earthisembrace; Why for one lost home mourn when grief Can find so many a lodging place? x, YOUare a talcono . 1oorn to soar, - Still with your wings new heavenskeep pace; Let day-and-nightnot snareyour feet, Yoursare anotherTime and Space! Gone, days of crowdedsolitude; Now other heartsknow my heart'scase.6
5 Syed Abdul Latif TheInBquence of Engltsh Literature on UrdaxLiterature (London: ForsterGroom, I924) p. I30. 6 Iqbal, ;Ghazal I4, from Bal-@brel, tr. by V. G. Kiernanin PoemsfiomIqbal (London:John Murray,I 955), p. 34.
This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions URDU POLITICAL POETRY DURING KHILAFAT MOVEMENT 463 Iqbal is the most skillfulrepresentative of the youngergeneration of poets emergingin the early twentiethcentury, who used the old im- ageryin new ways. Do not yearn for one beloved,he said; there are others.Do not be bound as a bird in a cage; soar like a young falcon. Breakingthe bondsof social conventions,worn-out religious d¢ctrines, and political enslavementwere all a part of his message. The leaders of the Khilafat movementhad a similar messageto impart, and did so throughthe medium of poetry, althoughpoetry was by no meanstheir only meansof communication.The threepoet- politiciansto be discussedhere: ZafarAli Khan, HasratMohani, and MuhammadAli were all journalistsand consummateorators. Zafar Ali Khan was the editor Of Zamindarof Lahore, the mouthpieceof Muslimpolitical activism in the Punjab.A regulardaily featureof his journal, to which people would turnjust as they might to a political cartoon,was his politicalverse. The titles reflectedevents of the day, 'MartialLaw', 'The CentralKhilafat Committee', and 'Swaraj',7but the imageryremained traditional:8
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7 Zafar Ali Khan, Baharistan(Lahore: Punjab Urdu Academy, I936), pp. X6, 25S7, and I63. 8 Ibid.,p. I53. 9 Ibid.,pp. 163-4.
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&gSAiS, The limits of sight were once too narrow To gage that gardennow seen in dismay. In your party is neitherbowl nor cup. In your gardennow singsneither dove norjay. Considerthen why your ship became Of ragingwaves the thing of play. But even now if you bow beforeGodn And on the Prophet'sthreshold lay, Dust will turn to gold in your hands, And you will fashiontopaz from the clay. LikeHali, ZafarAli recalledthe pastglories of Islam,using the imagery of the gardenand festivewine-drinking He then describedits decline in termsof the loss of naturalbeauty and convivialitynand the image of a storm-batteredship. The subjectcould equallywell be the lament for a lost love or the travailsof the soulyearning for God. The poet is, in fact, askinghis readersto considertheir sorry plight as a subjectpeople. He goeson to urgethem to workfor theirfreedom with the help of God and the Prophet.
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URDU POLITICAL POETRY DURING KHILAFAT MOVEMENT 465 Another poetjournalist among the Khilafat leaders was Hasrat Mohani, editor of Urdu-e-Mu'alla,a poetical and political journal publishedin Aligarh. He was interned during World War I for his outspokenarticles against British rule, but his devotedreadership was drawnless to his prosethan to his poetry,eloquent and richly-textured. He is famedfor his beautifullove lyrics, but this is an exampleof his politicalverse:lo
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The customof tyrannysuccessful, how long will it last? Love of countryin a stupor,how long will it last? How long will the chainsof deceptionhold fast? The stymiedanger of people, how long will it last? What tyranniesin the name of laws are passed. This veiled force,how long will it last? The richesof India in foreignhands are clasped. These numberlessriches, how long will they last?
loFazl al-HasanHasrat Mohani, Kulliyat-e-Hasrat(Delhi: Maktaba-e-Isha'iat-e- Urdu, I 959), pp. I 38-9.
This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 466 GAIL MINAULT There is nothing covert about this damnation of the British and of Indian weakness. The cry against foreign rule, 'How long will it last ?' is not hidden behind images of flowers, nightingales, and vanished caravans. It is not surprising that Hasrat spent a good deal of time in jail, both during World War I and during the Khilafat movement. He commented on this situation in a pithy couplet:1l
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My opinions are free and so is my spirit. It is useless to lock up the body of Hasrat.
The third poet of the Khilafat movement, and the best-known of the three, was Muhammad Ali, who wrote poetry under the pen-name 'Jauhar'. The leading political activist among Aligarh graduates before World War I, Muhammad Ali edited two newspapersin Delhi, CSomradein English, and Hamdardin Urdu. He and his brother Shaukat were active in the Muslim League, the campaign for a Muslim Uni- versity, and numerous other religio-political organizations. Interned during the war for their sympathies for the Turkish Caliph, they em- erged in I9I9 as the major leaders of the Khilafat movement and chief architects of the Muslim alliance with Gandhi. Muhammad's strenuous speaking schedule left him little time for poetry during the Khilafat movement itself, thus most of his verse was composed during periods of confinement, either during the war or in I922-23, when he and Shaukat were imprisoned for their Khilafat activities. As beStting prison poetry, the symbolism of the bird in the cage appears constantly in Jauhar's verse. The patriot imprisoned, like the caged bird, cannot forget the oppressor who has locked him up, and longs for the beauties of the garden of freedom. But on the other hand, imprisonment affiordshim leisure which he never had in his frenetic political life:l2
11Fazl al-HasanHasrat Mohani, Qaid-e-Farang(Karachi: Maktaba Naya Rahi, I958), p. I34@ 12 AliJavad Zaidi, UrduMen Qaumi Sha'iri ke Sau Sal (Allahabad:U.P. Publications Division, I 959), p. I 85.
