Bharat Ratna to cricketers, film stars a mockery of award
Bharat Ratna to cricketers, film stars a mockery of award: Markandey Katju
“Jab tawaqqo hi uth gaee Ghalib/ Kyun kisee ka gila kare koee.” I have been criticized for demanding Bharat Ratna for Mirza Ghalib and sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Some even lampooned me by saying that Bharat Ratna should also be given to Lord Rama and Gautam Buddha, and Param Vir Chakra to Tantia Tope.
In reply, I wish to say that there is nothing wrong in giving awards posthumously, provided they are given to the right persons, and Bharat Ratna has been often conferred posthumously in the past, for instance to Sardar Patel and Dr Ambedkar.
Moreover, Ghalib is modern figure, not a legendary one like Lord Rama, or an ancient one like Gautam Buddha. Many of his thoughts were, for his times, surprisingly modern. Though he was steeped in the feudal tradition, he often broke through that tradition on perceiving the advantages of modern civilization.
Thus, in one sher (couplet) Ghalib writes: “Imaan mujhe roke hai, jo khenche he muje kufr/ Kaaba merey peechey hai, kaleesa merey aage.” The word “Kaleesa” literally means church, but here it means modern civilization. Similarly, “Kaaba” literally refers to the place in Mecca, but here it means feudalism. So the sher (couplet) really means: “Religious faith is holding me back, but skepticism is pulling me forward/ Feudalism is behind me, modern civilization is in front.”
Thus, Ghalib is rejecting feudalism and approving of modern civilization. And this at the time of the Great Mutiny of 1857 when India was steeped in feudalism.
Urdu poetry is a shining gem in the treasury of Indian culture. Before 1947, Urdu was the common language of the educated class in large parts of India — whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian. Regrettably, after 1947 some vested interests created a false propaganda that Urdu was a foreign language and a language of Muslims alone.
Mirza Ghalib is the foremost figure in Urdu, and in our composite culture. He no doubt died over a century back, but our culture, of which Urdu is a vital part, is still alive.
When I first appealed for the award of Bharat Ratna to Ghalib in the Jashn-e-Bahaar mushaira in Delhi in April 2011, my appeal was seconded by many prominent people in the audience, Meira Kumar, speaker of Lok Sabha, Salman Khurshid, Union law minister, S.Y. Qureshi, chief election commissioner, etc. However, soon after, a journal described my appeal as “sentimentalism gone berserk”.
As regards Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, in a recent function in Kolkata I appealed for the award of Bharat Ratna to him. Here was a man who in a feudal society (early 20th century Bengal) launched a full-blooded attack on the caste system, against women’s oppression, and superstitions (read Srikant, Shesh Prashna, Charitraheen, Brahmin ki Beti, Devdas, Grameen Samaj, etc).
In his acceptance speech organised in Calcutta Town Hall in 1933 to honour him, Sarat Chandra said:
“My literary debt is not limited to my predecessors only. I am for ever indebted to the deprived, ordinary people who give this world everything they have and yet receive nothing in return, to the weak and oppressed people whose tears nobody bothers to notice. They inspired me to take up their cause and plead for them. I have witnessed endless injustices to these people, unfair, intolerable injustices. It is true that springs do come to this world for some — full of beauty and wealth — with its sweet smelling breeze perfumed with newly bloomed flowers and spiced with cuckoo’s songs, but such good things remained well outside the sphere where my sight remained imprisoned.”
These words are strikingly relevant even today when 80 per cent of our people are living in horrible poverty, when on an average 47 farmers have been committing suicide every day for the last 15 years, when there are massive problems in healthcare, housing, education, etc.
How many people in our country have read Ghalib and Sarat Chandra? People are talking of giving the Bharat Ratna to cricketers and filmstars. This is the low cultural level to which we have sunk. We ignore our real heroes, and hail superficial ones. I regret to say that the present generation of Indians has been almost entirely deculturised, and all they care for is money, filmstars, cricket, and superficialities.
Today, our country is standing at a crossroads. We need people who can give direction to the country and take it forward. It is such people who should be given Bharat Ratna, even if they are dead. Giving it to people who have no social relevance, like cricketers and filmstars, is making a mockery of the award.
The writer is chairman, Press Council of India
express@expessindia.com
express@expessindia.com
No comments: