Posted by Naim Naqvi

“Hazaron saal Nargis apni be noori pa roti hai, badi mushkil se hota hai chaman men deeda war paida”
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen “A. P. J.” Abdul Kalam , the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007, a career scientist turned reluctant politician, one of India’s most eminent scientist and a people’s President passed away yesterday after collapsing during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management in Shillong. The late President was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He had the unique honor of receiving honorary doctorates from 30 universities and institutions.
He has also been awarded the civilian awards – Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997). Dr. Kalam had lead the ISRO’s ( Indian Space Research Organization) satellite launch program and headed the country’s guided missile program for many years. He was the scientific advisor to the Defence Minister from July 1992 to December 1999. DR. APJ Abdul Kalam was the guiding spirit behind the “weaponisation of strategic missile systems and the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in collaboration with Department of Atomic Energy”. He was the brain behind India’s missile program – Agni and Prithvi. One of his pet themes was PURA – or the Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas – a theme he referred to often in his travels abroad.
It won’t be an exaggeration to say that a great tree has fallen, and the crash has for the moment silenced all the sounds of the forest. Talks of Wars and controversies at home are hushed for the moment. All men, of all schools of opinion, creeds, and parties, see now, in the calm face of the dead, ‘the likeness Hindustan -the great of old.’ Kalam’s name has become part of history today but the elevation and comprehensiveness of the ideals that he set forth would live long after him. APJ Abdul Kalam has become a grand ideal, a great name, a hero who had guided the destinies of this land.
His journey as a space scientist began in early 1960s at Thumba, a coastal village near here, which housed India’s first rocket launcher, Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launcher. Kalam was one of the few young scientists sent by Dr Vikram Sarabhai for training of ‘sounding rockets’ at the National Aeronautics Space Agency in the US. When he reached Thumba in 1964, Kalam had no great infra structure to support. There he had converted a cattle shed at this coast into a laboratory to work on sounding rockets. In those days, even rocket parts and payloads were transported by bicycle. Kalam, who was not a cyclist and he used to hitchhikee with strangers.
After Vikram Sarabhai’d death in 1971, Kalam played a key role in transforming the equatorial rocket launcher station into a hub of space technology. It was renamed Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). In that complex his team designed, developed and built a satellite launch vehicle called SLV3 that was put India’s first satellite, Rohini, into the earth orbit. That achievement brought India into an exclusive member of the Space Club. He worked at VSSC until 1982. Later he moved to the DRDO (Distinctive Profile of a Developed India)

It was a dream ‘India Vision 2020’ as to how India to look like by 2020:

1. A nation where the rural-urban divide has been reduced to a thin line.

2. A nation where there is an equitable distribution of, and adequate access to, energy and quality water.

3. A nation where agriculture, industry and the service sector work together in symphony.

4. A nation where education with a good value system is not denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic discrimination.

5. A nation which is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists, and investors from around the world.

6. A nation where the best of healthcare is available to all.

7. A nation where governance is responsive, transparent and corruption-free.

8. A nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed, crime against women and children is absent, and no one in the society feels alienated.

9. A nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful and happy, and continues on a sustainable growth path.

10. A nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of its leadership.

The India Vision 2020 document was prepared at the time of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. It was given to his successor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who announced in Parliament as well as in one of his Independence Day addresses that India will become an economically developed nation by 2020. At a governors’ conference during my presidency, Manmohan Singh announced that his government, too, will carry forward the task of economically developing the nation.
Today, when he is no more among us, it is the ripe time to assess where we stand 2015 in terms of what we aspired to be in the 1990s, and discover the gap.
The real tribute to Dr. Abdul Kalam would be to develop an inclusive political system that gives the required full support to farmers, scientists, engineers, doctors, teachers, advocates and other professionals alike to enable this nation to achieve success in the green revolution, white revolution, the space mission, defence mission, science and technology mission, and infrastructure development mission.
There is no dearth of honest, hard working, committed and ignited minds in the country. Let the system inspire to ‘do it, we’re with you.’ And the youth with bubbling spirit are ever ready to respond – ‘Yes, We’ll do it.’ We would truly do justice to the soul of the Great Departed Leader APJ Abdul Kalam if we could make India a developed nation.
May his soul live rest in peace ! Amen !

Naim Naqvi

Did his graduation in Science discipline from AMU in 1972-73. He was Secretary of University Ali Society in 1970 and M.M. Hall Literary Society in early 70 's and member of Tayyabji Literary Society. Did his Diploma in Bakery Administration from HTT College Oxford Street London in 1987. Worked with National Herald - Delhi, Blitz - Bombay as Trainee Journalist and in Production Department with 'Naya Sansar Pictures' of Khwaja Ahmed Abbas at Bombay in early 70's. Traveled for study and training purposes to Germany, U.K., Switzerland, France, Dubai, Oman, AbuDhabi, Bahrain and Philepines.

Jul

2015

Overt Show of Rituals,Traditions and Absence of Essence Is Failing Us

Posted by Naim Naqvi

I’m not a religious scholar and I don’t want to be one. ‘Religion,’ to me, is a very personal matter.

RELIGIONES

It was not my choice to be born in a certain family and I’ve not studied enough to go through all contemporary religions to make a choice once again. What I am as in my birth certificate is the description of an accident of birth. Today if I’m to explore the deeper truths of creation and existence, one life or several lives won’t suffice to find the ultimate truth. So, I’m contended with the set of beliefs I’ve received from my parents, relatives, neighborhood and the society I lived in. Good luck to deeply religious, passionate and sincere souls and no argument with those who believe otherwise. Everyone has to bear his own cross. I’m what I’m.

I know the religion sometimes motivates people to do good things, but that is far outweighed by the misery, death, and divisiveness produced by religions since it arose thousands of years ago. It was religion that crucified (or seemingly) Jesus and it was also religion that caused the martyrdom of KARBALA. Whose faith was the ‘force of good’ and who was following SATAN is an argument that is pregnant with the side you stand, by choice or accident of birth. And certainly, the argument continues. It is the religion that is causing bombs to explode in mosques, imambargahs and hospitals and it is religion that is dividing one human being from others. So, could we simply say – Religion is the cause, reason and effect of the negative developments today or yesterday or yonder?

No sir!

The beneficial effects of religion far outweigh the negatives it has caused. Let me be honest – I’ve no airtight case for it. If you look around, you will find that religion does indeed motivate people to do good things. If you can get people to behave better by making them believe in things that inspire them you are on the right track. You may call it religion. Isn’t better to base your actions and philosophy on things you know? That defines your background. For if you participate in good deeds because your trust in a faith and you think that this is what God wants, you’re a happy and contended man and in hopes of having a nice afterlife.

But many are not gifted with that deep, unshakable resolution. They are the victim of Universal Sense of CURIOSITY. It is often the scientific penchant for wanting to know what’s true that makes one an atheist. It is what challenges the basics of life. Here are two diametrically opposite opinions:

Anon: “There can never be a conflict between true science and true religion, because they both describe reality.” Excerpt from a posting to a religious mailing list.

Peter Atkins: “Science is almost totally incompatible with religion.”

While, religious wars, barbarism, coercion, discrimination and nepotism, desire to subjugate fellow human beings and lord over others point towards the flip side of religion, the good side is that religion promotes charity, altruism, compassion, discipline and total surrender to Universal Power who is always RIGHT and that has been given different names.

With religions come the religious books and faith-soaked literature that wield their long term and short-term effects. One can’t dare to question the claims of Holy Literature. Religion is out domain of criticism. The society and religion are too powerful to crush the dissent in any form slowly and surely without much ado. Religion, as a system of dictatorship was seen when Popes had total control over the lives of their subjects and the Arab countries where even today they exploit religion and religious book to perpetuate their cruel dynastic rules. Egypt, once a cradle of Islam, the oldest seat of religion is the latest example of failed understanding or no understanding of religion. There is bloodshed and death on either side of river Nile.

But, on the other side, if one goes to an Utopian society where all the better rules could prevail without religion, you would end up in a desert where even the psychological palliation is not available when you are in doldrums. All new ISMS have flopped. The best examples were the worsening social, economic and political conditions of Communist, Scandinavia and Western European countries that had, by and large, rejected religion but were certainly no better or worse as societies than the highly religious states.

