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The Romance that Stayed: Window on Select Urdu Progressives THE author inherited love for Urdu poetry from his father that stays to the marrow in his writings. He evinced revolutionary ideas from Marxian thought. The romance of progressive thoughts awakened his dormant "spirit of creativity". He claims that the present work is a pathetic deluge of the progressives of Urdu literature, which peeps into the thoughts of the Urdu poets who deeply touched the inner chords of hearts of the millions.
The select eight Urdu poets—Firaq, Josh Malihabadi, Asrar ul-Haqq, Faiz Ahamed Faiz, Ali Sardar Jafri, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Kaifi Azmi, and Sahir Ludhianvi—provide insights into the poetic spirit of the revolutionary Urdu poets. They are uncrowned emancipators of humanity from suffering. They blended traditional poetry of love and beauty with woes of the common folk and social justice. They infused revolutionary ideas to change the turbulent society under the colonial rule of the English. They identified themselves with the suffering of the common folk. Their works breathe spirit of freedom, democracy, revolution, and nationalism. Their poetry inspired the downtrodden people to steel their will and rebel against the harsh rule. They also roped the politicians into their fold. Hence, they championed the cause of India’s freedom. Poetic sensitivity and flights of human mind catch ripples of fluxional reality. Poet’s creative flight reaches out the core of reality where rays of the sun can’t penetrate. The selective poets’ progressive temper pours out rebellious ideas, which shattered the colonisers’ mighty empire. Their commitment to freedom of India inspired the intimidated Indians. They vented their ideas through their rhetoric utterances and poetic verses. Their poems are a sublime blend of bunches of flowers of spontaneity and rhetorics. The select poets in the book empathised with the agony of neglected masses. They envisaged in their "aesthetic potential reality" of free India. Their concept of reality, devoid of Platonic ontic-reality, is poet’s "creative vision" that transcends the empirical limitations. From the above perspective, the author focuses on the select progressive poets whose poetry paved way for national movement of India’s freedom. They awakened the Indians’ conscience from their slumber of servility. They fortified their will to rebel against imperialists, bureaucrats, feudal lords and toadies. The revolutionary movement spread in the academic, intellectual, and political circles. The upsurge turned into a violent movement of revolt that culminated in throwing off the yoke of alien rule. The second significant point of the book touches upon the problem of Urdu as a minority language. After Partition, Urdu language was relegated to the periphery, but it remained dormant in our hearts. The linguistic phenomenon was politicised. The politicians succumbed the aesthetic sensitivity to political fame and selfishness, while the elite class associated it with the Muslims. However, politics of language is against the very spirit of language. It cannot be monopoly of religion, caste or community. It should not be blended with politics and religiosity. It has its own secular identity. It mirrors culture of the people, religious beliefs and practices. The merit of the book is that it reflects national perspective of Indian languages. It is a tribute to the poetic art of the progressive movement without political motive. Linguistic problem is vital for solving complex problem of integration of India. This problem, in the post-Independence period of India, remains unsolved. It is sad that the minority languages suffered crisis of marginalising under the garb of national integration. Minority languages are being politicised for throwing them to the periphery. Minority languages have been victim of linguistic chauvinism of the elite classes. Hence, no single language can do justice to the minority languages and regional or tribal dialects. This reviewer is of the view that inherent urge for freedom cannot be suppressed forever because it is eternal fire that is the ultimate goal of life. The poets are not slaves of static ideologies, which have no societal import. The author rightly asserts that genuine creative art transcends the prevalent static ideologies. Poetry is ever-flowing outpourings of inner pangs of the heart. It goes along with life force that is the essence of creativity. Blending of aesthetics and critique of politics is the undercurrent of the book. The attempt is welcome!
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Being a poet, the author
has lived experience of the original works of Urdu poets. The book is
an aesthetic interpretive appreciation of progressivism without
political colouring. It is an endeavour to cleanse the dregs of
society so that common man can enjoy the fruits of freedom, democracy
and socialism. It is not an exhaustive survey of the progressive
movement. The ‘window’ in the title symbolises the book that sheds
light on the representative Urdu poets who aestheticised love and
beauty in their envisaged social ideologies anchored on humanitarian
values. These poets left indelible impact on the collective apathy of
the suppressed masses. They aroused author’s creative poetic
sensitivity. His romance for Urdu language and poetry continues in his
writings. Hence, the title of the book under review is apt.