| The author is a Professor in Urdu at the Center of Indian Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has written 70 books and is an Urdu playwright and literary critic.Literature often mirrors the cultural ethos of a community represented in particularly poetry.Indian Muslims : Bengali without Nazrul Islam, or Punjabi without Waris Shah or Kashmiri without Habba Khatoon, or Awadhi without Jaisi or Brij Bhasha without Rahiman or Tamil without Abdur Rahman or Malayalam without K T Mohammad or, for that matter Indian literature without Ghalib ? the list is endless.From the beginning. Islam came to India in the 8th century Arabs who landed in Kerala as traders. But the new religion brought by Prophet Mohammad emphasized mono-theism with great vigor and, advocated and to a great extent, practiced equality among men of different race, colour and social strata. This message of equality attracted a large number of converts and it soon spread to other parts of the land.The second major contact developed in Sind-not as traders but as conquerors for here Mohammad Bin Qasim, an Arab lad of 14 years conquered a part of Sind in 712 AD as a reprisal to the looting of a ship of Arab pilgrims by Raja Dahir of Sind.To this day, Sindhi is written in a modified Arabic script and bears a strong component of Arab and Islamic influence in the tone and tenor of its poetry. And it was here that Abdul Latif Bhitai composed his songs of mystic devotion and human love. A new era had already began- the era of cosmopolitan mystic vision. Undoubtedly mysticism is monopoly of Islam groups of Muslim mystics swarmed over parts of North India . Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who came from Iraq in the 12th century in Ajmer held in high esteem both by Hindus and Muslims and the compositions of one of his disciples, Baba Farid, form -part of the holy book of the Sikhs , the Guru Granth Sahib. Both of them emphasized the concept of the equality of man and sang of man?s total submergence in the divine existence of God Almighty. The idea caught on and spread with speed and alacrity to practically all the dialects and languages of the land, and assumed different shapes and forms. One of these was that of allegory and symbolism. Human existence was symbolized as a woman in love who has been unwittingly separated from her beloved – or human existence was portrayed as a woman in love while God was taken to be the separated husband. This also took the form of Bara-masa, (Twelve months) in which the damsel describes the charms of every season, month by month, and implores her beloved to take pity on her and to join her in enjoying the seasonal blessings. This marks the great beginning in practically all-modern Indian languages. The mystic era had begun. The famous Indian historian Dr. Tara Chand has traced the origin and development of the Bhakti movement in the south spreading in the north And Muslim poets and saints played a very significant part therein. In Hindi, for instance four recognized categories of Bhakti poetry Gyana-Kshri, Prem Margi Sufi, Ram Bhakti and Krishna Bhakti . Emergence of Amir Khusrau, disciple of the Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auslia of Delhi, and his bridal songs, riddles and stray couplets mark the beginning of poetry in a mixed language with an amalgam of Khari Boli grammatical syntax and a sprinkling of Turkish, Persian and Arabic words Later on Kabir (whom several scholars consider Muslim) and his followers in the Gyana-Kshri and Nirgun Bhakti worshipping idols and believing in the non-material existence of God. And the followers of Jaisi?s philosophy and diction were many, who adorn the ranks of Prem Margi Sufi poets, including Mulla Daud, Qutban and Manjhan. Then came the Krishna Bhaktas and these also include a number of Muslim poets. Sri Krishna has often been symbolized as the romantic embodiment of divine existence . Poets like Maulana Hasrat Mohani took pride in proclaiming himself a Krishna Bhakt, Hence the continuing tradition from Ras Khan (the famous Brij Bhasha poet) to Hasrat Mohani. Of course, Riti Kal of Brij Bhasha Hindi poetry abounds in Muslim names and extends its frontiers to Gujarat and Deccan (mainly parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra), in the form of Gujri and Deccani. later on under the Bijapur, Golconda and Ahmadnagar Kingdoms, a whole corpus of literary writings developed with Muslim authorship. In Bijapur and Golconda kings, saints, courtiers and itinerant scholars and poets, all made their contribution in making an indigenous language rich. The development of Urdu language and literature in the north of literary history. Urdu literature in the north flourished mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries in Delhi , Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where masnavi writers like Afzal, Mir, Mir Asar and Mir Hasan continued to enrich and extend the tradition of allegorical and non-allegorical romantic poetic tales and started writing ghazals in Urdu, thus combining earthly romance with deeper metaphysical thought pattern. The stalwarts included - MIR TAQI MIR AND MIRZA ASADULLAH KHAN GHALIB IN DELHI WHOSE CATHOLICISM AND FREE-THINKING EARNED FOR THEM AN ETERNAL PLACE IN THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS;
- AGHA HASAN AMANAT?S INDER SABHA IN 1846 ATTEMPTED AN AMALGAM OF HINDU MYTHOLOGY WITH AWADH CULTURE AND USHERED IN A NEW ERA IN INDIAN DRAMA;
- MIR ANIS RELIGIOUS EPICS ON THE BATTLE OF KARBALA GAVE ITS ARAB CHARACTERS LOCAL HABITATION AND AN INDIAN LOOK THE INIMITABLE NAZEER AKBARABADI OF AGRA
- URDU LITERATURE BY ITSELF STANDS WITNESS TO THE INVOLVEMENT WITH THE INDIAN ETHOS.
