Sardar Jafri was a towering figure who left his mark not only as a poet
of international repute but also as a literary critic, a theorist of
the Progressive writers and an intellectual. Born on November 29, 1913,
at Balrampur, a sleepy town in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, Jafri
was a scion of a family of landlords. His father, Syed Jafar Tayyar
Jafri, was a devout, god-fearing Muslim brought up in the feudal
culture that was prevalent in the small native state of Balrampur.
Nonetheless, he was not averse to the acquisition of such education and
values that would not adversely affect the religious and cultural
heritage of his family. Paradoxically, Sardar Jafri had not only
denounced the feudalistic heritage but also challenged the conventional
socio-cultural milieu that was so dear to his father and other elders
of the family. Jafri married Sultana Minhaj in 1948, who bore him two
sons and a daughter.
Education
Jafri did his graduation from Delhi University and later on enrolled
himself for the Masters course first in Muslim University, Aligarh, in
1936. In the mean time he had become active in the political field and
because of his pronounced anti-British views and actions he was forced
to leave the Muslim University. Thereafter, he joined Lucknow
University. The year was 1939-40, the initial period of the World War
II. Jafri had already acquired a reputation of a Progressive poet and
many of his poems of that phase were replete with anti-war propaganda.
Consequently, the British rulers expelled him from Lucknow University
as well. Subsequently, he was also arrested and imprisoned for eight
months.
Jafri had the good fortune of having great intellectuals and writers
like Dr. Kanwar Mohammad Ashraf, Prof. Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, Khwaja
Manzoor Husain, Prof. Mohammad Mujeeb and Prof. Siddhant as his
teachers while he was studying at Aligarh
Initiation As Poet
The family environs in which Jafri was brought up was such that
exposure to poetry and literature was unavoidable. Recitation of Meer
Anis's elegies, in particular during the month of Moharram of the
Islamic calendar, was considered almost a religious exercise. In such a
milieu Jafri began composing poetry at an early age and during the
thirties he had already become a noted poet. He was one of the pioneers
of the Progressive Writers' Movement that was incepted in 1936.
Political Activities
It has already been pointed out that Jafri was one of the founding
members of the Progressive Writers' Movement that was ideologically
affiliated to the Communist Party. Though the Party was established in
India in 1925, it could not expand the area of its
influence for two reasons. Firstly, the British rulers had persistently
maintained a hostile attitude towards the Communists for they were not
only a threat to their rule in India they also posed a threat to the
capitalist-bourgeoisie-ruling-classes in Britain. Secondly, the Indian
National Congress that was, prior to the Independence, essentially an
organisation of the privileged sections of Indian society would also
consider the Communists a threat to their political aspirations and
invariably portray the Communist Party as anti-national. Jafri, being
an active member of the Progressive Writers' Movement was naturally
closer to the Communist Party and because of this association had to
endure the hardships of imprisonment on a couple of occasions. In
Independent India, however, Jafri gradually drifted towards the
Congress. It was partly because of the personality of the first Prime
Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, who would publicly declare that he
was a Socialist and under his leadership both the Congress Party and
the Government were supposed to follow the Socialist policies.
As A Litterateur
In literature Jafri's position was that of one of the pioneers of the
Progressive Writers' Movement. His literary reputation was firmly
established because of his revolutionary poetry though he began his
literary career, as a fiction writer as his first published book,
Manzil, was a collection of short stories. Subsequently, he emerged as
one of the most potent critics and theorists of the Progressive School.
He was also a skilled literary journalist for the voluminous journal,
Guftgu, published under his editorship, had come to be recognized as
the leading organ of the Progressive Writers' Movement. Jafri was, in
essence, a poet of Nazm [this genre of Urdu poetry is commonly
translated as poem to distinguish it from Ghazal, that has a peculiar
form and structure] though his contribution to other genres of Urdu
poetry was also significant. Ideologically he was a Marxist and many of
his earlier poems are full of socialist propaganda, revolutionary
rhetoric, vehemence and anger. In the latter phase, however, he could
master to blend intellectual insight with the freshness of genuine
emotions in his poems. He was one of the few Progressive poets who had
experimented with the form of the poem. Quite a few of his poems are in
vers libre [Azad Nazm] and a couple of them are counted among the best
poems of Urdu literature. Government of India had honoured Jafri with
Padam Shri. He was also the recipient of Iqbal Samman, the highest
literary award of Madhya Pradesh. Ultimately he was also honoured with
the utmost literary mark of distinction of India, the Gyanpeeth Award.
