[Reader-list] For those who HATE Pakistan

[inder salim]

Dear All,
I am not even a smallest scholar of Dr. Iqbal, the great poet, but
'the present'  tempts me to write a bit on the times he lived in,
mainly because he was the real force behind Jinnah to push Pakistan
Agenda.  It is more interesting also because all the people connected
with partition had something to do with Western thought. Whether
Tagore was a force behind Gandhi or not but his desire for recognition
 by the West was ultimate, and so was Iqbal's urge to learn western
Philosophy.  Gandhi himself had a shallow ( old Testament like )
outlook on sexuality, temple art and a shallow  understanding of
class.  See, how Gandhi trusted Nehru, and how Iqbal trusted Jinnah,
both well versed in western philosophy.  Not surprising that all the
four were lawyers, and deeply interested in politics.

When Queen of England died in 1901,  Dr. Iqbal  wrote both in prose
and verse in her honour, which he much later regretted. ( see text at
the page's bottom ) .He was deeply interested in politics, and even
won an election by a huge margin. He was indeed a great poet, but what
was his real dream? His influence was Rumi, the great Persian Sufi
Saint poet, but did he end up as a Sufi poet or a deep analyst-admirer
of Holy Book Quran?  He admired Ghalib, although ironically he
criticized him for his poems written in honour of British Lords. But
Ghalib was honest, perhaps, this couplet would come to his defence.(
kay who nimrod ki khudayee thee, bandgee mein mera bhala na huva ). I
don't know if Dr Iqbal had ever written so lucidly, which he himself
knew.  ( andazey Bayan agarchi mara shok nahi hai… who mazhab…. Yeh
mazhab….( my passion is not to chase poetry for some style…., that
religion….this religion )  which is acutely contrary to Ghalib's.
Meanwhile Ghalib thought his verse is beautiful only because of  sufi
saint Hazrat Khusroo, and so Nizammudin Aulia as well.

 Having said all this so hurriedly, we can never run the genius of Dr.
Iqbal and we need to understand him from various angles.  It is also
true he was disillusioned with  Jinnah's political procedures, but he
had no alternatives, and he was himself so lazy to address the
gatherings himself. He perhaps, could not decide whether he was poet
or a philosopher. I guess he could have done much better as a poet if
had relinquished his obsession of Nietzsche (  Khudi ko kar buland
itna… ) see his style of moustaches and those of Nietzche's  ( may be
just a coincidence )

By laziness, I mean he loved to live life in style, whether it was
dresses or food or travelling abroad and falling in love with European
ladies.  He was keenly interested in what was happening politically,
here back home.

He was always in politics, and commented on this or that even when he
was not in great health just few years before his death in 1938.
It must have been because of his dream for Pakistan that he openly
opposed to the Ahmadiyya movement  in 1935,  but he was true admirer
of the same in 1911. Whether that was a threat or not but certainly he
tried to quash any other representation to the idea of unity of
Muslim. So, Muslim League was the only instrument he believed in.
There must be hundreds of such points which can paint Dr. Iqbal badly,
 but this is not my intention here.  Here my interest is to
investigate  the reasons why  the original dream of a new Islamic
nation failed to move.  Dr. Iqbal knew that his forefathers were
Kashmiri Brahmins, but what mattered for him was his idea of
restoration of Muslim Past, which was indeed glorious in parts, here
or there. Was that not possible to cherish along with Hindus ?  I
guess it was, but, was Gandhi's  love for Lord Ram too much for him to
consider that possibility. The  reason for his  early love for Hazrat
Mirza Ghulam  Mohammad (  1835-1908, the founder of Ahmediyyas ) was
because of his open criticism of Christians and Arya Samjis. His later
criticism of Ahmediyyas was because it consolidated as a sect.

 But he himself says that Hazrat Mirza was the truest admirer of
Quran.   But that was before, now he saw a chance for all the Muslims
of India to realize his dream, with a tremendous Islamic past as
heritage, and with a real Prophet as messiah of compassion and
simplicity. But Pakistan was not meant for that. It was not even about
Dr. Iqbal's whatever dream, but it was about power, it was about
British design to divide the subcontinent for their own gains.

