These are times neither easy nor laudatory for Mughal emperors. A little over 150 years after the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, ceased to be the Emperor of Hindustan, the nation is looking anew at them. The royals are being subjected to fresh scrutiny. And truth be said, they have not come out in flying colours. From Aurangzeb who continues to divide opinion as effortlessly as he demolished his opponents to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the emperors and their works are being put through inspection.
We all know about the age-old debate on Aurangzeb –– he imposed jizyah, he demolished temples, he killed brothers. No, jizyah was political expedience; he had more Hindus in his administration than any preceding Mughal emperor, including the great Akbar, he gave Hindu women right to life by abolishing Sati, etc. The argument rages on. With Aurangzeb having ceded prime land in the Capital, now the focus has shifted to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the man who has often been derided for being a weak ruler.
But wasn’t he a loving son of Hindustan who loved the motherland so much that he penned “Kitna hai badnaseeb Zafar, dafn ke liye do gaz zameen bhi na mili koo-e-yaar mein” when in exile in Rangoon. And he penned those memorable lines, “Na kisi ki ankh ka noor hun” too. Or did he?
Well, that is exactly the subject of discussion these days. And if noted lyricist Javed Akhtar is to be believed, Zafar did not.
The lines were instead penned by Javed Sahab’s grandfather Muztar Khairabadi. Javed Sahab, who has just come up with a five volume work on his grandfather, who passed away in 1927 leaving behind sizeable unpublished diwan, claimed that he found the timeless ghazal “Na kisi ki ankh ka noor hun” written in one of the private diaries of his grandfather.
The claim immediately set tongues wagging. Many believed Javed Sahab, reckoning that Zafar was credited with the work thanks to the 1960 Hindi film Lal Quila where the ghazal was attributed to him.
Javed Sahab’s claim had earlier got support from a critic in Pakistan too who said the common perception that the ghazal was penned by Zafar merely showed the power of Hindi cinema and not the ground reality of the world of letters. Also, the ghazal has not been found in the emperor’s diwan.
Others jumped to the beleaguered emperor’s defence. “The Emperor passed away in 1862 in exile in Rangoon and wrote these soul touching words in a state of utter loneliness,” they claim, adding, “Muztar was anyway born in 1862 and could not have written anything to coincide with the immediate years after the failed Revolt of 1857.”
That, of course, assumes, that the lines were penned soon after 1857. There are others who argue that Muztar was a man with a religious bent of mind. He penned ‘Milaad-e-Mustafa’, naats in praise of the Prophet. He could not have written a ghazal of absolute hopelessness. Also, “Zafar wrote it as a prisoner in Rangoon, so the ghazal could not have been found in diwan,” they defend. Others feel it was neither Zafar nor Muztar who wrote the lines. One can barely discount those who believe these were the words of noted poet Seemab Akbarabadi.
Even as the debate continues on Bahadur Shah Zafar’s poetic skill or the lack of it, I found a new facet to the controversy recently. I had been to the Aligarh Muslim University recently. The university was then busy preparing for Kaifi Azmi’s centenary celebrations. Javed Sahab and Shabana Azmi were supposed to grace the function.
The talk invariably veered to Javed Sahab’s poetry, including his songs in Hindi cinema. “Do you know ‘Ek ladki ko dekha…’ is inspired from a work by Josh Malihabadi,” an academic said, only half asking me. I had heard of the allegation more than the 20 years ago when Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 1942: A Love Story was released.
Too drunk on the melody of the moment, I had then chosen to stay away from the controversy. The respected academic’s claims, however, sent me scurrying for Josh Malihabadi’s poetry. He was not far off the mark, I discovered. I did indeed come across the said inspiration for “Ek ladki ko dekha”.
A little under 50 years before Javed Sahab’s beautiful song sent many of us into an imagination overdrive, Josh Malihabadi had penned a song highlighting a girl’s voluptuous youth, comparing it to a river in spate, a storm and the like. The song, sun by Zohrabai Ambalewali, was apparently banned then by the British, but is available today.
Penned for the film Mann Ki Jeet , the lyrics went Morey Jubna Ka Dekho Ubhaar/Paapi Joban Ka Dekho Ubhaar/Jaise Nadi Ki Mauj, Jaise Turkon Ki Fauj/Jaise Sulage Se Bum, Jaise Balak Udham/Jaise Koyal Pukaare – More/ Jaise Hirni Kulel, Jaise Toofan Mail/Jaise Bhanware Ki Joom, Jaise Sawan Ki Dhoom .
So, Javed Sahab fights for his grandfather. Somebody raises his voice for Josh Malihabadi, a few others for the last emperor. Finally, who wrote what? And when? The jury is out.
POSTSCRIPT: Well known theatre director Sayeed Alam’s play “Lal Quile ka Akhri Mushaira”, inspired by Muhammad Hussain Azad’s “Aab-e-Hayaat” and Farhatullah Beg’s “Dehli ki Aakhri Shama” talks of the famous couplet, “Kitna hai budnaseeb Zafar” and “Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hun” as not having been penned by Zafar.
Also Salman Khurshid-Ather Farouqui’s play “Sons of India” talks freely about Aurangzeb being a great warrior whose empire extended from Kabul to Bengal, from Kashmir to the South. He imposed jizyah but that had little to do with his faith.
He was a pious man who stitched caps to earn his living and copied the Glorious Quran. He was no bigot; on the contrary Hindus were active participants in his administration as also his army. He gave annuals grants to temples for maintenance.
(the author is a seasoned literary critic)