- URDU LITERATURE PARTICULARLY THE GHAZAL, GAVE TYRICAL EXPRESSION TO THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF THE NATIONAL SCENE THROUGHOUT THE AGES.
- POETS LIKE MIR, GHALIB, IQBALA AND JOSH MALIHABADI;
fiction writers and movelists like Nazeer Ahmed, Mirza Mohammad Hadi Ruswa, Abdul Haleem Sharar, Sajjad Yaldram, and in our own times, Qurratulain Hyder, Ismat Chughtai, Jilani Bano, Hayatullah Ansari and Khwaja Ahmed Abbas; prose writers like Abul Kalam Azad, Qazi Abdul Ghaffar and Rashid Ahmed Siddiqi; and dramatists like Agha Hasan Amanat, Agha Hashr, Imtiaz Ali Taj and Mohammad Mujib. The whole galaxy of progressive writers Faiz, Majaz, Makhdoom Mohiuddin , Parvez Shahidi, Ali Sardar Jafri, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi and Majrooh Sultuanpuri. Iqbal by his philosophy of Self aroused the Asian nations ,Josh Malihabadi?s revolutionary poetry and Abul Kalam Azad?s fiery writings . In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Rasikh, Shad, Hasrat Mohani, Jigar, Josh and innumerable others. Muslim writers and composers have made their mark in Kajri, Laoni and other popular folk forms. Recently, Azhar Husain Faruqi?sUttar Pradesh ke lok geet gives a long list of Muslim ?composers? and these represent only a portion of such contribution. But the contribution of Indian Muslimswas by no means restricted only to Urdu literature. In Punjab literature, for instance, mystics and saints left their own indelible marks. Waris Shah and Bulhe Shah composed classics in the 18th century, which are yet to be surpassed in excellence and acceptability. Even when the subcontinent was divided into two hostile countries, India and Pakistan and the border state of Punjab, the land of five rivers, was itself partitioned, the gathering of Punjab soldiers on both sides of the frontier could be seen listening to or reciting Waris Shah?s epic Heer Ranjha jointly in the dead of night. Further North, Kashmiri literature also boasts of its Indian Muslimauthors, the greatest of them being, perhaps, Habba Khatoon, a plain peasant girl wedded to a ruling monarch and sharing his destiny in glory and Suffering. Then comes Mahjur, who sang songs of liberty and social justice and enthused Kashmiris to wrest their rights with courage and determination. Of course, these two names are only representative of dozens of other such writers and poets. Further east, the development of Bengali literature, Second World War and revolutionary song began . Nazrul stands next to Tagore in his appeal and artistic excellence and his poetry inspired millions of Bengali-speaking people of India and Bangladesh in their struggle for independence. In fact, Nazrul inspired poets of all the modern Indian languages and provided a model for Josh Mahilabadi in Urdu, Subhramaniam Bharati in Tamil, Vallathal in Malayalam and Dinkar in Hindi. Bengali literature can boast of other Muslim writers and ?composers Kazi Abdul Wudood, Communist writer and intellectual Muzaffar Ahmad and compose and sing Baul poetry. Further down, we come across Oriya in which Mughal tamasha,a distinct form of folk drama, owes its origin mainly to Muslim writers. In Tamil, Abdur Rahman a major poet. In the sister languages of Kannada and Telugu, the Golconda king, Quli Qutub Shah was also credited to be a Telugu poet. In Marathi, and Gujarati too, Muslim writers made their mark while in Malayalam, the stories and novels of K T Mohammad gained distinction. THIS IS ONLY A CURSORY OUTLINE OF THE MUSLIM CONTRIBUTION TO THE VARIOUS AND MODERN INDIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES. BUT MERELY LISTING NAMES OF MUSLIM POETS AND WRITERS, DOES NOT DO JUSTICE TO THEIR ROLE NOR DOES IT EVALUATE THE TRUE NATURE, EXTEND AND DEPTH OF THEIR IMPACT. This impact was not restricted only to Muslim writers but percolated to all levels and all kinds of writers irrespective of their religious fidelities. What does this impact really mean in terms of the literary structure of these languages? Firstly, it must be appreciated that the word Muslim denotes a much wider cultural domain than Islam. Islam was a set of beliefs but