See how difficult is the vocabulary in his verses.   Without luggat (
dictionary ) it is damn impossible to understand the philosophy hidden
in his verses which in anyway is hugely inspired by Islamic holy
scriptures. How a simple peasant, uprooted from Bihar and Punjab could
have made his poetry as their ideal for future life.  For a typical
Punjabi there was a great folk culture , music and poetry, for a
Sindhi and Bengali it was his own and so on…  He certainly was quite
sophisticated for an ordinary Muslim to follow.

Dr. Iqbal is in his  Mausoleum, and Mr. Jinnah is thinly visible in
the Pakistani currency notes. Who sings Iqbal in Pakistan, none, other
than a sufi who has read Bange-Dara. His poetry is lasting as and when
he comes out of the pretension of being a philosopher. A peasant, a
labourer, a simple factory worker or a clerk is hardly aware about Dr.
Iqbal. It is too difficult, that must be the inner reality in
Pakistan.

Since 1947, it was indeed the new green flag with crescent on it which
must have driven masses to love Pakistan. Next, it must be Army and
their vested interests which are holding Pakistan. And above all, it
must be Anglo-American  foreign policies that support the idea of
Pakistan.  Dr. Iqbal's dream for a new Islamic world in this
subcontinent was bound to create this fundamentalism, because if the
poet-philosopher is difficult then people indeed look for a  cheap
maulana to guide their destinies. That is what is happening in
madarasas. This is what I have been made to believe that there are 0.5
million madarasses in Pakistan. Do we need a school inspector to tell
us that they don't teach Dr. Iqbal's poetry !

Gopi Chand Narang, a prominent Iqbal scholar says that there are
thousands of titles on Iqbal in theacademic world but just one or two
on his poetry. So now, is it fair to conclude that Dr. Iqbal's poetry,
which was difficult anyway,  was not the priority of people at helm
in 1947 after the creation of Pakistan.
So, it is quite reasonable to believe that  average Pakistani is
innocent, caught between the Army, dynasty rule, Mullahism and
poverty.

What can Indian do? Not to hate the common Pakistani, in the least….

Having said all this, I again want to come back to Dr. Iqbal's poetry:
his intense urge to control the word.  It was perhaps, pointed out by
Goethe, that the inherent musicality in the verses of Quran is the
reason for its followers to believe in it, endlessly.  Poets too have
been trying to achieve that magical effects in their verses, sources
of which are cosmic/unknown. See Ghalib,   Aatey hein gaib say yeh
mazameen khayal mein, Ghalib sareeray nama nawaya sarosh hai.  ( these
couplets are coming from unknown sources, and the sound in my pen is
of angle's ) How similar.  In another couplet Ghalib says that he
yearns for a home parallel to Heaven but not the one made by God ) .
Sufi poetry is full of such fantasies and thoughts which I cherish.
Dr. Iqbal was intensely trying to achieve that magical effect without
undermining the authority of sacred book Quran.  He had perhaps no
need to write poetry if there was not a strong tradition of writing
poetry in Islamic world. If the agenda was simply to spread the
message of Prophet Mohammad he could have written  some easy prose, or
moved from village to village and helped people to understand Islam.
But he wanted to satisfy his inner urge to sit in the company of great
poets like Ghalib and all the galaxy of other urdu poets, and for that
reason alone he  wrote verses, I believe. He knew he could not achieve
the genius of Ghalib but he had no choice because he had absorbed all
the Persian and Urdu poetry, mixed it with western philosophy. I think
the times were such that he could not ignore politics of his times.

with love and peace
inder salim
……………………………………………………..
here is Dr. Iqbal
Upon the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, Dr. Iqbal penned an
epicedium of ten pages, entitled 'Tears of Blood', from which we give
a few verses below. The Queen died on the day of Eid-ul-Fitr, and
Iqbal wrote:
"Happiness came, but grief came along with it, Yesterday was Eid, but
today came muharram [month of the year associated with the deepest
mourning for Muslims]
"Easier than the grief and mourning of this day, Would be the coming
of the morn of the day of judgment.
"Ah! the Queen of the realm of the heart has passed away, My scarred
heart has become a house of mourning.
"O India, thy lover has passed away, She who sighed at thy troubles
has passed away.
"O India, the protective shadow of God has been lifted from above you,
She who sympathised with your inhabitants has gone.
"Victoria is not dead as her good name remains, this is the life to
whomever God gives it.
"May the deceased receive abundant heavenly reward, and may we show
goodly patience."


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