Such a day will arrive again
[when] the lamps of the eyes will get extinguished;
the lotus of the hands will get withered
and each butterfly of speech and voice
will flee from the leaf of the tongue.
All faces that blossom like buds,
chuckle like flowers,
the circling of blood, the beats of heart,
all [such] symphonies will go to sleep
on the bed of a dark ocean.
And, this grinning diamond particle,
this paradise of mine, this earth
that is laid out on the velvet of the blue environ,
its morns, its evenings
will, unwittingly, unconsciously,
pass on shedding the tears of dew
[on the demise of] a handful of dust of a man.
Everything will be forgotten;
everything will be removed
from the exquisite idol-house of memories.
Then no one will ask:
Where is Sardar in the congregation?
Yet, I'll come here again;
[I] will talk with the mouths of the tots;
will sing in the tongue of the birds.
When seeds will grin beneath earth
and the sapling, with its fingers,
will vex the crusts of earth,
I'll open my eyes
in leaves and buds;
will take, in [my] verdant palm,
the dew drops.
I'll turn into the colour of henna, the tune of ghazal
[and] the style of poetry.
[I], like the hue of the cheek of a bride,
will filter from every stole.
When the winds of winter
will bring along with them
the season of autumn'
my laughter will be heard
from the dry leaves that will
be trampled under the robust feet of the passerby.
All the golden rivers of the earth;
all the azure lakes of the sky
will get filled with my being.
And the world will see
[that] every tale is [in fact] my tale;
here every lover is Sardar
[and] every beloved is Sultaanaa
I'm a fleeting moment
in the enchanting-house of time;
I'm a restless drop
that travels
from the pitcher of the past
to the wine-cup of the future.
I sleep and get up
and again go to sleep.
I'm a play that's many centuries old.
I expire and become immortal.
Such a day will arrive again
DIALOGUE SHOULDN'T CEASE
Dialogue shouldn't cease;
let the talk go on,
let the evening of [our] meet persist till the arrival of morn,
let this starry night pass on joyfully.
Let the stone of abuse be in the hands of words;
let the cups of poison spill ridicule;
let the sights be irate;
let the eyebrows be raised;
[yet, we must see] that our hearts, somehow, keep beating.
The helplessness shouldn't be allowed to chain the words;
no killer but he should be permitted to murder the voice.
Some vow of loyalty, fully moulded, will arrive by the morn;
the love will arrive, albeit limping, yet it certainly will;
the sights will elude meeting sights [out of modesty],
the heart beats will increase,
the lips will tremble;
the silence will turn into a kiss and go astray;
only the sound of the blooming of buds will linger;
and the need of words and voice won't remain
[for] the liaison of love will be carried on with [the help of] the signs of eyes and eyebrows;
the hatred will vanish, the kindness will arrive.
Holding hands in hands;
in the company of the entire world,
we'll go across the deserts of repugnance;
we'll cross over the river of blood.
Sardar Jafri was a towering figure who left his mark not only as a poet
of international repute but also as a literary critic, a theorist of
the Progressive writers and an intellectual. Born on November 29, 1913,
at Balrampur, a sleepy town in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, Jafri
was a scion of a family of landlords. His father, Syed Jafar Tayyar
Jafri, was a devout, god-fearing Muslim brought up in the feudal
culture that was prevalent in the small native state of Balrampur.
Nonetheless, he was not averse to the acquisition of such education and
values that would not adversely affect the religious and cultural
heritage of his family. Paradoxically, Sardar Jafri had not only
denounced the feudalistic heritage but also challenged the conventional
socio-cultural milieu that was so dear to his father and other elders
of the family. Jafri married Sultana Minhaj in 1948, who bore him two
sons and a daughter.
