“In my life, there have been at least two passions that have driven my dreams, poetry and computer science”, said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, in a talk given to emerging entrepreneurs in New Dehli.   Then, unexpectedly, he broke briefly into Urdu/Hindi and went on to quote the renowned Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib:

hazaarauN KhwaahisheN aisi ke har Khwaahish pe dam nikle
bahut nikle mere armaan laikin phir bhi kam nikle

Thousands of desires, each worth dying for
Many of them fulfilled, but not nearly enough

There was thunderous applause from the audience who seemed ecstatic that the leader of an IT giant would reveal his passion for poetry by quoting an Urdu couplet. The audience reveled not only at Nadella’s excursion into the vernacular but also at the aptness and beauty of Ghalib’s she’r. Nadella went on to say, “My interpretation of that Ghalib she’r changes every year, I learn something new. There are so many layers and labyrinths in there”.

The Unique Charm of Urdu Poetry

This anecdote illustrates the allure of Urdu poetry with native speakers as well as others who are drawn to it. Urdu has long been considered a language of refined culture – in the form of Ghazals and nazms with their often profound thoughts, elegant language, word play and suitability for musical rendition. To Urdu poetry’s intrinsic nuances, deliberate ambiguities and multiple meanings can be added beautiful metaphors, delicate conventions, subtle imagery, pleasant musicality and much more. Thus, when a poet talks about wine, he may actually be talking about divine love. His “beloved” may be a metaphor for his homeland, a revered figure, or a just social order. And then there are powerful expressions of defiance against social injustice, religious intolerance and orthodoxy, often wrapped with sophisticated phraseology and wit. At the other end of the spectrum, unfortunately, you may also find examples of what can be characterized as “pila saaqia, naach dilruba”, that should not detract from the fine examples shown below.

Examples of Shaa’eri

Until recently, Urdu poetry (shaa’eri) was enjoyed exclusively by a core of fans who were learned in the Urdu language. Outside this core, there were many whose vocabulary in the language was limited or whose mother tongue was not Urdu, but they yearned to be able to enjoy it. Before we address as to how and where all types of fans can access the various masterpieces of Urdu poetry, let us look at some samples of poetry with a class of their own.

There is much commonality in poetic imagination across linguistic domains. While William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wants …

To hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature;
To show Virtue her own feature, scorn her own image,

Mir Anis (1802-1874) wants to imitate nature so authentically that …

qalam-e-fikr se kheeNchooN jo kisi bazm ka raNg
shama-e-tasveer peh girne lageN aa ke pataNg

I draw such a sketch with the pen of my imagination
That moths swarm circling around the picture of the flame

Consider the delicacy of imagery in the following she’r by Josh Malihabadi.

lapeTe muNh so rahi thiiN kaliyaaN, sabaa ne aakar jo gudgudaaya
sarak gaye haiN sarauN se aaNchal, tamaam gulshan mahak raha hai

Buds slept under the shawl of folded petals, the morning breeze tickles
Their shawls slipped off, the whole garden is redolent

In the imagery of sleeping buds with shawls drawn over their heads is a subtle, unstated hint that these are young, pubescent maidens.  The playful morning breeze (the lover) comes along and tickles them. They throw off their “aaNchal” and wake up (bloom); the whole garden is redolent with their fragrance (beauty).

Early poets were mostly men who wrote about feminine beauty in very interesting but male-centric terms. Consider …

paani meN lagi aag pareshaan hai machhli
kuchh sho’la badan utre haiN paani meN nahaane

The river is on fire, the fish in panic
Some flaming bodies have descended into the river to bathe

maKhdoom mohiuddin is describing an early morning scene at a river bank. The fish are in panic because a few hot-bodied damsels have entered the water to bathe, setting the river on fire.

In more recent times there have been notable women poets, some of whom have taken up the banner of feminism and equal rights with powerful language, e.g. fahmida riaz.

ke is zamiN par vujood mera nahiN faqat ek nishaan-e shahvat
hayaat ki shahraah par jagmaga rahi hai meri zehaanat
zamiN ke ruKh per jo hai pasina to jhilmilaati hai meri mehnat

(Know) that my existence in this world is not a mere symbol of lust.
It is my wisdom that shines along the highway of life.
The sparkling beads on the brow of Earth are but the sweat of my labour.

