Ghalib
Ghalib, born Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan ,, was a prominent Urdu and Persian poet during the last years of the Mughal Empire. He used his pen-names of Ghalib and Asad. His honorific was Dabir-ul-Mulk, Najm-ud-Daula. During his lifetime, the already declining Mughal empire was eclipsed and displaced by the Colonial British Raj and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, are some of the events that he described through his work.
Most notably, he wrote in both Urdu and Persian. His Persian Divan is at least five times longer than his Urdu but his fame rests on his poetry in Urdu.
Today, Ghalib remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also among the Hindustani diaspora around the world.
Personal life
Background
Mirza Ghalib was born in Kala Mahal, Agra into a family of Mughals who moved to Samarkand after the downfall of the Seljuk kings. His paternal grandfather, Mirza Qoqan Baig, was a Seljuq Turk who had immigrated to India from Samarkand during the reign of Ahmad Shah. He worked in Lahore, Delhi and Jaipur, was awarded the sub-district of Pahasu and finally settled in Agra, UP, India. He had four sons and three daughters. Mirza Abdullah Baig and Mirza Nasrullah Baig were two of his sons.Mirza Abdullah Baig married Izzat-ut-Nisa Begum, an ethnic Kashmiri, and then lived at the house of his father-in-law. He was employed first by the Nawab of Lucknow and then the Nizam of Hyderabad, Deccan. He died in a battle in 1803 in Alwar and was buried at Rajgarh. Back then, Ghalib was a little over 5 years of age. He was then raised by his Uncle Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan, but in 1806, Nasrullah fell off an elephant and died from related injuries.
At the age of thirteen, Ghalib married Umrao Begum, daughter of Nawab Ilahi Bakhsh. He soon moved to Delhi, along with his younger brother, Mirza Yousuf, who had developed schizophrenia at a young age and later died in Delhi during the chaos of 1857.
None of his seven children survived beyond infancy. After his marriage, he settled in Delhi. In one of his letters he describes his marriage as the second imprisonment after the initial confinement that was life itself. The idea that life is one continuous painful struggle which can end only when life itself ends, is a recurring theme in his poetry. One of his couplets puts it in a nutshell:
Mirza Ghalib's view of world as he sees world is like a playground where everyone is busy in some mundane activity and merrymaking rather than something of greater value as he wrote:
There are conflicting reports regarding his relationship with his wife. She was considered to be pious, conservative and God-fearing.
Ghalib was proud of his reputation as a rake. He was once imprisoned for gambling and subsequently relished the affair with pride. In the Mughal court circles, he even acquired a reputation as a "ladies' man". Once, when someone praised the poetry of the pious Sheikh Sahbai in his presence, Ghalib immediately retorted:
He died in Delhi on 15 February 1869. The house where he lived in Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, in Old Delhi known as the Ghalib ki Haveli has now been turned into 'Ghalib Memorial' and houses a permanent Ghalib exhibition.
Mughal Titles
In 1850, Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II bestowed upon Mirza Ghalib the title of "Dabir-ul-Mulk". The Emperor also added to it the additional title of "Najm-ud-daula". The conferment of these titles was symbolic of Mirza Ghalib's incorporation into the nobility of Delhi. He also received the title of 'Mirza Nosha' from the Emperor, thus adding Mirza as his first name. He was also an important courtier of the royal court of the Emperor. As the Emperor was himself a poet, Mirza Ghalib was appointed as his poet tutor in 1854. He was also appointed as tutor of Prince Fakhr-ud Din Mirza, eldest son of [Bahadur Shah II,. He was also appointed by the Emperor as the royal historian of the Mughal Court.Being a member of declining Mughal nobility and old landed aristocracy, he never worked for a livelihood, lived on either royal patronage of Mughal Emperors, credit or the generosity of his friends. His fame came to him posthumously. He had himself remarked during his lifetime that he would be recognized by later generations. After the decline of the Mughal Empire and the rise of the British Raj, despite his many attempts, Ghalib could never get the full pension restored.
