“Ajab hain ye zaban, Urdu. Kabhi kahin safar karte agar koi musafir sher padh de Mir Ghalib ka, woh chahe ajnabi ho, yahi lagta hain woh mere watan ka hain,” writes Gulzar in his nazm 'Yeh Kaisa Ishq Hai Urdu Zaban Ka,' a poem that celebrates the enchanting allure of Urdu.
This line from the nazm takes me back to a recent controversy surrounding FabIndia’s Diwali campaign which had a tagline reading, ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz,’ that received immense backlash because Urdu was a ‘Muslim’ language, and Diwali was a ‘Hindu’ festival. All of sudden, words were coloured saffron and green, a language was abandoned, and religion was isolated.
However, to take Urdu out of India is impossible, for it is tied to our tongues as we are to our homes. It should also be noted that Hindi and Urdu are mutually intelligible because they both originate from Hindustani, and discrimination between the two is vacuous.
That said, Urdu, in all its glory, was here long before us, and will stay long after. It is not meant to be confined in popular tropes, it is no exotic tongue, nor is it remains of an opulent feudal culture. It is not their language, it is not our speech, it is India’s tehzeeb and zubaan. It runs through the soul of this country, through its films, poetry, and of course through the gentle whispers of hearts that have held onto it, and passed it down as legacies. It remains an emblem of not only India but of Hindustan, meaning present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh as well. Some call it the language of love, others a voice of dissent, but for almost everyone, it is the language of poetry.
On this World Poetry Day, we pay an ode to Urdu poetry, an expansive ocean of knowledge, wisdom, culture, emotions, and passion. A tradition of poetry that moulds itself into different forms. It is a forlorn lover’s salve, an awakened revolutionist’s weapon, and a common man’s path to panache. In fact, Mirza Ghalib, inarguably one of the greatest Urdu poets of all time, was of the firm belief that the language of poetry should not be equivalent to that of what the common man spoke, and thus Urdu poetry has, since time immemorial, provided an escape from the ordinary, as well as an opportunity to fall in love with it. Moreover, one of the most striking qualities of Urdu poetry is that it is not explicit at all. Instead, there is a maddening use of allusions, implications, and symbolism.
For instance, Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s work, that explores socio-political themes, is disguised as love poetry. 'Mujhse Pehli Si Mohabbat,' was of course a turning point in Faiz’s poetic journey, for he used to write on the themes of unrequited love and separation. However, post Partition in 'Mujhse Pehli Si Mohabbat,' he acknowledges that there are far greater sorrows in the world than love, as he writes "Aur bhi dukh hain zamane mein, mohabbat ke siva, rahatien aur bhi, vasl ki rahat ke siva’.
In 'Gulon Mein Rang Bhare,' he writes, "Gulon mein rang bhare baad-e-naubahaar chale, chale bhi aao ki gulshan ka karobar chale," where gulshan is symbolic of the country, and the message meant to be conveyed is that the country is prepared for a revolution, as a new wave of patriotism and justice rises. Written in Montgomery Prison in 1951, where he, along with several others, was imprisoned in the infamous Rawalpindi case, 'Gulon Mein Rang Bhare' till date provides an exceptional example to explain what it means to read between the lines.
The ghazal also makes it easy to determine what sets Urdu poetry apart. Because while poetry is universal, it is also true that every language has its own nuance and manner of expression, and for Urdu, it is the ability to have multiple meanings, and voyage across themes, to paint a multifaceted picture.
That said, you will find that in poetry, language is often used as a means to transcend itself and go beyond the syntax. Thus it should be noted that it is a fool’s work to compare the poetry of one language to another.
After all, poetry is the foremost facet of expression, and expression is the fountain to civilization, emotion, and knowledge.
In 1999, UNSECO announced that 21 April would be celebrated as World Poetry Day, and the aim was to support "linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard." In a country like India, where diverse languages are considered to be an asset, it is Urdu that is made to feel alien and foreign. However, the often-maligned Hindi film industry has to be thanked for making Urdu and Urdu poetry reach the nooks and crannies of India.
Poets and songwriters like Sahir Ludhianvi, Mahjrooh Sultanpuri, and Kaifi Azmi, to name a few, were responsible for making sure that post-partition, Urdu did not go away to Pakistan, and remained a language beloved to both the nations. In the present day, lyricists such as Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, and Irshad Kamil have kept the slow-burning flame of Urdu alive. Their gratifying quest to leave a trail of Urdu in popular culture has succeeded as millennials try to embrace and understand Urdu poetry with fascinating curiosity.
On World Poetry Day, it is vital to reaffirm that Urdu and Urdu poetry must never go out of currency because of the curse of time, and definitely not because of its politics. The binary created between the rashtra bhasha, Hindi, and the tropical Urdu must be banished because languages do not have religions, and also because the tradition and legacy of Urdu shayari must be preserved and passed on at any cost.
Takshi Mehta is a freelance journalist and writer. She firmly believes that we are what we stand up for, and thus you'll always find her wielding a pen.
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