SPIBIT OF REVOLT OK REACTION AGAINST OLD LITERARYIDEALS

(i) THE ALIGARH MOVEMENT THE

 first effect on Urdu of the influence of Westernthought as represented in English literature was manifestedin the spirit of dissatisfaction with the traditional literary ideals which had so far been in vogue among the Urduspeaking section of the Indian population. This dissatisfaction, it may be pointed out, was not voiced by anybody of literary men deeply versed in English literature or whose early education and training were conducted exclusively on English lines, but by men such as Sayyid Al^mad,Muhammad Shibli Nu'mani, and Muhammad HusaynAzad, whose formative period of life was spent in purelyEastern surroundings and in the pursuit of Eastern knowledge, and most of whom came under English influences only in their middle or advanced age. Still, such was their mind and genius, such their receptive capacity, that theynever held themselves slaves to authority and tradition, but were willing to accept all that was of good report fromwherever it came, and their one motto in life, as the openingpages of some of their writings bore, was in the words of their Prophet, " Khuz ma safd wa da' md Kadar" " Takethat which is pure, discard that which is impure." The most outstanding figure in this circle was SayyidA^mad Khan, whose part in the socio-political movementof Aligarh we have already noticed in a previous chapter. Born in 1817 into a Sayyid family of Delhi, which for long had held positions of trust at the Mogul Court, he had from his childhood unique opportunities to watch andruminate over the emptiness which surrounded the pompand the " rule " of the " Emperors/' and he foresaw that one day even this rule, such as it was, would disappear, leaving the Muslim community in abject helplessness. Hisfather was a religious recluse. His early education wastherefore conducted entirely under the guidance of his mother, a daughter of Khwaja Faridu'd-Dm, for long in the employ of the East India Company, as " attache to the Embassy sent in 1799 by Lord Wellesley to Persia," and as Political Officer at the Court of Ava, and who during the childhood of Sayyid Ahmad was holding the place of PrimeMinister to the " Emperor " of Delhi. The boy SayyidAhmad did not study English at school. But the intimacyand friendship which existed between his family and the British Resident, General Ochterlony, who was " in the habit of visiting them at all hours of the day and night/* l must have contributed in some measure to the developmentof his youthful mind. At all events, his admiration for English life and culture began from his boyhood, so muchso that when his father, Sayyid Muhammad Taqi, died in 1836, Sayyid Ahmad, then only nineteen years old, chose, " much against the inclination of his relatives/' to enter " the British Service as Sar-rishta-dar of the Criminal Department in the adr Amin's office at Delhi," rather than accept the royal favours and enjoy the titles offered to him by the then Mogul " Emperor." His rise from the humble position of Sar-rishta-dar to that of Subordinate Judge at Bijnore, his great services to the British Government during the time of the Indian Mutiny,his memorable visit to England in 1869 with his two sons, his meetings there with distinguished statesmen and menof letters, including Carlyle, who " was unusually gracious 1 See G. F. J. Graham, The Life and Work of Sir Sayyid AhmadKh&n, London, 1909. to him," and with whom he " talked long and earnestly over Heroes and Hero-Worship, especially about Muhammad/' and his return to India with his mind vastly expanded,are described in some detail by his friend and biographer, Major-General G. F. J. Graham. 1 The Aligarh movement which he launched and led until his death in 1898, and which found its great expression in the establishment in 1875 of the Muhammadan AngloOriental College at Aligarh, now a statutory residential University, embodied the spirit which Sayyid Ahmad hadimbibed from Europe. As this spirit, which was reflected in every branch of its activity, has eventually manifesteditself in Urdu literature, it .appears necessary to indicate at this stage its broad features by way of introduction to what we have to discuss in the following pages. Wewill let Sayyid Ahmad himself explain this spirit. Addressing Lord Lytton while laying the foundation of the M.A.O.College at Aligarh, he said : " The British rule in India is the most wonderful phenomenon the world has ever seen. That a race living in adistant region, differing from us in language, in manners,in religion in short, in all that distinguishes the inhabitants of one country from those of another should triumph over the barriers which nature has placed in its way, and unite under one sceptre the various peoples of this vast continent, is in itself wonderful enough. But that they who havethus become the masters of the soil should rule its inhabitants, not with those feelings and motives which inspired the conquerors of the ancient world, but should make it the first principle of their government to advance the happiness of the millions of a subject race, by establishing peace, byadministering justice, by spreading education, by introducing the comforts of life which modern civilisation has bestowed upon mankind, is to us manifestation of the handof Providence, and an assurance of long life to the union of India with England. 