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    My favorite artworks from European Museums

    My favorite artworks from European Museums

    Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

    Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

    Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

    Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

    Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

    Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

    Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

    Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

    The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

    The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

    Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

    Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

    Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

    Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

    St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

    St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

    Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

    Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

    Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

    Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

    The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

    The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

    The Dohany Street synagogue in Budapest

    St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

    St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

    The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

    The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

    Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

    Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

    Takht-e Marar, Golestan Palance, Teheran, Iran

    Takht-e Marar, Golestan Palance, Teheran, Iran

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      My favorite artworks from European Museums

      My favorite artworks from European Museums

      Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

      Gandhara Art in Humboldt Forum: Life of Lord Buddha

      Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

      Jewish Heroes Square in Krakow, Poland

      Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

      Block no. 4 in Auschwitz concentration camp

      Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

      Ottoman tent in Princess Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland

      The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

      The Steam Engine Building, Potsdam, Germany

      Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

      Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin

      Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

      Catacombs in St Peter’s Abbey Salzburg, Austria

      St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

      St Nicholas Church in #Leipzeg, #Germany

      Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

      Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna,Austria

      Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

      Matthias Church on Buda Castle Hill, Budapest

      The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

      The Neptune fountain in Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

      The Dohany Street synagogue in Budapest

      St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

      St Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, Austria

      The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

      The Residence Fountain in Salzburg: Oundof Music

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Sultana Daku and Raj Bhawan of Nainital

      Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

      Jahan koshan cannon, Murshidabad

      Takht-e Marar, Golestan Palance, Teheran, Iran

      Takht-e Marar, Golestan Palance, Teheran, Iran

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      Sahir Ludhianvi’s many tributes to women

      He gave us the most defining verses about their emotions.

      inBook and Publication
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      It is a delicious coincidence that International Women’s day coincides with Sahir Ludhianvi’s birthday (March 8, 1921). Here was a firebrand poet who spoke of the plight of the ordinary people and gave us the most defining verses about women and their emotions.

      This was perhaps because a single woman had brought him up. Sahir’s mother had left his father Fazal Mohammad who had remarried, taking with her their son, 13-year-old Abdul Hai (Sahir Ludhianvi was his pen name). The father fought a legal battle for his custody but the mother’s stance prevailed and the Lahore High Court ruled in her favour.

      Sahir’s father was a rich landowner, and his mother had to struggle to make ends meet. Perhaps this is what inspired a song in the filmTrishul(1978), where the single mother played by Waheeda Rehman battles many a hardship to bring her son up. It gives voice to the struggles of single, working mothers trying to raise their children with hard work and dignity, seeking to equip them to face a harsh world.

      Main tujhe reham ke saaye mein na
palne doongi

      Zindagani ki kadi dhoop mein
jalne doongi

      Taake tap tap ke tu faulad bane

      Maa ki aulaad bane

      Maa ki aulaad bane

      Tu mere saath rahega Munne

      (I will not let you be brought up in the shade of mercy

      I will let you be blazed by the oven that is life

      So that you can be moulded into iron

      So that you can be your mother’s son

      So that you can be your mother’s son

      You will forever be by my side, Munne)

      tere bachpan ko jawaani ki dua deti hun

      (I pray for your childhood to flower into youth)

      This lullaby from the dacoit sagaMujhe Jeene Do(1963) is a complete commentary on a woman’s maternal instincts and yet again a reflection on his relationship with his mother.

       

      Whether it was the result of the close relationship he shared with his mother or his initial affair with a classmate ending in tragedy that led to his great empathy for women, or his Marxist leanings, he was the first poet to explore the marginalisation of women, of those forced to enter the flesh trade, and comment on the hypocrisy of those who eulogised the culture of the East yet didn’t think twice about using women. Whatever the reason he penned the most iconic verses, which were later adapted into film songs. His disillusionment with the world still rings true and was used in the filmPyaasa(1957).

      Jawaani bhatakti hai badkaar ban kar

      Jawaan jism sajte hein bazaar ban kar

      Yahaan pyaar hota hai byopaar ban kar

      Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai

      (Youth stumbles around as an evil doer

      Young bodies are decorated for sale in the market of lust

      Love here is nothing but a trade

      So what if I attain this world and make it my own?)

      This world where society itself is an enemy of humansThis world where greed dictates the customsSo what if I attain this world and make it my own?

      These lines from the same song describe the commodification of women:

      Jawaani bhatakti hai badkaar ban kar

      Jawaan jism sajte hein bazaar ban kar

      Yahaan pyaar hota hai byopaar ban kar

      Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai

      (Youth stumbles around as an evil doer

      Young bodies are decorated for sale in the market of lust

      Love here is nothing but a trade

      So what if I attain this world and make it my own?)

       

      He visited many brothels in Lahore to understand the oppression endured by the women working there; this took shape as the nazm “Chakle” that he later adapted for the filmPyaasa.I still get goose pimples when I hear these words or watch the picturisation. The original nazm, written before Independence, questioned the custodians of eastern piety:

      kahan hain who muhafiz khudi ke?

      (Where are the custodians of self-respect?)

      I am using the popular film lyrics, which were written in independent India, where he added the hook line “Jinhe naaz hai Hind par vo kahan hain”?

