I wanted Indian readers to know the poet who wrote ‘Saarey jahan se achcha, Hindostan hamara: Zafar Anjum on his book on Allama Muhammed Iqbal.
By Bushra Alvi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Zafar Anjum, a Singapore-based journalist, writer and film-maker in his new book, highlights some of the least known facets of the poet, Muhammed Iqbal’s life. How did a nationalist poet transform into a poet of Islamic revivalism and global revolution? How did three years in Europe change Iqbal’s political and philosophical outlook? Why did he start writing in Persian during his stay in Europe? Why did his first marriage fail and how did his romantic relationships affect him.
Anjum was speaking at the launch and discussion of his book: Iqbal, the Life of a Poet, Philosopher and Politician. The event, held on November 18 was hosted by Oxford Bookstore Connaught Place and Hindustani Awaaz, as part of the series – New Urdu Writings.
Zafar Anjum in conversation with Dr Hilal Ahmed and Dr Rakshanda Jalil at Oxford Bookstore in New Delhi. (Photo courtesy: Amina Razzack).
Dr Rakhshanda Jalil, well-known literary historian was in conversation with Dr Hilal Ahmed, political analyst and Assistant Professor, CSDS and Zafar Anjum, author of Iqbal.
For many people Iqbal has been somewhat a mystery, an enigma. He is many things to many people. He himself had a varied and hectic career. He was a lawyer and a philosopher interested in Persian philosophy and Islamic history. He was attracted to Sufism. He was attracted equally towards communism and socialism. He has also written some very moving poems evoking nationalism. He has touched upon all these facets of our history and culture and human civilizations in his poetry and writings. Iqbal’s work resonates with the sense of self (khudi) and his poems have a strong fragrance of self-determination.
“His philosophy of ‘khudi’ and his political thoughts, more relevant today than ever, is what connects me with him; and I wanted to talk about all these things through this book,” said Anjum.
Answering the question of how we see Iqbal’s nationalism today, Anjum said that Iqbal believed in moderate nationalism. “In today’s world you can’t wish away nation states. You can’t bring back Empires or Caliphates. In fact who would like to live in an Islamic state with all its restrictions, for eg. Iran. Talking about the Muslim youth or Muslim people, how are they going to reconcile themselves with today’s situation? They can’t create a super state. But there has to be a solution, Anjum said, elaborating, “In Iqbal’s point of view that solution is a social order that they can have even being part of different nation states. Iqbal talked about maintaining your identity. If you can maintain your identity even if you are staying in different nation states; that is fine. His politics was all about protecting your identity and not allowing yourself to being subservient in other larger identities.”
Anjum, who took almost two years to complete the book, said that initially the project seemed daunting but once he decided that the idea was not to write a historical text on Iqbal, it all became easy.
“This is not a critical biography. In my mind, I was writing a ‘biopic’ of Iqbal,” said Anjum. “I wanted to keep the narrative flowing and uncomplicated. That was my focus.”
Asked whether he had been able to unravel the mystery of Iqbal, Anjum replied that he leaves it to the readers to give a verdict on this.
Photo courtesy: Amina Razzack.
“More than unravelling Iqbal, my intention was to introduce an inspiring Indo-Asiatic personality to today’s youth.”
Zafar Anjum is a Singapore-based Indian journalist, writer and filmmaker. Currently, he works as the Asia Online editor for Fairfax Business Media’s technology publications namely, Computerworld Singapore, Computerworld Malaysia, CIO Asia and MIS Asia.
He is the author of the bestselling business book, The Resurgence of Satyam and a collection of short stories, The Singapore Decalogue: Episodes in the Life of a Foreign Talent. He also blogs, mentors budding writers and is editor of Kitaab.org, a literary website.
Book: Iqbal: The Life of a Poet, Philosopher and Politician
Author: Zafar Anjum
Publisher: Random House India
Published: October 2014
Language: English
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Biography
(Bushra Alvi is a writer, editor, translator and poet based in New Delhi. Amina Razzack is a student, at AJKMCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.)