Habib Jalib - Your thoughts on him?

[Slog]

Discuss

 

[Markhor]

One of Pakistan's cultural icons, someone who had a colloquial style that resonated with the masses. He stood up to the mullahs and the generals, and called them out when many did not.

His messages are as relevant today as they were then.

 

[KB]

Two general points that occur to me: as a poet, Habib Jalib should remind us of the importance of Urdu poetry to Indo-Muslim political thought. Since at least Altaf Husain Hali’s famous Musaddas on the ‘Ebb and Flow of Islam’ published in 1879, in Urdu literature, poetry rather than prose has been the dominant and evocative form that has been the most profound medium to express political and emotional messages.

Secondly, Jalib was associated with the left-wing Progressive Writers Movement. It has been suggested that the left wing intellectuals in the early decades of Pakistan were more at home in the rarefied field of literary debates than in the actual workings of working class politics. In Habib Jalib, though, the left at least had a poet who could breakthrough select literary debates to bring to a greater mass of people a populist resistance message. Through his poetry he frequently held a mirror to Pakistan’s leaders.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

One of the best poet from left-wing along with Faiz.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

Ye dais hai andhay logun ka
Ay chaand yahan na nikla kr

 

[Nostalgic]

Secondly, Jalib was associated with the left-wing Progressive Writers Movement. It has been suggested that the left wing intellectuals in the early decades of Pakistan were more at home in the rarefied field of literary debates than in the actual workings of working class politics. In Habib Jalib, though, the left at least had a poet who could breakthrough select literary debates to bring to a greater mass of people a populist resistance message. Through his poetry he frequently held a mirror to Pakistan’s leaders.

This is an excellent point. Jalib was, in so many ways, the counterpoint to Faiz Sb in the Progressive Writers Movement: Faiz was almost patrician, in spite of the family having fallen on hard times: his father had been a senior aide to the Emir of Afghanistan, Faiz himself was involved in elite literary circles from well before his conversion to the communist cause, had been a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army during WWII, had friends across the aisle, so to speak, held government positions, knew many of the prominent leftists outside of Pakistan, (none of which of course takes anything away from the years upon years of jail and exile). Jalib was truly proletarian, and this is reflected in his poetry too. It is meant to be sung, not read, the rhymes are simple, and in places it aspires to literature, but nothing more.

Ustaad Daman, sort of the Punjabi-language Jalib, was a dear friend of Faiz, but he would poke fun at Faiz's attempts at truly proletarian poetry. He would say that Faiz had composed an excellent Punjabi poem... in Urdu.

It is sad that people with absolutely nothing to do with the Progressive Writers Movement or even the mainstream left have co-opted both Faiz's poetry and Jalib's. Every time Shahbaz Sharif belts out a Jalib poem, the poor man turns many times in his grave.

 

[KB]

Jalib was, in so many ways, the counterpoint to Faiz Sb in the Progressive Writers Movement: Faiz was almost patrician, in spite of the family having fallen on hard times: his father had been a senior aide to the Emir of Afghanistan, Faiz himself was involved in elite literary circles from well before his conversion to the communist cause, had been a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army during WWII, had friends across the aisle, so to speak, held government positions, knew many of the prominent leftists outside of Pakistan, (none of which of course takes anything away from the years upon years of jail and exile). Jalib was truly proletarian, and this is reflected in his poetry too. It is meant to be sung, not read, the rhymes are simple, and in places it aspires to literature, but nothing more.

Ustaad Daman, sort of the Punjabi-language Jalib, was a dear friend of Faiz, but he would poke fun at Faiz's attempts at truly proletarian poetry. He would say that Faiz had composed an excellent Punjabi poem... in Urdu.

It is sad that people with absolutely nothing to do with the Progressive Writers Movement or even the mainstream left have co-opted both Faiz's poetry and Jalib's. Every time Shahbaz Sharif belts out a Jalib poem, the poor man turns many times in his grave.

A very thoughtful, informative and interesting perspective. I liked the line about Faiz composing 'an excellent Punjabi poem in Urdu'

 

[Nostalgic]

A very thoughtful, informative and interesting perspective. I liked the line about Faiz composing 'an excellent Punjabi poem in Urdu'

I just remembered that the foreword of Faiz's third book, Zindaan naama (the third book in Nuskhaha-e-Wafa), was penned by one of his (alleged) co-conspirators in the Rawalpindi 1951 case, a Major Ishaq. He wrote in that foreword that Faiz's poetry still had to make the leap from fashionable drawing rooms to factories and farms. This suggests that the Progressive Writers Movement were aware of how their leading literary light hadn't quite managed to make it to the masses. It eventually did make the leap to university campuses, but I'm not sure if it ever got to the proletariat in the way Jalib did.

Speaking of the 1951 accused, they were, to a man (and one woman), what can be labelled the Vanguard in Marxist-Leninist theory. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but that is a fact that needs to be recognized. There was Syed Sajjad Zaheer, Pakistan Communist Party head and a man of letters, Faiz himself, and the rest were military officers.