One can’t deny, if you’re not a religious zealot that secularist societies in the West have often shown, in 20 the century more “well being” than religious ones. This reflects a negative correlation between the religiosity of a country and its well being. The sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East are places where many countries are both highly religious and deeply dysfunctional.

Let us go back to the fundamental question – What is religion and why do we need it?

“Religion is a divine law that enables people with intelligence to attain goodness and happiness in this world and the next with their own desire.”

Here I am quoting some lines of Albert Einstein. The following article by Albert Einstein was appeared in the New York Times Magazine on November 9, 1930 pp 1-4.

Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development.

Albert Einstein

A little consideration will suffice to show us that the most varying emotions preside over the birth of religious thought and experience. With primitive man it is above all fear that evokes religious notions – fear of hunger, wild beasts, sickness, death. Since at this stage of existence understanding of causal connections is usually poorly developed, the human mind creates illusory beings more or less analogous to itself on whose wills and actions these fearful happenings depend. Thus one tries to secure the favor of these beings by carrying out actions and offering sacrifices which, according to the tradition handed down from generation to generation, propitiate them or make them well disposed toward a mortal. In this sense I am speaking of a religion of fear. This, though not created, is in an important degree stabilized by the formation of a special priestly caste which sets itself up as a mediator between the people and the beings they fear, and erects a hegemony on this basis. In many cases a leader or ruler or a privileged class whose position rests on other factors combines priestly functions with its secular authority in order to make the latter more secure; or the political rulers and the priestly caste make common cause in their own interests.

The social impulses are another source of the crystallization of religion. Fathers and mothers and the leaders of larger human communities are mortal and fallible. The desire for guidance, love, and support prompts men to form the social or moral conception of God. This is the God of Providence, who protects, disposes, rewards, and punishes; the God who, according to the limits of the believer’s outlook, loves and cherishes the life of the tribe or of the human race, or even or life itself; the comforter in sorrow and unsatisfied longing; he who preserves the souls of the dead. This is the social or moral conception of God.

The Jewish scriptures admirably illustrate the development from the religion of fear to moral religion, a development continued in the New Testament. The religions of all civilized peoples, especially the peoples of the Orient, are primarily moral religions. The development from a religion of fear to moral religion is a great step in peoples’ lives. And yet, that primitive religions are based entirely on fear and the religions of civilized peoples purely on morality is a prejudice against which we must be on our guard. The truth is that all religions are a varying blend of both types, with this differentiation: that on the higher levels of social life the religion of morality predominates.
Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their conception of God. In general, only individuals of exceptional endowments, and exceptionally high-minded communities, rise to any considerable extent above this level. But there is a third stage of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form: I shall call it cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.

We thus arrive at a conception of the relation of science to religion very different from the usual one. When one views the matter historically, one is inclined to look upon science and religion as irreconcilable antagonists, and for a very obvious reason. The man who is thoroughly convinced of the universal operation of the law of causation cannot for a moment entertain the idea of a being who interferes in the course of events – provided, of course, that he takes the hypothesis of causality really seriously. He has no use for the religion of fear and equally little for social or moral religion. A God who rewards and punishes is inconceivable to him for the simple reason that a man’s actions are determined by necessity, external and internal, so that in God’s eyes he cannot be responsible, any more than an inanimate object is responsible for the motions it undergoes. Science has therefore been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death.

It is therefore easy to see why the churches have always fought science and persecuted its devotees. On the other hand, I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.

Let us move to the works of another famous philosopher Bertrand Russell.

Bertrand Russell

The Wikipedia article on Russell describes his view on religion as agnostic or atheist, concluding: “For most of his adult life, Russell maintained that religion is little more than superstition and, despite any positive effects that religion might have, it is largely harmful to people. He believed that religion and the religious outlook serve to impede knowledge and foster fear and dependency, and are responsible for much of our world’s wars, oppression, and misery.”

He was often asked the question of whether he was agnostic or atheist. In his replies he typically said that he was an agnostic. I think the reason for that was that he had very high standards for knowledge. The atheist would be someone who claims to know there is no God. That for Russell would require a proof. He always said he denied that he could prove that God didn’t exist, but he thought that there was no evidence whatsoever to support the view that God did exist.

Russell did think that religion was responsible for a great deal of harm. He was acutely aware of historical religious wars, he was acutely aware of religious oppression, of the horrors of the inquisition and the ongoing horrors of religious oppression in everyday life. He was living in the 1920s and 30s when religion was in retreat but it still had a very substantial hold on people’s lives, especially on matters of sexual morality that he was concerned with.

From Bertrand Russell we switch over to our own backyard. According to the second Indian President, scholar and philosopher Dr Radha Krishnan, life of strenuous endeavor for human betterment is not possible, if we are not persuaded that life has a meaning. Many of our popular writers today seem to be possessed by the one desire to escape from the world of meaning and teach us the essential purposelessness of life. They make us believe, with a good deal of cleverness and sophistry, that life is infinitely complicated and totally inexplicable. Many of our students are taught to assume that free-will and personal responsibility are illusions, that human beings are conditioned almost wholly by their physical make-up and the society in which they live, and that the only sense that the religious statements make is emotional and subjective. This is a generation which knows how to doubt but not how to admire, much less to believe. This aimlessness, this indifference to basic issues, is to no small extent, responsible for the decline of standards, for the fading of ideals, for the defeat of human endeavor.

For Dr Radhakrishnan, religion was not about path to salvation.

Dr Radha Krishnan

He says, “For me the road to salvation is through incessant toil in the service of my country and humanity.” Religion is neither about set of concrete dogmas defining its identity, as he argues that “There are some things which are more important that our particularistic allegiances: truth and humanity and that universal religious consciousness which is the common possession of all human beings by virtue of their spiritual endowment. Only such recognition of universal values can secure the fate of civilization and humanity on this earth, for a ‘civilized society is possible only in an ordered community, where there is a rule of law before which the poor man and the rich, the weak nation and the strong are equal, which believes that the world belongs to all’

As a person who believed in evolution of religion according to changing times, Dr Radhakrishnan argued that there is nothing called “irreligion”. Atheism is a quest for higher religion compatible with the increased knowledge. Secularism itself is a spiritual construct. He explains: “There is no state religion. All the different forms are given equal place, provided they do not lead to corrupt practices. Each one is at liberty to approach the unseen as it suits his capacity and inclination. If this is the basis of our secular state, to be secular is not to be religiously illiterate. It is to be deeply spiritual and not narrowly religious”. Dr Radhakrishnan believed that religion and science can not only coexist but one is incomplete without the other. Acquiring knowledge involves devotion/discipline (Bhakti) and Faith (Shraddha). It must be complimented by other process like Hearing/Listening (Shravana), Reflection (Manana) and Contemplation (Nididdhyasana).

Today, many of the thinkers blame Islam’s indifference rather its supposed hostility towards science. Let us remember that between the eighth and the 13th centuries, while Europe stumbled through the dark ages while science thrived in Islamic states. Irrespective of their style and antecedents, the Abbasid caliphs showered money on learning. The 11th century “Canon of Medicine” by Avicenna (pictured, with modern equipment he would have relished) was a standard medical text in Europe for hundreds of years. In the ninth century Muhammad al-Khwarizmi laid down the principles of algebra, a word derived from the name of his book, “Kitab al-Jabr”. Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham transformed the study of light and optics. Abu Raihan al-Biruni, a Persian, calculated the earth’s circumference to within 1%. And Muslim scholars did much to preserve the intellectual heritage of ancient Greece; centuries later it helped spark Europe’s scientific revolution. Science and Islam were compatible.

In the last few centuries, while the other Christian states compromised between religion and science, the myopic rulers or Muslim world refused to change. While the science was taking the man to moon they were fighting about the sighting of moon. It was the political attitude and ignorance of Muslim rulers and not the set of belief that brought the down fall of once leading society of the world.

According to Rana Dajani, a Jordanian molecular biologist,

Rana Dajani

“The Koran is not a science textbook. It provides people with guidelines as to how they should live their lives.” Interpretations of it, she argues, can evolve with new scientific discoveries. Koranic verses about the creation of man, for example, can now be read as providing support for evolution.