Literary career
Ghalib started composing poetry at the age of 11. His first language was Urdu, but Persian and Turkish were also spoken at home. He received an education in Persian and Arabic at a young age. During Ghalib's period, the words "Hindi" and Urdu" were synonyms. Ghalib wrote in Perso-Arabic script which is used to write modern Urdu, but often called his language "Hindi"; one of his works was titled Ode-e-Hindi.When Ghalib was in his early teens, a newly converted Muslim tourist from Iran came to Agra. He stayed at Ghalib's home for two years and taught him Persian, Arabic, philosophy, and logic.
Although Ghalib valued Persian over Urdu, his fame rests on his writings in Urdu. Numerous commentaries on Ghalib's ghazal compilations have been written by Urdu scholars. The first such elucidation or Sharh was written by Ali Haider Nazm Tabatabai of Hyderabad during the rule of the last Nizam of Hyderabad. Before Ghalib, the ghazal was primarily an expression of anguished love; but Ghalib expressed philosophy, the travails and mysteries of life and wrote ghazals on many other subjects, vastly expanding the scope of the ghazal.
In keeping with the conventions of the classical ghazal, in most of Ghalib's verses, the identity and the gender of the beloved is indeterminate. The critic/poet/writer Shamsur Rahman Faruqui explains that the convention of having the "idea" of a lover or beloved instead of an actual lover/beloved freed the poet-protagonist-lover from the demands of realism. Love poetry in Urdu from the last quarter of the seventeenth century onwards consists mostly of "poems about love" and not "love poems" in the Western sense of the term.
The first complete English translation of Ghalib's ghazals was Love Sonnets of Ghalib, written by Sarfaraz K. Niazi and published by Rupa & Co in India and Ferozsons in Pakistan. It contains complete Roman transliteration, explication and an extensive lexicon.
Letters
Mirza Ghalib was a gifted letter writer. Not only Urdu poetry but prose is indebted to Mirza Ghalib. His letters gave foundation to easy and popular Urdu. Before Ghalib, letter writing in Urdu was highly ornamental. He made his letters "talk" by using words and sentences as if he were conversing with the reader. According to him Sau kos se ba-zaban-e-qalam baatein kiya karo aur hijr mein visaal ke maze liya karo.His letters were very informal; sometimes he would just write the name of the person and start the letter. He was very humorous and wrote very interesting letters. In one letter he wrote, "Main koshish karta hoon ke koi aisi baat likhoon jo padhe khush ho jaaye'". Some scholars say that Ghalib would have the same place in Urdu literature on the basis of his letters only. They have been translated into English by Ralph Russell in The Oxford Ghalib.
Ghalib was a chronicler of a turbulent period. One by one, Ghalib saw the bazaars – Khas Bazaar, Urdu Bazaar, Kharam-ka Bazaar, disappear, and whole mohallas and katras vanish. The havelis of his friends were razed to the ground. Ghalib wrote that Delhi had become a desert. Water was scarce. Delhi was "a military camp". It was the end of the feudal elite to which Ghalib had belonged. He wrote:
"An ocean of blood churns around me
Alas! Were this all!
The future will show
What more remains for me to see."
Pen name
His original Takhallus was Asad, drawn from his given name, Asadullah Khan. At some point early in his poetic career he also decided to adopt the pen-name of Ghalib.At some places in his poetry Ghalib also used the pen name of Asad Ullah Khan.
