Rahat Indori Have Left Us, But His Words Are Not Lost
By Deepanjana Pal
Oct 07,
2020
For poet,
professor and lyricist Rahat Indori, the lockdown felt oppressive. He disliked
the solitariness. It wasn’t the kind that inspired an artist, he told friends
and family. He missed being out in his beloved Indore and he longed for the
mushairas, those public poetry readings that had made him something as rare as
a unicorn— a popular, contemporary Urdu poet.
Rahat
Indori
------
Born Rahat
Qureshi, Indori’s love for the written word began with the Urdu newspapers that
his father, a mill worker, would bring home. At the age of 19, Indori
participated in his first mushaira in Indore, organised in the neighbourhood of
Ranipura, which would become a muse for the poet. He’d return to its streets
and people again and again, in person and in verse. “My Delhi is my Ranipura,”
he wrote in a poem, referring to the capital’s reputation for inspiring
legendary Urdu poets.
By March
this year, Indore and Ujjain accounted for nearly 70% of Madhya Pradesh’s Covid
cases. Ranipura was declared the epicentre of the outbreak in Indore.
Indori and
one particular poem of his — Agar Khilaaf Hone Do [if they oppose, let them] —
became a rallying cry during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests. The
poet had been performing the poem for years, at events held in different parts
of the world; but its belligerent swagger resonated deeply with those who
registered their protest against the law that provides citizenship to minority
religious identities from neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and
Afghanistan, on grounds that it was discriminatory towards Muslims.
The poem
quickly commanded a wider audience as in the months before the pandemic struck,
Indori was invited to recite the poem on popular television shows. The
performances were always theatrical. Restraint was not Indori’s style. He would
wring every possible drop of drama out of his words, in sharp contrast to the
simple and direct style of his writing, which was frowned upon by many Urdu
literary critics for being populist. In recent years, his poetry had become
more politically-charged and this made Indori all the more contemporary and
popular.
“Aasman
laaye ho?
Le aao.
Zameen pe rakh do.”
[Have you
brought the heavens with you?
Bring it
in. Set it down upon this earth.]
“Sarhadon
par bahut tanaav hai kya
Kuchh pata
karo chunav hai kya?”
[Is there a
lot of tension on the border?
Ask around,
is there an election coming up?]
Before
Indori became a professor of Urdu literature at Indore’s Devi Ahilya
University, he’d earned his livelihood as a commercial artist. In later years,
he would dabble with writing lyrics for mainstream Hindi cinema, but it was a
source of satisfaction to Indori that his couplets were more popular than his
Bollywood film lyrics. “Rahat Indori’s poetry is absolutely relevant to the
times. He always had a comment on anything that was happening around him,” said
lyricist Swanand Kirkire, who grew up hero-worshipping Indori as a child in
Indore.
The unease
that Indori had felt at the start of the lockdown came to its tragic end on
August 11, when hours after he was admitted to hospital with Covid-19 and
pneumonia, Indori, aged 70, suffered two heart attacks and passed away. He was
70, and is survived by his wife and four children. The poet may have left us,
but his words are not lost.
“Sabhi Ka Khoon Hai Shaamil Yahan Ki Mitti
Mein,
Kisi Ke Baap Ka Hindustan Thodi Hai?”
[This soil
is soaked with all our blood
You think
India is anyone’s father’s property?]'
Original Headline: Rahat Indori: Simple verses,
deep resonance
Source: The Hindustan Times
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/rahat-indori-left-us,-his/d/123113
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