To me, the spirit of religion is to serve the mankind. Unfortunately, the new movements in Islamic world are closing the windows of fresh air of thoughts. The kind of freedom that science demands is not to be found in the fanatic fringes of Muslim world. With the rise of political Islam, including dogmatic Salafists who espouse a radical version of Islam, in such important countries as Egypt, some fear that it could be eroded further still. Let us pray God that the political storms shaking the Middle East could promote not only democracy, but revive scientific freethinking also. Amen

Naim Naqvi

Jun

2015

A Rainy Day

Posted by Naim Naqvi

From the sixth standard to eight we were asked to memorize the essays about A Rainy Day, A Railway Coolie, A Washerman, A Postman and The Teacher. This essay has a tinge of the childhood, the bounce of youth and serenity of old age.
All seasons are pleasant if you’re well protected against the hardship and havoc that they generate. Summer is real cool, romantic and salubrious if the room is air-conditioned and the curtains are made up of Khus reeds; winter is beautiful if your wardrobe is full of the woolen garments for every occasion, if the rooms are warm with electric heaters; and the rainy season is wonderful when you just have to walk into your car parked at your portico. An official chauffeur is an added bonus. However, even a short summer spell is a hell if you are living in a tin-shack or a stuffed hovel under the scorching sun; winter is a nightmare, a torment and an ordeal if the cold winds are entering through the chinks of your cottage, your quilt is riddled with holes, your blanket is tattered. The life a curse if your salary fails to make the both ends meet in any season. You are in for a miserable perdition. Achche Din are not for you.
The bounties of nature are created for all living beings or so they say also. I do also believe in that. And sometime when I walk on the road, all of a sudden the sky turns grey dark with heavy clouds, a pleasant wind blows from across the open spaces, I watch with curiosity the unfolding scenario before me. Passing along side a park hedge or a field, you enjoy the music of nature free of cost. Then silently and slowly it begins with a drizzle. You feel the moist spike upon your face. It is the dear water, the great facilitator of life. You know that farmers need it to grow their crops, the wild life to survive and the streams to replenish; the dams to generate electricity. The tiny droplets of water bring a new hope, distant memories and a vibrant romance. You feel like crooning the famous lyric – “Tak dhina dhin, dina dhin, tak dhina dhin, Barsat me, tak dhina dhin Barsat me, humse mile tum sajan, tumse mile ham. Barsat men…..”

And abruptly the sweet dream is shattered with a loud horn and hard calling from a ‘Grameen Seva transport’ which has almost bumped into your posterior. You come back to real life. Till now it was raining slowly and cool breeze was washing your face. You look around and feel comfortable with several other set of people who are still walking composedly without umbrella. You think they are also the lovers of mist and gentle rain or may be, they are still not conscious or aware of changed weather. The world is full of frivolous introverts. You look at the unapologetic driver and before you could express your indignation he is gone.
Now the drizzle seems to be turning into a real rain. You’re still adamant. You do not want to move fast. For you, it brings a new hope and big relief in an unbearable hot summer. Being an eternal Indian optimist, you brood about plants, trees, birds, animals and parched soil that wait for the rains eagerly. You still want to walk slowly. In fact all the flora and fauna is patient as they were getting prepared to welcome the rainy season. Everyone is expecting a refreshing relief and comfort. Soon there will a Rain Bow when the sky clears up – the beautiful rainbow that you haven’t seen since you arrived in this cosmopolitan city. Nearby in the city forest, you picture the whole environment would present a very attractive and beautiful scene.
But your destination is still far off. On the road, the elders are also wading slowly in the rain and getting wet. They are now walking in knee deep water. Vehicles cycles and scooters were splashing water on the pedestrians. No one is caring about anyone. It has not been even an hour since it had started raining.

You are left with plenty of time to reach home. In the splashing intervals you also want to walk throug the memory lane. You try to recall the field trips of Lonavala, Matheran and Nanital when you had accompanied the college groups that had toured these hill stations. Once and again the mist had suddenly surrounded the lake and road side. The clouds had engulfed the bodies of all touring team like soft cotton. The unforgettable thrill was descending upon earth as the students of all genders were unwittingly albeit accidently losing spaces. There were dreams and new hopes of those days that inspire you when you’re young. Life in that phase is so full of attractions and promises. Every hurdle, every block seems surmountable.

But lo, now it starts thundering and lightings and heavy rain. The mind says – stop and take shelter under any canopy. The heart says – no. Move on, carry on as you used to stroll at Marine Drive when the rain was falling from the sky and the waves of Arabian Sea lashed the sea-wall. You were enjoying the geysers and fountains of nature at the most expansive landscape of the world. That was the real life though with little resources to support it. Surely, it was worth living that day as one of your most loyal and loving friends had accompanied you at ‘Purohits Thali’ that was the most reasonably priced and finest in the city.‘Purohits’ was a tasty joint at Church Gate of Bombay of those days. You had put aside the money from your meager salary to stand that treat. What had happened after that? You don’t want to blame or recollect who ditched whom. Things look beautiful when they are seen from a distance of time and space. Years later, still in Bombay, you would put a CHAWANNI (four anna coin) into the slot of majestic ‘Song’s Machine’ at Irani Raza Ali’s Hotel to listen the famous song – “Waqt ne kiya who haseen sitam, hum rahe na hum, tum rahe na tum.” It was sad memory but not the end of the life.

Let me switch over from ‘You’ to “I’. It is now raining cats and dogs. Opinions and mood often switch fast. It all depends upon where you are at the moment, where do you live and what your do for a living. I’m back on the real road. As I am watching the scene unfold, I hardly notice the people rushing and running around me. I’m staring fixed at the same flowing filth, the dirty stream of drain water that had submerged the hitherto tolerably clean street. Being an elder boy I’ve to think of fetid puddles, killing pot-holes and broken road. I have to move, to jump and skip and splash before the others would do. An old man and his wife are struggling to walk straight at the crossing. What can I do for them? Perhaps they need no help. They have had already traveled long enough at the road of life. No more is left for them but the casual strolling in the twilight. Further off in a concrete drain and a dog has been stuck in it. He can’t come out. I pass the buck. God would take care of its fate. To my left, a long black car swishes past with grace. Perhaps the people inside are discussing their affairs that must be very important.

Now the sky is clearing and the blue dome is visible in the chinks of cloud. There is some respite. The rain has fizzled off. The white, brown and dark black puffs of the clouds are still hovering in the sky. The sun is weakly cresting. The trees and plants got a wash of the week. The trees are now covered with new washed green leaves. The lawns and fields are covered with the great green velvet grass with a sheen. All the natural water resources such as pits, rivers, ponds, lakes, ditches must have been filled with water in the countryside. Roads and playgrounds are full of water. Children are having fun in the rain. They are splashing water on one another some were making paper boats others were chasing pieces of straw and paper that were flowing in the gutter.
I’m back home. Rain has actually added scenic beauty to the environment and in my life. All birds are happy. They were also tired of heat and dust. Frogs are croaking in the neighborhood graveyard. I put on my radio and again a Barsati song is played here. I’d recently purchased the radio set to listen ‘Man Ki Baat.’

Naim Naqvi

Apr

2015

Dr Shafaat Faheem Amrohvi – a poet with a difference

Posted by Naim Naqvi

dewan-of-dr-shafaat-faheem-amrohvi

You don’t have to be an erudite intellectual to appreciate the beauty of Urdu poetry. When an illiterate truck driver asks a painter to write on the back of his truck: “Ya Elahi gharat kare truck banane wale ko,

ghar se beghar kar diya truck chalane wale ko.”

You won’t fail to appreciate the dry curt humor and sense of helpless of the truck-driver that he had expressed through this couplet. When an antique dealer offers you a pillow cushion with a couplet on it developed with threads telling:

“Takiye pa sir rakha a kisi mast khwab ka,
goya ke qasr-e-husn pa gumbad shabab ka.”

You don’t have to be Moulana Hali or Aley Ahmed Surror to delve the deeper meanings of a lover who might have once gifted that pillow cover to her beloved with the feelings that emanated from the bottom of his heart. You don’t have be Moulvi Abdul Haque to enjoy the fainted line of an old post-card that had an inscription: “Bedard zamane ko bahana sa banakar, main toot ke roya hoon teri yad men aksar” that you had discovered in the discarded cupboard of an attic of a newly rented house. You simply love, respect and salute the last Moughal Emperor Bhahdur Shah Zafar when you read: “Hindiyoun me boo rahe gee jab talak Eman ke, Takht-e-London per chale gee taigh Hindustan ke.” It was composed by him in response spontaneously when he had opened the cover of the platter on which the head of Shahzada Moughal, his brave son, was sent by Col Hudson with a couplet:

“Dam damon main dum naheen, aab khair mango jan ke,
Aey Zafar bus ho chuki Shamsheer Hindustan ki.”

Here I can’t help but reproduce some parts of my article “The Rise and Fall of Urdu Language” that is still available on internet.

“When Kalyan Singh, the famous Aya Ram Gaya Ram of BJP, the fellow who had masterminded the demolition of Babri Masjid, was shown the door for the first time, he used the Urdu language to express his true feelings: ‘Hum Wafa sha-ar the nazron se gir gaye unki. Shayad unhen talash kisi Bewafa Ki Thee’ – meaning, I was loyal and fell in his esteem. Perhaps he was looking for a treacherous buddy.

“Humko unse wafa ki hai umeed, jo nahi jaante wafa kya hai (We hope for loyalty from those who do not know the meaning of the word),” quoting famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib.

Sushma Swaraj, the Leader of Opposition stood up with a smile. She quoted the famous Urdu poet Bashir Badr: “Kuch to majbooriya rahi hongi yun koi bewafa nahi hota (There must have been some compulsions, one is not disloyal for no reason at all).”

She then broke into a second verse: “Tumhe wafa yaad nahee, Humein jafa yaad nahee, Zindagi or maut ke toh do hee tarane hain, ek tumhein yaad nahee, ek humein yaad naheen (You don’t remember loyalty, we don’t remember disloyalty, life and death have two rhythms, you don’t remember one, we don’t remember the other).”
Sushma Swaraj too got a thunderous response from her party members. The prime minister just smiled. This is not the first time both have exchanged Urdu and Hindi verses to hit out at each other.

This brouhaha reminded me the famous line that reflects the wounded spirit of an Urdu poet: “Urdu ka Janazah hai baree dhoom se uththe….” It is the coffin of Urdu, let it be shouldered with all the pomp and gaity. To write about this unfortunate language is a painful exercise. This complex and thorny subject can’t be met justice within a short article. For a rational mind it would be a pathetic sight and heartrending scenario to witness a most enchanting seductress, an animated Venus of Languages being dragged to the altar of Fanaticism, Islamophobia, Prejudice and Ignorance – an unprecedented historical callous ritual of SATI inflicted upon a ‘Medium of Expression’. A Language murder de-jure in broad day light of civilization.

The lovers of this beautiful damsel had given her several names: Hindi, Hindavi, Dakni, Lashkari, Rekhta and the last in this chronology is Urdu. Ameer Khusrau, the famous sufi saint, poet, musician, inventor and warrior is supposed to be the father and ‘Khari Boli’ has adopted this baby of Khusrua as its own daughter. Born and brought in pure Indian environment it had taken the impact of Persian or Farsi somehow, the language of Kings and courtiers. It is interesting to learn that with the death of Emperor Aourengzeb, the use of Persian declined in Indian sub-continent. A new language was finding its entry in the towering shoes of Farsi. It was Urdu.

Most of the experts of Lingua Franca agree that no living language of the world could match the power of command, respect, clout and visceral stirring that is imbibed in the two magical Urdu words – “INQALAB ZINDABAD” It was the idiom of Indian Independence.

“Sarfaroshi ki tamannah ab hamarey dil men hai, dekhna hai zor kitna bazooey qatil men hai” I covet to offer my head today, Let me test the strength of my executioner.
Urdu was a language that was common among all faiths of Indians. The Christians missionaries used this medium to preach, propagate and proselytize the north Indians. It is used for the same purpose by missionaries in Pakistan even today.

It is a language that was adored, nurtured and disseminated by Whites, Hindus and Sikhs. The great novelists and short story writers of Urdu were Premchand, Krishanchandar and Rajendra Singh Bedi; the greatest poet of Urdu Masnawi was Pandit Daya Shankar ‘Naseem’. The most versatile and novel Urdu poets were Brij Narayan ‘Chakbast’, Tilwak Chand ‘Mehroom’, Pandit Raghu Pati Sahay ‘Firaq Gorakhpuri’. The all times great critics of Urdu Literature are Gopi Chand ‘Narang’ and Jagan Nath ‘Azad’. Even today the two intellectuals who are the embodiment of all that is fine with Urdu are two Gulzars and both of them are Hindus or Sikhs. One from Delhi, Gulzar Dehelwi and other from Punjab, our very own ‘Jai Ho’ wale Gulzar. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I am forgetting thousands of names of non-Muslims who are and who were proud of their language – Urdu. The famous stalwart of Urdu, Pandit Anand Narain ‘Mulla’ Ex-Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court has once said,” I could forsake my religion but not my language Urdu.” Let me narrate here his famed couplet:

“Woh aour hain jinhen touba ki mil gayee fursat,
hamen gunah bhee karne ko zindagi kum hai.”

Those may be others who got time to seek forgiveness, for me, the allotted time is very short to commit even the Sins.

Today the fake proponents of Hindi Language, along with the band of Islamophobic fanatics claim that Urdu is a language of Muslims only; a language of Pakistan; a language of terrorists.

Nothing is farther from truth! Before the establishment of Pakistan none of the entities that would become West and East Pakistan spoke Urdu language. The languages prevalent in those regions were Bengali, Punjabi, Pushto, Baluchi and Sindhi. The mass migration of Muslims from UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Hyderabad effectively changed the demography of those regions. The Sindhi majority of Karachi was reduced to a minority and Urdu was proclaimed as National language of Pakistan. What is happening to the language of Mohajirs, the migrants from India, in Bangla Desh and Pakistan makes a pathetic study for any aspirant to think of those areas.

After independence, Congress played the vicious game of ‘play with the hares and hunt with the hounds.’ To questionable role played by Sardar Patel and Govind Ballabh Pant to marginalize Urdu from the national scene is now buried in the history books. The subject how Moulana Abul Kalam Azad was craftily isolated in banishing Urdu would earn galore of Ph. D’s for the aspirants of history, social and political science.

But still there is a silver lining for the dark clouds of Urdu. The young generation of Non-Muslim youth who don’t carry the heavy burdens of history, are taking the bull by the horns. For them Lata Mangeshkar, Jagjeet Singh, Punkaj Udhas, Sonu Nigam, Peenaz Masani, Ghulam and Mehdi Hasan with their superb pronunciation and renditons are the maestros of their fields of Ghazals, Sufiana kalms and geets. Hindi is coming with the new most popular component – Hindi Ghazal.” End quote

And all this background I’d prepared to tell the readers that I simply enjoy and love Urdu in all forms and undoubtedly certainly I’ve no claims over the knowledge and versatility of this beautiful language.

Over the last three centuries Urdu has produced great poets of super intelligence and excellence of presentation. However the 18th century was the century of Meer, the 19th belonged to Ghalib and the 20th was the century Eqbal and Faiz. There is a plethora of twinkling stars in the galaxy of Urdu but there are no moons. Whether this trend will continue in the present century, I if don’t know. Parveen Shakir died young and left a mark but is nothing more than skin deep if we consider the Urdu poetry as a body. This is my opinion. I’m a tyro, a green horn and illiterate whose opinion counts for nothing.

Meer was a natural poet who used the metaphor of the broken, shattered, distraught heart to describe both his own personal loss as also the pillage and destruction of Delhi. He loved Delhi from the bottom of his heart. It was his adopted capital and the deserted streets and empty houses of Delhi became symbols of the passing away of a lifestyle and an aesthetic urbane milieu of his works.

