The Maulana Who Loved Krishna C M Naim A much shorter version was published at Outlookindia on 12 January 2012, and also presented as the 24th Zakir Husain Memorial Lecture in March 2012 at the Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi. C M Naim is Professor Emeritus in the department of South Asian Languages and Civilisations, the University of Chicago, United States. This article reproduces, with English translations, the devotional poems written to the god Krishna by a maulana who was an active participant in the cultural, political and theological life of late colonial north India. Through this, the article gives a glimpse of an Islamicate literary and spiritual world which revelled in syncretism with its surrounding Hindu worlds; and which is under threat of obliteration, even as a memory, in the singular world of globalised Islam of the 21st century. H e was a true maverick. In 1908, when he was 20, he published an anonymous article in his modest Urdu journal Urdū-i-Mu’allā (Aligarh) – circulation 500 – which severely criticised the British colonial policy in Egypt regarding public education. The Indian authorities promptly charged him with “sedition”, and demanded the disclosure of the author’s name. He, however, took sole responsibility for what appeared in his journal and, consequently, spent a little over one year in rigorous imprisonment – held as a “C” class prisoner he had to hand-grind, jointly with another prisoner, one maund (37.3 kgs) of corn every day. The authorities also confi scated his printing press and his lovingly put together library that contained many precious manuscripts. In 1920, when the fi rst Indian Communist Conference was held at Kanpur, he was one of the organising hosts and presented the welcome address. Some believe that it was on that occasion he gave India the slogan Inqilāb Zindabād as the equivalent to the international war cry of radicals: “Vive la Revolution” (Long Live The Revolution). On another occasion, he described himself in a verse as a Sufi man of faith (sūfī momin) and a communist Muslim (ishtirākī muslim), whose chosen path was revolution (inqilāb) and unworldliness (darveshī). darveshī-o-inqilāb maslak hai merā sūfī momin hūñ, ishtirākī muslim He was perhaps the only prominent Muslim of his generation to publicly champion the radical thinking of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh, writing glowingly about both in his journal. When Tilak passed away in 1920, he rushed to participate in the funeral procession and wrote a poem honouring him, including the following verses; jab tak vo rahe dunyā meñ rahā ham sab ke diloñ par zor unkā ab rah ke bahisht meñ nizd-i-khudā hūroñ pe kareñge rāj Tilak har hindū kā mazbūt hai jī, Gītā kī ye bāt hai dil pe likhī ākhir meñ jo khud bhī kahā hai yahī, phir āeñge maharāj Tilak (When he was here in this world he ruled the hearts of all of us; And now in Paradise, in God’s embrace, he rules over the houris. Every Hindu’s heart is strong; on it are carved Gita’s words, And also what he himself said: Maharaj Tilak shall come again) In 1921, three of India’s major political groups of the time held their annual meetings at Ahmedabad simultaneously. At the Khilafat conference, he succeeded in getting a resolution passed that called for India’s absolute freedom from British rule, but the very next day the conference quickly repudiated itself. He then tried his luck in the subjects committee of the Indian National Congress, but the Mahatma swiftly had his resolution voted down. Finally, at the meeting of the Muslim League, over which he presided that year, he forcefully reiterated his demand a third time, but wisely did not risk a vote.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 04:08:05 +0000
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