There was a time when Tulsi Bagh Government colony in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir , housed three prominent “Azads” : author Harbans Singh Azad, a Sikh, freedom fighter Ghulam Rasool Azad, a Muslim and Urdu poet Jagan Nath Azad, a Hindu, in close proximity !
Those were the times the valley of Kashmir, and the city of Srinagar could easily boast of religious tolerance, political wisdom and social accommodation, all prevailing at the same juncture of time. These three Azads breathed the air that was devoid of animosity, suspicion and hatred that we see so prominently in the present day India.
Here, my muse for this column today is the poet Azad. He was already a celebrity poet when we met. So was my better half, Seema Anil Sehgal, a child prodigy, a singer and composer. Initially, such meetings were occasions for mutual appreciation, by and large.
We would meet during a seminar or poetic soiree where he recited his poems or read some literary paper. It could also be a gathering of like minded friends fond of poetry and literature. Or it could be a concert by Seema Anil Sehgal.
” Seema Beta, aap ki gayaki behtareen hai. Ruhaniyat hai aap ki awaaz mein. Aap ki tarah alfaaz ke mafhoom ko samajh boojh kar bahut Kum gulukaar gaate hain. Aap talaffuz aur lafz ke wazan ko bhi achchhi tarah se samajhati hain. Yeh aap ki gayaki ki khasoosiyat hai. Ise hamesha barkaraar rakhna Meri bahut saari duayein aur nek khwahishaat hain aap ke saath “, he would bless.
Roughly translated it means : my daughter Seema, you sing exceedingly well. There is spirituality in your voice. Very few singers sing with proper understanding of the meaning of the words, as you do. You also know proper pronunciation and weight of the words you render. This is the hallmark of your singing Always maintain it. All my blessings and best wishes are always with you.
This was the blessing he gave Seema when we met him at the guest house run by Anjuman-e-Islam trust, during his last visit to Mumbai.
These are words of appreciation, wisdom and evaluation coming from a poet and scholar of the stature of Jagan Nath Azad, and remain with you, like a cherished trophy, a coveted award, a blessing. For ever.
Whenever Jagan Nath Azad Sahib came to Mumbai, he would always pay a visit to his good old friend Ali Sardar Jafri.
Both the friends would keep us abreast of their rendezvous. Along with Azad, Seema Anil Sehgal and I were the most expected guests at the Jafri house.
If Sardar was not in Mumbai, Azad Sahib will ring us up to join him at the Anjuman-e-Islam guest house where he mostly used to stay during his Mumbai visits ; but we must meet.
It was at one of such gatherings at Seeta Mahal, the Bomanji Petit Street flat of Ali Sardar Jafri. Inter alia, we indulged in discussions about the partition and its everlasting effects. In the course of the conversations, Sardar Jafri mentioned how Azad sahib had written the first national anthem of Pakistan. Azad was a self effacing personality, and would not like to blow his own trumpet.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah is, intermittently, the flavour of the political seasons in India. In Pakistan, which has mostly been undergoing financial and political crisis since the infamous partition of the erstwhile British India, he is always a subject for strongly contested debates. Jagan Nath Azad was a well known poet as destiny prepared to divide the British India, in August 1947.
As the Islamic state of Pakistan came into being, its chief proponent Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was in Karachi. He asked his advisors to locate the renowned Urdu poet Jagan Nath Azad. The poet was traced in Lahore and a personal message from Jinnah was conveyed to him. Jinnah had requested Azad to write an anthem for Pakistan !
Jagan Nath Azad complied with the request from the Quaid-e-Azam and wrote the anthem, Tarana-e-Pakistan. The lyrics were personally approved by Jinnah himself. Tha Tarana was first broadcast from Pakistan’s national radio, on 14 August 1947.
Some Pakistanis still remember hearing it. Take the case of Zaheer A. Kidvai. He was seven years old when Pakistan was born and this Tarana was broadcast from Radio Pakistan. He has mentioned it on his blog called Windmills of my Mind. In his writing ‘A Tale of Two Anthems’, dated May 03, 2009, he wrote : “those who came after 1948 have no memory of it. So, the first anthem of Pakistan, the Islamic state, was written by a Hindu”.
Remembering Azad on one of his birthdays, I wrote a Facebook post about the anthem which elicited great response.
Some of the readers, however, refuted the claim that Azad wrote the anthem ; others did not. There is a large group of people who simply can’t digest the fact that a Hindu wrote the anthem. They would not like to accept the claim that commends Azad for writing the anthem and praises Jinnah at whose behest Azad wrote the anthem. Most of those who refute this claim are Pakistanis, though some Indians too would like to deny it.
Is the claim settled, then ? Well, not exactly. Some good souls would not like it to be known that a Hindu wrote the first anthem for an Islamic state, and, that too, at the request of a Muslim who is the chief architect of her formation.
Jinnah died on 11 September 1948, and the hardliners took over the reins of Pakistan. The anthem of a Hindu poet was soon replaced by a song written by a Muslim poet, Hafeez Jullundhary, sometime in December 1948.
On 57th death anniversary of Jinnah, on 11 September 2004, Dr Rafiq Zakaria released his book, ” Indian Muslims : Where have they gone wrong ” with great fanfare at Nehru Centre, Mumbai.
Dr Zakaria was a close friend to us. He requested Seema to sing a song of her choice that could add to the glamour and dignity of the book release ceremony.
Seema and I recalled Jagan Nath Azad sahib’s poem “Bharat Ke Musalman” and we decided this was the most appropriate poem for the subject of the book.
There was another reason to select this poem. Seema and I had been planning to sing a few poems of Azad sahib in a music album like we had done for his friend Ali Sardar Jafri. Presenting this meaningful poem onstage would, in our very own humble way, give us an opportunity to pay our personal tribute to our close family elder and a renowned poet Jagan Nath Azad who had recently expired on 24 July 2004.
Rafiq Zakaria, an admirer and friend of Jagan Nath Azad was highly pleased at our selection of the poem.
Special mention must be made that our children Kartikey and Parvati also sang this meaningful nazm of Jagan Nath Azad, along with their mother on stage.
Creme de ka creme of the country was present on the stage : Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Solicitor General of India Ghoolam Vahanvati and M J Akbar, chief editor of The Asian Age were on stage as Seema, Kartikey and Parvati presented a masterpiece by Azad who was a great admirer of Seema’s singing and loved us as his own children.
Azad married twice. His first wife died after two girls were born to the couple. Azad had two sons and a daughter from his second marriage. Like many other Urdu poets, his children too did not know Urdu language.
Mukta Lall, his daughter from the first wife started learning Urdu after she retired from her job with the Siemens. She acquired good proficiency in the language ; good enough to be able to read, understand and translate books of her grandfather Tilok Chand Mehroom and father Jagan Nath Azad.
After the partition, Azad served in Jammu and Kashmir, retired as the director of information, ministry of broadcasting, Government of India, and was later appointed professor emeritus at the University of Jammu. He was a journalist , poet, writer and scholar who authored 70 books on diverse subjects.
I would like to sign off with an interesting anecdote, a meaningful couplet and the text of the disputed Tarana written by Azad
Once Azad was travelling to Lahore, along with Ali Sardar Jafri. Both the friends were invited by the renowned poet friend Faiz Ahmed Faiz to participate in a mushaira in Lahore.
It was a PIA ( Pakistan International Airlines ) flight from Delhi and, as per Islami traditions, no liquor was served to Pakistani nationals. As the short distance flight took to the skies, Sardar Jafri asked the “airhost” ( remember, it was a PIA flight, which had no airhostesses on board ! ) to serve him a shot of liquor.
The airhost politely refused : you are a Muslim, Sir. I can’t serve you any alcohol.
Sardar was quick to retort : but, I am an Indian, and not a Pakistani. So, you can serve me.
The airhost was insistent : You are, nevertheless, a Muslim. You should not drink alcohol, Sir.
Sardar Jafri was quick to provide an amicable solution : alright, you can serve liquor to my friend Azad. He is an Indian and a Hindu.
The reply of the airhost shows the reverence in which Jagan Nath Azad was held in Pakistan. : never on earth, Sir. Not only we consider him a Pakistani, we respect him as a fellow Muslim too !
It illustrates how much respect Jagan Nath Azad and his father, poet Tikok Chand Mahroom, commanded respect amongst the people of Pakistan.
Here is a couplet written by Jagan Nath Azad, which should stop all our fault- finding missions and start performing instead :
ham ne bura bhala hi sahi, kaam to kiya /
tum ko to e’tiraz hi karne ka shauq tha //
( Good or bad, at least, I accomplished the work /
You were fond of just criticising ! )
Text of the disputed Tarana-e-Pak by Jagan Nath Azad may not be generally known to the readers. Here I produce it along with its English translation by Shoaib, courtesy Beena Sarwar.
The Tarana
Zare tere hain aaj sitaron se tabnak
Roshan hai kehkashan se kahin aaj teri khak
Tundi-e-hasdan pe ghalib hai tera swaak
Daman wo sil gaya hai jo tha mudaton se chaak/
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!
Ab apne azm ko hai naya rasta pasand
Apna watan hai aaj zamane main sar buland
Pohncha sake ga is ko na koi bhi ab gazand
Apna alm a hai chand sitaron se bhi buland
Ab ham ko dekhtey hain atarad hon ya samaak /
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!
Utra hai imtehan main watan aaj kamyab
Ab huriat ki zulf nahin mahiv-e-paich-o-taab
Daulat hai apne mulk ki be had-o-be hisaab
Hon ge ham aap mulk ki daulat se faiz yab
Maghrib se hum ko khauf na mashriq se hum ko baak /
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!
Apne watan ka aaj badalne laga nizam
Apne watan main aaj nahin hai koi ghulam
Apna watan hai rah-e-taraqi pe tez gamazad, Bamurad jawan bakht shad kaamab
Itr bez hain jo hawain thin zehr naak
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!
Zare tere hain aaj sitaron se tabnak
Roshan hai kehkashan se kahin aaj teri khak
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!
English translation
( O, Land of the Pure
The grains of your soil are glowing today
Brighter than the stars and the galaxy
Awe-struck is the enemy by your will-power
Open wounds are sewn, we’ve found a cure
O, Land of the Pure…
New paths of progress, we resolve to tread
Proudly, our nation stands with a high head
Our flag is aflutter above the moon and the stars
As planets look up to us be it Mercury or Mars
No harm will now come from anywhere, for sure
O, Land of the Pure…
The nation has tasted success at last
Now freedom struggle is a thing of the past
The wealth of our country knows no bounds
For us are its benefits and bounty all around
Of East and West, we have no fear
O, Land of the Pure…..
Change has become the order of the day
No-one is a slave in the nation today
On the road to progress, we’re swiftly going along
Independent and fortunate, happy as a song
Gloomy winds are gone, sweet freedom’s in the air
O, Land of the Pure…
The grains of your soil are glowing today
Brighter than the stars and the Milky Way)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