Muslims of different countries, though adhering to these common beliefs, developed their own cultural identities in conjunction with their indigenous environments. Islam for instance, forbids, or at least discourages all arts, frowns on the practice of music, dance and sculpture and deprecates painting, yet in all these fields Indian Muslims, and devout Muslims at that, earned distinction. It has often been the case that the artistic talent of Muslims in the forbidden arts found expression either in permitted media (for example, the expression of painting talent in calligraphy or of sculpture in the carving of Quranic verses on the Qutub Minar) or in the innovative transfer of these talents to other media. Hence the Muslim contribution to literature and poetry should be taken in this context, which in some measure, explains the popularity enjoyed by poetry among Muslims in general so that couplets form part of ordinary everyday conversation. The second important factorthat should be noted is that this contribution was basically secular and cosmopolitan in character. Secular ?because Muslim poets and men of letters could not identify themselves with Hindu religious or devotional poetry (barring instances where it had been raised to mystical or allegorical heights) and hence their writings, both in poetry and prose, opened the gates of secular and materialist subjects. What sustained this new poetic idiom was its cosmopolitanism. To bracket this cosmopolitanism with alien influences would be erroneous. The fact remains that the Turco-Iranian cultural tradition was, in the Dark Ages, the predominant world tradition. Europe was still to emerge as the new arbiter of human destiny and Arabs were dispensing the knowledge acquired from Greek sources, through translations. The Turco-Iranian tradition had absorbed this corpus of knowledge and had become its champion in Asia and the Middle East. Hence, the adoption, or acceptance of these Turco-Iranian influences meant imbibing the impact of the then pervading world culture. Thirdly,it should also be borne in mind that Muslim contact was not primarily through administrators or rulers but mainly through traders (who purchased handicrafts and other manufactured goods and materials from the Indian towns or trade centres and sold them in Central Asian and West Asian courts and markets), Sufi saints, scholars and mercenary soldiers. Consequently, the adoption of these influences was the acceptance of world cultural norms and values of that period.The literary exchanges between Turco-Iranian traditions and modern Indian languages were therefore a part of this transaction, which can be compared to the impact of the English language and literature on various Indian languages today. The Indian Muslim writer?s contribution to various modern Indian languages and literatures, therefore, is two-fold: first in creating a secular and cosmopolitan literary idiom, and second in forging a new syntactical conciseness and close-knit poetic and literary expression mainly brought about as part of this Turco-Iranian impact. Though very close to Sanskrit, old Persian had taken a different syntactical line of development. To discuss in detail the nature of the syntactical influences of the Turco-Persian traditions on the modern Indian languages is beyond the scope of this essay but the use of izafat (conjunctional lower apostrophe) alone gave much greater compactness and conciseness to expression. The same holds good in the case of symbols-and non-religious and non-mythical symbols at that. Even Nazrul Islam, who is greatly influenced by Hindu mythological symbols, introduced several new dimensions to them and introduced a series of symbols from the Turco-Iranian tradition. Hence, the ghazal as poetic form remains popular in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali and several other languages. Not exclusively a contribution of Muslims alone, it has however a Muslim connexion. mushairas are held in almost every important town and attract large crowds. ghazal concerts are a craze and immediate commercial success. While Muslim writers are among the prominent literary authors of various Indian languages, a sense of alienation separates them from their fellow writers. Recurrent communal Hindu-Muslim riots breed extremists on both ends and create distrust and insecurity. Hence the psyche of the Indian Muslim writer, whether writing in Urdu or Malayalam or Marathi, experiences an ordeal different from his compatriots. - ADD TO THIS, THE RISE OF FUNDAMENTALISM,
