The Creative Side of Freedom
An eighteen year old college student from Sialkot, Asghar
Saudai, wrote a tarana or song in 1944, to inspire the crowds in their demand
for Pakistan, one line of which became, and continues to be , a rallying cry: “Pakistan ka matlab kiya? La ilaha illallah”.
Rais Amrohvi wrote the other most chanted verse “Bat ke rahay ga Hindustan, ley
ke rahain ge Pakistan”.
Poets played a pivotal role in the Freedom Movement. In his book, Jang e Azaadi ke Urdu Shora, Dr Mahmud ur Rehman, considers the first poet
of political protest to be Mir Jafar Zatli (died 1713), who responded to the
moral breakdown of the Mughal empire after the death of Aurangzeb with coarse
satire. A verse he wrote for the Emperor Farrukhseyar “The prevailing currency is wheat, lentil and
peas, Because the Emperor Farrukh Seyar Is
the one who kills people with his shoelace”, cost him his life as he was
executed by strangling with a shoe lace (tasma-kashi ). Jamil Jalibi writes
Zatli laughs raucously to make us cry, he screams and roars so that his voice
reaches the deaf.
The poetic style called
Shehr-e Ashob or a city in
mourning, emerged in response to the growing power of the British after the defeat
at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. By the revolt of 1857 Urdu poetry was well
established and the last bastion of Mughal culture.
The emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, himself a poet, gathered
around him the best poets. He wrote Aaj ka din eid e qurban tabhi jaanay
ge hum Ai Zafar ta tegh jab dusman tumhara qatal ho. ( I will only consider
today the eid of sacrifice O Zafar, when
the enemy is vanquished by the sword)
Ghalib remained a bewildered observer : Roz is shehr mein ik
hukm naya hota hai, Kuch samjh mein nain aata ke kya hota hai (Everyday a new
order is issued in this city, I do not understand what is happening)
The sense of defeat transformed into a call for change.
Ismail Meerathi, known for children’s literature, focused on the uplift of the
youth . It was not a battle of swords but Yeh jang hai akhlaq aur ilm o honr ki
( this is a war for manners, knowledge and talent) . Addressing students he said
Utho qaum ki abroo ko bachao (Rise up
and save the dignity of the nation.) Akbar Allahabadi warned, Rah e maghrib
mein yeh larkay lut gai, Wan na pohnchay aur hum se chut gai ( in the rush to
Westernize, our youth are lost – they could not achieve their aim, and have
lost their place here)
As the resentment towards British rule grew, poets became
more strident. Hasrat Mohani called for revolution “Inqilab Zindabad!” which
was adopted all over India. The rebel, Bhagat Singh, walked to the gallows
singing Lal Chand
Falak ‘s song ‘Dil se
niklegi na mar ker bhi watan ki ulfat / Meri mittee se bhi Khushbu e watan
aegi’ (‘When we are dead there would be still patriotism left in us / Even my
corpse will emit the fragrance of my motherland’) and the crowd shouted
“Inqilab Zindabad!”
Every political
meeting and every movement from Khilafat to Non-Cooperation and Swadeshi, was accompanied by poetry,
memorized by the crowds whether Shafiq Rampuri’s boleen amma Mohammad Ali ki, jaan beta ḳhilafat pe de do ( so said the
mother of Muhammad Ali, my son give your life for the Khilafat, or Tagore’s
Vande Mataram (praise to the motherland)
Most of the political leaders and religious leaders wrote
poetry, but Allama Iqbal was a poet and philosopher who became a political
leader. He asked Teray darya mein toofaan kyun nahin hai? (Why has a storm not
arisen in your river?) From his philosophy of Khudi or self realization, to
simple songs any child could learn - Sare jehan se acha Hindustan hamara
(Better than the whole world is our Hindustan) he eventually paved the way for
the creation of Pakistan.
As prose developed, the stories of Sadat Hasan Manto and
Krishen Chandar recorded the senseless violence as Partition neared. Akhtar
Hussain Raipuri wrote, literature in such hands is no longer a camera but a
weapon. The establishment of the
Progressive Writer’s Movement in 1936,
focused on social reform, but many of its writers including Sahir Ludhainvi and
Krishan Chandar turned their hands to that other great platform of mass
communication – cinema. Much has been written about the pivotal role of South
Asian cinema. In 1947 alone 170 films were released. Some because of the
message they carried, others as a relief from the intense politics. “Shaheed”
1948 encapsulates the many aspects of the Freedom struggle – Gandhian peaceful
protest, violent struggle, and those officials in the police and judiciary
whose loyalty to their British paymasters is tested.
Theatre, since the 1860s, was another platform for protest,
especially in Bengal, whose impact can be gauged by the promulgation of
Lytton's Dramatic Performances Actin 1876, which allowed the arrest of
dramatists for sedition.
Local journalism was honed with publications such as Maulana
Zafar’s Zamindar, Mohammad Ali Jauhar’s Comrade
and Maulana Azad’s Al Hilal.
The success of the Swadeshi movement that rejected British
goods, was made possible by the response of craftspeople weaving Khadi, setting
up local cotton mills, glassblowing, production of decorative tiles and
building materials.
The Bengal Art Revival led Abanindranath Tagore and Abdur Rehman Chughtai to seek inspiration
from traditional arts. Zainul Abedin took on the infamous 1943 famine as a
theme, a famine caused not by drought, but by selling rice to fund WWII and by confiscating
thousands of boats to prevent them falling into Japanese hands.
The Arts are often seen as existing on the edges of society,
but they played a pivotal role in the Freedom Movement.
Durriya Kazi
Karachi
August 12, 2022
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