1 General Graham deals specially with the early life and work of Sayyid Ahmad. For a fuller account of him after his return from England, see Hftli, IJayat-i-J&wld, Cawnpore, 1901. E "  To make these facts clear to the minds of our countrymen, to educate them so that they may be able to appreciate these blessings, to dispel those illusory traditions of the past which have hindered our progress, to remove those prejudices which have hitherto exercised a baneful influence on our race, to reconcile Oriental learning with Westernliterature and science, to inspire in the dreamy minds of the people of the East the practical energy which belongs to those of the West; to make the Mussalmans of India worthy and useful subjects of the British Crown ; to inspire in them that loyalty which springs, not from servile submission to a foreign rule, but from genuine appreciation of the blessings of good government these are the objects which the founders of the college have prominently in view. And looking at the difficulties which stood in our way,and the success which has already been achieved, we donot doubt that we shall continue to receive, even in larger measure, both from the English Government and from our own countrymen, that liberal support which has furthered our scheme, so that from the seed which we sow to-day there may spring up a mighty tree, whose branches, like those of the banyan of the soil, shall in their turn strike firm roots into the earth, and themselves send forth newand vigorous saplings; that this college may expand into a university, whose sons shall go forth throughout the length and breadth of the land to preach the gospel of free inquiry, of large-hearted toleration, and of pure morality."

 (ii) NATURE OF LITERARY REACTION 

The work of the Aligarh movement was in the beginning necessarily of the nature of propaganda, which led SayyidAhmad and those who co-operated with him to examinethe capacity of their language and literature as a vehicle of expression and as a means of catching the imaginationof people and transmitting to them a little of the light which they had themselves received from the West. Thestandards which they brought to bear on this examinationwere the standards of English literature. The more theylooked into it, the stronger did the conviction grow in themthat their literature lacked in essentials, and stood in need  of as much purification as the society itself which hadfostered it. It will be interesting to note the first impressions theyformed of their own literature and the weaknesses it revealed under the searchlight of English literary ideals, as theywill afford us an idea of the particular features of English literature which specially appealed to them and which theywere anxious to assimilate and incorporate into their own. In the preface to the Nayrang-i-Khiyal, MuhammadKusayn Azad, after lamenting the poverty of ideas in Urduliterature of his time, makes the following observation in regard to its style : " The English language abounds with love subjects, tales and works of fiction. But the style (of these compositions) is something very different (from that of Urdu). The fundamental principle underlying it is that anythingthat is described should be done in such a way that the picture should rise before the mind's eye, and that its point should strike the heart. Hence (the English writers) apply to the branches only so many imaginary flowers andleaves as naturally suit the original, and not (so many)as will obscure the tree and branches altogether, presenting nothing but a heap of leaves." Hafiz Nazir Ahmad, another pioneer of the new movement, thus speaks of the injurious effects of the early literature on the morals of his community : " The evils which beset us ' as a nation/ 1 though not all, at all events a great majority of them have been created by this literature. This literature teaches us falsehood andflattery. This literature suppresses and wipes out the real beauty of facts. This literature holds up baseless hypotheses and conjectures as ' facts.' This literature excites unwholesome passions. If anybody has merely