Ghalib was a philosopher, a versatile and learned intellectual who infused the Ghazal with a depth and multi – layers of the form had not hitherto seen. Ghalib also contributed significantly to freeing the Ghazal from the constricting grip of a cold heartless beloved, a successful rival and the perpetually unsuccessful lover-the poet-drowning himself in wine or wallowing in masochistic self pity. He tried to put across the realities of life; challenged the worn out concepts of traditions and beliefs. He was a daring explorer of language and thought. He was a perfectionist and there is no confusion in his thinking. Ghalib raised fundamental questions of existence and being, raised doubts about received world views and established that the Ghazal was capable of tackling complex ideas. The imagery of Ghalib’s poetry drew as much from his immediate surroundings and the rich cultural heritage of South Central Asia that had in turn drawn from the myths of ancient Greece and Egypt, tales and fables that also resonated in the Torah, the Bible and the Quraan. Ghalib lived in strange times, an order was dying and the new was yet to replace it. Ghalib was a witness to these cataclysmic times. The rapid collapse of the Mughal court led to the replacement of a system of patronage with unending uncertainty and penury. The Mutiny of 1857 took away with it the last vestiges of an order that India had known and the ruthless crushing of the uprising led to an era of unprecedented changes whose impact was to inform the creation of literature in a fundamental and far reaching manner. Ghalib, like many of his contemporaries, was deeply shaken by these events and suffered the consequences of this upheaval.

Eqbal is a poet who has left an indelible and everlasting impression upon mankind. It is wrong to assume that Eqbal is the poet of Muslims or he belongs to Urdu literature alone. Eqbal transcends all boundaries. You cannot put him in any category. Like all great poets, he belongs to the whole mankind.

‘Sare Jahan se achcha Hindustan Hamara,
Hum bulbulen hain iski yeh gulsitan hamara.’

MY INDIA is the best amongst all the nations of the world. We are its nightingales and this is our garden. That’s how ‘the poet of East – Allama Sheikh Mohammed Eqbal’ showered his unlimited love for his country. – India.

‘Khake witan ka humko har zarra devta hai” (Each dust particle of my motherland is god to me).

In Focus Eqbal has a great and unique vision of India and he had described his dream of a new India in these words:

“Sach keh doon aye Brahmin gar tu bura na mane. (Should I speak the truth Oh Brahmin if you aren’t offended?)”

Aa ek naya shiwali hum phir se yan bana de’n. (Let us make new temples again)

Shakti bhi shanty bhi bhakto ke geet me hai. (There is strength and peace in the hymns of worshippers)

Dharti ke waasiyon ki mukti preet me hai. (Peace of inhabitants of the world lies in love)

MULLAHS HAVE issued a fatwa on Eqbal for daring to see this dream for a new India.

Eqbal, like so many Muslim intellectuals was disillusioned with the policies of Congress and suggested a federation of Muslim states to protect the culture and civilization of Muslims. The purpose of this article is not to re-open the old controversial chapters of history as Allama Eqbal had died long before independence in 1938. The least I can say is he loved India. That he belongs to Pakistan is travesty of truth. “This is not the whole Truth,” said Professor Abdul Haq, an eminent Urdu critic. “Eqbal foresaw a federal structure for a free India, in which a Muslim-dominated north-western region could be a cultural unit like many others,” he said. As far as the idea of Pakistan is concerned, Iqbal denied that he was the originator of this idea. “Eqbal has clearly denied this in his letters to Raghib Hussain. People don’t talk about these letters since they don’t favor their point of view,” said Dr Haq.

Dr Abdul Haq said that Eqbal is the most misunderstood poet of the 20th century. “We must look at Eqbal in totality if we want to understand him,” he said. Eqbal’s tragedy was that his poetry was used by different groups to serve their own interests. His poetry had so many facets that he seemed to assume different roles in different phases of his poetry: he was a staunch nationalist, a vocal communist, an advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity, a humanist, a believer in Islamic revivalism, a freedom fighter, and an advocate of international brotherhood. No poet in Urdu, and I’m sure in any other Indian language too, has shed as many tears on India’s misery and colonial captivity.

Uth ke ab dore jahan ka aur hi andaz hai
Mashroq-o-maghrib me tere dour ka aghaz hai

“Get up now that the style of the world has changed. It is the beginning of your age in the East and West.”

Faiz Ahmed Faiz is a poet I find nearest to my inner feelings which I’ve no ability or intellect to express. He says what I think; he says what I want to say. I need a separate space to talk about Faiz. He lived a troubled and restless life, Faiz’s work, political ideology, and poetry became immortal and remained an extremely popular and influential figure in the literary development of Pakistan’s arts, literature, and drama and theatre adaptation. Faiz’s work is considered the backbone of development of new Urdu literature, arts and poetry. Along with Allama Eqbal, Faiz is often known as the “Poet of the East” While commenting on his legacy, classical singer Tina Sani said:
Faiz Ahmad Faiz… (was) like a comrade, his thoughts were soft but effective and inspired the classical singers as it did others in the plays we did… Faiz’s poetry never gets old because the problems and situations in this country have not changed. Today we sing him because of his beautiful poetry, missing out on the reasons behind his poems that had predictions..

dewan-of-dr-shafaat-faheem-amrohvi

To conclude this article, I’ve like to talk about my friend Dr. Shafaat Faheem Amrohvi. He is few years senior to me in this world and we had played the same games; drank the same water and breathed the same air till we parted and joined again in Aligarh Muslim University. He has always had a poetic temperament. My Urdu was between poor and weak. I had been below average and low brow in the fields of study – somehow managed to survive and have nothing to boast about. However, I liked his poems when he was a beginner and do still like him when he is transformed into reputed poet.
He has been a lucky inheritor of creative writing. His father, grand-father and forefathers were scholars of religion and Urdu, Persian and Arabic languages. He never had to struggle to recall the appropriated words for his poetry. Words would line up for him at his command. He has the mastery to play around and create new terms – a rare trait in his genre. In some of his works I can see my face.

“Yeh raaz na samjha hai na samjhe ga zamana,
hum jeetey hue khel ko kyuon haar gaye hain.”

I’ve not been happy when he came to my house with his latest couplet:

“Mere har dost ke lafzon se tapakta hai lahoo, mera khoon pee ke mere dost paley hon jaise;
Meri sanson se nikalta hai ummedon ka dhuyan, mere jazbat mere saath jaley hon jaise.”

I’s dumb founded; I didn’t like what he had said. For me, the friendship is unbroken divine relationship, always pristine, pure and bright. I can’t believe that a friend could ever be an adversary. Friendship is a proof of Godliness.

And I had also imbibed some streaks of poetry by then. I asked him to let me rest for a while. While leaving the room I asked him to complete the couplet that began with my words – “Kamzarf chirghon ne dhuyan chor diya hai…………………………” Next time he came to my room in Ziauddin Hostel and reassured me that blood did never ever wring out of my words in any form. It was, according to him, was written in a different situation. He had completed my lead with the following stanza:

“Ummed-e-Sahar hote he tareek-e-iye shab men,
Kam zarf chiraghon ne dhuyan chor diya hai.”

I was left with nothing to disagree except that he did never confessed that the lead line was given by me.

Naim Naqvi

Mar

2015

“Shia-Sunni Unity” – a must for survival

Posted by Naim Naqvi

This author belongs to a Floral SuShi Family, a very common old tradition among Muslim society all over the world. Our family life is a glittering example of Shia-Sunni Co-existence and Cooperation. In my childhood, the differences between the two major Muslim sects were more dealt in theological gatherings and masses were not deeply involved. With the advent of ‘Petro Dollar’ and boost of New Ideologies more than seventy sects of Islam began to assert their separate doctrines and got actively engaged in the deadly internecine fight that is forcing the tears of our existence at the seams. Now every sect calls the other sects as INFIDEL with a difference of degree and intensity. I worked through my life to understand this cleavage and discover the reason but miserably failed to decide the side which is RIGHT in absolute terms. My feeling of being torn between the Doctrines of Shia Islam and Sunni Islam has often driven me to despair and nervous breakdown. And every new quest for truth leads me sadder, to an even worse condition. Ironically, several individual leaders, form both the major Muslim sects sincerely seek to please God at the expense of other sect with expedition.

Since the inception of Islam, the history of Muslim rulers is drenched in the blood of its followers, leaders and friends – both political and spiritual as well. How agonizing that the second, third and fourth Caliph of Sunni Islam were massacred while many Imams and scholars of Shia Islam were mercilessly killed by the followers of Islam. They were all martyrs. Violence ran deeper in its anatomy of our progress and the tradition is still adhered in terms of words and spirit as blood spills in mosques and Imambargahs. However there is one incontrovertible truth that stands out in the sorry tale – the Shias, the minority if Islam had always been at the receiving end of violence.
Is it not the time ripe for the silent majority of both the communities to come together through dialog to defeat the terrorists who have been responsible for these madness and heinous killings?

