<!--QuoteBegin-Bharatvarsh+Dec 11 2007, 02:37 PM-->QUOTE(Bharatvarsh @ Dec 11 2007, 02:37 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Bodhi do you have any info on this
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Urdu poets like Firaq Gorakhpuri [right][snapback]76028[/snapback][/right]
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Bharatvarsh, Firaq Gorakhpuri was an Urdu poet par-excellence.
First of all, he preferred natural urdu, avoiding unnecessary import of Arabi-Farsi. He certainly signaled a departure of urdu language from orthodox Farsi-leaning Urdu to a new, natural, Hindi-turning, and pleasant to hear Urdu for a Hindi-speaker.
By the way, dont go by his pen-name "Firaq". He was very much a Hindu, his real name was Raghupati Sahay, and as his pen-name says he was from Gorakhpur.
Unlike some other Urdu poets - such as Ali Sardar Jafri (also from his neighbourhood - Balrampur) he did not have an "agenda" which he tried to fulfill through poetry.
I remember reading one of Ali Sardar Jafri's najm in newspapers, which he had written in eulogy to the USSR at the time when it was broken up. "Alvia ae surkha parcham, surkh parcham alvida." Jafri was not only heavy communist-leaning, but also used such language which an ordinary Hindi-speaker will find very hard to understand as compared to a persian-speaker. (Incidentally A B Vajpayee gifted a book of Jafri to Nawaz Sharif on his trip to Lahore. I think he should have gifted a book of Abdurrahim Khankhana or even of Firaq Gorakhpuri)
Two more of Urdu poets of importance from that era, and incidentally from the same neighbourhood of east-UP are: Majrooh Sultanpuri, and Jigar Moradabadi (who actually was not really from Muradabad but Gonda). Both of the later ones, certainly Majrooh, also helped Urdu poetry becoming closer to Hindi. I am not too sure about Jigar on this point, but somehow Jigar seems to have become more of a symbol for new Urdu-"resurgence" and islamization.
I shall post my thoughts on progress of Urdu and its conflicts with other indic languages in detail later.
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One of the close friends of my grand father used to teach us children Hindi and Sanskrit. Apart from being a full-time teacher, he was also a priest by interest and I have not seen such a wonderful priest in my life so far - he would be deeply emptionally involved in the rituals and even make his jajmaan so during the karma-kanda. He was not only a master at classical sanskrit but also vedic sanskrit he used to know well, and remembered who knows how many mantra-s. Having also learnt Arabi from Arya Samaj schools he also used to take some interest in Urdu poetry. (Arya samaj used to have Arabic courses back then, so that Hindus can refute mullas on their own turf)
But anyways, I would remember this event he and my grand father used to recall about an Urdu Mushayara (kavi-sammelan). Both of them, early in their life, used to teach in Aligarh Muslim University for a couple of years. Mushayara-s and shayari competitions were (may be still are) common there.
The format of such competition used to be that part of the line will be fixed, and the remaining line has to be completed by the competing poets. Whoever does the best job of completing the 'sher' using this line, won the competition.
Once, as they used to narrate, they were passing by where a mushayara was taking place in a lecture room. The line was "Kaafir hai jo banda nahi islam kaa" - (he who does not follow islam is kafir). And of course, AMU being the hotbed of faithfuls, all kafir-bashing was going on.
This friend of my grandfather - as they used to tell us - could not hold himself and jumped on to the dias and quickly drew with chalk on the blackboard a rough picture of child-krishna. In arabic there is a character called 'laam' which corresponds to 'la' in indic languages or 'L' in english. In arabic script it very much looks like a curl. In the picture that he quickly drew the hair of Krishna were all curls looking like 'laam', and then he read this line:
<b>laam jaisa gesu hai mere ghanshyam kaa
kaafir hai jo banda nahi "is laam" kaa</b>
{hair of krishna are like laam (of arabic)
he is kaafir who is not a follower of this-laam}
what followed, used to make for another lengthy tale in their long sessions over tea. In nutshell, they vacated AMU and took shelter elsewhere.