tasted this poison, I have drunk it. If anybody has merely fondled it, I have let it bite me. Although in an advanced age I had, like an old parrot, a little smattering of English, the 1 Note that the writer has used the English expressions " as a nation " and " facts " in the original Urdu. colour of Asiatic learning had already stained my nature. However, this much must be admitted that thanks to this study of English I have gradually come to realise the defects of our literature." l The poet, Sayyid Altaf Husayn Hall, the founder of the New School of Poetry, and indeed the greatest name in modern Urdu literature, has in the introduction to his famous elegiac poem, " The Flow and Ebb of Islam," Maddwa Jazr-i-Isldm, given an account of the revulsion of feeling which came to him at the age of forty against all that hehad so far written in the traditional style, the outstanding features of which, such as artificiality, conventionality, andinsincerity, have already been noticed in a previous chapter. A passage from this introduction, in which he sums up the staple ideas on which the Urdu poets have always tirelessly harped in their poetic compositions, and whichcontributed so much to the conventional and artificial nature of their utterance, is worth reproducing here. In aspirit of sincere contrition he admits that he himself was in his earlier days a prey to these ideas. Ho says : " Thanks to (this) poetic art, I had to play the conventional lover for some time. In the pursuit of an imaginarybeloved I wandered for years over desert and wilderness and raised such a cloud of dust from under my feet that I defiled with it even Qays and Farhad. 2 Sometimes I shooka quarter of the inhabited world by my waitings. Sometimes I drowned the universe in the deluge of my eyes; made the angels deaf by the noise of my lamentations. The world screamed at the outpourings of my complaints. The Sky 3 got perforated by the rapid discharge (of the arrows) of my taunts. When convulsions of jealousy seized me, I considered the entire handiwork of God as my rival : indeed I grew suspicious even of myself. When the ocean1 See Lecture on Musalm&n&n Icl fl&lat-i-Ta'llm, Agra, 1889. 1 Qays or Majnfcn, the lover of Layla, and Farhad or Kohkan, the lover of Shirin, were celebrated in Arabic and Persian poetry, respectively. 3 In Urdu poetry, as in Persian, the sky stands for God or Destiny of my desire swelled, my heart's attraction did the work of magnetism. Often I enjoyed martyrdom by the sword of (the beloved's) eyebrows, and often did I regain life by her kicks, so much so, that life appeared but a garment which I took off or put on whenever it pleased me. Often did I visit the field of Judgment or Resurrection. Often did I stroll through Heaven and Hell. When the mood for drinking wine came upon me, jar after jar was rolled awayempty; and withal there was no satiety. Sometimes I pressed my forehead on the threshold of a tavern, sometimesbegged at the door of a wine-seller. Was pleased withunbelief ; disliked faith ; swore fealty to the chief priest of the Magi ; became the disciple of Brahmins ; worshippedidols ; wore the Brahminic thread ; applied the caste mark,reviled the pious; ridiculed the preacher; showed respect to the monastery and the house of idols; scoffed at the K'aba and the mosque; grew insolent to God; showedarrogance to prophets; regarded the miracles of Christ as a mere play, and the beauty of Joseph as but a show.Whenever I delivered a Ghazal, I used the language of arake; whenever a Qa$ida, I made the jester and the professional flatterer open their mouth wide with wonder.In every pinch of dust I showed the properties of the elixir ; in every dry stick the wonders of the rod of Moses. Ofevery Nimrod of the day I forged relations with Abraham.I let every helpless Pharaoh collide with Almighty God.Whoever I praised, I raised so high that the praised could hardly feel pleased with the praise. In a word, I blackenedthe book of my deeds so much that I did not leave even aspeck of whiteness in it. " When, on the day of Judgment, ray sins would bo inquired into, The record of the sins of the world will be torn to pieces." From the age of twenty to that of forty I revolved, like the oil-presser's bull, round the same circle and fancied that I had travelled all over the world. When my eyes were, however, opened, I found I was still at the same place fromwhich I had started." l In the poem from the introduction to which we havequoted this somewhat lengthy passage, Hall reverts to the subject and in a tone of deep indignation holds the early 1 Special translation. poetry as chiefly responsible for not only the decadence of learning among his people, but for their social and religious disintegration as well.