Friday is the auspicious day for all Muslims – Sunnis and Shias both. On this day of the last week around 150 Shias were killed, 360 injured in Sanna, Yemen and 2 Shias were done to death and several others injured in Karachi, Pakistan. For the Muslim Ummah it’s a Black Day.
According to press resources, in the mosques of Sanna, suicide bombers entered pretending to be disabled and hiding explosives under casts. Pictures of people removing bodies from one of the mosques where a carpeted floor was littered with debris were seen all over. In the assaults at Al Badr mosque and Al Hashoosh mosque in Sanaa, the first blasts happened inside the buildings, followed two minutes later by explosions outside. At Al Badr mosque, the outdoor explosion was another suicide bombing; at Al Hashoosh mosque, the exterior blast was a car bomb. The mosques serve members of the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, the sect to which the rebel Houthi militants belong.
The blood of tourists killed at the museum in Tunisia by ISIS on Wednesday was not yet dried. The recent suicidal attack at Sanna illustrates the expanding focus for ISIS, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq. It proves the solid support they are getting from their backers. A written statement, purportedly from ISIS, claimed that ISIS executed Friday’s attacks, calling them “a tip of an iceberg.” The statement, posted on a site that previously carried ISIS proclamations, said five suicide bombers targeted Houthis in Sanaa. A separate audio message, also posted on ISIS-affiliated websites, claimed five ISIS suicide bombers killed dozens of “Houthi infidels.”
Among those killed in Sanaa was prominent Houthi religious leader Murtatha Al Mahathwari.

The Al Houti Tribe had long felt marginalized by the majority Sunnis in Yemen and have battled the central government for more than a decade. They finally decided to take up the matter to decisive end and gradually took control of the presidential palace in January and forcing President Hadi to resign.The mosque attacks came six months after the Houthis had entered Sanaa. Hadi was initially put under house arrest but escaped and flew to Aden declaring himself still President.
Just to carry forward my argument I’m quoting a portion of famous Islamic Scholar Sheikh Ahmed Deedat’s speech:

“I say why can’t you accept the Shia brothers as a fifth Fiqh. And the astonishing thing is that he (Ayatullah Khomeni) is telling you that he wants to be one with you. He is not talking about being Shia. He is shouting “there is no Sunni nor Shia there is one thing, Islam.” But we say to them “no you are different you are Shia.” This attitude is a sickness of the devil. He wants to divide us.
Can you imagine we Sunnis are 90% of the Muslim world and the ten percent who are Shias want to be partners and brothers with you in faith and the 90% are terrified. I can’t understand why should you the 90% be so terrified. They should be the ones terrified. And if you just knew the feelings that they have for you. During Jummah prayers in Iran, there are a million people. And you should see the way they look at you when you pass by, they recognize that you are a foreigner and not one of them and tears start rolling down their cheeks. This is the feeling that they have for you, but you say no, you want to keep they out, afraid that they will absolve you. You can only be absolved if there is something better than what you have. I don’t know, maybe some of you think I am a Shia, but I’m still with you all here.
What is all this Shia-Sunni tensions? It is all politics. These antagonisms we have are all politics now. If a Sunni brother somewhere does something wrong you say oh the individual is not being very Islamic, he is a kaffir, But if a Shia does something wrong you want to condemn the whole Shia community, the whole nation of millions, and say they are all rubbish just because one Shias actions are not very Islamic. At the same time where we look the other way if one of your relatives does something serious because he is your father or your uncle. One group of Sunnis says to another “you are not a Muslim” another group of Sunnis says “you are not a Muslim you are a kaffir” look that’s among us, and we fight among ourselves. And some of us do funny things.” End of the portion of Ahmed Deedat’s speech.

It is so heartrending to observe that Shia-Sunni violence has been on the rise in the last few years in Middle East and Pakistan.

Can’t we say – Now enough is enough? There is a silver-lining to these darker clouds. In Iraq, it is estimated that up to 30 percent of marriages are between Shias and Sunnis; victims of violence between the two groups frequently attend each other’s funeral prayers; one group often helps the other’s victims after an incident.

Even a green horn of Islamic Theology knows that the differences between Shia and Sunni are more political in nature while basic tenets of both are identical. Can’t we just leave them, forget them and wait for the Day of Judgment; these are better left for God to judge, as He knows best and has said in the Quran that ‘He is the final judge of religious disagreements.’

The killing of Shias or Sunnis will not resolve these disputes. The principle of “no compulsion in matters of faith” (Quran 2:256) is not just limited to Muslim-non-Muslim relations. It applies to Muslim interpretations of Islam as well. This instruction of God serves as a guideline for the Muslim community to not impose one’s interpretation on others. That is why throughout history, not only have Hanafis and Shafis worked with each other despite differences, but Shias and Sunnis have lived and worked side by side with each other as well.
Can’t we come closer and be decent and respectful to the thinking of each other? When human beings sit down and talk to each other, they learn to respect each other. Dialog allows parties to understand each other better by allowing participants to acquire direct knowledge about beliefs instead of relying on propaganda and stereotypical images. (Quran 49:6-12)
Serious and sincere exchange of thought, dialogues would isolate the extremist fringe. By talking to each other, Shias and Sunnis will be able to save lives, which is like saving the whole of humanity.
Even if some Shias and Sunnis consider each other enemies, the Quran asks us to be just even toward one’s enemy “O you who believe! Stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear Allah. For Allah is well-acquainted with all that you do.” [Quran 5:8]
It is hard reality that the Shia community like Sunnis is also diverse. There are many differences between one Shia group and another. This is why it is important that dialog between Sunnis and Shias becomes a movement and a process throughout society instead of everyone waiting for one high powered dialog to yield some results at the leadership level.

Naim Naqvi

Nov

2014

A Day to remember Indra Priyadarshni Gandhi

Posted by Naim Naqvi

Why I miss you Indra Priydarshni…..
Because you were the greatest leader Mother India has ever produced. You were the one who had given the new definition to the much touted word – ‘Initiative.’ You were willing to make decisions. You had made decisions that changed the course of history. Your decisions changed the destiny of millions. You didn’t fall victim to ‘ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome.’ You fired the salvo when it was the need of the hour.
Because you were the great Communicator. As a leader you listened a lot; you asked n –th questions; you considered options; you gave decisions loud and clear – unbiased, unclouded, pragmatic, practical and without prejudice. You understood the needs and desires of India. You knew your soil. You had the sagacity to gather every tremor on the lips of Bharat Maa. You felt her agony.

Because you were flexible and adaptable. You challenged the might of established leaders when they tried to push you down. You failed their nasty designs. You took away the privileges of nawabs and rajas; you made the lazy bones work in zones where ordinary poor waddled in vain. You made ‘Gahraibi’ a genuine issue’; You worked the hardest to ‘Hatao’ the curse.

Because you were Proactive and Reactive. You exploded at Pokhran the biggest hit and did it all without taking the credit; You made to Shimla when time was ripe.

Because you were always Respectful to your adversaries; you had the finest upbringing that reflected; you didn’t call them names; you didn’t make tall and false promises; you didn’t lie. You treated every Indian with due respect;
You were and quiet and confident. You were sure of yourself and your humble intentions, You didn’t insult the communities, leaders and parties; You didn’t try to re-write history with fake stories; you didn’t took the criminals under your wings and you crushed them down when they raised their heads. You didn’t rub the salt on the wounds of victims; you reached them with love on impossible tracks – even when it was the uneasy ride on a elephant’s back.
Yes, my leader ! You were an unflinching enthusiast. You presence gave confidence to fallen and down-trodden; You were there to fulfill what the Indians dreamed. You were there when the chips were down; You were there when no one there to wipe the tears; You were there when the sky was overcast; you were there when winds were hot; you were there when life was tough; you were there to make us laugh; You were there with a wand of love.
I miss you Indra Ji because you were both Resourceful and Rewarding. You utilized the resources available to you. You were a leader who knew the art and access to information. You were an exceptional leader who recognized the efforts of others and reinforced those in actions.
Because you were well educated, evaluative, organized and always CONSISTENT.

