A note on Bharat Ratna for Ghalib
Tuesday January 17, 2012 02:03:12 PM,
Asghar Ali Engineer
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Online
petition demanding Bharat Ratna for Mirza Ghalib
Taking forward the suggestion to the Indian govt mooted by Justice
Markandey Katju to give Bharat Ratna to Mirza Ghalib, a Mumbai
based organisation has filed an online petition requesting the
President of India to confer the highest civilian ward on the late
19th century poet. » |
Justice Markandey Katju suggested
that Ghalib be given Bharat Ratna and it appealed to me and
several of my secular friends and so I initiated an online
petition to collect signatures. It got quite a favourable response
but few friends disagreed also whose secular credentials are as
impeachable as of those who readily agreed for the petition. I am
writing this note to explain our point of view as well as replying
to the objections these friends raised.
Some friends pointed out that first we must study the act whether
posthumous awards can be given. This objection was not very
weighty as more than half a dozen posthumous awards have been
given but then question arose what would be time frame for giving
posthumous awards – why not to Tulsidasji or Kabir? Yes, there is
weight in this argument and time frame has to be there otherwise
it would go up to even say five thousand years ago too.
I think right now we are concerned with modern secular India and
our engagement with modernity begins with British period which is
also known as modern period in Indian history. Modernity created
lot of conflict between rigid orthodoxy and liberal modernity.
Modern India obviously could not have been built on rigid
orthodoxy, though people are free according to our Constitution to
believe in orthodoxy and thousands of them believe in it even
today.
But our Constitution and our liberal secular ethos are the essence
of our modernity and Ghalib represents this eminently. He was a
poet par excellence and his poetry represents modern secular
values along with the value of love. Ghalib’s poetry is ghazal
poetry though he wrote in other genres also but he is mainly known
for his ghazals which is basically love poetry. And he was
follower of what is known as wahdat al-wujudi school of Sufism
which is most liberal school among Sufis.
This school was founded by Muhiyuddin Ibn Arabi who says in one of
his poems that my Deen (religion) and my shariat is love and love
is the very foundation of my philosophy. Most of the Indian Sufis,
though not all, belong to this wahdat al-wujudi school and it is
liberal ethos of wahdat al-wujudi Sufis which created our
composite culture and these Sufis whole-heartedly embraced local
cultures and mainly wrote in local languages including Marathi,
Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati and so on.
What is implication of philosophy of wahdat al-wujud? Wahdat al-wujud
means Unity of Being i.e. real being is one and we all (whole
humanity) are its manifestations and those who believe in this
philosophy do not distinguish between one human being and the
other and one religion and the other. Ghalib’s entire poetry is
representative of these ethos.
In this respect Ghalib’s mathnavi (a form of long poem each verse
of which has two lines) Chiragh-e-Dayr) i.e. lamp of a temple.
This mathnavi is about Banaras the sacred Hindu city through which
he passed on his way to Calcutta and he was so enchanted by its
beauty that he wrote this poem in Persian which describes its
charms so much so that he says that once anyone who saw the
flowing Ganges of this city, his/her eyes will never by harmed.
Describing its beautiful damsels he writes “Their dainty and
silken touch beats the pearl softness”.
It is Kashi (Banaras) where springs of the world take refuge be it
in hot summer or cold winter i.e. its weather is most suitable
weather in the world. The poem is so full of praise for Babaras
that there is no city like this in the world. There is so much
poetic exaggeration in describing charms of Banaras. Not only this
mathnavi but Ghalib’s entire poetry very eminently represents
cultural ethos of India and particularly its composite culture.
Ghalib had friends among all communities of India, Hindus,
Muslims, Christians, and several of his disciples were Hindus. He
has addressed several of his letters to his Hindu friends. He was
so fond of unity of all human beings that when several of his
friends were killed in war of independence he wrote in one of his
letters that they say now we will meet on the day of judgment (Qiyamat)
but what kind of meeting it would be? Sunnis will stand separately
from Shi’ahs and Hindus separately from Muslims. Can it be called
meeting together?
Ghalib indeed was precursor of ethos of our modern secular liberal
India, one of its architects. Our Constitution has been based on
these values and minus these values our nationhood would be
seriously weakened. These are representative values of our
nationhood. Even in 21st century we are fighting among ourselves
on the basis of religion, language, caste, region and so on. Our
country is highly diverse, in fact bewilderingly diverse and to
create unity in such diversity we have to strive very hard and
need persons like Ghalib with their progressive and liberal
values.
Urdu in which Ghalib wrote itself is a language of composite
culture; it is product of several languages and dialects and Urdu
is eminently qualified to express such progressive poetry as
Ghalib composed. Urdu has been the language of love, not of
hatred. Even today its ghazal poetry keeps millions spellbound
even if they do not speak that language.
Ghalib, through his poetry raised it to new heights. Iqbal
described him as Goethe of Urdu. It is because of Ghalib’s poetry
that Urdu poetry can be compared with highs of world poetry.
Ghalib represents beautifully the tension between tradition and
modernity. He describes it as conflict between Ka’ba and Kalisa
(church), Ka’ba representing tradition and Kalisa modernity. It is
this tension which troubles Ghalib in the backdrop of 1857 war of
independence which makes his poetry all the more relevant to us.
Here we are not saying that Ghalib alone deserves Bharat Ratna.
Poets like Subramaniyam Bharti and others too are proud heritage
of our country and they too must be given this award. These poets,
writers and philosophers have made all of us proud and our country
great. We shall ever by indebted to them. In fact their greatness
is our greatness. There is nothing wrong in extending the scope of
this award to the period with which our encounter with modernity
began.
Let us not think that we are begging for award for Ghalib, we are
only remanding Government of India and drawing their attention to
the great sons of modern India who also eminently deserve to be
honoured and in honouring them we will honour ourselves. It is not
Bharat Ratna which will make these great sons of India great but
it will certainly make us great in honouring them. Justice
Markandey Katju’s suggestion eminently deserves country’s
attention.
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