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Urdu poets like Firaq Gorakhpuri [right][snapback]76028[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Bharatvarsh, Firaq Gorakhpuri was an Urdu poet par-excellence.
First of all, he preferred natural urdu, avoiding unnecessary import of Arabi-Farsi. He certainly signaled a departure of urdu language from orthodox Farsi-leaning Urdu to a new, natural, Hindi-turning, and pleasant to hear Urdu for a Hindi-speaker.
By the way, dont go by his pen-name "Firaq". He was very much a Hindu, his real name was Raghupati Sahay, and as his pen-name says he was from Gorakhpur.
Unlike some other Urdu poets - such as Ali Sardar Jafri (also from his neighbourhood - Balrampur) he did not have an "agenda" which he tried to fulfill through poetry.
I remember reading one of Ali Sardar Jafri's najm in newspapers, which he had written in eulogy to the USSR at the time when it was broken up. "Alvia ae surkha parcham, surkh parcham alvida." Jafri was not only heavy communist-leaning, but also used such language which an ordinary Hindi-speaker will find very hard to understand as compared to a persian-speaker. (Incidentally A B Vajpayee gifted a book of Jafri to Nawaz Sharif on his trip to Lahore. I think he should have gifted a book of Abdurrahim Khankhana or even of Firaq Gorakhpuri)
Two more of Urdu poets of importance from that era, and incidentally from the same neighbourhood of east-UP are: Majrooh Sultanpuri, and Jigar Moradabadi (who actually was not really from Muradabad but Gonda). Both of the later ones, certainly Majrooh, also helped Urdu poetry becoming closer to Hindi. I am not too sure about Jigar on this point, but somehow Jigar seems to have become more of a symbol for new Urdu-"resurgence" and islamization.
I shall post my thoughts on progress of Urdu and its conflicts with other indic languages in detail later.
====
One of the close friends of my grand father used to teach us children Hindi and Sanskrit. Apart from being a full-time teacher, he was also a priest by interest and I have not seen such a wonderful priest in my life so far - he would be deeply emptionally involved in the rituals and even make his jajmaan so during the karma-kanda. He was not only a master at classical sanskrit but also vedic sanskrit he used to know well, and remembered who knows how many mantra-s. Having also learnt Arabi from Arya Samaj schools he also used to take some interest in Urdu poetry. (Arya samaj used to have Arabic courses back then, so that Hindus can refute mullas on their own turf)
But anyways, I would remember this event he and my grand father used to recall about an Urdu Mushayara (kavi-sammelan). Both of them, early in their life, used to teach in Aligarh Muslim University for a couple of years. Mushayara-s and shayari competitions were (may be still are) common there.
The format of such competition used to be that part of the line will be fixed, and the remaining line has to be completed by the competing poets. Whoever does the best job of completing the 'sher' using this line, won the competition.
Once, as they used to narrate, they were passing by where a mushayara was taking place in a lecture room. The line was "Kaafir hai jo banda nahi islam kaa" - (he who does not follow islam is kafir). And of course, AMU being the hotbed of faithfuls, all kafir-bashing was going on.
This friend of my grandfather - as they used to tell us - could not hold himself and jumped on to the dias and quickly drew with chalk on the blackboard a rough picture of child-krishna. In arabic there is a character called 'laam' which corresponds to 'la' in indic languages or 'L' in english. In arabic script it very much looks like a curl. In the picture that he quickly drew the hair of Krishna were all curls looking like 'laam', and then he read this line:
<b>laam jaisa gesu hai mere ghanshyam kaa
kaafir hai jo banda nahi "is laam" kaa</b>
{hair of krishna are like laam (of arabic)
he is kaafir who is not a follower of this-laam}
what followed, used to make for another lengthy tale in their long sessions over tea. In nutshell, they vacated AMU and took shelter elsewhere.