Mirza Ghalib and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
1855, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan finished his scholarly, well researched and illustrated edition of Abul Fazl's Ai’n-e Akbari. Having finished the work to his satisfaction, and believing that Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib was a person who would appreciate his labours, Syed Ahmad approached the great Ghalib to write a taqriz for it. Ghalib obliged, but what he produced was a short Persian poem castigating the Ai’n-e Akbari and, by implication, the imperial, sumptuous, literate and learned Mughal culture of which it was a product. The least that could be said against it was that the book had little value even as an antique document. Ghalib practically reprimanded Syed Ahmad Khan for wasting his talents and time on dead things. Worse, he highly praised the "sahibs of England" who at that time held all the keys to all the a’ins in this world.This poem is often referred to but had never been translated into English. Shamsur Rahman Faruqi wrote an English translation. The translation is accurate if lacking the felicity of the original:
Is now open, because of the Syed's grace and fortune, 1
The eye began to see, the arm found strength
That which was wrapped in ancient clothes,
now put on a new dress. 2
And this idea of his, to establish its text and edit the A’in
Puts to shame his exalted capability and potential, 3
He put his heart to a task and pleased himself
And made himself an auspicious, free servant. 4
One who isn’t capable of admiring his quality
Would no doubt praise him for this task, 5
For such a task, of which this book is the basis
Only an hypocrite can offer praise. 6
I, who am the enemy of pretence
And have a sense of my own truthfulness, 7
If I don’t give him praise for this task
It's proper that I find occasion to praise. 8
I have nothing to say to the perverse
None know what I know of arts and letters, 9
In the whole world, this merchandise has no buyer.
What profit could my Master hope from it? 10
It should be said, it's an excellent inventory
So what's there to see that's worth seeing? 11
And if you talk with me of Laws and Rules
Open your eyes, and in this ancient halting-place 12
Look at the Sahibs of England.
Look at the style and practice of these, 13
See what Laws and Rules they have made for all to see
What none ever saw, they have produced. 14
Science and skills grew at the hands of these skilled ones
Their efforts overtook the efforts of the forebears. 15
This is the people that owns the right to Laws and Rules
None knows to rule a land better than they, 16
Justice and Wisdom they’ve made as one
They have given hundreds of laws to India. 17
The fire that one brought out of stone
How well these skilled ones bring out from straw! 18
What spell have they struck on water
That a vapour drives the boat in water! 19
Sometimes the vapour takes the boat down the sea
Sometimes the vapour brings down the sky to the plains. 20
Vapour makes the sky-wheel go round and round
Vapour is now like bullocks, or horses. 21
Vapour makes the ship speed
Making wind and wave redundant. 22
Their instruments make music without the bow
They make words fly high like birds: 23
Oh don’t you see that these wise people
Get news from thousands of miles in a couple of breaths? 24
They inject fire into air
And the air glows like embers, 25
Go to London, for in that shining garden
The city is bright in the night, without candles. 26
Look at the businesses of the knowledgeable ones:
In every discipline, a hundred innovators! 27
Before the Laws and Rules that the times now have
All others have become things of yesteryears, 28
Wise and sensitive and prudent one, does your book
Have such good and elegant Laws? 29
When one sees such a treasure house of gems
Why should one glean corn from that other harvest? 30
Well, if you speak of its style, it's good
No, it's much better than all else that you seek 31
But every good always has a better too
If there's a head, there's also a crown for it. 32
Don’t regard that Generous Source as niggardly
It's a Date-Palm which drops sweet light, like dates. 33
Worshiping the Dead is not an auspicious thing
And wouldn’t you too think that it's
no more than just words? 34
The Rule of silence pleases my heart, Ghalib
You spoke well doubtless, not speaking is well too. 35
Here in this world your creed is to worship all the
Prophet's children,
Go past praising, your Law asks you to pray: 36
For Syed Ahmad Khan-e Arif Jang
Who is made up entirely of wisdom and splendour 37
Let there be from God all that he might wish for
Let an auspicious star lead all his affairs. 38
The poem was unexpected, but it came at a time when Syed Ahmad Khan's thought and feelings were already inclining toward change. Ghalib seemed to be acutely aware of a European-sponsored change in world polity, especially Indian polity. Syed Ahmad might well have been piqued at Ghalib's admonitions, but he would also have realized that Ghalib's reading of the situation, though not nuanced enough, was basically accurate. Syed Ahmad Khan
may also have felt that he, being better informed about the English and the outside world, should have himself seen the change that now seemed to be just around the corner. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan never again wrote a word in praise of the Ai’n-e Akbari and in fact gave up taking active interest in history and archaeology, and became a social reformer.