There is a healthy and highly enjoyable tradition of making fun of orthodoxy.  Consider this she’r by brij lal raana

rindauN ki jootiyauN ko uRa laaye shaiKh ji
zaalim ne maikade ko bhi masjid bana diya

The shaiKh made off with the shoes of patrons
The wretch has turned the tavern too into a mosque

This may look like a simple couplet but it has many layers of sarcasm, irony, fun and irreverence. Getting shoes stolen at the masjid (mosque) is an old story and perhaps an ancient practice. The shaiKh is portrayed as an intrusive preacher who makes life miserable with his edicts on morality. The last refuge of the poet is the “maikada” (tavern) which was supposed to be a secular place away from the shaiKh. But now even that refuge has been intruded upon and converted into a mosque! How? The poet irreverently portrays the defining feature of a mosque as the stealing of shoes, not the offering of prayers. And so by stealing shoes from the maikada, the shaiKh has converted it into a mosque! Then there is another irreverence – the poet implies that the shaikh has been patronizing the tavern (how else could he steal shoes?).  There is yet more – it is the shaiKh who has been stealing shoes in the mosque all along and now is indulging in the same practice in the maikada!

Consider this gem from hari chand aKhter …

sukooN-e-mustaqil, dil be-tamanna, shaiKh ki sohbat
ye jannat hai to is jannat se dozaKh kya bura hoga

Total tranquility, the heart fulfilled and the company of the shaiKh
If this be heaven, how can hell be any worse

Heaven must be a very boring place with its constant tranquility, no change, no desires left to be fulfilled, and on top of everything the company of the shaiKh (preacher)!  If this is heaven, how can hell be any worse?

Alongside poking fun at orthodoxy there is a strong tradition of defiance in Urdu poetry. It played an important role in the Indian independence movement. A patriotic nazm like “saare jahaaN se achha hindostaaN hamaara” (by mohammed iqbal) used to be on the lips of many protest marchers along with a defiant she’r like …

sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil meN hai
dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e qaatil meN hai

We are ready to offer our heads in sacrifice
Let’s see how much strength there is in the arm of the oppressor

It is exactly this tradition that led Jagan Nath Azad to write about Urdu language …

tera hi tha vo naara-e qaumi jo barmala
baRhta gaya udoo ki safeN cheerta hua

It was the national slogan in your words, O Urdu, that defiantly
Progressed cutting through lines of the enemy.

Movies have had a special place in the Indian psyche not just for entertainment but also as an expression of the sentiments, longings, aspirations and dreams of a people together with a call for reform and social justice.  Many times, all these features were combined in varying doses but always the more heartfelt expression came through songs.  Urdu poets (Hindu and Muslim) stepped up to meet this need with calls to reform such as, “saathhi haath baRhaana” and communal harmony as in, “tu hindu banega na musalman banega, insaan ki aulad hai insaan banega” and biting political sarcasm as in, “jinheN naaz hai hind par vo kahaaN haiN”, sometimes written specially for the movies at other times taken directly out of their urdu divan (poetic collection) but ironically never classified as urdu songs.

Even as Urdu poets stepped out of the mushaira stage to the movie stage, they also made their way to the world stage expressing solidarity with the colonized, enslaved and oppressed people of the world with tributes to Patrice Lumumba and Martin Luther King and expressions of solidarity with liberation movements in Africa and many more.  The tradition continues to this day with calls to peace between India-Pakistan, Israel-Palestine, expressions of solidarity with people’s movements in the middle east and much more.

Whither Urdu?

Where does Urdu belong?  What is its future?  Before we discuss that, let us consider its beginning.  There is no serious study that claims that Urdu is anything but a language that evolved in India and is of India. Its “ganga-jumni”, multi-cultural ethos is well recorded with a galaxy of Hindus counted among both classical and modern poets.  The language in its early phases was known as Rekhta, hindvi and hindi. In fact Ghalib, who wrote extensively in Farsi, used to refer to his Urdu work as “Hindi”.  Somewhere in the late 1800s Hindi separated with its own Devnagiri script. Puritans from both sides Sanskritized and Persianized their respective branches and the gulf widened.

Pakistan, which declared Urdu its national language lost its eastern region because of it.  And now in the western part there is intense debate that Urdu is a “foreign” language.  During Parliamentary and Constituent Assembly debates in pre-independence India, about the national language there was a compromise reached on “Hindustani” which quickly fell apart after Pakistan decided to adopt Urdu.  Opinion quickly coalesced around Hindi (controversies were to emerge later).  But during this time, anand narain mulla in great pain about the status of Urdu, wrote …

lab-e maadar ne mulla jis meN loriyaaN sunaaiiN thiiN
vo din aaya hai jab us ko bhi GhairauN ki zabaaN samjho

The language in which my mother sang lullabies, O mulla
The time has come that it be considered the language of the other

It appears that anand narain mulla, a Kashmiri brahmin, born and raised in Lucknow, considered Urdu his mother tongue (or close to it).  He had heard lullabies in that language from his mother and was now being forced to consider it a “foreign” language.

The words of rashid banarsi most plaintively express the pain …

[end-englsih]