      Ye purapech galiya’n, ye badnaam bazaar

      Ye gumnaam raahi, ye sikko’n ki jhankar

      Ye ismat ke saude, ye saudo’n pe takrar

      Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kaha hain?

      Kahan hain, kahan hain, kahan hain?

      (These winding lanes, this notorious market

      These nameless travellers, this jingling of coins

      These sales of chastity, this bickering over the trade

      Where are they who pride themselves on Hind?

      Where are they, where, where?)

       

      He blamed patriarchy and feudalism for the exploitation of women and gave us their most definitive description inSadhna(1958) where he blames the men for turning women into commodities. This too was his old nazm that he modified for the film. No one had said this with so much clarity before this as it was the women who were disgraced for being in the flesh trade:

      Aurat ne janam diya mardo’n ko

      Mardo’n ne usse bazaar diya

      Jab dil chaaha masla-kuchla

      Jab ji chaaha dhutkaar diya

      (Woman gave birth to men

      They placed her in the market

      Trampled upon her when they saw fit

      Cursed her when they saw fit)

      Every word of the poem is trailblazing feminist commentary in questioning the double standards of men, in highlighting their role in the exploitation of women.

      Mardo’n ke liye har zulm ravaan

      Aurat ke liye rona bhi khataa

      (Every oppression by men is permissible

      Even crying by women is deemed a crime)

       

      A woman’s desire to be accepted by her lover on her own terms found voice in this song:

      jisse tu qabool kar le vo sada kahan se laa’un

      tere dil ko jo lubha le vo ada kahan se laa’un

      main vo phool hun ke jisko gaya har koi masal ke

      meri umr bah gayi hai mere aansu’on mein dhal ke

      jo bahaar ban ke barse vo ghata kahan se laa’un

      (From where do I get that voice which is acceptable to you

      Which blandishments do I use that are acceptable to you

      I am that flower which everyone trampled on

      My life has drowned in my tears

      How do I become the clouds of hope for you)

      Devdas (1953)

      Sahir Ludhianvi’s last work as a lyricist was for the BR Chopra filmInsaaf ka Tarazu(1980), about a rape survivor’s fight for justice. Here, he reiterates that a woman is not a mere body but a person in her own right.

      Log aurat ko faqat jism samajh layte hain

      Rooh bhi hoti hai uss mein yeh kahan sochte hain

      (People see a woman only as a body

      They forget that she has a soul too)

       

      Sahir’s pen didn’t just write about ordinary women but those who were lost in royal harems too. In his nazm “Nur Jahan ke mazaar par”, he questions how royalty and feudal lords used and discarded women:

      Kaise maghroor shahenshaho’n ki taskeen ke liye

      Saal-ha-saal hasinao’n ke bazaar lage

      To soothe the urges of arrogant kings

      Year after year, beauties were put on sale

      To soothe the urges of arrogant kingsYear after year, beauties were put on sale

      The 1963filmChitralekhahas some of my favourite lyrics. The song

      Sansar se bhaage phirte ho Bhagwan ko tum kya paaoge,

      How will you find God, if you flee from society?

      captures the essence of men who adopt celibacy and live a hermit’s life, while giving the role of the evil influence to women.

      The 1959 filmDiditalks of the emotions of a woman in love, who does not expect reciprocal feelings of a man who perhaps doesn’t have the same capacity to love, selflessly:

      Tum Mujhe Bhool Jao Tumhe Haque Hai

      Meri Baat Aur Hai Maine To Mohabbat Ki Hai

       

      Even if you forget me, you have the right

      I am different because I have loved you

      While there is rebellion, social commentary and the typical male attitude of considering women inferior in his earlier poems, playwright Danish Iqbal says that Sahir used the clichéd nurturing attitude of women in this song and that is why, perhaps, the song from the 1964 filmShagoonis very popular with men.

      Tum apna ranj o gham, apni pareshani mujhe de do

      Give me you sorrows and disappointments, give me your problems

       

      When India became independent there was a rebellion against the age-old traditions, as reflected in his early poetry.

      It’s true his poems spoke of women’s traditional roles, perhaps under market pressure. He was now penning new lyrics, not using his old nazms. The dilemma of women in love has been captured inAankhen(1968).

      Milti hai zindagi mein mohabbat kabhi kabhi

      Hoti hai dilbaro’n ki inaayat kabhi kabhi

       

      Only once in a lifetime does one find genuine love

      It’s rare to find reciprocation from the beloved

      I don’t think anyone except Sahir Ludhianvi could capture the depth of love and the longing of a woman as this song from the filmPyaasahas.

      aaj sajan mohe ang lagaalo

      janam safal ho jaaye

      hRiday ki peeda, deh ki agni

      sab shital ho jaaye

      Embrace me today, beloved

      [so] my birth is justified

      the ache is my heart, the fire in my body

      are all satiated

      Sahir was indeed a man ahead of his time, a man who deservedly shares his day with women.

      published on DailyO.in

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      Come, explore and fall in love the Beauties of Delhi (Dilli ki Ranaiya’n) and the World with me, Rana Safvi

      I have a masters in medieval history from the prestigious Centre for Advanced Studies, Dept. of History, AMU. A firm believer in our Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb, I am passionate about gaining and sharing knowledge and these days I am doing it via the social media platform.

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