[Reader-list] Ghalib and the damn Muslim problem
TaraPrakash
taraprakash at gmail.com
Wed May 7 21:59:05 IST 2008
You (perhaps) rightly suggest:
Ghalib-e khasta ke baghair kaunse kaam band haiN?
Roiye zaar zaar kya, kijiye hai hai kyoN?
It is business as usual even without the great poet. But is it completely true? We definitely miss him in the field of poetry.
"guzar to jaaegi us ke begair bhi lekin,
Bahut udaas bahut bekaraar guzaregi" ( don't remember whom I am quoting here)
All said and done, "kahte hain ke Ghalib ka hai, andaz-e bayaan aur" So it is not business as usual.
It may be fruitful to consider, what if Ghalib never existed.
"Hui muddat ke Ghalib mar gaya par yaad aata hai,
Vo har ek baat par kahna, yun hota to kya hota hai"...
Duboya mujhko hone ne, na hota mein to kya hota?"
I can't say much about Ghalib's opinion and his life, but, identity in general can be shunned at your place of origin, very often not without its repercussions, it is useful when you are in the "fairy (foreign) land forlorn."
----- Original Message -----
From: Anand Vivek Taneja
To: TaraPrakash
Cc: Raheema Begum ; reader-list at sarai.net
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Ghalib and the damn Muslim problem
Ghalib-e khasta ke baghair kaunse kaam band haiN?
Roiye zaar zaar kya, kijiye hai hai kyoN?
Sorry I could not resist succumbing to the temptation of an endless chain of Ghalib quotations. While this one seemed apt in the tongue-firmly-in-cheek way most of Ghalib is apt; I think the central problematic raised by Mahmood remains unanswered - which is to ask what it means that while one may not be a believer (in any religious or ritual sense); one is still identified (and identifies oneself) as a Muslim (or a Hindu) in a sense of political/community identity. The gap (or lack of) between one's confessional and empathic senses of selfhood and community; and the changing nature of this gap raises interesting questions, particularly in these fraught times when race, religion and identity are being fixed/contested through the biometric logics of surveillance states.
Would the anecdotal story told of Ghalib (in the TV serial, to a British officer deciding on his exile from the city post 1857) that he was only 'half a Muslim' (because he drank wine but didn't eat pork) be possible today?
Anand
On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 9:34 AM, TaraPrakash <taraprakash at gmail.com> wrote:
Can't say which "kaam" but Ghalib would say be different be unusual while doing it.
"Raghon mein daudte firne ke ham naheen kayal, jab aankh hi se na tapka to fir lahoo kya hai"
If it seems beyond your usual physical powers, use will power "Jo haath mein jumbish naheen, aankhon mein to dam hai...
----- Original Message -----
From: Raheema Begum
To: TaraPrakash ; reader-list at sarai.net
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 8:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Ghalib and the damn Muslim problem
I agree.Hain duniya bazeecha-e atfaal mere bhi aage.
par kya karein us kaam ka jo hai pada mere aage?
Raheema.
On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 6:19 PM, Raheema Begum <theunderscoredhood at gmail.com> wrote:
I agree.Hain duniya bazeecha-e atfaal mere bhi aage.
On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 9:27 PM, TaraPrakash <taraprakash at gmail.com> wrote:
Very appropriate.
And he must be repeating constantly from his grave
"Hota hai shab-o-roz tamasha mere aage."
Only if he had not offended some regressive Islamists with his unorthodox
and perhaps unislamic deeds ...
"Tujhe ham vali samajhte jo na badakhwar hota."
(we would consider you a religious preacher if you were not a drinker)
Apologies if the translation is not accurate. It's not my forte anyway.
Regards
TaraPrakash
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bain Al Satoor" <bainulsatoor at googlemail.com>
To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Ghalib and the damn Muslim problem
> 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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