Because, you didn’t believe in cheap rhetoric.
Yes, I miss you Indra Ji. I’m an unknown Indian.
This regime is ignoring you today. But V remember U. V LOVE U.

Naim Naqvi

Nov

2014

BJP-Shiva Sena Clash of Ego and Turf

Posted by Naim Naqvi

BJP

Nothing succeeds like success. BJP and PM Modi are riding the high tide these days. So goes the scenario between BJP and Shiva Sena in Maharashtra. BJP has got the upper hand. It is said that your deeds come home to roost. Make a little variation. Your words come back to haunt. Add a pinch of salt – You have to be sorry for what you had said, especially when you are now being rendered a weak performer in the fight. You do still want to join the tea-party. The winner, after defeat, should share the spoils of war. Sources say that the BJP’s central leadership wanted Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray to feel sorry for his earlier remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah. It was generally believed that BJP & Shiva Sena would ultimately join together to form the government. They might still come together one day. It is only a matter of time only. But no for now.
To call someone Afzal Khan is usually unwelcome but to call the Star Campaigners of BJP ‘Afzal Khan’ is mortal sin of today’s Maharashtra politics. Udhave Thackrey was addressing a public rally at Tuljapur and it was before their dreams of upper hand in forthcoming assembly were not yet shattered. He had the audacity to say, “What are they up to? First Modi comes to campaign, then his entire cabinet team campaigns for votes in Maharashtra. They are like Afzal Khan’s aulad, trying to conquer this state.”
Now, the tables are turned. Shiva Sena is dispensable. BJP can do without them – politically, numerically and ideologically. So, while the BJP had already elected Mr. Devendra Fadnavis as its legislature party leader on Tuesday, it kept its former ally, the Shiv Sena, in the limbo.
How could the BJP leadership forget what ‘Saamna’, the mouthpiece of Sena had written in its editorial? “The BJP ignored Sena after the Lok Sabha win. The Sena played a significant role, otherwise even Modi’s father would not have been able to win majority in the Lok Sabha polls.”
The BJP general secretary J P Nadda had claimed that the talks between Sena and BJP were underway. ‘We want to have Sena as our alliance partner.’ But now this new situation is developing with a rider, BJP is not keen on having Shiva Sena on board.
The alliance with NCP is a risky game. They are known to change the loyalties before you say ‘presto’. Wisdom and Logic advocate that Sena, as an alliance partner, would be better in the long run as compared to the NCP’s outside support. But BJP said to Sena,‘Dear me, I can run this orchestra without you but anymore‘Aa loat ke aaja merey meet, tujhey merey geet bulatey hain.’

Sena-BJP ties have hit a new low in the wake of a spat over the first Cabinet expansion at the Centre and failure to accommodate the Sena in the Maharashtra government in Mumbai. Sena MP Anil Desai not taking oath as Union Minister on Sunday and the induction of Suresh Prabhu, who had been in the Shiv Sena as Cabinet Minister, had added to the growing chasm between the friends-turned-foes. The simmering tension between them came to a boil yesterday as Desai left for Mumbai from Delhi airport without attending the swearing-in ceremony. Desai had returned to Mumbai on orders of Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray whose party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi as also the BJP of a host of broken promises and heaping “humiliation after humiliation” on it.
There is no end scene in politics. The drama is still running with snakes, ladders and mouse-traps.

Naim Naqvi

Oct

2014

RSS, Pandit Nehru and Muslims

Posted by Naim Naqvi

RSS does it again: “Godse was much better than Nehru — he pulled the trigger on Gandhiji’s chest after a respectful bow. But Nehru stabbed him from behind and greeted him from front.’ It is from the horse’s mouth. ‘Kesari’, the Malayalam mouthpiece of the RSS that suggested that Nathuram Godse, instead of assassinating Gandhi, should have targeted Jawaharlal Nehru as he was responsible for Partition and never had any genuine attachment with the Father of the Nation. “Nehru’s selfish politics was behind all national tragedies, including Partition and Gandhi’s assassination. After an honest evaluation of Nathuram Godse’s arguments and historical documents related to Partition, if history students feel Godse aimed the wrong target, they cannot be blamed. Nehru was solely responsible for Partition of the country.” The article is written by B Gopalakrishnan who was the BJP candidate in Chalakudy in the recent Lok Sabha election. He had lost.
There were times when RSS shakhas Gandhi was cursed for favoring Nehru – a lot of unprintable would be expended to denigrate the Father of the Nation. It seems a show of Achche Din for Bapu is the need of the hour, at least a respite, for another strategic onslaught design at the Nagpur Board. Now the hit is direct to decimate the remnants of Congress. Nehru is the target. He is dead. The legacy of Nehru is still strong. His legatees are weak.
The ‘Kesari’ says – “Nehru, whose ambition was to become a world leader, was closer to (Winston) Churchill, (Franklin D) Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek than he was to Gandhi. Nehru was always a selfish man and a hypocrite. He did not want anyone above him in the Congress. But Gandhiji’s popularity and his influence had made him jealous of Gandhi. Nehru was never a disciple of Gandhi. Nehru was the favorite of the British and the history was written in such a way that he was glorified. It’s time to rewrite this history and demolish some false idols. We will approach the government to rewrite the history and expose them. What Nehru wanted was Gandhiji’s cap and his khadi clothes. Nehru and his family had snatched his attires. Godse was much better than Nehru — he pulled the trigger on Gandhiji’s chest after a respectful bow. But Nehru stabbed him from behind and greeted him from front.”
In one of my article in ‘India Opine’ recently I’d given every elaborate details of Nathuram Godse affiliation to RSS. Reader can refer it to corroborate. However, the article of B Gopalkeishan claims that Godse was not an RSS member, but a follower of the radical Savarkar group of the Hindu Mahasabha. By falsely blaming the RSS, Nehru had killed “two birds with one stone” — prevented Saradar Patel from becoming a leader above him and managed to ban the RSS through Patel.”
The article argues that Nehru clinically eliminated Gandhi, keeping him out of the last round of talks with the British, leading up to Partition and independence, to serve his selfish ends.

It is two-track politics, double-speak and changing of colors like chameleon. From the pulpit, one imposter spews venom against Nehru Family, from the foyer another one puts a softer and benign posture. Play with the hare, hunt with the hound. The country wondered when only recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reconstituted the committee to celebrate Nehru’s 125th anniversary, dropping many UPA appointees but retaining Suman Dubey, a former journalist and family friend of the Nehru-Gandhis. Narendra Modi, as an ex officio head of the reconstituted 30-member committee, would oversee yearlong celebrations starting November 14. It is significant that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi had resigned from the committee after the election results in May.

We have Mr Jekyl and Mr Hyde syndrome haunting the nation. RSS keeps reminding its loyal vote bank that its planks and shibboleth are unchanged. The latest article is an incontrovertible proof of that. Nehru was secular and had a sympathetic corner for minorities. He had contained and cornered the RSS ideology. He was the bête noire of RSS.

The last Lok Sabha elections added a new chapter for the students of Political Science. He can learn how the spin and hyperbole could overwhelm the realities on the ground. The state of Gujarat was never ‘numero ono’ in prosperity and most of the important parameters. Still, in the public perception, it was made to believe so. It was portrayed as if the achievements transgressed caste, class, religion and region while the counter evidence were suggesting a skew in that stilted model of development. In the glare of media, voter behaved like a deer that suddenly jumps before the search light.

Development Story of Gujarat was an insidious cover to fulfill the RSS dream. For many hapless Muslims of Gujarat, it was reconciliation to fact that life in past-riots ghettos is a permanent reality of Gujarat where segregation is assumed to be normal. No one remembered that the plank of Development involves human dignity also. The sprite of GDP is not the last goal post.
In a ruse to placate the resentment brewing against a controversial article in RSS mouthpiece ‘Kesari’ RSS Nagpur has come out stating that the organisation has got nothing to do with the views expressed in the controversial article. Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has already directed DGP K S Balasubramanian to probe into the issue and take action, if necessary, on a complaint filed by KPCC general secretary Sooranad Rajasekharan. RSS leadership has come out condemning the views expressed in the article published in ‘Kesari.’ ‘‘We always disapproved any thought or act of violence,’’ Dr Manmohan Vaidya, RSS Akhila Bharatheeya prachar pramukh, said in a tweet. ‘’RSS has nothing to do with the views expressed in the controversial article written by B Gopalakrishnan which appeared in Malayalam weekly Kesari.’’
The RSS targets Congress, Nehru and Nehru family just because they were considered friendly or to harbor a softer corner for the minorities of India, especially Muslims.
Take it or leave it!

