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April      Last updated: April 29,  5:00 p.m.

V.P. Bhatia

Lala Hardayal and Allama Iqbal-II

Iqbal was scared that with the demise of Muslim rule, Hinduism would overwhelm Islam in India and that many ‘nominal converts’ would revert to Hindu fold.

‘Majmua-e-tazzad hai, Iqbal nahin hai- Iqbal is nothing but a bundle of contradictions’-said the poet-Philospher of Pakistan ‘Allama’ Sir Muhammad Iqbal about himself. This is most revealed in his attitude to Hindus, Hindu philosophy and United India. Quoting him further in this context, Qazi Md. Adil Abbasi, one of the biographers of Iqbal in Urdu, says that Iqbal turned his back on his earlier nationalist period of 1900-1905 by saying that it was his period of doubt. "Saalha boodam griftar shakay-I remained a prisoner of doubt and uncertainty for years," said Iqbal in Persian, when he turned to Islam as the pure theme of his poetry.

He changed to Pan-Islamism and fundamentalist Islam as the theme of his poetry as he developed a scare of the formidable absorbing power of Hinduism and feared that after the lifting of the Islamic military rule with the coming of the British, Hinduism will devour Islam, especially because many had converted to Islam in his ‘dear Punjab’ only as a formality, without change of old Hindu customs including marriage rituals. As they had given up Hinduism not because of any change of heart, but only to escape the Islamic sword, now they will go back to the Hindu fold. So now afterthe Islamic sword, now they will go back to the Hindu fold. So now afterd, now they will go back to the Hindu fold. So now afterthe the Islamic sword, now thethe Islamic sword, now they will go back to the Hindu fold. So now afterd, now they will go back tthe Islamic sword, now they will go back to the Hindu fold. So now afterd, now they will go back to the Hindu fold. So now afterthe Islamic sword, now they wthe Islamic sword, now they will go back to the Hindu fold. So now afterd, now they will go back towhile, he got more and more involved in the activities of Anjuman-e-Himayatul Islam at whose functions he recited most of his new poems. He even resigned from his professorship in 1913 to concentrate on poetry-writing taking up a few legal cases for living. He lost touch with the secular world and remained in his home mostly, like a dervish, holding evening sessions with Muslim friends.

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Contrasting Jinnah with Iqbal, Dr Rafiq Zakaria, in his aforementioned book, Iqbal-Poet and Politician (Penguin, 1993) makes the significant observation, "Jinnah built his two-nation theory on hostility to Hindus; Iqbal divided the world between Muslims and non-Muslims, but for Hindus he entertained the highest regard". This is in fact no less a contradictory statement. Iqbal did not hate Hindus but he did not believe in the possibility of Hindu-Muslim unity. He considered it an unattainable goal and openly said so in 1909. He wanted both Hindus and Muslims to develop their culture independently and, later, even in separate parts of the country. In a way, Iqbal's stand amounted to the same thing as Jinnah's, even in a worse form. For, Jinnah was not a fundamentalist Islamist, but a frustrated, vengeful politician.

Iqbal became a fundamentalist who prepared emotional ground for the creation of Pakistan. He got early religious grounding in Islam both from his father Sheikh Nur Muhammad, a tailor by profession, and his early teacher in Arabic, Persian and Islamic Studies in native-Sialkot, named Maulvi Sayyid Mir Hasan. He became a fanatic despite the early liberal interlude when he joined Government College Lahore in 1896 as student and became an Assistant Professor of English after doing M.A. in Philosophy in 1899. For, Lahore was emerging as a cosmopolitan city, called the Paris of East. It was mostly built by Hindus where most of the academic and political life was dominated by Hindus. It is there that he came in contact with Lala Hardayal, an M.A. student in 1902-1905, and Swami Ram Tirth, a Professor of Mathematics, and a stanch vedantist, who died in 1907 when Iqbal was abroad. There is a misconception purveyed even by Dr Zakaria in his book that Iqbal learnt Sanskrit to study Hindu Philosophy in original, as he was delving deep into the philosophy of the East as of the West at that time. But as my 88-year old friend Dr S.R. Sehgal, who was Professor of Sanskrit in Lahore, tells me, Iqbal imbibed Hindu philosophy which he uses liberally in his philosophic epic Javid Nama, from his ‘bosom-friend’ Swami Ram Tirth. Moreover, a number of translations of Sanskrit literature were by Indian and foreign scholars both available by then. He did not study Sanskrit, but was a great admirer of Krishna's philosophy of Karma-which became the basis of his own philosophy of Khudi (self-pride) and Mard-e-Kamil (Superman of Action).

However, as earlier stated, Iqbal's early period of nationalist poetry was partly due to his Kashmiri (Sapru) Brahmin ancestry still in his hereditary genes as he was only a third generation convert-his great-grand father had converted during the time of Aurangzeb, but left Kashmir to settle in nearby Sialkot in Punjab, some 20 miles from J&K border. Natural beauty of Kashmir had deeply influenced his poetic genius and he sang of variegated beauty of Indian landscape in the tradition of Kalidasa and English romantic poets, writing in totally fresh, simple, musical style in tune with the nationalist and liberal milieu of Lahore. His poems like Himalaya, Kashmir, Naya Shivala, Tasveer-e-Dard (Picture of Pani), Meri Arzoo (expressing a deep urge to lead a recluse’s or Rishi's life in the lap of nature, far from the madding crowd), Kinar-e-Ravi, Saare Jahan Se Achha, Hindustani Bachchon ka Geet became a rage with the younger generation as he recited them in his famous melodious voice.

