Words, when meaningfully woven together, hold within them an unimaginable power. They can inspire a reader to fall deeply in love, or, in a different scenario, to take up arms against their enemies. Poetry, which carries multiple underlying meanings, is particularly capable of altering thoughts and igniting passions. After reading the oeuvre of any great poet, the reader’s first instinct is to become a poet himself. If that impulse is not translated into reality, he turns instead to eulogising those poets whom he believes have rendered a great service to humanity by taking up the pen and allowing their thoughts to flow onto paper.
Aamir Butt's book Pre-Partition: Evolution of Progressive Urdu Poetry in Lahore has a similar tinge. Butt is a medical doctor by profession and is based in the United Kingdom. He is a lover of Lahore and keeps returning to the city, renewing his bond with his birthplace. As a labour of love, he has produced two titles, both of which revolve around the same subject: the majestic city of Lahore. His other book, Lahore: People, Places, Stories, consists of a collection of articles that he has written about Lahore over the years.
The book in question discusses the history and functions of poetry and traces the roots of the evolution of progressive Urdu poetry and its pioneers in Lahore. Butt observes, “Even pure romantic poetry, with its beautiful aesthetics, can help people to, at least for a short while, forget their sorrows and troubles—like finding the shade of a tree during a long journey in the scorching sun.” It is through this book that I came to know that “Ameer Khusro is considered to be the first Urdu poet and hence the inventor of Urdu poetry.”
Briefly shedding light on Muhammed Hussain Azad and Altaf Hussein Hali, the torchbearers of the progressive movement, he then dilates upon the lives and works of prominent poets of this soil: Allama Muhammed Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and Sahir Ludhianvi. He dedicates a separate chapter to each of these three great poets and writes at length about the early, middle, and later phases of their lives, occasionally adding their couplets and poems to drive his points home.
Even pure romantic poetry, with its beautiful aesthetics, can help people to, at least for a short while, forget their sorrows and troubles—like finding the shade of a tree during a long journey in the scorching sun
In the book, Iqbal shines as a bright and radiant star among the poetic galaxies, or perhaps as the brightest jewel set on a poetic crown. Butt acknowledges that Iqbal's work is multidimensional, multifaceted and profoundly deep. He notes that it is hard to become choosy or picky while reading Iqbal's vast kalaam and writes, “In a roughly 40-year career, the poetry he considered good enough to be published in his name consists of roughly 450 poems and 100 ghazals in Urdu.” He also claims that all the poetry Iqbal produced is essentially non-romantic, yet “there is no other poet who wrote non-romantic poetry as powerful as Iqbal.” The poetry of Iqbal, in fact, proved to be the 'launching pad' for progressive Urdu poetry.
As regards Faiz, Butt is of the view that the poet's early poems are focused on love and beauty sans any element of activism or progressive thought. He writes, “Faiz started as a poet of romance and remained so throughout his life.” However, on the advice of Munshi Premchand, Faiz began to look at love from a different perspective in the latter years of his life. His widely famous verse, Mujh se pehli si mohabbat meri mehboob na maang (Do not ask of me, my beloved, the love I once had for you), carries a completely different meaning from the one generally assumed by readers. Here, Faiz is addressing his beloved watan (homeland). Therefore, Faiz sahib infuses even his progressive poems with love; for him, love is the cure for all the maladies affecting the modern world.
The poet, according to Butt, who took progressive poetry to the next level was Sahir Ludhianvi. He was a progressive poet from the very beginning. Butt opines, “It can be concluded that out of the two, Faiz is a better poet if the criteria is pure poetic quality and when the poetry is of the romantic type, and Sahir is a better poet when the poetry is of the progressive type.” In his poems "Chaklay" and "Subh a Noroze," Sahir addresses the deep-rooted inequity and oppression against humanity, lending a voice to the voiceless. But the poem in which his creativity reached new heights was Taj Mahal. It is said, as Butt writes, “Whenever Sahir attended a mushaira, the first poem he was asked to recite was Taj Mahal.” After the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1949, Sahir left Lahore and moved to the other side of the border, taking with him his book of poems Talkhiyan, which contained his most celebrated poem, Taj Mahal.
Aamir Butt's book offers rare and illuminating insights into the evolution of progressive Urdu poetry in Lahore. He writes about the heydays of the remarkable poetic culture that was once an integral part of this land's fabric. In addition, he discusses the progressive literary movement in India, the post-Partition situation, and goes on to elucidate rudimentary terms of poetic composition, including Qafia and Radeef, making it a book suitable for readers of all age groups. Butt’s work stands out as a comprehensive and accessible guide for poetry aficionados to understand the rich legacy of progressive Urdu poetry.