Let Ghazals Remain Ghazals - Who Want To Understand Will Learn Urdu

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 2 March 2024 'Jise Samajhna Hoga, Vo Urdu Seekh Lega' ----- I'm reading Urdu, English and Bengali newspapers that are all praise for the late Pankaj Udhas' 'beautiful' Ghazals that are bereft of difficult Urdu words. Yours truly has also written an article in English on the late maestro, highlighting his role of purging Ghazals of Urdu and Persian words. While I appreciate the endeavours of Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota, Rajendra and Nina Mehta, among others as they tried to simplify Ghazals for the masses, I've always felt that somewhere the purity of Ghazals is being compromised in this way. Ghazals were written in other languages as well. Rumi, Hafiz and Saadi Shirazi of Persia in Persian; Yunus Emre, Fuzûlî and Nesimi of the Ottoman Empire wrote Ghazals in Turkish; Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal of North India penned their exquisite Ghazals predominantly in Urdu; and Kazi Nazrul Islam of Bengal wrote them in Bengali. Dushyant Kumar Tyagi and Hanumant Naidu wrote excellent Ghazals in Hindi. Nagpur's Suresh Bhatt wrote Marathi Ghazals. But I'm afraid he massacred them because Marathi, being a rather uncouth tongue, is not suitable for Ghazals. Amar Palanpuri experimented with the Ghazal format in Gujarati and the brilliant Agha Shahid Ali introduced the Ghazal genre to English poetry. But classical Ghazals written by Ghalib, Daagh, Momin, Mir, Ahmad Faraz, Faiz and Firaq with Urdu, Persian and Arabic words will always be appreciated by those who love Urdu and Ghazals. In short, they'll continue to enthral the purists. The politicization of Urdu has witnessed the relegation of this mellifluous language to Hindustani. What's Hindustani? I call it a mongrel. Urdu is Urdu and Hindi is Hindi. No need to bridge the two. This attempt of linguistic bridging has harmed both Urdu and Hindi. It's like, 'Na Khuda Hi Mila, Na Visaal-e-Sanam/ Na Idhar Ke Rahe, Na Udhar Ke Hum.' This unnecessary simplification has resulted in the overall mediocrity of today's songs and Ghazals. 'Poets' not knowing Urdu and prosody are writing Urdu Ghazals and killing the spirit of Urdu as well as Hindi. Let Ghazals remain Ghazals with naturally difficult Urdu, Persian and Arabic words. Don't try to replace them with Hindi words. That'll be tantamount to committing a linguistic molestation, if not downright rape. 'Kyon Kar Main Giraaoon Meyaar Apna, Duniya Ki Khaatir / Jise Samajhna Hoga, Vo Urdu Seekh Lega' (Why should I lower my standard down for the sake of the world?/ Who wants to understand (me), will learn Urdu). ------ A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/ghazals-learn-urdu/d/131834 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism