LITERARY HISTORY
Aesthetics of resistance
M. ASADUDDIN
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Anthems chronicles the achievements of the Urdu Progressive Writers' Movement.
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Anthems of Resistance: A Celebration of Urdu Poetry, Ali Husain Mir and Raza Mir, India Ink, Roli Books, 2006, p.xix + 248, Rs. 295.
ART'S relationship with life has always remained a subject of fierce contention among writers and ideologues. In India, the debates about art for art's sake and "engaged' literature animated the literary scene in the 1930s and 40s. The Progressive Writers' Movement (PWM) that spearheaded this debate changed the complexion of literature in a couple of Indian languages, Urdu being the most prominent among them.
Urdu poets had a dominant presence in the movement and the way they posited a radical aesthetics of resistance against oppressive hegemonies of all kinds had few parallels in South Asian literature. Some poems/ couplets swept a generation of readers off their feet, making poetry the most potent weapon in the process of social transformation. Good poetry has never been known to be didactic. However, some progressive poets, notably Faiz Ahmad Faiz, could blend ideology with poetry with such finesse, with such consummate artistry, that it has added charm to their art rather than resulting in the loss of depth or lyricism.
The book under review chronicles the achievements of the PWM through the works of the more prominent among them. Divided into 11 chapters of moderate length, the book proceeds from a discussion of the theoretical/ideological issues to the exemplars of the ideology, always elucidating the points through a sumptuous sampling of verses both in original Urdu and in lucid English translation.
Different responses
The chapter on progressive aesthetic discusses the notion of people's art as propounded by Mayakovsky, Gorky and Mao. The response to such an aesthetic by Urdu poets has not been uniform, even though the broad principle that literature should engage with the plight of the marginalised was accepted by all. While many poets valorised content over form, others like Majrooh Sultanpuri and Kaifi Azmi worked within the form of traditional genres like the ghazal but extended the expressive possibilities of the form to convey revolutionary ideas.
In several chapters the authors discuss the contributions made by stalwarts like Ali Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi, Jaan Nisar Akhtar, Asrarul Haq Majaz and Makhdoom Mohiuddin. In the chapter, "Dream and Nightmare" they show how the robust and uncritical optimism shown by the progressives in a teleological notion of history and the liberating potential of modernity got a rude jolt when the apocalyptic moment of freedom and decolonisation of India was scarred by the worst form of fratricidal violence and genocide in the history of the subcontinent. Faiz's poem "Subh Azadi", beginning with Ye dagh dagh ujala ye shabgazida sehar, Majaz's Awara (though written much earlier) and Kaifi's "Mera Maazi mere kaandhe pe" demonstrate the Progressives' disillusionment with India's freedom and their ambivalent relationship with modernity.
To the authors of this book, Sahir Ludhianvi is the best exemplar of progressive poetry and they substantiate their assertion through the film lyrics that he wrote over several decades. Urdu writers associated with the PWM had a marked presence in the Bombay film industry from the 1940s and this in no small measure accounts for the fact that the strand of progressive ideology runs as an undercurrent through the films then produced, before it gets dissipated by the widespread cynicism brought in by mounting corruption in public life. However, despite the constraints imposed by a new medium and the changing perceptions in the Mumbai film industry poets like Majrooh and Javed Akhtar managed to insert progressive elements in their lyrics. Akhtar's "Tarkash" has been taken up for detailed analysis by the authors to demonstrate the continuance and even reassertion of the progressive strand in Urdu poetry.
The spirit survives
The authors argue that though PWM lost steam for a number of reasons, the spirit of resistance still survives, which is notably visible in the strand of feminist Urdu poetry in Pakistan. They see it at work in the poetry of a radical and fiercely independent band of women poets like Fahmida Riyaz, Kishwar Naheed, Parvin Shakir and others who have been waging a fierce battle against patriarchy and the fascist tendencies of the oppressive military regimes in Pakistan.
In recent years, we have had at least two critical accounts of the PWM, by Geeta Patel in her book on Miraji and Priyambada Gopal in her book on the literature of resistance, respectively. The authors of Anthems of Resistance, however, declare unabashedly that theirs is not a critical or dispassionate account. It is a celebration of the spirit of resistance encapsulated in a particular phase of Urdu poetry. The book has been successful in capturing the excitement and ebullience of that moment when, to quote Wordsworth in the context of the French Revolution, "Bliss was it then to be alive/ But to be young was very heaven!"
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