Naim Naqvi

Oct

2014

Moharrum, Marsiya and Deccani Bharat

Posted by Naim Naqvi

Slowly and sadly, our new generation is distancing away from our rich, cultural and linguistic past. The period and spirit of Mourning of Ashoorah and the following weeks that were known for austerity, devotion and sacrifice of mourners – the azadars of Imam Hussain (AS) are fading into memories. The occasion of AZA is now gradually turning into the mere rituals and traditions. We use these occasions of sorrow to show our status, prosperity and clout to impress the society we live in. In the name of Ghum-e-Hussain we show our fines sherwanis and our ladies are not far behind. They do follow as the best of the Black Fahion Dress which is kept for social gatherings for this period. But this is not the subject of this article. Neither, it is the whole story.
In a majlis, sometime ago, after the Marsiya, I found a boy wondering about the meaning of MUJRAYEE and Zaigham. I wasn’t shocked as even the elders there were ignorant about these words. We have been sliding past down the escarpment of our heritage unknowingly and we all should collectively take the blame.

The recitation of Marsiya has become more like a formality with a few in the audience following what is being narrated. Our children read the BAYAZ with NOHAS scribbled in Hindi and we have our Zakirs with the notebook of Majlis in English Script for Urdu delivery. Times have changed and what is there in store for us in future, only Almighty Allah knows.

Marsiya was the integral part of Azadari-e-Imam-e-Mazloom. It is not a new creation. Long before its induction in Urdu, it existed in Arabic as well as in Persian poetry. The word Marsiya is derived from an Arabic word ‘Rasa’ which means to cry and grieve. The purpose of Marsiya was to mourn over the dead people and to describe their deeds to make people realize their loss. There are a number of Marsiyas in Arabic literature, but the Marsiyas written by Mutumum lbn Navera and Hanfa are considered to be outstanding. Marsiya, in Persian literature was borrowed from Arabic. The first Marsiya was written by Muhtasham Kashi during the Safawid period (1523-1578). The most popular Marsiyas, both in India and Iran, were written by Mulla Hussain Kashifi called Rawzat ul-Shuhada. Earlier Marsiya were recited only for selective audience of aristocrats. Then, as the next step and natural culmination of the literary efforts, it was to make popular in masses. The poets of marsiya went to majalis and soon it was considered to be a religious duty as well as an honor to recite in public. The Marsiya in Dakni literature, therefore, became exclusively a poem in which the tragedy of Karbala was described. Much of the tragedy of Karbala has been Indianized in that period. The Dakni poets have described the engagement of Hazrat Qasim in pure Indian setting. All the ceremonies and costumes they have mentioned are Indian. This goes to show that culture plays a vital part even in religious traditions. Indianization of the ceremonies connected with the Muslim festivals was aimed and practiced by the Qutb Shahs of Deccan.

The Marsiyas are now purely religious in nature. They are written to identify oneself with the martyrs of Karbala. Therefore, they express deep devotion and sorrow of the poet. This genre of poetry is a valuable source of information also. They describe the deep human emotions, pathos, sufferings, sacrifices and ceremonies of Muharram. You find in Marsiya the details of the articles used in the times of Imam, the costumes worn, the jewelry used and the customs.

The earlier form of Marsiya was not the same as it is today. The poets of the Qutb Shahi period wrote Marsiya in the form of present Salam. The length of the marsiyas used to be much shorter. It generally had seven to nine couplets, with a Maqta as the last couplet.

The Qutb Shahs of Deccan not only patronized the Marsiya writing, but themselves wrote Marsiyas. Qutub Shahi dynasty were Shias but they encouraged the poets of other sects to participate in the literary exercise. There were as many as twenty one poets, during the Qutb Shahi period, who wrote Marsiyas and they were not all Shias – many Sunnis and some of them belonged to Silsila-e-Qadria.

In Ashoorkhanas (Imam Barahs or Imam Bargahs), the people irrespective of their status were made to sit on the floor, covered with Daries or Qaleen. The poet or the Marsiya Khawn then climbed the scaffolding platform called ‘Minbar’ and recited in tune, as the practice was during the later period, or just read. But it is certain that there was no Majlis, in which Marsiya was not recited and the view gets its confirmation as the Marsiyas address the people directly.

The first poet of Golconda who wrote the first Marsiya in the Deccan was Wajihi. But it was Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, who gave a set form to the Marsiya and helped in its progress. There are five Marsiyas in his Kulliyat, four are in the form of Salaam and one in the form of Masnavi. Beside Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, Abdullah Qutb Shah also wrote Marsiyas. Marsiya writing was considered a great honour. Beside Marsiya, there are three more forms of poetry which are connected with the Majlis. They are Salaam, Nowha and Soz. Nowha, unlike Marsiya does not contain any description or the details of the events. It is simply meant to express the feelings of sorrow and perform Matam.

Naim Naqvi

Oct

2014

A Happy Diwali to All My Friends !

Posted by Naim Naqvi

To my Countrymen in general and Hindu brothers and sisters in particular :
“A festival full of sweet childhood memories,
sky full of fireworks,
mouth full of sweets,
house full of diyas and heart full of joy.
Wishing you all a very happy Diwali!”
My parents never told us that Diwali was a Hindu festival. My maternal grandfather would take us to town bazaar where we buy ‘QANDEELS’ the scintillating colored lamps, “Kheelen” the rice puffs and “Khand Ke Khilone’- the Candy molded toys. Qandeels would decorate the central places, between the arched pillars of our house, and gave a romantic exotic look that appeared mysterious also. Few senior villagers who had survived the ZAMINDARI ABOLITION of 1952, and were nostalgic and compassionate enough to remember their Ex-Zamindar would bring the handmade sweets to our haveli. My father would welcome them with open arms, a warm embrace and a plate full of local sweets. Tea was not popular in those days. My mother would prepare a jaggery-milk concoction with a touch of saffron for the special guests. She would send in ‘MARDANA’, the hall for males, silver goblets, filled up to brim and perched precariously on a fancy tray. The Diwali guests were given the family status and all our siblings would come out to offer our respect and greetings to our Chowdhry Tayajis one by one. It was the payback of hospitality and courtesy to those who had come all the way from the villages to recall the good or bad times when Zamindar was next to the king.
As I cherish memories of my childhood, Diwali occupies an important space upon that canvass. Diwali was one of the most joyous times of the year. I can still vividly recall our old haveli bathing in fluctuating lights of the traditional tiny oil lamps. The small earthen cups were positioned on windowsills and paths leading to house. Electricity was a luxury and few could have boasted that privilege. Our parents kept reminding us to be careful as we ran to avoid catching fire. We were conservative Muslims but we loved to celebrate ‘Raksha Bandhan’ and ‘Diwali.’ These were our festivals.
Other exciting aspect of Diwali for us was the fireworks. These came in a great variety – sparklers, Catherine wheels, Roman candles, rockets, firecrackers, etc. There were restriction set that forbade us to enjoy loud crackers and heavy rockets. We would crackle the Khand toys rice puff all through the day and visit the decorated, glittering noisy bazaars in night with our father to enjoy the razzle dazzle. In the main market, the sweet shops used to offer infinite varieties of Indian sweets – laddoo, halva, burfi, rasmalai, jalebi, etc. Our Hindu friends would exchange sweets and often trendy clothes with the neighbours, friends and extended families.
Uncle Mathur would remind us that the day was the celebration of Return of the Raja Ram and his brothers after exile.
With the razing down of the Babri Masjid and death of the father, these celebrations have become the memories of past. Speeches of myopic politicians and torch bearers of divisions in society and their likes have extinguished those flames of love, excitement and respect for the common heritage. Decades after independence, the miasma failed to rekindle the spirit that my family had kept alive for generations. Still, I hope and pray the return of those good old days. Again I wish all – A Very Happy Diwali.

Naim Naqvi

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Author Archives: Naim Naqvi

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