They are tried under laws that prohibit their saying these words. Today, in this independent Islamic state, the people who repeat this order from god are called communists. In those days Iqbal was thought of as a Bolshevik and an agent of Russia. We read it together and it went:Įnd tyranny and bring in the revolution!" A friend gave me a copy of his book Bal e Jibreel (Gabriel's Wing) and pointed me to the couplet carrying an instruction from god. I became more familiar with his poetry in this same period. That line of Iqbal's on the bill I agree with. I will wager the most expensive thing on the most dangerous gamble and settle it for no money at all. Even if life itself were to tire of me, I would never be depressed by it.
![sare jahan se acha hindustan hamara iqbal sare jahan se acha hindustan hamara iqbal](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-px3n97mFVCo/WU5eWe-GQXI/AAAAAAAACtM/XsEjURbJCGAljTQs9lHLR_VweRloFpWxgCLcBGAs/s1600/Sare%2BJahan%2BSe%2BAcha%2BHindustan%2BHamara.jpg)
It was the advice of a fellow drinker perhaps, or the wisdom of the bartender. One night I was settling the bill after having a couple of drinks when I spotted this line on it: This was about 15 years ago, when I was depressed with life as I tended to be in those days. I first became acquainted with Iqbal's poetry through the bill of a bar I was drinking in. I have as much association with and knowledge of poetry as Mahatma Gandhi has with Bollywood.Īnyway, I should make use of the opportunity that you civilised people have given me. On remembering this, my own bewilderment eased somewhat but then something else puzzling occurred to me about my being here. Till only the other day, I was being abused and humiliated for my work and today.īut then what happened with Allama Iqbal? In his time he was also abused and had to face the charge of being a heretic from Islam. However, seeing myself in this presiding chair something else also came to mind. For the honour of presiding over this, the first Iqbal Day, I thank you formally. 'Ladies and gentlemen and my fellow writers. Yom e Iqbal by Saadat Hasan Manto, translated by Aakar Patel Iqbal for those who loved Pakistan and Manto for those who hated it. Iqbal for his heresies (he once wrote a complaint against god, a great poem called Shikwa) and Manto of course because he rejected conventionalism of every sort.īoth men, and this is also common to them, became heroes after their death. But the one thing he had in common with the man he was eulogising was that both were persecuted. Surprising because he had no love for the Islamic state that Iqbal championed and, as he will say here himself, he was not very keen on poetry either. Manto found himself in the surprising position of having to preside over the annual Iqbal day celebrations in independent Pakistan. He is today celebrated in Pakistan, though mainly as an icon, and his work is more or less forgotten in India. Iqbal was the writer of the poem Saare jahan se achcha, and he was also one of the ideologues of a separate state for Muslims.
![sare jahan se acha hindustan hamara iqbal sare jahan se acha hindustan hamara iqbal](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nNi-zJ9Lmuo/mqdefault.jpg)
Allama Iqbal died in 1938, a decade before Partition, but he is seen as a Pakistani poet.