Iqbal
The Poet and the Politician
By Rafiq Zakaria
(Penguin India) 1993
The revolt of 1857 destroyed among many other things, the old Mughal aristocracy of Delhi, one of the finest descriptions of this destruction coming from Mirza Ghalib himself. The loss of this class not only changed the face of Delhi, but also destroyed its old tehzeeb and it never again was to completely regain its stature as a city of culture and the seat of Urdu learning and the centre of poetry.
The centre shifted, instead, to Lahore in Punjab. Punjab during and after the 1857 revolt, was intensely pro- British and therefore, also a safe place. It was this city which became the focal city in the culture of North India. It was not surprising that the next greatest crop of Urdu poets (which was the language of culture in Punjab, and not the more rustic Punjabi) was to come from this city. The leading among them, were, of course, Mohammad Iqbal and later Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Sahir Ludhianvi, too, was to have remained there, had not the Pakistani government made his living impossible in the aftermath of the partition.
While Faiz, Sahir and others enjoyed considerable popularity in India, Iqbal has not been granted the same stature and popularity, despite the adoption of his "Sare Jahan Se Achcha, Hindustan Hamara..." as the National Song of India. The reasons are not far to seek, Iqbal has often been seen as one of the initiators of the demand for Pakistan and one of its leading advocates.
The role of the politician in Iqbal has unfortunately overshadowed both his contribution in the field of Urdu poetry as well as his inspiration to the younger generation of the poets in the sub-continent, specially the Muslim youth-- who made a swift turn towards the Left in the 1930's and gave a fresh reign of life to Urdu.
The most important of Iqbal's contribution is the enunciation of the concept of khudi (the self) and action. He abohorred inaction and laziness, and gave the resounding call to his brethern:
Khudi ko kar buland itna,
ke har taqdeer sey pehley,
Khuda bande sey poochey, bata teri raza kya hai.
(Raise thyself to such heights,
That God Himself may Ask
What do you wish me to write your fate ?)
Despite his concern for Muslims, Iqbal was certainly not an orthodox Muslim. He often, like Ghalib before him, made fun of the religious clergy. In one of his sheyrs he exclaimed that college boys were unnecessarily harsh on the kazi, only to add that actually the kazi himself is opposed to (beautiful) women putting on the burqa ! Anyone who reads Iqbal, specially Naya Shivala (The New Temple) cannot but admire his intellectual prowess and restlessness. His criticism of bigotry and orthodoxy come as a fresh breeze in cynical times.
Iqbal was a descendent from a Kashimiri Brahmin lineage and he never was opposed to Hindus. In fact, he was much proud of the ancient Hindu contribution to intellectual thought, even the concept of Khudi owed much to the Philosophy of Action in the Gita (this is claimed by many writers on Iqbal, notably Rafiq Zakaria).
Nevertheless, his association with the Muslim League, of which he was the sole leader and spokesman in the Khizr-ul- Haq led Unionist Party which dominated the Punjab Legislature, was very much there. In this endeavour, he was never a success, the Muslim League in Punjab remained one of the weakest units country and he was often at the receiving end from Jinnah. Iqbal, too, was contemptous of Jinnah. In fact, when Iqbal was sick and ill during his last days, he asked Jawaharlal Nehru to see him in his house in Lahore. There he remarked to Nehru that the difference between you (Nehru) and Jinnah is that while Jinnah is a politician, you are a patriot. Nehru, too, always reciprocated with his admiration for Iqbal's poetry.
As the leading poet of the country in the 1920's and 30's, Iqbal shared the stature which only Rabindranmath Tagore enjoyed. Both of them were eminently honoured by a grateful nation when Tagore's Jan Gan Man.. was adopted as the National Anthemn and Iqbal' s Sare Jahan Se Achcha as the National Song. Both the great men never met each other, but they regarded each other very highly. Interestingly, while Tagore's poetry aimed towards contemplation and realization, Iqbal's poetry was a call for action. In practical life, while Tagore successfully founded a number of institutions, Iqbal was a complete failure , whether as a barrister or as a politician.
Bhupinder
bhupi@hclind.hcla.com
(unpublished)