- RULE OF PAKISTANI MILITARY DICTATORS
- REIGN OF ORTHODOX PAPACY OF IMAM KHOMEINI OF IRAN
- WHICH HAVE BEEN POSING SERIOUS THREATS TO LIBERALISM AND RATIONALISM TO MUSLIMS EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD ? AND WE GET A COMPLETE, OR A NEAR COMPLETE, PICTURE OF THE CONTEXT AN AVERAGE INDIAN MUSLIM WRITER FINDS HIMSELF IN.
- This crusade cannot be waged and won in isolation but with wider, much wider, cooperation and support of the people. And it is for this that writers, and among them Muslim writers too, though it fit to break the conventional framework of communication media and reach the common man through street theatre.
- Habib Tanvir attempted to express through him the woes and sufferings of a suffocated society.
- Safdar Hashmi took street theatre to the masses and addressed them on burning topics directly connected with their own lives.
Yet there is a silver lining to this dismal panorama. A number of Indian Muslim writers of the composite culture evolved through centuries of communion as a part of the defence of democratic values in our land. Criticizing the Establishment he paid the price with his own life, and symbolized the struggle of making India a safer and a better place to live and in preserving the highest values of a composite culture evolved during centuries of our history. Understanding the History of Islam He was Noah Ibn Lamik, Ibn Mitoshilkh, Ibn Enoch, Ibn yard, Ibn Mahlabeel, Ibn Qinan, Ibn Anoush, Ibn Seth, Ibn Adam the Father of Mankind (PBUH). According to the history of the People of the Book, (refers to the Jews, and Christians, so called by Allah because they received Revealed Books, Taurat, Zabur and Injeel. These names are translated ‘Torah, Psalms, and Gospels’ respectively, but the books that are extent are corrupt. Of the Revealed Books, ONLY the Quran remains exactly as it was revealed). the period between the birth of Noah and the death of Adam was 146 years. (According to Genesis 5 (new Revised Standard Version), Noah was born one hundred and twenty six years after the death of Adam. Ibn Abbas narrated that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “The period between Adam and Noah was ten centuries.” (Sahih Bukhari, Noah was born 1056 years after Adam’s creation (or after he left the Garden of Eden). Thus, this hadith does not contradict the previous statement from the People of the Book as it may first appear to do. The reader should keep in mind, however that any statement or narratives taken from the People of the Book are not necessarily credible. This was taken from Genesis 5). For many generations Noah’s people had been worshipping statues that they called gods. They believed that these gods would bring them good, protect them from evil and provide all their needs. They gave their idols names such as Waddan, Suwa’an, Yaghutha, Ya’auga, and Nasran, (These idols represented, respectively, manly power; mutability, beauty; brute strength, swiftness, sharp sight, insight) according to the power they thought these gods possessed. Allah the Almighty revealed: “They (idolaters) have said: “You shall not leave your gods nor shall you leave Wadd, nor Suwa, nor Yaghuth, nor Ya uq nor Nasr (names of the idols).” (CH 71:23 Quran). Originally these were the names of good people who had lived among them. After their deaths, statues of them were erected to keep their memories alive. After sometime, however, people began to worship these statues. Later generations did not even know why they had been erected; they only knew their parents had prayed to them. That is how idol worshipping developed. Since they had no understanding of Allah the Almighty Who would punish them for their evil deeds, they became cruel and immoral. | 
