Disproving Percy Bysshe Shelley's description of poets as
"unacknowledged legislators of the world", he combined his illustrious
poetic career with membership of the Constituent Assembly that drafted
free India's constitution. This responsibility followed a four-decade
stint as an outspoken, unbending freedom fighter across the political
spectrum, during which he was possibly the first to demand complete
independence and coin the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad". Yet his abiding
fame is due to the haunting lyric of a youthful, unsuccessful but
unforgettable love.
A man of many parts - poet, journalist,
maverick politician and radical freedom fighter - Maulana Syed Fazlul
Hasan 'Hasrat Mohani' (1875-1951) was a member (at various times) of the
Congress, the Muslim League and the Communist Party of India.
A
devoted follower of Tilak, he agitated for full independence when the
leadership of both the Congress and the Muslim League was content with
dominion status, had a role in setting up the CPI, was faithful to the
Muslim League but chose to stay back in India after partition. In all
this, he had the distinction of standing up to Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru and
Sardar Patel! And he made sacrifices of livelihood, property and time,
spending quite a few spells in jail (at a time when political prisoners
were treated like common criminals and imprisonment was really rigorous
and entailed hard labour) for his political and editorial activities.
Alongside,
Hasrat Mohani has to his credit 13 'diwans' comprising more than 700
ghazals and other forms of poetry in roughly half a century; as well as
"Nukaat-e-Sukhan" on the techniques of poetry with examples from extant
Urdu poetry, "Sharah-e-Diwan-e-Ghalib" or an exegesis of some of
Ghalib's ghazals; "Mushahidat-e-Zindaan", an account of his life behind
bars and conditions in the Raj's jails in the early 20th century;
anthologies of his writings and some English translations of his own
works.
Some poems to the Hindu deity Krishna, both in Urdu and a
simplified version of the Awadhi dialect, were also part of the poetic
ouevre of 'Hasrat' who delighted in visiting the Braj area during
Janmashtami. One goes: "Kuch hum ko bhi ataa ho ki ae
hazrat-i-Krishn/Iqlim-i-ishq aap ke zer-i-qadam hai khaas" and "'Hasrat'
ki bhi qabool ho Mathura mein haziri/Sunte hai aashiqon pe tumhara
karam hai khaas."
As a poet, 'Hasrat Mohani' (deriving from his
home village of Mohan, a few miles north of Lucknow) is credited with
reviving the Urdu lyric tradition - by the expedient of shearing off
artificiality it had accumulated during its stint in the courts of
decaying and decadent polities and making it a vehicle capable of
conveying more common-place but realistic and sincere thought, depth of
feelings and reactions to the environment.
The maulana looked an
unlikely romantic. When he arrived at college in Aligarh in his
traditional dress (sherwani, flared pajamas) and a 'paandan' in his
hand, he was promptly named 'khalajaan' (or auntie dear) and kept to the
same garb over the years while also growing positively cantankerous.
But take his most famous work -"Chupke chupke raat din aansu bahana yaad
hai" - made famous by ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali though not all its
16-odd couplets are rendered - and its tender descriptions of the
various stages and moods of love make it seem he had an unusually
fertile imagination or a vividly colourful adolosecence.
Be it
the initial memory: "Baahazaaran iztiraab-o-sad-hazaaran ishtiaq/Tujhse
vo pahle pahal dil ka lagana yaad hai", the loss of poise: "Tujhse milte
hi vo bebaak ho jaanaa mera/Aur tera daaton mein vo ungli dabana yaad
hai", the sudden volubility: "Tujh ko jab tanha kabhi paana to
az-rahe-lihaaz/Hal-e-dil baaton hi baaton mein jataana yaad hai", the
hidden trysts: "Do-pahar ki dhup mein mere bulaane ke liye/Woh tera
kothe pe nange paaon aanaa yaad hai", the fear of parting: "Aa gaya gar
vasl ki shab bhi kahin zikr-e-firaaq/Woh tera ro ro ke mujhko bhi
rulaana yaad hai", and the sad parting: "Waqt-e-rukhsat alvida ka lafz
kahne ke liye/Woh tere sukhe labon ka thar-tharaanaa yaad hai".
This
was not a one-off. Love, and the range of moods it engenders, are a
frequent motif in his poetry - "Haqeeqat khul gai 'Hasrat' tere
tark-e-mohabbat ki/Tujhe to ab wo pehle se bhi barh kar yaad aate hai",
"Haal khul jayega betaabi-e-dil ka 'Hasrat'/Baar baar aap unhen shauq se
dekha na karen" and many more.
And it is as a poet that 'Hasrat'
is remembered in both India and Pakistan - in the names of schools,
roads, libraries, and institutions in Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai and Karachi
and on postage stamps (Pakistan in 1989, India in 2014).
He might have foreseen it: "Guzre bahut ustaad magar rang asr/Bemisaal hai 'Hasrat' sukhan mera abhi tak."
(12.04.2015
- Vikas Datta is an Associate Editor at IANS. The views expressed are
personal. He can be contacted at [email protected] )
