REVOLUTIONARY AND NATIONALISTIC SPIRIT IN THE SELECT POEMS OF W.B. YEATS AND G.A. MAHJOOR: A COMPARATIVE STUDY THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy IN ENGLISH BY MUZAFFAR AHMAD RATHER UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. RASHMI ATTRI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2019 Annexure-I CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION I, Muzaffar Ahmad Rather, Department of English, certify that the work embodied in this Ph.D. thesis is my own bonafide work carried out by me under the supervision of Prof. Rashmi Attri, Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. The matter embodied in this Ph.D. thesis has not been submitted for the award of any other degree. I declare that I have faithfully acknowledged, given credit to and referred to the research works wherever their works have been cited in the text and the body of the thesis. I, further, certify that I have not willfully lifted up some other’s work, paragraph, text, data, result etc. reported in the journals, books, magazines, reports, dissertations, theses, etc. or available at websites and included them in this Ph.D. thesis and cited as my own work. Date: ........................... (Signature of the Candidate) Muzaffar Ahmad Rather (Name of the Candidate) .......................................................................................................................................... Certificate from the Supervisor This is to certify that the above statement made by the candidate is correct to the best of my knowledge. Prof. Rashmi Attri Department of English Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh-202002 (Signature of the Chairman of the Department with Seal Annexure-II COURSE/COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION/PRE- SUBMISSION SEMINAR COMPLETION CERTIFICATE This is to certify that Mr. Muzaffar Ahmad Rather, Department of English has satisfactorily completed the course work/comprehensive examination and pre- submission seminar requirement, which is part of his Ph.D programme. Date: (Signature of the Chairman of the Department) Annexure-III COPYRIGHT TRANSFER CERTIFICATE Title of the Thesis: Revolutionary and Nationalistic Spirit in the Select Poems of W.B. Yeats and G.A. Mahjoor: A Comparative Study Candidate’s Name: Muzaffar Ahmad Rather COPYRIGHT TRANSFER The undersigned hereby assigns to the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh Copyright that may exist in and for the above thesis submitted for the award of the Ph.D degree. Date: Signature of the Candidate Note: However, the author may reproduce or authorize others to reproduce material extracted verbatim from the thesis or derivative of the thesis for author’s personal use provide that the source and the University’s copyright notice are indicated. Acknowledgements So, which of the favours of your Lord would you deny? (Al-Quran 55:14) I would like to express sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Rashmi Attri for her constant help and continuous guidance throughout the study. Her kindness towards me is beyond words. I sincerely and wholeheartedly thank my life coaches, my parents (Ab Aziz Rather and Fatima Begum) for their encouragement, support, care, attention and whatnot. I owe it all to you. Many Thanks! I express my special thanks to my loved family members; Ab Ahad Rather, Zeba, Saja, Gulshana, Mukhtar Ahmad Rather, Mr. Assad (Brother-in-Law), and my uncles namely; Abdul Ahad Parah, Habibullah Parah and Assadullah Parah. They all have played a significant role in my upbringing throughout my entire life. I specially thank my paternal uncle; Ali Mohammad Rather, who has remained shoulder to shoulder and profoundly supported me with me since childhood. I am deeply indebted to my siblings/cousins namely Dr. Shabir Ahmad Parah, Shameema, Dr. Nafis Ibni Assad, Shahzada, Umer Ibni Assad, Safia, Ishrat, Shayesta, Inabat, Uzair for love, affection, advices, care and profound belief in my work. They have always stayed and helped me through thick and thin. My special thanks to my grandmother’s (Zeba [Ahan] and Saja [Zazna]) for their prayers, love and endearment. They always are/were keen to know what I was/am doing and how I was/am proceeding. I express my heartfelt and deepest gratitude to Nusrat Tabasum for relentless support and prayers. I am also grateful to two of my best friends namely Muzammil Mohammad and Dr. Rafaquat Raja for being with me through and through. I express my special thanks to Mr. Bilal Ahmad Dar, Nadeem Khurshidi and Iqbal Ahmad and Masroor Muzaffar for proof reading my thesis. I would like to thank my well-wishers namely Firdous Hussain Parra, Javid Ahmad Ahanger, Nasir Ahmad Shah, Ishfaq Ahmad Yatoo, Mohammad Ashraf Khwaja, Irfan and Ummer Bashir for support and valuable suggestions. I am grateful to UGC for providing the monthly stipend during the research programme. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the help from Maulana Azad Library (AMU) during my stay in the University. Thank you all! Muzaffar Ahmad Rather Abstract The thesis embarks to explore the revolutionary and nationalistic spirit in the poetry of William Butler Yeats and Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor. Both the poets have been studied in the nationalistic and revolutionary perspective. An attempt has been made to uncover this tendency in their poetry through the depiction of cultural heritage, literature, art, decolonization, legends, folklore and mutual brotherhood. The revolutionary and nationalistic discourse is vividly portrayed in their poetry, which made them the poets par excellence in their respective homelands. Inspite of this, both the poets wanted to change the status quo in their respective societies after witnessing the oppression, slavery, tyranny, exploitation and misery. In order to achieve their goal, they used poetry to incite people to rise against high handedness and domination of the rulers. Yeats and Mahjoor belong to two different regions of the world having different culture, history, language and political atmosphere. They are considered as the nationalist revolutionaries in their respective places as both the poets craved to revive their past culture, art, literature and heritage. They distanced themselves from the colonizer through imagination as Edward Said believes that a nationalist writer struggles to reclaim the distorted past and geography through imagination. He calls Yeats as a revolutionary poet and keeps him at par him with other revolutionary poets like Léopold Sédar Senghor and Mahmood Darwesh. Mahjoor too eternalizes the Kashmiri culture, streams, gardens, art and literature in his poetry. As a modern poet, Yeats developed an ironical enthusiasm, blend of various layers of experience and the incorporation of images. There certainly was a change in language, style and in theme in their poetry as well. Yeats stressed on the subjectivity of poetry and believed that a poet can have his own point of view. Mahjoor took up political themes in his modern poetry because of the metamorphosis in the political affairs of Kashmir. The amalgamation of past and present is entwined together in their poetry in order to show the relevance of the past in the contemporary times. In the thesis, both the romantic and modern poems of both the poets are compared to scrutinize the similarities and dissimilarities. Their romantic poetry not only enthrals the beauty, streams, and gardens of their respective nations but visualises the culture, art, literature as well. The mythical dimensions, folklore, legends and occultism portrayed 1 by Yeats in his romantic poetry underscores his nationalist and revolutionary tendencies. Mahjoor visualises the past of Kashmir and laments on the state of affairs after its annexation by the outside rulers. The portrayal of landscape and imagery in their poetry ratifies their passion and fascination towards their homelands. Yeats as compared to Mahjoor is more abstruse and abstract, while as Mahjoor is direct and simple and easy to comprehend. The mythical elements in Yeats’ poetry are present almost everywhere while as Mahjoor focuses on landscape, art, brotherhood, politics and culture in his poetry. He has not portrayed the mythical picture as Yeats but has slightly touched the legends and folklore. Both the poets have been disappointed with the state of affairs in the later stages of their life. They were disillusioned with the circumstances and considered the period of de-colonization not too different from colonization. However, Yeats became a vehement supporter of authoritarianism and Eugenics while Mahjoor remained an ardent supporter of secularism and didn’t favoured any particular religion or community. The thesis has been divided into five chapters excluding Introduction and Conclusion. Introduction of the thesis discusses the concept of ‘Nationalism’ and ‘Revolution’ and its importance in relation to literature especially poetry. Nations usually emerge or come into existence mostly because of revolutions. The prime example is the American nation (1775-1783) as it came into existence after the American Revolution (1765-1783) and French nation due to French Revolution (1789-1799). Various philosophers, theorists and historians like Ernest Gellner, Eric Hobsbawm, Gottfried Herder Johann, Leon Trotsky, Frantz Fanon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Edward Said and Aijaz Ahmad have expressed their own views on nationalism and revolution. They emphasized that nationalist movements or nationalist sentiments emerge due to the adherence to a particular ideology or culture. It also discusses the role of poets during the difficult times to resist the colonizer and