Mohammad Iqbal a Rabindranath Tagore never met. Iqbal was jealous about Tagore getting the nobel prize and had a life-long complex about it.He was conveniently absent when Tagore once wanted to meet him in Lahore. He was also angry when Tagore was given a royal reception in Persia. I share this interesting article about the relationship between these two titans. Tagore & Iqbal (DAWN Article) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan 24 August 2003 Sunday 25 Jamadi-us-Saani 1424 The award complex By Intizar Hussain Ikram Chaghtais recently published book, Iqbal and Tagore, reminds me of the time when the Hindus and the Muslims seemed poised as two rival groups challenging each other in every walk of life. The Pakistan Movement had not yet taken a start, but the growing sense of competition between the two communities was pointing to such a possibility. Those were the days when in the field of sports, wrestling matches or what are commonly called dangals were very popular with the people. In the process of centuries, the akhara - the wrestlers ring - had come to stay as an institution which enjoyed the patronage of the Muslim gentry. It was here that the Muslims challenged the Hindus. When a Muslim wrestler challenged his Hindu rival in the akhara, there was the same kind of excitement and upsurge of emotions we witness on the occasion of Indo-Pak cricket matches. The success of the Muslim wrestlers, which often happened, sent a wave of jubilation among the Muslims. At least in the field of wrestling, the Indian Muslims enjoyed a sense of superiority. It was in such an atmosphere that Rabindra Nath Tagore and Iqbal emerged as two glittering stars on the poetic horizon of India. The people on both sides found so easy to convert the poetic horizon as an akhara and treat their poets as their hero-wrestlers. And the two poets were no more mere poets. Tagore, the poet, had grown in to a guru-dev, and Iqbal had achieved the status of Hakimul Ummat. Gama Pehalwan was the distinguished contemporary of Iqbal and Tagore. In an international wrestling bout, Gama defeated his rival, Zabisco, and won the title of Rustam-i-Zaman. It sent a great wave of jubilation among Indian Muslims. The Hindus received the news with a bit of coldness. But soon they were duly compensated. Tagore won the Nobel Prize. Now it was their turn to be jubilant. Now they had their own Rustam-i-Zaman, and in a better way. The Indian Muslims felt frustrated. Their hero-wrestler had lagged behind. Ikram Chaghtai has devoted a whole chapter of his book wherein he has discussed the situation. The chapter has been captioned Award Complex. From this discussion, we know that it is not in our time alone that the writers in Pakistan suffer from this complex. The malady can be traced back to the times of Iqbal and Tagore. Chaghtai tells us on the authority of Sir Abdul Qadir that Iqbals friends persuaded him to follow Tagore for getting the Award, but it was not easy to convince him. But it is also true, as Chaghtai tells us, that Tagores Award had been hovering on his mind throughout his life, and he, directly or indirectly, could not free himself of this Award Complex. But in case of the title of knighthood, the admirers of Iqbal did not face the kind of frustration they had faced in case of the Nobel Prize. Tagore was honoured with a knighthood in 1915. After a few years Iqbal, too, was honoured with this title. But Ikram Chaghtai has marked a fine distinction between the attitudes of these two poets in respect of this title. Tagore raised his voice against the Amritsar massacre of 1919 and requested the viceroy to be relieved of the title. The request was turned down, but he stuck to his request and did not use the title with his name after that. On the other hand, Iqbal, after being honoured with a knighthood, never thought of returning it. Chaghtai tells us that Tagore had managed to establish a centre for Islamic research in Shanti Niketan, and that Khalifa Abdul Hakim had played a very important role in the establishment of this centre. He had kept Iqbal informed about his role in this respect. A newly-converted Hungarian scholar, Abdul Karim Germanus, was appointed as its first chairman and he had the blessings of Iqbal for that. Iqbal was happy at the establishment of the centre and gave his blessings to Germanus on the occasion of his appointment as chairman of the centre. But he was not happy at the enthusiastic reception Tagore got in Iran. Chaghtai has, in this connection, reproduced four letters of Iqbal addressed to the Iranian diplomat, Ghulam Abbas Aram. These letters, which have been dug out recently, speak of the suspicion Iqbal had in relation to Tagores visit to Iran. As for Tagore, he is seen, as shown by Chaghtai, debunking Iqbals poetry in a subtle way. He said that if Iqbal had chosen to write in his own language - Punjabi - instead of Urdu and Persian, Punjabi would have been a richer language. But Chaghtais research does not tell us how Iqbal reacted to this statement. To be brief, this book, which has been published by Sang-i-Meel, makes interesting reading. Ikram Chaghtai has dug out many interesting details in relation to the Iqbal-Tagore relationship, of the two poets who lived in one time and in one country, but never met. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 08:51:57 +0000
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