Religious views
Ghalib placed a greater emphasis on seeking of God rather than ritualistic religious practices. Ghalib states:Like many other Urdu poets, Ghalib was capable of writing profoundly religious poetry, yet was skeptical about some interpretations of the Islamic scriptures done by certain religious leaders. On the idea of paradise, he once wrote in a letter to a friend:
He staunchly disdained the practices of certain Ulema, who in his poems represent narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy:
In another verse directed towards certain maulavis, he criticized them for their ignorance and arrogant certitude: "Look deeper, it is you alone who cannot hear the music of his secrets". In his letters, Ghalib frequently contrasted the narrow legalism of the Ulema with "its pre-occupation with teaching the baniyas and the brats, and wallowing in the problems of menstruation and menstrual bleeding" and real spirituality for which you had to "study the works of the mystics and take into one's heart the essential truth of God's reality and his expression in all things".
During the anti-British Rebellion in Delhi on 5 October 1857, three weeks after the British troops had entered through Kashmiri Gate, some soldiers climbed into Ghalib's neighbourhood and hauled him off to Colonel Burn as a Naat poem. Ghalib also wrote a qasida of 101 verses in dedication to a Naat. Ghalib described himself as a sinner who should be silent before Muhammad as he was not worthy of addressing him, who was praised by God.
Views on Hindustan
In his poem "Chiragh-i-Dair" which was composed during his trip to Benares during the spring of 1827, Ghalib mused about the land of Hindustan and how Qiyamah has failed to arrive, in spite of the numerous conflicts plaguing it.Poetry in Persian
" Kulliyat-e-Ghalib Farsi", an anthology of Persian poetry of well-known Urdu poet Mirza Asadullal Khan Ghalib first released at Maulana Azad National Urdu University and later released at Tehran by Ambassadors of India and Pakistan jointly at a function sponsored by Iranian Ministry of Arts and Culture in Tehran on 20 September 2010. The collection contains 11,337 verses of Ghalib, was compiled by Dr. Syed Taqi Abidi.Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Abidi said that the study of Ghalib would be incomplete without his Persian poetry. "Although Ghalib had earned his reputation in Urdu literature, the poet of Mughal era was more inclined towards Persian and produced high-order poetry in that language. At the literary "ru-ba-ru session" organized by the Haryana Urdu Academy, where Dr. Abidi offered an analytical study of the works of legendary poet Mirza Ghalib, both in Persian as well as Urdu, he informs that Ghalib wrote 1,792 couplets in Urdu by the year 1865 as against the 11,340 in Persian. He also opined that Ghalib was a visionary, a poet of humanism whose works are popular even after three centuries.
Contemporaries and disciples
Ghalib's closest rival was poet Zauq, tutor of Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the then emperor of India with his seat in Delhi. There are some amusing anecdotes of the competition between Ghalib and Zauq and exchange of jibes between them. However, there was mutual respect for each other's talent. Both also admired and acknowledged the supremacy of Meer Taqi Meer, a towering figure of 18th century Urdu Poetry. Another poet Momin, whose ghazals had a distinctly lyrical flavour, was also a famous contemporary of Ghalib. One of the towering figures in Urdu literature Altaf Hussain Hali was a shagird of Ghalib. Hali has also written a biography of Ghalib titled Yaadgaar-e-Ghalib.Ghalib was not only a poet, he was also a prolific prose writer. His letters are a reflection of the political and social climate of the time. They also refer to many contemporaries like Mir Mehdi Majrooh, who himself was a good poet and Ghalib's lifelong acquaintance. The poems written by Ghalib were tough to understand. He sometimes made the sentence syntax so complex that people had difficulty in understanding them. Once, Hakeem Agha Jaan Aish, a poet of Ghalib's era, read a couplet in Mushaira for Ghalib:
Ghalib felt bad for this and wrote:
This style was the definition of his uniqueness
In prose Ghalib brought a revolution in Urdu literature by developing an easy, simple and beautiful way of writing.