Pan-Islamic obsession killed his early Nationalist urges

However, as another admirer of Iqbal, M.L. Dhawan says in his book Iqbal and His Equals, it was all a passing, supercial bubblings of a young man who soon turned away from cosmopolitan nationalism, because of his deeper faith in Prophet and the Quran. Moreover, there was the fear of Hindu upsurge in a democratic set-up, before which Islam could not survive except in a separate state. Even a Pakistani admirer, Shariful Mujahid, the Director of Jinnah Academy in Karachi, says in his Urdu booklet entitled Allama Iqbal, there were three strands in his early poetry, of 1899 to 1905 which he gave up soon-Sufism or bhakti; romantic depiction of scenic beauty of Nature with a deep touch of melancholy; and Patriotism. This was the time of the naturally blossoming of his inborn poetic art about the greatness of which there is little dispute. This was also the time of his unstinted love and loyalty to his country, impelling him to give a call for awakening from slavish slumber and end to internecine conflicts which, he warned, could lead to disastrous consequences. Thus here he speaks unencumbered by Islamic obsessions which spoilt his later Persianised and stilted poetry.

However, his three years’ sojourn to England and Germany for higher studies, managed by his old patron, Professor Arnold who had left Lahore to join London University in 1904, proved a decisive watershed. It is interesting to note that while both Lala Hardayal and Muhammad Iqbal left for England in the same year (1905), Hardayal renounced his three-year scholarship in Oxford midway to protest British bid to anglicise Indian youth through education so that he became a revolutionary. Iqbal too was sorely pained by racial prejudice, imperialist milieu and hostility to Islam in Christian Europe, and yet he came back as a confirmed British loyalist. This was a trait that he never abjured even by mistake in his whole life. His experience in England despite Prof Arnold's patronage was suffocating. He could do a mere B.A. in Cambridge, although he was already an M.A. in Philosophy. Although he could qualify for the Bar in London, he had to acquire a Ph.D. in Development of Metaphysics in Persia from the Heidelberg University in Germany. Meanwhile, he was embittered by the European Christian politics of the time, which was directed at smashing the sprawling Turkish empire, extending from Libya in North Africa to Middle East to the Balkans and Greece in Europe. He sensed a deep hostility towards Islam which had once stormed Europe.

"So long as there is this book, there will be no peace in the world said the British P.M. Gladstone about Quran," says Dr Rafiq Zakaria

Says Dr Zakaria in this context: "The plight of Muslims everywhere had saddened Iqbal; he was convinced they were caught in a mire of depression, from which they were unable to come out. He saw a conspiracy on the part of the West to keep Islam under subjugation. This, he felt, might have been due to the resentment against the Ottoman Turks, once the mightiest power, but then reduced to being "the sick man of Europe"; but there was more to it than just power politics. Iqbal believed that Christians had, all through history, harboured resentment against Muslims; they had always looked upon them as their worst enemies. The British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, himself a priest, had told the House of Commons on one occasion, holding the Quran in his hand, "So long as there is this book, there will be no peace in the world." Aware of this hostility, Iqbal feared that the West was bent upon destroying Islam. He was, therefore, chary of their motives, being convinced that they were determined to dominate the East not only politically but also socially and economically." (Pp. 22-23)

Thus already scared of Hindu resurgence he came back from Europe a totally changed man: anti-democracy, anti-nationalism, anti-capitalism, anti-socialism which he considered atheistic, and totally committed to re-emergence of imperialist Islam as a panacea for all ills of Muslims of the world. He now became committed to emotional revival of medieval, militant Islam before which once Europe and India lay prostrate.

In the context, some of the gems of Islamic edicts, sprinkled here and there as directions to Muslims, countering Indian nationalism, in his post- 1908 poetry are as follows: Qaum mazhab se hai, mazhab jo nahin tum bhi nahin (A nation is based on religion; if there is no religion, there is no hope for survival of Muslims as such); Islam tera des hai tu mustafi hai (Islam is your country; your ideology is Muhammadanism alone); In taaza khudaon mein bada sab se watan hai; Jo pairhan hai iska woh mazhab ka kafan hai (Nationalism is the latest of modern gods; but its garb is the coffin of Islamic religion); Nazar-e-dairina zamane ko dikha de; Ae mustafi khak mein is but ka mila de (O Muslim, show the old aggressive power of Islam to the world; trample into dust this new idol of Nationalism); Aqwam mein makhluq-e-khuda bat-ti hai is se; Qaumiyat-e-Islam ki jad kat-ti hai is se (Nationalism divides the people of God's earth into small groups; it strikes at the very root of Pan-Islamism).

(To be concluded)