At a time when military aggression is bringing immense misery and destruction upon ordinary people, one is reminded of the pathos-filled song “Jaane waale sipahi se poochho, woh kahaan ja raha hai?” from Hindi film “Usne Kaha Tha” (She had said), produced by Bimal Roy and directed by his assistant Moni Bhattacharjee. Released in 1961, the film had music by Salil Chowdhury who, along with Bimal Roy, had cut his teeth in the Leftist cultural organisation, Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). The film was based on a short story of the same name that was published in 1915 and is considered a modern classic. Written by Chandradhar Sharma Guleri, it was set against the backdrop of the First World War.
It would not go amiss to recall a few lines of the song here. “Jaane waale sipahi se poochho, woh kahaan ja rahaa hai / kaun dukhiya hai jo gaa rahi hai, bhookhe bachchon ko behla rahi hai / laash jalne ki boo aa rahi hai, zindagi hai ki chilla rahi hai” (Ask the departing soldier, where is he headed, where is he going? Who is that woman who cries, soothing her hungry children? Can you hear life cry out amidst the stench of burnt bodies?)
19dfrMakhdoom
While Shailendra, another luminary from IPTA, had penned the other lyrics for the film, this one was written by Makhdoom Mohiuddin whose songs “Aapki yaad aati rahi raat bhar” (“Gaman”) and “Phir chhidi raat baat phoolon ki” ( “Bazar”) became very popular although he had not written any of them for films. One of his nazms, “Ek chameli ke mandve tale, pyar ki aag mein do badan jal gaye” (Beneath a jasmine arbour, two bodies got burnt in the fires of passionate love) had also gained phenomenal popularity.
Multifaceted personality
Who was this man who wrote such sensuous, subtly erotic and highly evocative love poetry as well as socially conscious songs? Who was Makhdoom Mohiuddin?
Makhdoom Mohiuddin was a communist leader, publicist, agitator, trade unionist and Urdu poet. During 1946-51, Makhdoom he was underground as one of the front-ranking leaders of the famous Telengana People’s Armed Struggle against the feudal rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad and the atrocities perpetrated by the infamous razakars. Arrested in 1951, he was released a year later when the Communist Party of India (CPI) resolved to take to the democratic path and give up the idea of an armed revolution. He was elected to the State Legislature and became the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. In 1953, Makhdoom was elected President of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC).
Born in a family of Islamic scholars on February 4, 1908 in Medak district, Abu Saeed Mohammad Makhdoom Mohiuddin Khudri could trace his lineage to Hazrat Shaikh Abu Saeed Al-Khudri bin-Malik bin-Sanan bin-Noman, who hailed from the famous Ansar clan Khiraz and had the privilege of being a faithful follower of Prophet Mohammad. Makhdoom’s grandfather, Mohammad Ahsanuddin, had devoted himself to scholarly pursuits and established several madrasas in and around Mandmool and Langampally in the Hyderabad State. Makhdoom’s mother, Fatima Begum, hailed from Delhi and migrated to Deccan after the historic uprising of the 1857. At the age of five, Makhdoom’s lost his father and was brought up by his uncle who rose to the post of Tehsildar. A devout Muslim, Makhdoom was a well-informed and enlightened man. In one of his autobiographical articles, Makhdoom recalls that it was his uncle who with great excitement had broken the news of the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 while having dinner with the family.
From a very early age, Makhdoom started receiving education in Persian, Arabic, Islamic law and Hadees. However, despite his sound religious training, he was soon attracted toward Marxism and was active in students’ and workers’ agitations. He also became well know for his poetry and his poetry collection “Surkh Savera” (The Red Dawn) became extremely popular.
Mujtaba Husain, the pre-eminent Urdu satirist, has drawn an unforgettable pen portrait of Makhdoom and it opens with the news of Makhdoom having gone underground and how once he walked for more than 25 kilometres just to get a glimpse of Makhdoom. It also talks of the lifelong friendship that the trade unionist poet enjoyed with his comrade Raj Bahadur Gour, a medical doctor who became active in the nascent communist movement. Makhdoom, Gour and Alam Khundmiri, a political philosopher who was equally at ease with literature, collected a few like-minded friends and founded Comrades’ Association that began as a study circle but soon got involved in trade union activities and eventually got banned by the Nizam’s government.
He died on August 24, 1969. It was Alam Khundmiri Foundation that celebrated Makhdoom’s centenary in February 2008 in Hyderabad. On that occasion, Khundmiri’s daughter-in-law Jayanti Alam edited a volume entitled “Remembering Makhdoom” and Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust published it. Next year, it will be Makhdoom’s 110th birth anniversary. One hopes to see a few more books on him in the years to come.