Before Ghalib Urdu was a complex language, Ghalib introduced a simple style of prose in Urdu which is like a conversation.
Ghalib's grave
Ghalib was buried in Hazrat Nizamuddin near the tomb of Nizamuddin Auliya. The side view of Mazar-e-Ghalib is shown in the image.Films and TV serial on Ghalib
Indian cinema has paid a tribute to the legendary poet through a film named Mirza Ghalib in which Bharat Bhushan plays Ghalib and Suraiya plays his courtesan lover, Chaudvin. The musical score of the film was composed by Ghulam Mohammed and his compositions of Ghalib's famous ghazals are likely to remain everlasting favorites.Pakistani cinema also paid tribute to the legendary poet, through another film also named Mirza Ghalib. The film was directed and produced by M.M. Billoo Mehra for S.K. Pictures. The music was composed by Tassaduq Hussain. The film starred Pakistani film superstar Sudhir playing Ghalib and Madam Noor Jehan playing his courtesan lover, Chaudvin. The film was released on 24 November 1961 and reached average status at the box-office, however, the music remains memorable in Pakistan to this day.
Gulzar produced a TV serial, Mirza Ghalib, telecast on DD National that was immensely successful in India. Naseeruddin Shah played the role of Ghalib in the serial, and it featured ghazals sung and composed by Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh. The serial's music has since been recognised as Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh's magnum opus, enjoying a cult following in the Indian subcontinent.
Stage plays on Ghalib
Ghalib's life is the subject of hundreds of plays regularly performed in Northern India and Pakistan. These plays are based on his life and his personal and professional relationships.Starting from the Parsi Theatre and Hindustani Theatre days, the first phase of his stage portrayal culminated in Sheila Bhatia's production, written by Mehdi Saheb. Mohd Ayub performed this role so many times that many theatre-goers used to call him Ghalib. The Sheila Bhatia production celebrated his famous ghazals which used to be presented one after another. Ghalib's character lacked subtlety and he was shown philandering with the courtesan, Chaudvin, famously played by Punjabi singer Madan Bala Sandhu. Later Begum Abida Ahmed, wife of the late President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, supported many very costly productions. This was perhaps the golden period of plays celebrating Ghalib's life, including many other productions such as Surendra Verma's play which was performed by the National School of Drama. Qaid-e-Hayat, written by Surendra Verma, talks about the personal life of the poet Ghalib, including his financial hardships and his tragic love for Katiba, a woman calligraphist, who was working on his diwan. Over the years, it has been directed by numerous theatre directors, including Ram Gopal Bajaj in 1989, at the National School of Drama. This period also saw numerous college and university productions performed by students' groups. Writers whose scripts were popular during this period include Jameel Shaidai, Danish Iqbal and Devender Singh. Ghalib also inspired a chain of comedies. One such classic comedy is Ghalib in New Delhi which has been staged more than three hundred times by Dr. Sayeed Alam. Danish Iqbal's play Main Gaya Waqt Nahin Hoon and Sayeed's play Ghalib Ke Khutoot are still being performed at various Indian cities.
The late Sheila Bhatia began this trend on productions about Ghalib, in Delhi.
Ghalib in today's culture
Ghazal maestros like Jagjit Singh, Mehdi Hassan, Abida Parveen, Farida Khanum, Tina Sani, Madam Noor Jehan, Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Begum Akhtar, Ghulam Ali, Lata Mangeshkar, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan have sung his ghazals. Many singers from all over South Asia have sung many of his ghazals.Ghalib's poetry in films
The 2015 film Masaan contains various examples of poetry and shaayari by Ghalib, along with works by Akbar Allahabadi, Basheer Badr, Chakbast, Mirza Ghalib and Dushyant Kumar. Explaining this as a conscious tribute, the film's lyricist Varun Grover explained that he wanted to showthe character of Shaalu as a person whose hobby is to read Hindi poetry and shaayari, as this is a common hobby of young people in Northern India, especially when in love, but this aspect is rarely shown in Hindi films.