THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR TEJ BAHADUR SAPRU ON ANIS
(Shahkare with the permission of Nizami Press.)
After the classical book of Maulana Shibli, it is rather presumptuous for one who does not claim to be a literary critic to determine the merit and place of Anis among the great Urdu writers. Yet I cannot refrain from asserting that one who has interest in Urdu literature but has drunk from the clear and limpid fountain of Anis has missed something precious, and his education cannot be said to be complete. The English poetry has nothing like the elegies in Urdu and Persian. I am convinced that it is impossible to find similar composition in other European languages.
The Gray’s elegy made its author immortal, but truly speaking it is not an elegy in the strict sense. The standard work of Tennyson called ‘In Memorium’ is a tribute paid by a friend to his dead companion. Its philosophical grandeur and its passionate appeal are most fascinating to an Indian mind.
But there are many differences between the elegies of Anis and this composition. The theme of Anis is one in which there is no parallel in the annals of human history. Sir Pecy Sykes says that passion plays owe their origin to the tragic martyrdom of Husain on the field of Karbala. I have personally experienced the effect of these elegies, and I am sure that the lamenting of the ladies and the wailing of men so much overpower the audience that it is impossible to refrain from cursing Yazid and Shimar. In fact, these ‘passion plays’ denote the intensity of grief and sorrow which it is impossible to gauge and fathom; and the scenes that I have witnessed of the manifestation of these feelings I will never forget.
Professor Hitti in his history of Arabia maintains that it is really important how a nation takes a particular event as a historical object lesson, and that it is significant how it ought to look upon it. Anis looked upon the great tragic event of Karbala in the same light as the rest of his co-religionists did; but in his rhymes he has imported such magnificent vigor of imagination and such rich variety of pathos and passion that, apart from his co-religionists, those who read them are sure to be moved, impressed, and excited. The entire theme has been glorified to the highest pitch. The events that took place on the 10th of Moharrum have been depicted with the rare enthusiasm and exquisite skill of a dramatist. As the method employed is not strictly dramatic, the effect and force have been enhanced and accentuated.
The extraneous circumstances and introductory scenes have been arranged, painted, and executed with perfection and can be excelled by his own attempts alone in describing the relevant facts in his inimitable style and language, through which he stirs every sensitive being. His style never degenerates into vulgarity and cheap witticisms. He had a hereditary zeal for poetry through his distinguished ancestors noted for their talents. He was a born poet of style and dictation in the Urdu literature. None have yet to surpass him in originality of ideas and ideas of delicacy of though and imaginative inventions. He brings his similies and metaphors from the regions of actual life, natural emotions, and practical experiences. The most amazing spontaneity, directness, and exuberance of his verse; the grandeur of his style; and the faultless artistic form of his poetry place him beyond the realm of criticism. It is significant that in the beginning of the nineteenth century two great personalities came up the scene—Anis and Dabir, but it is still more remarkable that simultaneously with the decline and decay o the Mughal Empire, great Urdu poets came into being one after the other of everlasting renown. The general criticism about the nineteenth century Urdu poetry is that it was poetry of a decadent age. I do not agree with this criticism. It is indeed a irony to call it a decadent age in poetry when there were Ghalib, Zauq, and Momin in Delhi, and Anis, Dabir, Atish, and Nasikh in Luknow with their indisputable eminence. It was the most sublime epoch of the Urdu literary progress. Their work is a rich legacy to us, and I assert with confidence that none have left to us a greater literary treasure than Anis. His writings indicate that Urdu language is quite efficient in expressing the most profound sentiments and most subtle emotions and ideas, and has abundant potentialities.