All But the Muslims
Badri Raina

Do not fret, my flesh and blood,
At this loathsome move.
Whoever makes you a stranger
Makes me a stranger too.

When the excluder was abetting
The imperial brigand.
You were fighting with pen and sword
To free our beloved land.

The ashes of the excluder
Will run away to the sea.
Your loyal dust will forever
With home-ground mingled be.

Those that are patriots spurn
This new law misshapen,
And are already out to see
Such exclusion will never happen.

This parliament having done
The unconscionable deed,
It is for the judges up on high
To render dead this seed.

Without you, my seamless family,
This home is a soulless hollow.
No country folk who are not mad
Will this villainy swallow.

Click here for background and on any passage for word meanings and explanatory discussion. badri raina, retired professor of English, Dehli University is write, columnist, poet, universalist. This is an re-composition of his poem, All but the Muslims, done in urdu, by shahed, a retired engineer and ‘wannabe’ poet.
1
maaN-jaaye¹ mere, mat ho tu hirasaaN²
beshak³ ye sharaarat⁴ tujhe karti hai pareshaaN
ajnabi⁵ jis ne kya tujh ko vo mujhe bhi
hai Ghair⁶ banaaya ke khaRa saath huN maiN bhi     1.born of the same mother 2.frightened, grieved 3.doubtless 4.mischief, evil 5.stranger, other 6.different, foreign
O, my brother/sister, do not be frightened. Doubltess this mischief is worrisome. They who have made you ‘foreign’ have also made me the ‘other’, for I stand with you.
2
karta hai jo Khaarij¹ tujhe kal tak vahi Ghaddaar²
firaNgi³ ka diya saath, aur tu tha sar-e-daar³
khole tha qalam⁴ karne taraane naye tahrir⁵
mar kaTne pe tayyaar tha khaiNchi bhi thi shamshir⁶    1.reject, banish 2.traitor 3.foreigner, European, British 3.head of the gallows 4.pen 5.write, compose 6.sword
They who reject you today, were until yesterday, with the British colonizer, while you were on the gallows, with your pen ready to compose new songs (of resistance, liberation). Ready to die, you had drawn your sword.
3
jo tujh ko kahe Ghair¹, raakh² us ki havaaoN meN uRe hai
paani meN visarjan³ kiya darya meN bahe hai
hai teri vafa⁴, Khaak⁵ jo dharti meN mili hai
paida hai yahiN ki isi miTTi se pali hai   1.other, different 2.ashes 3.ritual immersion of funeral ashes 4.loyalty 5.dust
They who call you foreign, their ashes are blown away in the air. Those that are immersed in water are washed away to the sea. It is your loyalty that your dust is mingled in this earth. Born of this soil, nurtured by this soil.
4
haiN jo bhi vafadaar¹ vo radd² karte haiN bharpoor³
tanaffur⁴ meN raNga aur bigaaRa hua dastoor⁵
nikle haiN gharoN se ke yuN ho nahiN sakta
maaN jaaye se maaN jaaya alag ho nahiN sakta    1.loyal, patriots 2.reject 3.fully 4.hatred 5.constitution
Those who are patriots reject fully this distortion of the constitution coloured in hatred. They have come out of their protesting that this cannot be. Brother cannot be separated from brother.
5
hiqaarat¹ bhara sarkaar ne jo kaam kiya hai
dastoor² ke seene meN chhura ghoNp diya hai
adaalat³ jise hum aap samajhte rahe aa’la⁴
yuN faisla⁵ kar de jo rahe bartar-o-baala⁶     1.contempt, hatred 2.constitution 3.justice, court, supreme court 4.high, exalted 5.decision 6.superior and high/forceful
This contemptuous act that the government has passed, they have stuck a knife in the bosom of the constitution. Justice/courts that we have always thought of as exalted. May they make a decision that will be superior and forceful.
6
hamvaar¹ o hamaahaNg² hai kunba³ tu nahiN Ghair⁴
be-noor⁵ hai be-rooh⁶ hai ye ghar tere baGhair⁷
har koii ke andha nahiN karti jise nafrat⁸
hargiz⁹ qubool¹⁰ kar na sakega ye sharaarat¹¹      1.smooth 2.harmonious 3.family, home 4.foreign 5.without light 6.soulless 7.without 8.hatred 9.under no conditions 10.accept 11.mischief, evil
My home and family is harmonious, you are not the ‘other’. Without you, this home is dark and soulless Any one who is not blinded with hatred, can under any conditions accept this mischief.