The Progressives

Several Urdu poets drew their inspiration from revolutions in Russia and China and advocated similar transformation in India. The Progressive Writers’ Movement, established by Mulk Raj Anand and Sajjad Zaheer, held its first conference in 1936. The ghazal had been marginalized for quite some time due to a misconception by some progressives that the ghazal was anti-progressive. Thankfully, poets like Faiz Ahmed Faiz kept writing ghazals using love and Sufi phraseology with new revolutionary import. Faiz reframed concepts of love and beauty to be in tune with the needs of changing times. This chapter makes the point that literature and fine arts are social acts, and if creativity is impeded and freedom of the mind is compromised, poetry will lack freshness and spontaneity. Thus, in spite of the harsh criticism of some mistaken people, the ghazal reappeared in a decade or two and thrived together with the wave of rising social consciousness and revolutionary zeal.

The Genesis and Evolution of India’s Composite Culture

This opening chapter provides an overview of how the Urdu ghazal evolved into a dynamic and musical form of poetic genre, and expounds on how a variety of factors, including the inflow of Islamic influences into the traditional Indian culture steeped in Hindu way of life, the spread of Bhakti Movement, the birth of indigenous strains of Sufism, and the contribution of great singers, made the ghazal gain great popularity with the masses.

The Modernists and the Postmodernists

This chapter opens with a conceptual history of literary movements like modernism and postmodernism in Europe, and goes on to discuss the origins of these trends in Urdu literature, particularly Urdu poetry, about which much has not been written before. This chapter also contains samples of representative ghazal verses from a wide variety of modern and postmodern poets, including Javed Akhtar and Gulzar.

The Concept of Self

One significant aspect of the Urdu ghazal is that it is not simply a lyrical accretion of feelings and emotions—it contains ideas, thoughts, and philosophical viewpoints. This chapter examines the Urdu ghazal in light of various streams of thought about human nature, about personal identity (self), and about human beings’ relationship with God. Besides being a source of enjoyment, the Urdu ghazal also served as a cohesive force for promoting pluralistic culture of India, while at the same time further bonding its intrinsic ethnic multiplicity.

The Neoclassicists

By the early twentieth century, Urdu literature had grown in variety and richness—it consisted of not only divans of ghazals but novels, dramas, historical accounts, biographies, and even books on medicine and astronomy. However, the ghazal as a genre had suffered a reversal, first by a movement by some British educationists aimed at promoting poems, and then by the loss of master poets like Dagh, Hali, and Shibli, without any replacement by the poets of the same caliber. Under such circumstances, it was left to poets like Hasrat Mohani, Akbar Allahabadi, Allama Iqbal, Chakbast, and Yagana to take up the ghazal’s banner. All of them helped in its vigorous restoration and revival with a captivating lyrical touch.

The Concept of Beauty

Like love, the concept of beauty is another overarching theme in the Urdu ghazal. The chapter makes the point that the concept of beauty was not borrowed from the Persian poetry. Rather, it emerged as a result of melding of Hindu and Muslim sub-cultures. Early examples of Dakani poetry illustrates this point with the help of specific examples. The chapter recognizes Sufism as another major influence.

The Concept of Love

Chapter 2 explains the meaning of love in the context of the Urdu ghazal, especially during the classical period. Physical and transcendental aspects of love get special attention in this discussion. A major portion of the chapter is devoted to Delhi and Lucknow schools of ghazal writing and how they differed from one another. The chapter ends with great literary contributions of two giants of the Urdu ghazal, namely Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Ghalib.

The Rhetorical Aspects of the Urdu Ghazal

The Urdu ghazal is truly an Indian invention. Although initially it borrowed themes and legendary references from the Persian and Arab cultures, with the passage of time it became the mirror-image of blended Indian culture. The chapter explains how the ghazal incorporates Indian mythologies like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, social and geographical features like rivers, festivals, customs and rituals, flowers and flowering trees, birds and animals, seasons and climate, cities and places, and finally music and ragas.