5 negative points on milli wahdat
Answers
Explanation:
egative points on milli wahdat
Answer:
That a school teacher in Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh) should be suspended for ‘making’ his students sing Iqbal’s ‘Lab pe aati hai dua ...’ should no longer surprise us. That the song, entitled Bachhe ki Dua was inspired by an English poem by Matilda B. Edwards (1836-1919) entitled ‘A Child’s Prayer’, and is essentially a plea to be saved from any form of wrongdoing, is a small detail that is often overlooked in the all-pervasive, ill-informed antipathy towards Iqbal.
The vilification of Iqbal (1877-1938) as the father of the two-nation theory, as a passionate advocate of a Muslim Renaissance and a votary of pan-Islamism began soon after his death, and once anointed as the ‘national poet’ of Pakistan, acquired the speed of a juggernaut in the years after Partition. Now, given the deeply polarised times we live in, given our propensity to view the world in stark black or white, given our willing suspension of inquiry let alone curiosity in belief systems differ from our own — the blind hatred towards Iqbal and all that he stands for, seems inevitable.
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‘Why Did the Idea of Living Together No Longer Seem Feasible?’
But, given that the same Iqbal we love to hate also gave us Saare jahan se achha Hindostan hamara (which incidentally is adopted by not one but several military bands of different regiments of the Indian armed forces as their marching tune), as well as sweetly lyrical poems on Shri Ram (whom he called ‘Ram-e Hind’ and ‘Imam-e Hind’), on Nanak (whom he called ‘mard-e kaamil’ or the ‘perfect man’) — as well as countless jewel-bright gems on the Himalayas and the Ganga — should make us pause to reflect.
It might be worthwhile to look at his ouvre in its entirety to try and understand the movement in his poetic thought from the Tarana-e-Hind (written in 1904) to the Tarana-e-Milli (in 1910) showing the progression from Hindi hain hum watan hai Hindostan hamara (We are the people of Hind and Hindustan is our homeland), to Muslim hain hum watan hai sara jahan hamara (We are Muslims and our homeland is the whole world).
The vilification of Iqbal (1877-1938) as the father of the two-nation theory, as a passionate advocate of a Muslim Renaissance and a votary of pan-Islamism began soon after his death.
Why did the romantic nationalism and the lyrical syncretism leach out to be replaced by a puritanical zeal? Why did the idea of living together no longer seem feasible, so lyrically expounded in poems such as:
Chishti ne jis zameen pe paigham-e haq sunaya
Nanak ne jis chaman mein wahdat ka geet gaya..
Mera watan wahi hai, mera watan wahi hai
(The country where Chishti propounded the message of truth
The country where Nanak sang the song of Oneness
That is my country, that is my country)
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Iqbal Propounded Message of ‘Socialism’ Couched in Islam
One of the tallest poppies in the Urdu literary arena in the first three decades of the 20th century, Iqbal moved from writing on specifically Indian subjects — reflective of pluralism and multiculturalism — to drawing upon world events to inspire, rouse and challenge the imagination of the Indian Muslims.
He was among the earliest to introduce socialism and the socialist movement to young people in India through his rousing poetry. He also introduced modern philosophical concepts, gleaned from his study in Europe, and vastly broadened the scope of the existing intellectual discourse among educated Muslims, keeping it all the while tethered to its quintessentially religious moorings. In his passionate protests against the capitalist and imperialist forces, he propounded the message of ‘socialism’ couched in Islam:
The capitalist from the blood of workers’ veins makes himself a clear ruby;
Landlords’ oppression despoils the villagers’ fields: Revolution!
And:
What is the Quran? For the capitalist, a message of death:
It is the patron of the property-less slave.
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Iqbal was among the first to take note of the disquiet that was affecting the Indian Muslims and bring it within the ken of poetry. This disquiet found expression in different ways: there was the sorrow over the loss of freedom or power of any Islamic race, whether in the distant past or the present; concern about the future of the Islamic countries subject to European hegemony; and suspicion and distrust of western powers that had, in the first place, plotted and brought about the downfall of Muslim rule everywhere. In a rejoinder to his own famous Shikwa (Complaint), Jawab-e-Shikwa (Answer to the Complaint), Iqbal wrote: