Let Ghazals Remain Ghazals - Who Want To Understand Will Learn Urdu
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
2 March
2024
'Jise Samajhna
Hoga, Vo Urdu Seekh Lega'
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I'm reading
Urdu, English and Bengali newspapers that are all praise for the late Pankaj
Udhas' 'beautiful' Ghazals that are bereft of difficult Urdu words. Yours truly
has also written an article in English on the late maestro, highlighting his
role of purging Ghazals of Urdu and Persian words. While I appreciate the
endeavours of Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota, Rajendra and Nina Mehta, among others
as they tried to simplify Ghazals for the masses, I've always felt that
somewhere the purity of Ghazals is being compromised in this way.
Ghazals
were written in other languages as well. Rumi, Hafiz and Saadi Shirazi of
Persia in Persian; Yunus Emre, Fuzûlî and Nesimi of the Ottoman Empire wrote Ghazals
in Turkish; Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal of North India penned their
exquisite Ghazals predominantly in Urdu; and Kazi Nazrul Islam of Bengal wrote
them in Bengali. Dushyant Kumar Tyagi and Hanumant Naidu wrote excellent Ghazals
in Hindi. Nagpur's Suresh Bhatt wrote Marathi Ghazals. But I'm afraid he
massacred them because Marathi, being a rather uncouth tongue, is not suitable
for Ghazals.
Amar Palanpuri
experimented with the Ghazal format in Gujarati and the brilliant Agha
Shahid Ali introduced the Ghazal genre to English poetry. But classical Ghazals
written by Ghalib, Daagh, Momin, Mir, Ahmad Faraz, Faiz and Firaq with Urdu,
Persian and Arabic words will always be appreciated by those who love Urdu and Ghazals.
In short, they'll continue to enthral the purists. The politicization of Urdu
has witnessed the relegation of this mellifluous language to Hindustani. What's
Hindustani? I call it a mongrel. Urdu is Urdu and Hindi is Hindi. No need to
bridge the two. This attempt of linguistic bridging has harmed both Urdu and
Hindi. It's like, 'Na Khuda Hi Mila, Na Visaal-e-Sanam/ Na Idhar Ke Rahe, Na
Udhar Ke Hum.' This unnecessary simplification has resulted in the overall
mediocrity of today's songs and Ghazals. 'Poets' not knowing Urdu and prosody
are writing Urdu Ghazals and killing the spirit of Urdu as well as Hindi.
Let Ghazals
remain Ghazals with naturally difficult Urdu, Persian and Arabic words.
Don't try to replace them with Hindi words. That'll be tantamount to committing
a linguistic molestation, if not downright rape. 'Kyon Kar Main Giraaoon
Meyaar Apna, Duniya Ki Khaatir / Jise Samajhna Hoga, Vo Urdu Seekh Lega' (Why
should I lower my standard down for the sake of the world?/ Who wants to
understand (me), will learn Urdu).
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/ghazals-learn-urdu/d/131834