I had the opportunity of going through V.G. Kiernan's "Poems from Iqbal" again as I regard him someone who has good reasons to appreciate Allama Iqbal in the milieu in which he lived for a long time. Published by Iqbal Academy Lahore, it is the third edition (2003) of the book under Muhammad Suheyl Umer's directorship of the Academy. What has surprised me is that Kiernan has given importance to those poems of Iqbal which could be fervently used by the fundamentalists.
Muhammad Suheyal Umar, accepted that Kiernan downplay the importance of certain issues. He thought that Kiernan, perhaps, could not appreciate them in a broader and more comprehensive perspective! Stranger it became when he appreciated Kiernan's translations of Iqbal and says Kiernan's "translations still stand out from this bulk of literary output for their remarkable understanding of the poetic idiom and message of Iqbal."
It is understandable that some of the poems of Iqbal like "Jihad" (Baal-i-Jibraeel), "Napoleon Ke Mazar Per" (Baal-i-Jibraeel) and Idrees Ki Arzdasht (Zarb-i-Kaleem) cannot be easily swallowed by someone who knows the disgust and revolt which the enlightened intellectuals had felt over the final phase of Napoleon's career. The poem "Iblees Ki Arzdasht" should leave a democrat utterly cold and uncomfortable for the couplet.
-- Jamhoor Ke Iblees Hain Arbab-i-Riyasat
-- Baqi Nahin Ab Meri Zaroorat Tah-i-Aflaak
His poem "Jihad" in Zarb-i-Kaleem not to be appreciated by the western reader hooked on diatribes against Islam and Muslims after 9/11 tragedy. Rather it will be used as a weapon to prove that even the foremost Muslim poet of Islam in the 20th century, has declared Islam to be a cold and dark ash-heap.
The Urdu couplet on page 131 of the book is:
-- Bujhi Ishq Ki Aag Andher Hai
-- Musalman Nahin, Rakh Ka Dhair
Its English translation it has been given on page 130 of the book as:
-- Quenched is devotion's burning spark
-- Islam an ash-heap cold and dark
One doesn't know how could Suheyal Umar could call Kiernan's translation as the sign of his remarkable understanding of the poetic idiom and message, when the word Muslim has been translated as Islam. It means that it is not the Muslim who has become a cold and dark ash-heap but Islam itself.
Knowing that V.G. Kiernan's knowledge of Urdu is quite good it is really strange as to why he equated Muslim with Islam. It makes hell of a difference that could be put into the mouth of Iqbal. It is downright wrong.
I don't know what made Suheyal Umar leave this grave error unchecked. No amount of polemical acrobatics could equate the word "Muslim" with Islam. One could genuinely hope that there was no malafide intention behind Kiernan's confusion but it is surely a point to consider and set right.
The Director of Iqbal Academy could have given in footnotes his disagreements with Kiernan's downplaying the importance of certain issues which Kiernan, according to him, couldn't appreciate as in his footnotes in the third edition could have cleared the confusions arising in a reader's mind as confusions would remain confusions and couldn't be wished away. Just be a live or two in the note itself. Footnotes are the right places which should draw readers' attention towards the confusions, if any.
Dr Anwar Ahmed at Muqtadara
Dr Anwar Ahmed, a renowned scholar of Urdu, has assumed the charge of the National Language Authority. He has a number of laurels and books to his credit. A fiction writer and critic of high standing, he has also made name for making the Urdu Department of Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan as one of the prominent departments of Urdu in the country. Quite a few of his pupils have made a name for themselves. He always took great interest in stimulating his talented students to take up research projects. He initiated the practice of holding defence sessions for MPhil and Ph.D theses in BZU. Quite a few universities have adopted this procedure of BZU with success.
The promotion of Urdu language and linguistics should be addressed because Urdu has to learn a lot from developed languages. The updating of dictionaries pertaining to social sciences, living sciences and physical sciences, need more attention.
Having been a member of NLA's board of governors a few years ago along with Professor Anwar Ahmed, I know the uphill task which the National Language Authority has to undertake. Its task should be the translations of Ummahat-ul-Kutub (Mothers of Books) and not works of contemporary literature because there are other departments which were taking care of the same. On top of it our private publishing houses were also doing a useful work to make creative works available.
I don't think that NLA can succeed in getting Urdu its due constitutional place due to the pro-English Lobby in the government which can't prefer Urdu to its functional English. Most of our bureaucrats are not competent to negotiate MoUs with the skilled negotiators of the Western countries because they couldn't master the delicate nuances of legal and diplomatic language and thus fail to extract the best of the bargain from skilled negotiators. Had Urdu been given the official status, the shoe could be on another's foot to see whether it pinches or not. Even the vogue of poor English in the government office has not made Urdu gain its rightful place.
Wishing Dr Anwar Ahmed success even in areas such as promotion of Urdu to its constitutional status, initiating a series of actions to upgrade the Urdu research because the HEC should need robust efforts from the NLA in this aspect. After all the development of research should result in the development of Urdu as a whole, including the Qamoos-i-Aghalat-i-Aam if successfully attempted it would be a great service to the cause of integrating the new developments of admixtures of other Pakistani languages with Urdu which are passed as Ghalat-ul-Awam unnecessarily. I believe that no language should aspire for purity in order to be a living language. It has to go on assimilating words from other languages and allow breaking of conventional rules of acceptance.
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