[Reader-list] Ghalib and the damn Muslim problem

[Bain Al Satoor]

Huye mar ke ham jo ruswa, huye kyun na ghark-e-dariya
Na kabhi janaaza uthta, na kahin mazaar hota

Ghalib.

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 9:19 AM, ambarien qadar <ambarien at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>
>
>
> Hi
>
> I'm not very sure if we can read what Hali wrote nearly a century back,
> with the same interpretative lenses today.
> To me, Hali's piece on Ghalib (quoted in Mahmood's mail) already reads as
> a ceratin kind of break from the mores of traditional, ritualistic, wahabi
> Islamic practices that he so brilliantly represented.
> This rupture is particularly relevant in our times for it reaffirms a
> poetic possibility of dissent.
> Moreover, it is Hali's version of how he 'saw' Ghalib. I'm not sure if we
> can comment on it in essentialist ways. At best, it can provide possible
> insights into the myriad ways the Poet and his times have been written and
> understood.
> The choice actually lies with us- to understand Ghalib through his grief
> at the plight of the larger muslim community (according to Hali) or through
> our knowledge of his stunningly syncretic oeuvre...and think about our
> 'pareshani' or ways of countering it..poetic or otherwise.
>
> (No offences meant!)
> Cheers
> Ambarien
>
>
>
>
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