One thing is common among all the good and great writers: a deep sympathy with humans; an ability to view and understand the various aspects of human character and the complex situations of their psychology; and a desire to see life as elegant, pure and pretty, fruit-laden and blooming. Humans do work of various kinds to maintain their personal and social life and for the satisfaction of their desires and instincts; and establish mutual bonds and relationships. They make provisions and tools, different laws for their use, ownership and distribution and codes of conduct. The character of social structures is indeed fixed by these principles and codes of conduct. What is the respective place of an artist, a musician, a painter, a sculptor or a poet in this structure? Plato had indeed removed the poet from his ideal republic, because for Plato the poet did no ‘useful’ work and the basis of poetry was exaggeration and lies. But no nation of the word chose to accept Plato’s contention and the artist and poet was counted among the most important members of society.
Artists and poets firstly make our life musical and lyrical; they create conditions of joy and ecstasy. Secondly, they illuminate our minds and thus help in advancing towards the highest destinations that humanity can set for itself.
A scene from the play 'Ghalib In New Delhi'
Ghalib, who passed away 150 years ago, last week on February 15, is among the few greatest artists whose popularity is continuously increasing with the passage of time. It is a sad reality that Ghalib did not achieve the exalted position and status in his life which he deserved. The fame of his verses had spread even in the period of his youth in the Urdu circles of Agra, Delhi, indeed all the cities of northern India; but Ghalib’s poetry, both in terms of its shape and meaning, was different from the prevalent and favoured style of his own time. His verse had a novel meaning, and the beauty of his verse was a novel beauty. To understand, like and enjoy it, there was a need to bring the mind and feeling to a new level - and that needed time.
During Ghalib’s time, the society of northern India was in the throes of great anguish and pain, chaos, unrest and weakness. In these circumstances, most of poetry had become either full of seasonal and shallow pleasures, or resigned itself to conditions of utmost hopelessness and defeat. Ghalib’s own private life is a long tale of misfortune , want and impoverishment. And on the other hand too, of the extremely tortuous feeling that the real appreciation of his worth was not being accorded to him. But Ghalib’s greatness lies in the fact that like many other poets of his era, he never allowed the degradation of the soul by allowing himself to be overcome by these circumstances and becoming their victim. Quite amazingly, he extracted extremely revolutionary and dynamic results from the philosophy of Wahdat-ul-Wujood. Even while viewing good and evil, joy and sorrow, motion and rest - opposites together in confrontation - he understood life and all its manifestations as a unity. And in this chaos of life, the human in his view appears as the ablest and most remarkable existence.
Ghalib lived through the downfall of north India's Muslim ruling groups. Pictured - British colonial troops execute rebels in 1857
He says,
“Do look upon the pomp of life
This commotion is all thanks to us
From this dusty curtain whose name is Man
An apocalypse-like event is glittering”
That is why Ghalib loved this Man; because his heart was permanently agitated with enthusiasm, wish and desire, passion and hope. And whenever he got trapped in the maelstrom of grief and sorrow, failure and misfortune, even at such a difficult time he would say:
“What was left in the home for your sorrow to destroy it
That longing for construction we once had, is there indeed”
This same constructive longing, the desire for adorning and making life, the permanent restlessness of life, and the same continuous anguish of the spirit, is for Ghalib the most precious wealth of humanity. A heart which does not possess this restlessness and impatience, and a spirit with no passion for transforming life is, according to Ghalib, mean, deficient and abhorrent.
“Ghalib, beware the hard, cold hearts of prosperous and satisfied people
The hearts and lives which possess anguish and impatience (they are worthy of respect)
How much kindness and favours do these hearts and lives possess!”
In another verse, he expresses the same sort of idea:
“If I envy someone at all, that is the person
Who travels alone, hungry and thirsty
In the rocky valleys of mountains
Not on the satiated hearts of the Haram (sacred territory)
Who satisfy themselves with their Aab-e-Zamzam”
Ghalib’s disposition was replete with satire and comedy. He also had the ability to laugh at his deprivations. If he hated anything, it was shallowness, superficiality and puerility; he liked innovation, originality, singularity, elegance and purity. To combat the hardships and misfortunes of life in a steadfast fashion was the greatest sign of humanity in his opinion. If he was vexed by something, it was at uniformity, lifelessness and waning away of emotions.
Ghalib would have seen the life of the nobles and their habits - their state of insensitivity and lack of humanity, intelligence or knowledge. He was witness to their self-interested pleasure-seeking. So he must have felt strong alienation and contempt for that class
In a letter, he has written in a comical style:
“When I imagine Paradise and think that if forgiveness is in order and I am rewarded with a palace, as well as a houri, an eternal abode and to spend my life with this same lucky woman, my heart is agitated at the thought; and the heart comes to the mouth, that the that houri will grow weary. Why wouldn’t the disposition worry, the same emerald palace, and the same branch of Tooba...(a tree of Paradise)”
Ghalib would have seen the life of the nobles and their habits - their state of insensitivity and lack of humanity, intelligence and knowledge. He was witness to their self-interested pleasure-seeking. So he must have felt strong alienation and contempt for that class. He was always in search of the true jewel:
“Seek that joy from the Heavens which was available to Jamshid
Do not desire his splendour (since it is of no worth)
If your cup has grape wine, that is the real thing
Which is admirable, not that wine cup
Even it be made of ruby.”
At one place, in a letter, Ghalib has presented his concept of “pleasure” in very clear and plain words:
“Listen sahib, whatever taste a person has for whichever hobby and he spends his life frankly in it, that is (to be) called pleasure.”
The freedom to do his work as he desires - this is not only the true definition of pleasure, but also of individual freedom. But class-divided society gives so few an opportunity to do this. One is tempted to imagine that had the idea of a socialist society been presented before Ghalib, he might have engaged with it enthusiastically.
Ghalib was an individual of a feudal society and himself belonged to the elite class. That is why the full, dynamic and evolutionary life which he loved was merely like a golden dream for most of the sensitive humans in that society. Ghalib had repeatedly desired that:
“Come let us change the way of life ordained by the Heavens”
He writes:
“If not in the whole world so be it, at least in the city where I live, no one starving or naked should be visible indeed. Punished by God, rejected by mankind, weak, sick, (a) fakir, imprisoned by adversity, irrespective of myself and my matters of speech and skill, one who cannot see anyone begging, while begging myself from door to door, that person is myself.”
Ghalib wrote this painful letter approximately 150 years from today. But how much the world has changed now! The kalam of Ghalib is our most precious spiritual gift, and he is our most beloved poet. His skill secure, his fame ever-increasing, and his heart’s desire that “no one starving or naked should be visible” in the world now being one of our most important political aspirations, especially since the events of 1917 in Russia.
Note: All translations from the Farsi and Urdu are the writer’s own.
Raza Naeem is a Pakistani social scientist, book critic and translator based in Lahore. His translations of Saadat Hasan Manto have been re-translated in both Bengali and Tamil, and he received a prestigious Charles Wallace Trust Fellowship in 2014-2015 for his translation and interpretive work on Manto. He is presently working on a book of translations of Manto’s progressive writings, tentatively titled ‘Comrade Manto’, as well as a book on the Islamic socialists of the Indian subcontinent, tentatively titled ‘Inquilab Zindabad’. He is also the President of the Progressive Writers Association in Lahore. He can be reached at: razanaeem@hotmail.com
Raza Naeem is a Pakistani social scientist, book critic and award-winning translator and dramatic reader based in Lahore, where he is also the president of the Progressive Writers Association. He can be reached via email: razanaeem@hotmail.com and on Twitter: @raza_naeem1979