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URDU POLITICAL POETRY DURING KHILAFAT MOVEMENT 467
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t* 41SJ s>*a@) z S S) S 9 ASSsHS'1S SlloSrS'3i+H'S SC#, Le J trL,/ $,.R ,"1,X' Lt ,"vaS A J""ggMs.}t Everyday belongsto loneliness,every night to solitude, Everymeeting has become a reunionwith isolation. Everyinstant is a solace, every momenta relief, Everyminute is heart-warming,a consolation. The demandsof paradiseand the promisesof heaven Are the topicsof each day, and each night'sconsideration. 13 MuhammadAli, Salam-e-]auhar (Delhi:Maktaba-e-Jami'a, n.d.), pp. 7X-3. This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1 468 GAI L MINAU LT Sitting idly, Jauhar, it is fine to indulgein renunciation, The rainswon't hold back thus, in the seasonof intoxication. In the final couplet,Jauhar remindshimself that this religioussolace for the renunciationof politics is fine for the present,but just as the rainy season,a traditionalpoetic image denoting the time for wine- drinking,is inevitablein India, so too his activitieswill resume.On anotherlevel, he is sayingthat India'sfreedom is as inevitableas the monsoonrains. Whenhis politicalactivity resumed, and popularenthusiasm for the Khilafat was at its height, MuhammadAli wrote this triumphant ghazal 14 <,0 4X; DS,pW §) gl g/> DJ }gg gj#Lf)E;s;iSw-fk ..aS vA,,,ge; tX /v$'SztJAzt pS <.bl;fKi;dMoUg nSo " ,, sgo<;DDDx ,lAz ,U,$,elJl, g%#SX ;a. HeD # At last victoryhas come, grantedby Heaven. Is the prayerof the oppressedever wholly without heed? 14 Ibid.,pp. I03-4. This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions URDU POLITICAL POETRY DURING KHILAFAT MOVEMENT 469 Whereis that deluge of arroganceof the past? In a twinkling,what an overflowingstream has fled! The state of the world had been totally changed. The sighs of the helplesshave done a marvelousdeed ! You have curbedneither my wings nor my imagination. Oh huntress,what has becomeof thy habitualheed ? Oh my love, I shall alwaysremember your company. Despairaccompanied our separation,but it has fled. The imageryhere refersto a lover who has gained the affectionof his beloved; his prayershave been answered;her arrogancehas been dispelled;his sighshave been heard.The huntresshas enclosedhim in a cage of desire,but he has found comfortin the memoryof her com- panionship.Any Britishofficial searching for a seditiousmessage in this poetrywould have difficultyfinding it, but it is thereall the same.The oppressedare the Indianswho have been grantedvictory. British pride has been humbledthrough God's help. Their non-violentnon-coopera- tion has paid off; their sacrificeshave purifiedthem and helped them gain a greatfollowing. They courtimprisonment gladly, for prisonbars cannotdishearten them aftersuch a victory. When the Ali brotherswere again imprisoned,Jauhar had another spurt of poetic creativity,but this time his reflectionson conditions outsidehis figurativebird-cage were considerablyless optimisticthan they had been. The gardenof freedomwas thorny,his memoriesof it broughtless solacethan before:l5 a. S jE , 1 ls AbdurRazzaq Qureshi, ed., Nava-e-Azadi(Bombay: Adabi Publishers, I957) pp. 229-30. This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ags f p.Se 47o G A I L M I N AU L T If even a whiff of the flowersbrings grief, Perhapswe have becometoo accustomedto the cage. Imprisonedfor the sake of freedom, Can it be that we have a taste for eitherstage ? Oh flower-plucker,we gave up the gardenfreely, Why then shouldwe complainof imprisonmentor cage? Giventhe misgivingswith whichhe wouldreturn to political activity, it mightseem that he had lecome accustomedto the tranquilityof im- prisonment.But that was not really the case. He had given up his freedomwillingly for the cause; thus he did not complainof prison. Jauharwould neverthelessgladly go free once again, and take his risks along the rockypath to independence. Any discussionof the political poetry of the Khilafat movement would not be completewithout the most famouspoem of the period. Not a ghazal,nor a vehicle for ambiguousflowery imagery, this was a kind of balladabout the Ali brothersand theirsaintly old mother.This rhymewas on everyone'slips whereverthe Ali brotherscampaigned, and it becamelegend. Even fifty years after the Khilafat movement, peoplewould still recite theseverses when recallingthe Ali brothers:l6 a)owas - f SS ARSGl2F@s lyE4t {SllS,+ bylz S(_tl g' t =L1,g,,SS Thus spakethe motherof MuhammadAli, Son, give your life for the Khilafat. 16 Abdul Majid Daryabadi,Muhammad Ali, gati Diaryke Chand Warq I (Azamgarh: Ma'arifPress, I954), p. I05. This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions URDU POLITICAL POETRY DURING KHILAFAT MOVEMENT 47I And with you, too, ShaukatAli, Son, give your life for the Khilafat. Don't give your old mothercause for grief, But confessingyour faith, give up your life. Give your all in this hour of trial, Son, give your life for the Khilafat. Even had I had seven sons, I'd sacrificethem all for the Khilafat. This is the way of the faith of the Prophet, Son, give your life for the Khilafat. 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