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Justice Markandey Katju suggested that Ghalib be given
Bharat Ratna and it appealed to me and several of my
secular friends and so I initiated an online petition to
collect signatures. It got quite a favourable response
but few friends disagreed also whose secular credentials
are as impeachable as of those who readily agreed for
the petition. I am writing this note to explain our
point of view as well as replying to the objections
these friends raised.
Some friends pointed out that first we must study the
act whether posthumous awards can be given. This
objection was not very weighty as more than half a dozen
posthumous awards have been given but then question
arose what would be time frame for giving posthumous
awards – why not to Tulsidasji or Kabir? Yes, there is
weight in this argument and time frame has to be there
otherwise it would go up to even say five thousand years
ago too.
I think right now we are concerned with modern secular
India and our engagement with modernity begins with
British period which is also known as modern period in
Indian history. Modernity created lot of conflict
between rigid orthodoxy and liberal modernity. Modern
India obviously could not have been built on rigid
orthodoxy, though people are free according to our
Constitution to believe in orthodoxy and thousands of
them believe in it even today.
But our Constitution and our liberal secular ethos are
the essence of our modernity and Ghalib represents this
eminently. He was a poet par excellence and his
poetry represents modern secular values along with the
value of love. Ghalib’s poetry is ghazal poetry though
he wrote in other genres also but he is mainly known for
his ghazals which is basically love poetry. And he was
follower of what is known as wahdat al-wujudi
school of Sufism which is most liberal school among
Sufis.
This school was founded by Muhiyuddin Ibn Arabi who says
in one of his poems that my Deen (religion) and
my shariat is love and love is the very
foundation of my philosophy. Most of the Indian Sufis,
though not all, belong to this wahdat al-wujudi
school and it is liberal ethos of wahdat al-wujudi
Sufis which created our composite culture and these
Sufis whole-heartedly embraced local cultures and mainly
wrote in local languages including Marathi, Punjabi,
Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati and so on.
What is implication of philosophy of wahdat al-wujud?
Wahdat al-wujud means Unity of Being i.e. real
being is one and we all (whole humanity) are its
manifestations and those who believe in this philosophy
do not distinguish between one human being and the other
and one religion and the other. Ghalib’s entire poetry
is representative of these ethos.
In this respect Ghalib’s mathnavi (a form of long
poem each verse of which has two lines)
Chiragh-e-Dayr) i.e. lamp of a temple. This
mathnavi is about Banaras the sacred Hindu city
through which he passed on his way to Calcutta and he
was so enchanted by its beauty that he wrote this poem
in Persian which describes its charms so much so that he
says that once anyone who saw the flowing Ganges of this
city, his/her eyes will never by harmed. Describing its
beautiful damsels he writes “Their dainty and silken
touch beats the pearl softness”.
It is Kashi (Banaras) where springs of the world take
refuge be it in hot summer or cold winter i.e. its
weather is most suitable weather in the world. The poem
is so full of praise for Babaras that there is no city
like this in the world. There is so much poetic
exaggeration in describing charms of Banaras. Not only
this mathnavi but Ghalib’s entire poetry very
eminently represents cultural ethos of India and
particularly its composite culture.
Ghalib had friends among all communities of India,
Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and several of his
disciples were Hindus. He has addressed several of his
letters to his Hindu friends. He was so fond of unity of
all human beings that when several of his friends were
killed in war of independence he wrote in one of his
letters that they say now we will meet on the day of
judgment (Qiyamat) but what kind of meeting it would be?
Sunnis will stand separately from Shi’ahs and Hindus
separately from Muslims. Can it be called meeting
together?
Ghalib indeed was precursor of ethos of our modern
secular liberal India, one of its architects. Our
Constitution has been based on these values and minus
these values our nationhood would be seriously weakened.
These are representative values of our nationhood. Even
in 21st century we are fighting among
ourselves on the basis of religion, language, caste,
region and so on. Our country is highly diverse, in fact
bewilderingly diverse and to create unity in such
diversity we have to strive very hard and need persons
like Ghalib with their progressive and liberal values.
Urdu in which Ghalib wrote itself is a language of
composite culture; it is product of several languages
and dialects and Urdu is eminently qualified to express
such progressive poetry as Ghalib composed. Urdu has
been the language of love, not of hatred. Even today its
ghazal poetry keeps millions spellbound even if they do
not speak that language.
Ghalib, through his poetry raised it to new heights.
Iqbal described him as Goethe of Urdu. It is because of
Ghalib’s poetry that Urdu poetry can be compared with
highs of world poetry. Ghalib represents beautifully the
tension between tradition and modernity. He describes it
as conflict between Ka’ba and Kalisa (church), Ka’ba
representing tradition and Kalisa modernity. It is this
tension which troubles Ghalib in the backdrop of 1857
war of independence which makes his poetry all the more
relevant to us.
Here we are not saying that Ghalib alone deserves Bharat
Ratna. Poets like Subramaniyam Bharti and others too are
proud heritage of our country and they too must be given
this award. These poets, writers and philosophers have
made all of us proud and our country great. We shall
ever by indebted to them. In fact their greatness is our
greatness. There is nothing wrong in extending the scope
of this award to the period with which our encounter
with modernity began.
Let us not think that we are begging for award for
Ghalib, we are only remanding Government of India and
drawing their attention to the great sons of modern
India who also eminently deserve to be honoured and in
honouring them we will honour ourselves. It is not
Bharat Ratna which will make these great sons of India
great but it will certainly make us great in honouring
them. Justice Markandey Katju’s suggestion eminently
deserves country’s attention.
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