The Evolution of Ghalib
Author : Hasan Abdullah
Publisher : Rupa, Rs 995
Abdullah has managed to make his book unique in content and style. If only he had tempered his passion with the reason to which he so early lay claim in the narrative, this book would have been a true masterpiece, writes ANUBHAV PRADHAN
In writing this cautious review of Hasan Abdullah’s The Evolution of Ghalib, the latest English language tome on Urdu’s favourite virtuoso, I plead the kind indulgence of that cult of his confirmed acolytes to whom he is perfection personified. So much has been written, said, and performed on and about the good Mirza over the course of the past century or so that it often appears difficult to believe in the dawn of the new and different. Abdullah’s tribute is packaged and presented as such, so it was with a degree of trepidation that I picked it up to partake of the nuggets of wisdom and insights which it promises to offer to the uninitiated. What I found was a mixed bag of as many hits as misses, a text which is undone by the passion which informs and frames it. Abdullah’s book may well be unique in its focus on the trajectory of Ghalib’s craft and thought through his long life, but its many lacunae leave a sour taste of dissatisfaction.
This is because The Evolution of Ghalib reads mostly like the fond work of a besotted fan. A commentary such as this, presenting Ghalib’s poetry chronologically, has not been attempted before, so Abdullah is undeniably a trendsetter in this regard. However, readers who approach the book expecting, finally, a literary biography of the man and the poet will be a little disappointed. In an age of fandoms, this is unsurprising: every noted author across all major languages has been reworked on, their life and work reimagined and reinscribed in keeping with the times. Ghalib has been no exception to this, and there have been attempts — more cinematic than literary — to creatively rethink his legacy. But Abdullah stumbles even without trying: starting out to “present the intellectual evolution — not biography — of Ghalib through an interpretation of his couplets”, Abdullah’s critique flounders precisely due to his strong partiality to Ghalib, an affinity which blinds him to the very particular demands of scholarship.
Careful attention to words and to the framing of concepts is primary amongst these. Given Abdullah’s “predisposition for definitive logic and not for hazy poetry”, I expected rigor and depth worthy of a subject as challenging and expansive as the evolution of Ghalib’s mind and art. I was disappointed, instead, to find the text thick with loose references such as “Nature”, “feudal”, “progress”, and “the beloved people”. Nature, as per Abdullah, is “all-encompassing. Anything and everything, animate or inanimate, is included in nature; nothing is outside her”: but then how is “Nature” feminine, and through which process of cogitation did Abdullah reach this fascinating definition which runs counter to much received wisdomIJ Ghalib, Abdullah informs us consistently, questioned received wisdom throughout his career, but how sound is to present him as a revolutionary votary of inclusive change, interested both in agrarian reform and the abolition of caste in what Abdullah constantly misidentifies as a “feudal” societyIJ These claims cry out loud for substantiation, which alas Abdullah stoops not to provide.
Consider, similarly, the unfortunate effect of a phrase as confounding as “the beloved people” next to Ghalib’s verse:
“ham ney maanaa keh taghaaful nah karo gey, lekin khaak ho jaaen gey ham, tum ko khabar hotey tak” “…the poet realises that it would take long for people to comprehend his poetry…he is exhorting the beloved people to appreciate his inner turmoil, which results in this timeless poetry.”
Abdullah’s sympathy for Ghalib mires him in a miasma of unadulterated affect, precluding the possibility of a critical interrogation of his life and his corpus: He would have done greater justice to his work by linking the evolution of Ghalib’s poetry to his life. This would have fit very well in the inspired schema which he presents, spanning fifty-four years of Ghalib’s poetic and public life. What we are left with, however, is pure opinion untouched by any critical faculties: for example, wherever Ghalib appears an honourable, self-composed, radical freethinker to him, he also appears an arrogant, self-indulgent, insolvent, and deeply conservative brat to me. Had Abdullah tried even a little to approach Ghalib from this extremity, to think of even the possibility of chipping through his aura and seeing the man as he was, this book would have been so much richer in its presentation of the life and times of Ghalib. If only he had tempered his passion with the reason to which he so early lay claim in the narrative, The Evolution of Ghalib would have been a true masterpiece.
The reviewer is a Doctoral Candidate with the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia. The views expressed are his own