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kyaa rahaa hai MushaairoN meN ab
log kuch jam’aa aan hote haiNWhat is there in poetry soirees now?
Some people gather, and that is it.
It is difficult to believe that the above couplet was written by Mir Taqi Mir during a time regarded as the golden age of classical Urdu poetry. While reading the couplet it is impossible not to consider what Mir would think of contemporary mushairas? The last mushaira I attended was at Aligarh Muslim University in February 2003. That mushaira never finished because of a combination of audience apathy and faulty sound system. A mushaira in the hallowed lawns of Aligarh Muslim University and big names of contemporary Urdu poetry didn’t get a chance to even recite their poetry! This is the same AMU where Maulana Hasrat Mohani was expelled because a certain poet from Rampur recited a couple of sub-standard verses in a mushaira Hasrat helped organize. Of course there were other factors in play, most important being Maulana’s nationalistic leanings, but the very fact that a student can be expelled for such an act gives us some food for thought on the debilitating stage of contemporary mushairas.
Urdu poetry by its nature is composed for the stage. It is supposed to be recited and to be listened. The poet recites the first misraa of his couplet and keeps reciting till he develops a certain expectation among the audience about the content of the second misraa. And then he will surpise them all with something totally different from their expectations. The bigger the surprise, the more the applause. Imagine Ghalib reciting this misraa in a mushaira a few times, nikalnaa Khuld se Adam kaa sunte aaye haiN lekin and then following it up with bahut be-aabruu hokar tere kuuche se ham nikle. This is the primary reason why Ghazal with its two line couplets is the common form of poetry recited in Mushaira. Qitaat and Rubaa’ii with four lines sometimes work. But longer Nazms usually don’t work because of obvious reasons.
As is the case with the Urdu language, so it is with mushaira that after partition both have been slowly stereotyped as something specifically Muslim. Our Urdu-wallahs certainly have a role to play in this regard as the voices coming from the Mushaira podium grew more communal. Krishna Bihari ‘Noor’, one of the last torch-bearers of the legacy of Raghupati Sahay ‘Firaq’ and Brij Narayan ‘Chakbast’ complained to me about this when I met him after a mushaira in Aligarh. In that mushaira, Rahat Indori, in his typical shrill tone lambasted the Hindu extremists with this couplet:
uR jaayegaa tez havaa meN lashkar vashkar sab
Topii vopii, bandar vandar, nekar vekar sab
Noor said to me with a tinge of sadness apparent in his voice that ye Mushaire ke sher nahiiN haiN (These couplets do not belong to mushairas). Even though Rahat Indori was targeting a particular group of people, the symbols he chose are not specific to that group only. It is not that social issues have not been tackled through mushaira before. There has been a very well articulated genre of progressive poetry in Urdu through Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Majaz Lucknawi, Ali Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi and many more. However, the tone and tenor was different. Even in recent times, Khumar Barabankvi, the poet of love and a big favorite in mushairas wrote about the Meerut riots in this touching couplet:
chiraaGhoN ke badle makaaN jal rahe haiN
nayaa hai zamaanaa nayii roshnii hai
Nowadays, most of the Urdu poets suffer either from victim mentality or inferiority complex. So, we either have couplets being recited about the discrimination meted out to Muslims in India or over-zealous verses proving their patriotism to the country. Most of the audience of contemporary mushairas are Muslims and these themes resonate well with them. However, with the losing away of the secular nature of mushairas, one more common thread between Hindus and Muslims in India is under the threat of breaking apart.
I leave you with a mushaira clip of Rahat Indori and Khumar Barabankvi.
{ 5 comments }
Again, an informed and incisive analysis..Sad that the institution of Mushaira is not only threatened in India but also in Pakistan. In fact, the real patrons of mushairas are outside these two countries – the Indo-Pak diaspora interested in Urdu poetry.
The choice of couplets was quite good and your comment on the themes chosen by the Indian poets is also interesting. Having said that, I am not a pessimist. I think that Bollywood has provided a great avenue for Urdu langauge and poetry (though not in its chaste classical form). The modern verse of Gulzar is substantive as well as popular.
We have to recognize that Urdu poetry will take a different mode of expression in this century and traditions, like many others, will have to give way to newer trends.
Coming back to this poet, thanks for sharing your thoughts with a wide readership and invoking the glorious traditions of Urdu poetry.
The declining standards of Mushairas in India has really been a cause of concern. They have become tamashas. Good poets prefer to stay away from mushairas where the ‘gala-baaz’ poets, shaairaat (women poets who sing well and get poetry written from others) and ‘mutashair’ (pseudo-poets) dominate.
I have seen a great Urdu poet, living in abject penury, writing sub-standard ghazals for such self-styled poets for Rs 100-Rs 250. The pseudo-poets and especially some ’shaairaat’ even asked the poet to put the particular words in the couplets as these words ‘bring more applause from the crowd’. What a degradation of this great institution of mushairas!
Of course, there are still Tarhi mushairas and sheri nashists were the real poets assemble and recite their poetry. There the consideration is not the kind of audience and their demand. How long will these nashists also survive with the tradition of ‘islaah’ and ‘ustaad-shagird’ tradition, ceasing to exist.
Leave alone ‘fan-e-urooz’, many mushaira poets are not aware of even the Urdu script and the correct pronunciation these days. The situation seems comparatively better in Pakistan where mushairas have not been turned into ‘commercial shows’ and ’sanjeeda shaairi’ is still in demand.
The cheap commercial motives of professional poets have made Mushairah a commercial event. We wish Urdu becomes a language of our “MaAsharah” not “mushairah”.
Jawaid Badauni
Muscat (Oman)
Dal do Hathiyaaro ko kaid khane me.
Rukh aman ka hum mod laayenge
Is bhari duniya me koi bhi apna nazar aata nahi
Muskara ke baat karo gair bhi apne nazar aayenge.
“The seer is always the sayer!” says an English proverb.He who observes things so closely and feels through his heart, naturally gives expressinons to his feelings. Wordsworth said ,”poetry is reollection of experience in isolation!”
A poet is a gifted person who immortalizes situations and ideas through his gift of choicest words.
Look at this couplet:
“Kaise , kaise ! aise waise ho gayey!
Aise, waise! kaise, kaise ho gayey!!
Long ago when I went to Aligarh to write my exam and in a private conversation, a student of that gret seat of learning , made a parodyof Sahir Ludhyanvi!
I happened to quote : “Ek shahinshah ne dowlat ka sahaara lekar’
Hum ghariboan ki muhabbat ka udaya hai mazaakh!”
Pat came the reply : “Ek shayer ne thakhaiyul ka sahaara lekar,
pyar ki zinda nishaani ka udaaya hai mazaakh!”
Lord Macaulay said : “As civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily dies!”
This could never be with Urdu poetry. “Woh to mar ke bhi zinda hojaati hai!”
In far South Urdu classes are conducted for non-urdu speaking persons and they have gained good mastery of the language!
Urdu zindabad!Paaindabad!!
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